Page 62

‘Oui, Madame.’

Theo shook his head and stifled a laugh as the waitress walked away. ‘I think you’re enjoying being Caroline a little bit too much.’

‘It felt very weird, to be honest. Is this really how people operate?’

‘Probably,’ said Theo. ‘Although we have to keep in mind that we don’t want Caroline to be one-dimensional. She’s awful and controlling and bossy and all of those things, but she’s got to have another side to her. Otherwise we won’t care that her husband is missing, or that her sister has been sleeping with him.’

The sun had come out, breaking through the clouds. I popped my sunglasses on so that I didn’t have to squint at him. It dawned on me that if I’d kissed him as part of the task, I could have written it off as being nothing more than improv. If I’d wanted to, that was. Just to see whether I’d imagined the spark I’d felt between us last night. Personally, I was convinced I must have been sleep-deprived from years of late nights and that my mind had been playing cruel tricks on me.

‘Nice to see you thinking about character layers,’ I said.

He winked at me and my stomach gave a totally-uncalled-for flutter.

‘If we carry on like this, we’ll have a decent first draft in a couple of months’ time,’ I said, pulling it back to what we knew. The work. The book. I reached for my glass.

‘Cool, but can we give mortifying role-play exercises amiss?’ he asked, putting his hands together in the prayer position.

I laughed. This was exactly where we needed to be – I was tolerating Theo’s company and we were bouncing ideas off of each other but I was absolutely not feeling anything for him. Nothing romantic, anyway. Maybe the odd rush of attraction, but otherwise not a thing. We were writing partners – possibly quite good ones. And as we worked alongside each other, stopping only to eat delicious food and drink more wine, my fingers flew across the keys of my laptop and the words were tumbling out of me so fast I could barely keep up. I put this down to the location: the Mediterranean sea in my eyeline, warm sand under my feet, palm trees swaying in the breeze. As writing spots went, it was perfection. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Theo was sitting next to me with his arms bronzed by the sun and his sparkly brown eyes squinting at his laptop and his brow all cute and wrinkled as he concentrated on his work.

We made our way back to the hotel late-afternoon, mainly because Melissa had booked us an ominous-sounding couples massage. If I could have got out of it, I would have done because there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to relax with Theo lying half-naked next to me, not after last night, and then our really quite pleasant day together. Perhaps the candles and the heady aromatherapy oils and the meditative music piping out of speakers on the ceiling would help put me in the zone. Except that when I saw the massage couches lined up next to each other and there wasn’t as much of a gap between them as I thought there would be, I assumed it was doubtful.

We were instructed to change into white towelling robes, leaving just our underwear on. For some reason the meremention of the word underwear made me break out in a cold sweat. Why on earth had we agreed to this?! I’d spent ages in the changing room, hoping that by some miracle they’d forget I was here so I could sneak away while Theo was being suitably pummelled. But then the beauty therapist popped her head around the door to see if I was all right and I realised I’d made things worse, because now I’d have to walk into the treatment room last, with Theo lying there watching my every move.

Thankfully the room was dimly lit and smelt divine and would have been lovely if I could have ignored the fact that Theo was lying face down on one of the couches with a white towel barely covering a thing and his glistening back and shoulders tantalisingly on show. I felt an involuntary jolt run through my body. He really was in excellent shape. Which was not what I was supposed to be thinking, not ever, but especially not now when I had to lie down next to him wearing nothing but my bra and knickers.

‘Madame, please take off your robe and lie down on the bed. I will use a towel to cover your body for you.’

Oh. My God. How was I going to do this without Theo getting a bird’s eye view of, well, everything? It was bad enough that he’d seen me in my bikini in the sauna, but somehow this felt even more intimate. I felt as self-conscious as hell, as you would if you had to strip off in front of someone who had muscles you hadn’t even known existed. As if reading my mind, Theo turned his head so that he was looking at the far wall. Taking advantage of this gentlemanly gesture, and unsure how long I had before he turned back the other way again, I threw off the robe, flicked it over the back of a chair and dived on the bed so clunkily that the whole thing rocked.

It seemed to take the masseuse absolutely ages to arrangethe towel over me and meanwhile I was panicking that Theo was going to turn back round. Thank goodness I’d put my most substantial pair of knickers on. I closed my eyes, hoping that would take some of the embarrassment out of the situation, like a child putting its hands over its eyes to play hide and seek. If I couldn’t see him, I could use my writerly imagination to convince myself that I was here by myself, having a relaxing solo massage like I’d had myriad times before. That seemed to work. I took some deep breaths in and out, feeling my stomach melt into the couch.

The massage was great, once I’d successfully managed to not look at Theo for fifteen whole minutes. I could sense him next to me, and if I thought about it too hard it would send shivers down my spine, but he was very quiet. Once or twice I heard the low rumble of his voice, when the masseuse asked him if he wanted more pressure or less; if he wanted de-stressing or re-energising (he chose de-stressing). His voice rippled right through me, lulling me into a soothing half-sleep until I heard the familiar ring tone of my phone blasting out from the pocket of my robe. Aaaargh. I’d meant to leave it in my room, but had obviously picked it up on auto-pilot.

‘Sorry,’ I whispered, wincing.

‘I just jumped out of my skin,’ said Theo, rearing up and clutching his hand to his chest. ‘I must have been dropping off to sleep or something.’

My phone rang off and then started up again almost immediately.

‘Would you like me to pass it to you,Madame?’ asked the masseuse.

I wanted to say no, but what if it was important?

‘OK, yes please, if you don’t mind. I’d better just check it’s not my dad. He’s not very well, you see, so . . .’

‘Scarlett,’ said Theo.

‘Yes?’

‘You’re not supposed to be checking messages until bedtime. It can’t be good for you to constantly be on high alert.’

I knew he was right but his tone felt judgemental, something I was very sensitive to. The masseuse passed me my phone and I checked it quickly, realising I’d missed two calls from my sister. She’d texted, too.

Call me. Need to ask you something urgently.

Nothing to do with Dad, then, otherwise she would have said. It would be about Richard and that could easily have waited, except that Kate never saw it that way.

‘Anything wrong?’ asked Theo.