Page 7 of You Lied First

‘S orry about the shorts,’ I say to Liv as we make our way back towards the car. She’s now wearing a maxi skirt that swishes around her ankles. ‘I thought they looked great, but you know …’

‘It’s okay,’ she says. ‘No biggie,’ but I’m still feeling inadequate for not being the one who sent her back to get changed. I should have handled it better. I had one job, as they say.

‘By the way, I couldn’t get my seat belt to work on the way here,’ Liv says.

‘What?’ I ask. Maybe this is my chance to show some good parenting. ‘Why didn’t you say something?’

She shrugs.

‘It wasn’t far,’ Celine says and I feel a flash of irritation.

Liv is my child, not Celine’s, and what she’s just said goes against everything I’ve ever taught Liv about getting into cars.

I’m very aware that now she’s seventeen her friends are starting to learn to drive, and I’m haunted by images of cars packed with teens not wearing seat belts and distracted by mobile phones.

It’s a critical time for me to push home all the safety messages I can.

I also want to teach her that i t’s okay to stand up to pressure from others in this type of situation.

‘Livvie, it’s important. You must always wear a seat belt! No exceptions.’

‘Let me take a look,’ Guy says. He stretches into the last row of seats and pulls and pushes and pants before backing out, shaking his head. ‘I can’t get it out. It’s jammed.’

‘Okay, well, we have seven seats so I’ll just squish in the middle with Flynn and Liv then everyone has a seat belt,’ I say. ‘Better safe than sorry.’

‘“Sara says” don’t get in a car without seat belts, eh?

’ Guy says, laughing. ‘You’re on holiday now!

You can take a break from doing the right thing.

’ He puts his arm around me and gives me a little squeeze aiming to take the sting out of his words, but I’m appalled that he’d be such a bad role model to Flynn and potentially Liv, too.

‘Laugh if you want but I’d rather be laughed at than dead,’ I say.

‘Right, if everyone has a seat belt now, can we please get going?’ Margot says, and so we all pile in.

‘As we’ll be going past the Royal Opera House anyway, I think we should make a quick stop there.

It’s a beautiful building. We can walk around a bit and take in the architecture.

Just a few minutes, please. You can get some photos. It’s really something.’

‘Sounds great!’ I say because no one else seems enthusiastic.

When we get there, I see that Margot is right: the structure and its grounds are stunning. We walk around, taking pictures of the walkways and arches then head back to the car.

‘I’ll drive you through Muscat so you can see different districts, then over to Muttrah,’ says Margot. ‘It’s not terribly far, but we’ll go through the mountains.’

‘Muttrah is where the souk is,’ Celine tells me. ‘It’s better to go in the evening, though. A different vibe. There are all these little alleyways. It’s so atmospheric. You’ll feel like you’re in a movie. I absolutely love it. If you want to come back another time, I’ll happily come with you.’

I throw her a smile. ‘Thanks! I might take you up on that.’

We drive past an amusement park.

‘Is that Marah Land?’ Flynn asks. ‘We used to go there, didn’t we? I have a memory of this ride … God, I thought it was a dream but it was here, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes, we took you once,’ Margot says. ‘You loved it.’

‘Can we go?’ Flynn asks. ‘I’d love to see it again.’

‘Not now,’ Margot says.

Guy turns to face us and winks. ‘Can’t you see someone’s got a bee in her bonnet? Muttrah’s been there hundreds of years but she’s worried it won’t wait another hour.’

He laughs at Margot and it makes me feel awkward. I don’t want to laugh along with him, as she does seem stressed. I’m aware that she’s doing this tour for me and Liv, and I don’t want to be the cause of any unpleasantness between her and Guy.

‘This is a beautiful road,’ I say. I’m surprised how green everything is – the rows of roadside flowers and trees – how clean it all is, and how exotic the architecture looks. ‘I love all these decorated domes. They’re so beautiful.’

I can’t stop looking at the mountains – the way they’ve been cut to allow the road to pass through, and the channels engraved into them presumably to let water run down when it rains. Then we’re through and I see a clutch of white buildings and the sparkling blue of the sea beyond.

‘That’s it: Muttrah,’ says Margot. ‘I’m going to park at one end of the corniche so we can walk along. It’s so interesting.’

‘Why don’t we drive along the corniche first?’ Guy says.

‘It’s easier to park, then walk,’ replies Margot getting into the left lane.

‘Turn right, turn right!’ says Guy, flinging his arm out, and Margot suddenly swerves the car right so we’re driving along with the sea on our left. The corniche curves around, fringed with shops, apartment blocks, restaurants and small hotels.

‘Is that a cruise ship?’ I ask, indicating the largest of two huge boats in the marina.

‘That’s the Sultan’s second ship,’ Guy says. ‘Imagine. The other one you can see used to be his as well. Though I think he put it up for sale a couple of years ago, so I don’t know if he still owns it.’

‘Wow,’ I say.

‘And on the right you’ll see the entrance to the Muttrah Souk …’ says Guy.

My head flicks this way and that as I strain to see all the sights.

The area near the souk is full of people – locals in their round caps, women in Indian and Pakistani dress, tourists.

They throng across the road and stream around the vehicles, which move slowly forwards in the traffic.

Then Margot slams the brakes and we’re all thrown forwards.

‘Shit!’ she says.

‘Did you hit her?’ Guy asks.

‘I don’t know. She fell over. She’s on the ground.’

They stare at each other, almost as if they’re having a silent conversation.

‘I’ll check if she’s okay,’ Margot says eventually. ‘Stay here.’

She opens the car door. I go to open mine, but Celine puts her hand on my shoulder.

‘Stay here, too. I know exactly what’s going on. I’ll sort it.’