I wish I had a hangover. I wish I’d drunk more of those cocktails yesterday and woke up with a raging headache and alcohol-related amnesia to worry about.
Instead, I open my eyes and instantly remember how much of a disaster yesterday’s plan was and how much further away I am from finding Drew.
We’re supposed to be getting married in four days. And I’ve waited seven years for this. Why should I just give up? Why should I accept that Drew’s run off with somebody else?
After all, there could still be a reasonable excuse for all this.
Maybe I should call Felicity again and see if she’s heard anything. I grope the bedside table for my phone, coming up with nothing except a dirty tissue and the case for my contact lenses.
Okay. Obviously I put it somewhere else. Probably somewhere hidden from Amy so she can’t stop me from checking my emails using the Wi-Fi coverage in the bathroom.
Oh! The bathroom. Maybe I left it there.
Ensuring that my roommate is still asleep, I roll out of bed and slide across the tiled floor to the bathroom.
No phone in there. And I even check the bathtub.
Oh no, what if Drew’s trying to contact me right now and I can’t answer because I haven’t got a clue where my phone is?
I definitely had it when we went out to dinner last night. And then when we came back and hung out in Lou’s room for a bit. Actually, did I have it when we came back and went to bed? I was so tired by then I can’t even remember. Maybe Louise has got it!
Still in my pyjamas, I grab my key card and head along the corridor to my sister’s room. I pause outside, my hand about to knock on the door.
Inside, Lou’s voice comes low and muffled.
Who’s she talking to? Surely she hasn’t got someone in there. I know she wanted to view this trip as a holiday, but this is so out of character for her.
I press my ear to the door, trying to listen for the other voice. Thinking about it, I can only hear her.
“I know, James. I love you too.”
Well, there’s no way she’s snuck her husband into her hotel room. She’s probably on the phone to him, talking about how much they miss each other and how perfect their marriage is.
I should never have expected her to understand why I have to find Drew and get my own shot at happiness. She thinks I’m an idiot for chasing him after what he’s done, but this is my only chance of happily ever after. I’ve invested too much of my life to give up now.
Backing away from the door, I return to my own room. Calling Felicity will have to wait.
By the time Amy wakes up and we’re eating breakfast with Lou, I feel more deflated than ever.
I honestly thought that this would all be over by now. I thought I’d be back at home getting on with my wedding arrangements, not utilising the hotel’s breakfast service again.
It’s probably a good thing that I listened to Amy’s advice and booked the hotel for a week rather than the couple of nights I thought it would take.
Even being reunited with my phone doesn’t help once I see that there are still no replies to the countless messages I’ve left Drew, and neither his mother nor his secretary seem to have news for me.
“I’ve got to make some calls.” I push my barely-touched plate away.
“What calls?” Amy narrows her eyes.
“I want to check how Mum’s getting on at home,” I bluff, nodding at Lou to back me up.
She sips her orange juice. “That’s okay, I called her this morning. Everything’s fine at the bakery.”
Shit. What do I say now? They’ve both made it clear how they feel about me pestering Sharon for information. And I’m sure Felicity would have been in touch if she’d heard anything new, wouldn’t she?
Maybe I’ll send a quick email.
“I’m just going to check something in the lobby,” I try, heading out to find the best internet signal.
Thirty seconds. That’s all I need to send this email to Felicity before Amy or Lou follows me and notices what I’m doing.
I pick up my pace as I leave the restaurant area and head around the corner towards the stairs where I hope I’ll be less visible.
Finding my email contacts, I type a brief Any news???
A bit of extra punctuation should do the trick to convey the urgency but not look desperate, which obviously I am.
“There you are!” Amy appears at my side just as I hit send. “What are you doing out here?”
“Um…looking for the toilets.”
Amy frowns. “They’re round the other side. You know they are. We used them yesterday.”
“Oh, right.” I laugh. “I forgot.”
She’s right behind me as I cross the lobby and head into one of the bathroom stalls. “So Lou and I were talking,” she says from behind the closed door.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, we were thinking about maybe taking a break today, going sightseeing or something since yesterday didn’t go so well.”
Of course they want to go sightseeing. We’re in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And why shouldn’t they treat this as a holiday?
“We might still see Drew or find something else out,” she continues.
I pretend to flush the toilet and emerge from the stall to face her. “Or you two could go and I could go back to the villa.”
“No!” Amy grips the edge of the counter. “I mean, we should wait until we see Joaquin again before we go back.”
“Why? Do you think he gave us the wrong information?”
Amy shrugs. “Maybe he got it mixed up.”
“What about the guy you saw yesterday? Who was he?”
“I don’t know. We could have been at the wrong place. What’s the point of wasting more time there until we’re absolutely sure?”
I guess she’s right. The last thing I want is to give up another day if it’s not going to get results.
But can I afford to spend a day sightseeing and pretending like everything’s fine?
“You should come with us.” Amy nods.
“And Lou wants to go, too?”
“Yep. We don’t have to be gone all day. I could speak to Joaquin again when we get back.”
Joaquin is our only lead so far. The only scrap of evidence I have that Drew is here in this city- or that he ever was.
My phone, still connected to the hotel’s internet, bleeps with an incoming email. I read over the message from Felicity.
Hi Kirsty, there’s no news here. How about at your end?
I wish I had something to tell her, without mentioning Lexie and her possible villa.
I shove my phone back in my bag. “Okay, I’ll come.”
*
“We need to turn left.” Amy unfolds the tourist map and squints at the various lines and symbols. “Or is it right?”
“Are you sure you should be the navigator?” Lou tries to see the map over her shoulder, but Amy pulls away.
