Another requested piece! I hope you enjoy!
***
"This is a good idea."
"Sure it is."
Emily smiled at Jenna across from the plane isle. Her friend had already pulled out her phone and was idly scrolling through social media. "It's a good idea," she repeated.
Jenna looked up, pushing a strand of blonde hair away from her face. Her smile didn't reach her blue eyes as she said, "You're right. I haven't been on holiday for a while." And then she turned back to her phone.
Emily sighed and looked away. She closed her eyes, rubbed her empty ring finger and wondered precisely what the hell she was doing.
"Are you alright?"
She turned to see the man sitting next to her. She'd tried to get a seat right next to Jenna, imaging the two of them sharing stories over little bottles of wine and laughing like they did when they were younger. Things being what they were, she booked too late and in the end Emily found herself across the aisle and one row behind Jenna instead of right next to her; not a disaster, of course, but not exactly the setup for a four-hour gabfest. A side effect of this was that the seat next to her was occupied by a small, relaxed looking man with a bald head and the greyest eyes she'd ever seen. He smiled at her with a benign confidence utterly at odds with his gnomelike appearance.
"I'm fine," she said. "Just- wish I could sit next to my friend."
The man's eyes flickered to Jenna- already lost in her digital world- and then back to her. Was there a spark of pity in his eyes? "I can swap if you want."
"It's okay." It was her turn to give a fake smile. "I'm fine."
He studied her for a moment. His eyes seemed to shift and shiver, and for a moment she thought they'd changed- if not colour but in some strange way
depth
. Then he shrugged and said, "No worries then. You two enjoy your flight."
***
A strained flight followed, punctuated by the occasional brief conversation with Jenna while a group of lads behind them drank and laughed and talked too loudly, smashed an hour into the trip. Then the landing, with the bustle and fuss to get off the plane; then passport control and waiting for luggage, Jenna cursing as she wrestled with a case with a dodgy wheel. Then a taxi ride with a driver who cheerfully chatted to them in a Spanish accent so thick that Emily felt guilty about not being able to understand a word of what he said. The dodgy Airbnb brought them briefly together as they followed the great British tradition of complaining about the piddly size of the rooms, the ugly walls, the inadequate air conditioning and the creepy man who passed them the keys. Then they changed, swimsuits over their summer clothes before heading to the beach-
She took a moment to check her old friend as the two of them trod on hot sand. Jenna had cut her hair, long dark locks transformed into a short blonde pixie-cut. She'd gotten a tattoo behind her ear- some sort of flower, the inked lines stark against her pale skin. She was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt that were tight against her petite build. She contrasted sharply with Emily- with her long, reddish-brown hair and her modest dress that hid a relatively voluptuous body. She looked nothing like the girl Emily had known in high school; the girl she'd known in college; the girl she hadn't seen in the last five years.
It was fine. Jenna had changed. Emily had changed but at their core they were still the same people. They had a close friendship that had just been... temporarily delayed. She was going to enjoy this holiday with Jenna. She was.
They found a set of chairs and paid the fee. Jenna ordered a beer and after a moment's consideration so did Emily. The two of them lay back, both still wearing their clothes.
What followed was an hour of intense awkwardness- all the worse for being an awkwardness that only Emily seemed to feel. She sat and tried to talk while Jenna ignored her in favour for her book or her phone. Emily sipped her beer and stared at the waves and wondered what the hell made her think that any of this was a good idea.
The beer, at least, gave her an excuse to get away from the painful experience. She rose to head to the bathroom of the nearby bar, passing a crowd that seemed to be entirely made up of fellow British tourists- all of whom seemed to be hotter, younger and a hell of a lot happier than she was. She wondered if she should just make her excuses to Jenna and head back to the hotel-
"Hello again."
The small grey man- that was an unfair name but that was how she thought of him- was sitting at the bar. An empty beer glass lay at his side. "Once again, are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Really."
"You know, it would be a good idea if you sat down and talked to me for a bit about what's bothering you."
She paused. She guessed that it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if she sat and talked to someone else about all of this- maybe a fresh perspective would help? And so she sat down next to the man. "Do you want a drink?" he asked as he waved over the waitress.
"A coke."
He nodded. "Two cokes. And..." He bent closer to murmur into the waitress's ear. She blinked and then smiled, eyes flashing with amusement before bustling off to fetch their drinks. "So tell me why you look so unhappy," he said.
"I'm kind of here with my friend."
"So far so good..."
"It's just- we sort of haven't spoken for a few years."
"Why would that be?"
The waitress came back with two frosty cokes and Emily took a moment to press the ice-cold glass against her forehead before continuing. "I kind of... abandoned her. She and I were close as sisters, right all the way through middle and high school. Studied together, dated boys together, got into all sorts of trouble together... we ended up in the same college too. Didn't even think how weird it was. And then..."
"And then?" There didn't seem to be anything but sympathy in those deep grey eyes of his. And so she told him about Danny; Danny who was so clever and handsome and funny; Danny who was older, who always seemed to have the right answers, who always seemed to know best. Who didn't like Jenna. Who told Emily that she was bad for her, who told Emily she shouldn't be friends with her anymore.
She knew, in retrospect, that there had been red flags. That he'd been isolating her from her family and her friends. But he was handsome and he always seemed to know best and so she agreed with him and turned her back on Jenna...
Three years of disastrous marriage followed. Then one year spent in a particularly brutal divorce. Her family were understanding. But Jenna had moved to London and gotten on with her life and in all honesty-
"In all honesty I don't know why I called her," she said. "And I certainly didn't think she'd agree to go on this holiday. And now we're here and...
The grey man listened. At some point the waitress had abandoned her post to sit close to the grey man. She was young and pretty and dark haired with a tanned, trim body, and she ignored Emily's story instead to glance around the bar, her hands buried in her lap. "You think she hasn't forgiven you?" the grey man said.
"She says she has. It's more like..."
"You lost what you had. That closeness."
"Yeah. I know I don't deserve it but I kind of wish we could just go back the way things were."
The waitress's hand was making some sort of rhythmic movement- was it some sort of nervous twitch? She did seem nervous, her eyes darting around as though she was worried about something. "Tell you what," said the man. "I think you need to stop worrying so much. If she's here, she's clearly after the same thing you are. No, what you need to do is to do something to take your mind off this pressure."
The waitress noticed Emily was eyeing her and smiled; a shy, uncertain grin as though they were sharing some secret joke. Emily said, "I don't think that I should..."
"Who's your friend?"
Emily turned to see Jenna walking towards them. The waitress jerked as though shocked and rose, blushing, to go back behind the counter. Emily smiled. "We met on the plane. I was just talking about-" She hesitated.
"We were just talking about all the sorts of stuff that you guys could do on this island," the man said. "I mean, when you think about it, this is a great opportunity for you two!"
"Oh really?" Jenna raised one eyebrow.
"I mean, take myself as an example." The waitress was hovering around the group- he mouthed something to her and she smiled and walked towards the women's toilets. He watched her slip inside before saying, "As I was saying, I recently had a bit of a...change in my life."
