TWENTY FOUR
Hayden and Eleanor's honeymoon in the Canary Islands was not the disaster that might have been expected. In case you are wondering, Caroline didn't go along too; in fact, Eleanor had no communication with her throughout the two-week trip. They had sex every day (sometimes more than once) and went for walks along the stunning coast when the Atlantic breezes cooled the air in the late afternoons. The sea was plenty warm enough for Eleanor to swim in. Hayden enjoyed watching her from the beach as she plied her way seemingly effortlessly through the water, whatever swell there might be.
But the itch was still there. And this time it led to her downfall, or at least the beginning of the end for her marriage. Eleanor had been grateful (genuinely grateful) that she had met no one at the hotel where they were staying who she might be tempted by. No one that is until the day before they were due to check out of the hotel and fly back to Manchester. Her name was Koming and she was originally from Bali.
As soon as Eleanor saw her checking in at around noon in her long strapless brown dress with its thigh-high slit, she knew she must have her. She never did find out how old she was but she guessed she must have been in her early thirties. It seemed to be an age that appealed to her. Because time was very much of the essence, Eleanor knew that she must work fast. First she had to find out if she was travelling alone or expecting company and then she needed to introduce herself into her life. Even if she was expecting someone to join her, that would be not necessarily be an insurmountable obstacle to Eleanor in the mood in which she found herself that Saturday lunchtime.
The plan she hatched was a very simple one. First, of course, she had to make sure that Hayden was out of the way for a couple of hours at least. That had already been dealt with since he had left not fifteen minutes earlier to go into town on the hotel shuttle bus. He wanted to get a new screen protector for his mobile phone, as he had scuffed up the original one when he had dropped the phone in the bathroom that morning. As Eleanor had said to him, that should teach him for trying to multitask so early in the day!
Since he was going into town, he'd also pick up a few gifts for friends and work colleagues. At Eleanor's suggestion he was also planning to have lunch in town too (he had got a recommendation from the concierge), while she would have lunch in the hotel before going for what would be her last swim in the ocean.
So Eleanor reckoned she might have at least two hours with the stunning looking Asian if she played her cards right. A few minutes after the exotic woman with the long dark hair worn up in a beehive hairstyle with a sideswept bang, all held in place by a gold fan-shaped headband, had left reception with the bellhop who was carrying her bags, Eleanor was up there getting her room number. She made up some story about seeing an old friend wearing a strapless dress being taken to her room as she (Eleanor) was getting out of the pool, and wondered if they could kindly tell her the room number.
Her whole plan would have been scuppered if they had asked Eleanor her friend's name but they didn't, probably because she had been staying with them for a long time, and she was a woman and non-threatening. If only they had known! Instead, they gave her Koming's name themselves. Since she was riding a wave, she also asked them if Kenneth (as good a name as any for an imaginary husband, she thought) was travelling with her, and they said no, she was travelling on her own.
Eleanor went and checked herself over in the cloakroom off the lobby and set off for the chalet whose number she had been given. She was pleased that she had decided to wear something nice that morning, on a whim really: an orchid colour wrap dress with short puffed sleeves and a ruffled skirt that tied at the waist and fell just above the knee. She was also wearing a pair of off-white multistrap heeled sandals.
When she got to the chalet, she could see Koming moving around inside the sitting room, though she didn't think
she
had seen
her
. She took a deep breath and rang the old-style door bell. After a little longer than it would have taken for the woman to walk to the door in the ordinary course of events, the door was opened wide and she was face to face with this amazing creature. She was even more beautiful close up. For a second - just a second - Eleanor felt out of her league and wanted to turn and run as if she were a naughty schoolgirl playing a prank. But she stood her ground and introduced herself.
Rather than being taken aback, the Oriental woman, who was considerably shorter than Eleanor had remembered her being - she must have been wearing heels before, which she hadn't noticed - asked Eleanor in, speaking quite heavily accented English in a husky voice that Eleanor found very attractive. She also had a slight lisp, which Eleanor also found very attractive. At this point, she could have burped and Eleanor would have found it enchanting.
'I do not think I need to tell you my name,' Koming said enigmatically.
Not entirely sure how she should respond to this unexpected opening turn from the woman she wanted to bed, Eleanor replied that she was quite cool with that. When the exquisite Asian remained silent, Eleanor, who might in normal circumstances have panicked, walked past her into the room. She had half a thought to continue on into the bedroom but decided instead to park herself on the sofa, which had plenty of room for two - either vertically or horizontally.
The woman closed the door and walked - barefoot - over to Eleanor, not sitting but standing in front of her.
'You are here on your honeymoon, aren't you?' she said, her strong accent of a minute ago all but vanishing.
Eleanor was momentarily taken aback, then realised reception must have alerted her to her old friend's impending visit.