Getaway

Chapter 20

There was no sign of him though, not on the stretch of beach that guests were allowed on and not in the sea, there was no sign of Leah or Paul either, my search was not going well.

Remembering that the last time I had been on a search for Fletcher he had been on the golf course I decided to go there next, hoping that he would be there. My legs hurt and the walking I had to do was not helping with that. Not that I was complaining, just stating a fact.

“Hey Nell,” a soft voice said to me.

I looked up from the floor to see Paul; we hadn’t spoken in a few days, not since before everything went down between Fletcher and me. But it was nice to see a familiar face of a similar age and I smiled properly for the first time that day.

“Hey Paul,” I greeted, “how are you?”

“I’m fine, how are you?” Paul’s tone was one of concern and I realised that Fletcher might have actually told somebody that we were no longer exactly on speaking terms.

“I’m fine.”

“I heard about what happened between you and Fletcher.”

“And let me guess he hates me?”

“He doesn’t hate you. He’s extremely pissed off but he doesn’t hate you,” Paul reassured me, “I think he’s just annoyed at the whole situation, thinks he could have handled it better himself.”

“He did nothing wrong,” I pointed out.

“That doesn’t stop Fletcher from beating himself up about it,” Paul told me, “and apparently he said something really shitty to you. He didn’t say what but he did seem really sorry about it.”

“It was nothing, but I don’t suppose you know where he is?”

“So that’s what you’re looking for, I saw you walking down the beach in the opposite direction looking like you were on some sort of military mission,” Paul teased.

“Not quite,” I replied.

“As for where Fletcher is, I don’t really know but he was with Leah the last time I talked to him, she might know where he is.”

“And where’s Leah?”

“You’re hopeless at this,” Paul teased, “but I think she’s at the ice-cream place.”

“Thanks Paul.”

“No problem Eleanor.”

I walked away, sighing at how far away the damn ice cream place was, and it was all an uphill climb, but at least it meant that I could check in at the golf place on the way, just in case.

My pace hurried slightly, I wanted to find Fletcher as soon as possible. The longer it took me to find him the more the nerves were building up in the stomach, the more monologues I was preparing and the more monologues were being rejected. I was over thinking everything. Did I start with hello? Or sorry? Or just launch straight into my mini speech?

There was a part of me that was pretty sure that Fletcher would not be worrying about all this if he was in my position and another part of me that knew that Fletcher would never screw up this badly, truthfully he didn’t seem to have a bad bone in his body. All the things he had done wrong had either been exaggerated in my head or were accidental slips, although his last few words to me had been quite malicious.

I began to quicken my pace again although slowed it quickly after as I was pretty sure that I was a second away from falling over. I was not exactly a clumsy person but my flip-flops and the newly washed floor (I don’t really know why either) could not make a great combination.