Page 19 of The Girlfriend

She went to her room and changed into a bikini.

On the way back, as she passed Daniel and Cherry’s room, she noticed the door was ajar.

She stopped and was about to close it, but then, propelled by a longing to be closer to her houseguest, peeked through the gap.

She stood with her feet safely on the neutral flooring of the landing and cast her eyes about the room.

Two suitcases were stacked neatly against the wall, the clothes hung up in wardrobes.

A wayward sleeve jutted through the gap between the doors.

Some clothes were cast on the chair, some shorts of Daniel’s and a T-shirt of Cherry’s she’d seen her in the night before.

The bed was roughly made, the summer duvet pulled up to reach the pillows.

On the dresser were receipts, boarding pass coupons, their passports and some books.

Laura recognized one of her own favorites and, without realizing she was doing so, walked into the room and picked it up.

Flicked it open to the folded-down corner and smiled, recalling the passage in the story.

Was it Cherry’s? She instantly warmed toward her; there was a reassurance to actually knowing something about her, even something as innocuous as the books she liked to read.

See, they had things in common! And there was certainly no need for Cherry to be anxious around her.

Spurred on by this cheering information, Laura looked around. Picked up a passport and turned to the back. It was Daniel’s and she laughed at his very serious sixteen-year-old face. She’d taken him to have the photo done for a school trip to Burma.

Should she? Oh, what harm could it do, it was practically an established ritual, comparing passport photos.

She picked up Cherry’s. Her photo was equally serious.

She flicked through and there was just the one visa entry stamp in it for Australia.

Conscious she’d crossed the boundaries of the passport photo game, she quickly put it back.

She stood there for a second, not yet wanting to leave, aware that this was the closest she’d been to Cherry since she’d arrived three days ago, and Laura wanted to know more, to close the gap between them.

At the same time, she knew she was trespassing and the insight wasn’t being freely given.

She gazed around the room, frustrated that she still knew so little about this girl who’d captured Daniel’s heart, frustrated that Cherry hadn’t let her in.

There was something sticking out of the back of the book. It must have slipped when she was looking through it. She could see it was Cherry’s flight ticket and she was just tucking it back in when she frowned.

Open return. Laura pulled the ticket from the book. The flight out was for the previous Friday to Nice. Five hundred pounds. There was no return flight booked.

Why would Cherry have only booked one portion of the flight? She’d always known she was originally going home today. Laura scanned the printout looking for something to explain . . . what?

A bird flew close past the window and its abrupt movement startled her. She suddenly felt uncomfortable in the room and quickly put the ticket back. She hurried out and carefully pulled the door back to the same degree of opening as when she’d found it.

Out at the pool, she lay on the sunbed, but couldn’t settle.

It was a grubby thing, going through someone’s belongings, and Laura was unnerved not just at how she’d done it, but how quickly and easily she’d rooted around, picking things up, snooping through Cherry’s possessions, her private papers.

She was embarrassed, ashamed. And yet, there was something about that ticket that she couldn’t shake, something that made her uneasy.

Maybe the water would cleanse, clear her head. She waded in and set herself a task of a hundred lengths. Six, seven decent strokes and she’d reach the end of the pool. Break her focus. Why hadn’t Cherry booked a flight home again?

When Daniel and Cherry came back later that afternoon, she was in the kitchen preparing dinner.

Cherry went to change and Laura waited until she was safely upstairs and they heard the shower start to run.

She started to wash the salad leaves she’d picked from the garden.

Daniel was sitting at the large table, enjoying a glass of wine with her.

It was the kind of moment she usually loved, just the two of them doing nothing much and she realized they hadn’t done this since he’d come back from university.

“You’re so meticulous,” he said, amused, as she held each leaf individually under the tap, inspecting them thoroughly as the water trickled over.

“You’d be amazed where they hide. Look! See, I nearly missed that one.”

“Would it really be so bad if you ate a few?”

“Don’t be disgusting.”

He laughed and watched as she shook the leaves dry and put them in a bowl. Then she started chopping some cherry tomatoes.

“They from the garden as well?”

“A couple of early ones.” She threw one at him and he darted his hand out but missed. He picked it up off the floor and, after a quick inspection, chucked it in his mouth.

“Yuk!”

Daniel grinned. “Tastes just fine.”

She’d have to bring up the subject soon or Cherry would be back. “So . . . it’s nice Cherry can stay a bit longer.”

“Uh-huh. You got any more of those tomatoes?”

She threw him another. “Lucky her, eh. Did her boss call or something? Just to see if she wanted to spend longer on holiday?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Bit weird, though, having your boss call you when you’re away. Just to see if you want to extend your trip.” She smiled.

“Yeah . . . Actually, now I remember. I think she rang in to see if they needed her to do any early-morning viewings for her first day back and it just came up. They’re quiet at the moment, apparently, and her boss is keen for Cherry to use up some of her time.”

“But originally . . . she was going home today? That was the plan?”

“Yeah . . . why do you ask?”

“No reason.”

“Come on, there must be a reason.”

Laura tried to laugh it off. “I was just wondering . . . That was what we’d agreed on. ”

“Yeah . . . course, it was.”

She smiled casually, but her silence said something else.

It suddenly occurred to him: “Do you think Cherry had a different day in mind?”

“Did she?”

He was getting irritated now. “No! Look, we discussed the dates with you, she booked the flight, and I sent over the six hundred quid.”

It took all her effort to keep a pleasant expression, to remain calm. Six hundred pounds?

“You paid?” she said lightly.

“Yes. A trainee estate agent doesn’t earn that much.”

She heard the warning in his voice and smiled genially. “I can imagine.”

* * *

Anyone passing Cherry’s bedroom at that moment might have been disconcerted by how still she was, so still, eyes fixed ahead with great intensity.

If that person had come into the room, he would have seen she was staring at the dresser or, more accurately, the book on the dresser.

That person would have wondered what about it could hold someone’s penetrating stare.

Cherry repositioned it so the spine was parallel to the edge of the dresser.

She knew it had been picked up, looked at, the document hidden at the back taken out.

And that document’s information was probably fermenting like some sort of multiplying bacteria right now in Laura’s brain.

Cherry was livid, but knew better than to confront her.

No, there would be another way to deal with this. For now, she would keep it to herself.