“I know what I’m doing,” she insists, turning the map sideways.
“Where are you trying to navigate to specifically?” I ask.
“Well, there are tons of museums and churches and...you know, architecture and stuff.”
“Architecture?” I stare at her, open-mouthed. “Aims, since when have you been interested in what a bloody building looks like? Unless there’s a life-size Channing Tatum carved into the brickwork.”
“That’s not fair.” Amy places one hand on her hip, the other still clutching the map. “Hey, do you think something like that exists? I mean, it doesn’t have to be Channing. I’m not fussy.”
I laugh and point at the lopsided map. “So what have you really got that thing for? Don’t tell me you’re suddenly interested in art and culture.”
“Some of us are,” Lou mutters.
“Well, there are other things.” Amy shrugs. “I thought maybe we’d pass a few shops on the way.”
“Oh, I see.” Lou lifts her head and manages to peer down at Amy, despite only being a couple of inches taller than her. “You wanted to treat this as some stupid shopping spree.”
“Shopping sprees aren’t stupid!” Amy waves the map at her. “Better than any museum.”
I lean against the stone wall behind me, studying the arched windows and high pillars of a building across the road. If Amy gets her way, that’s probably the only architecture I’ll get to admire today. “Maybe we should all do our own thing,” I suggest.
“Yeah, because that worked out so well yesterday.” Lou sneers, her brown eyes narrowed in accusation as she looks at Amy.
“That wasn’t my fault.” Amy scuffs her flip-flop on the pavement. “Drew wasn’t there.”
“How do you know? You saw that guy come out and you didn’t even speak to him.”
Amy stares down at her feet, her long purple hair flying loose around her face.
“Amy?” I step out in front of her. “Lou’s right, isn’t she? You didn’t speak to him.”
“Oh my God.” Lou claps at hand over her mouth as Amy remains silent. “You did, didn’t you?”
“Amy?” I prompt again. “What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry,” she finally says, her eyes still on the floor. “It wasn’t my fault. Not all my fault, anyway.”
I take a deep breath, trying not to think of possible scenarios. “What wasn’t?”
She lifts her head enough to meet my gaze. “I thought I could trick him, get him to admit something about Drew but he was so charming. I went out for a drink with him and somehow he dodged all my questions about the villa and who he lives with.”
“You went out for a drink with him?” Lou’s eyes are wide. “With a guy you just met?”
“Oh, don’t be such a prude, Louise. It was only a bloody drink.” Amy rolls her eyes.
“Was it him?” I ask. “The man who came out of the bar after we left?”
Amy’s head drops again and she nods.
“And what were you going to tell me? You seemed to think we should go back to the villa yesterday but this morning you suddenly changed your mind. What happened?”
“I thought it was what you wanted to hear last night. I knew you wouldn’t really go back there. I was going to talk to Joaquin again and find out for sure that it belongs to Lexie.”
Lou nibbles on her bottom lip. “So what’s this man got to do with Lexie?”
“I don’t know,” Amy admits.
“Because you were too busy getting lost in his eyes to ask that?” Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes.
“No! I was trying to be subtle. I couldn’t just interrogate him, could I?”
I watch as another group of people navigate their way up a narrow street with their tourist map. So much for a day sightseeing. “What’s his name?”
“Cole…something.”
“Cole Something?” I laugh. “Any relation to Lexie Something?”
“He might not even know her,” Amy insists. “We might have been at the wrong villa!”
“Well, let’s go ask him, shall we?” I march off in a random direction, not caring if I’m going the right way or not.
“Come on, Kirsty. This is crazy!” Amy follows me around a corner, with Lou not far behind. “Why don’t you wait for me to talk to Joaquin? Or Cole.”
“Cole?” I stop and turn to face her. “You’re going to see him again?”
“I don’t know.” Amy tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Maybe.”
“Did you arrange something?”
“Well, no but—”
“I’m sorry that your love life isn’t exactly my priority right now.” I sigh. “I need to find my fiancé.”
*
It’s baking hot in the midday sun when the three of us reach the villa again. Once again, the iron gate is shut with nobody around.
While I try to figure out what the series of buttons at the side of the gate mean, I hear Amy gasp and look up and see a couple leaving through the glass doors at the front.
My heartbeat raises erratically and I freeze with my hand still on the gate.
What if it’s Drew? What do I say to him? I’ve come all this way to find him and I have no idea what to do.
I swallow and force myself to focus on the couple. The stocky man looks familiar, but he isn’t Drew. He’s too casually dressed in a white vest and blue Hawaiian print shorts.
“Cole,” Amy whispers.
“That’s Cole?” Lou’s mouth hangs open.
I watch as the man and woman head towards a side gate I hadn’t even noticed yesterday. Cole is tanned and muscular and gorgeous, just as I remember him from my brief encounter yesterday. No wonder Amy was charmed by him so easily.
“Who’s he with?” Amy cranes her neck and tries to get a better look at them.
The woman is just as tanned and exotic-looking with thick dark hair and a curvy figure.
“Girlfriend?” I suggest.
Amy frowns. “He said he was single.”
“Guys who look like that are never single,” Lou points out.
“What do we do now? Should I chase after them?” I watch them disappear with no sight of Drew.
“You can’t!” Amy grabs my arm. “We’ll blow our cover. What we need is a new plan.”
“I’m tired of plotting new things, Amy. If they know where Drew is, I need to talk to them.”
“I’ve got a better idea. One that incorporates revenge.”
“Revenge?” I blink a few times.
Amy narrows her eyes and looks across at the villa. “Cole won’t get away with this.”