Page 78 of Girls Just Want to Have Sun

‘And there’s one here of her and David bloody Guetta! How come we didn’t get invited to the VIP section and she did?’ I hear lots of tutting and complaining from the girls and smile smugly to myself.

‘And that’s her dancing with Matteo on the boat, isn’t it?’ Tash asks. ‘Ah, don’t they look lovely? What a cute couple.’

I’d kill to see that photo of me dancing with Matteo. I’ll be able to send it to Ged and Liam. I could casually ask Nacho to send me the photo. I can’t help giggling. For the first time in my life, I feel high and exuberant. Ged and Liam were right. I haven’t been living my life at all, I’ve only been drifting from day to day. And now it’s like I have options. I don’t have to go home, back to that non-existence, if I don’t want to.

Before I can change my mind, I race up the path and pull the gate open to join them from my hidden dwelling. I slip through to the pool area. Tash has her back to me, so she doesn’t know I’m standing behind her, but I see some of the girls have clockedme and are wondering where I have magically appeared from. I grin widely back at them. I’m bursting to blurt out my news.

‘But why does Matteo have his arm around someone else in this photo?’ Tash asks. ‘Is that Alex? Christ, Liberty, you were bang on the money there, pet. Look at the date. It was only last week.’

I stop dead in my tracks.

‘And Enreeky, what’s this photo of you and him together trying wedding suits on in a shop? Whose wedding is it?’ There’s a pause while the splashing comes to an abrupt halt. ‘Enreeky! Are you getting married?’ Tash yells across to him.

I hear Nacho yell back, amid loud ‘boo’s from the girls. ‘No. It isn’t me getting married. It’s my half-brother, Matteo. This weekend. Before he goes to Los Angeles.’

My words become lodged in my throat.

‘Matteo is getting married?’ booms Big Sue. ‘To Alex?’

‘He’s leaving Benidorm to move to LA?’ gasps Liberty. ‘But what about Connie?’

‘We’ll kill him,’ roars Cherry at the same time.

25

All the air suddenly leaves my lungs, like I’ve been jabbed in the solar plexus. I grab the barbeque stand for support while I quickly fathom what Nacho’s saying. I’m briefly aware of Tash losing it and yelling at him.

‘What the fuck is your brother messing around with Connie for if he’s getting married? Does she know?’

Brother? Getting married? Alex is his fiancée? Los Angeles? Notfuckingcomplicated?

For a split second, Nacho’s face drops as he realises I’m standing right behind Tash. He can probably see my devastated expression and my ‘I’ve just been shagging your about-to-be-married brother’ hair. I don’t wait to hear the rest. I let out an accidental cry and stumble quickly back through the gate to the cottage.

I’ve been played, haven’t I?

What a fool I’ve been. I think quickly back to all those times that Matteo just happened to turn up as if destiny was sending us right into each other’s path.

Only it wasn’t, was it? He could’ve just asked his friggin’ brother where I was! Or even easier, he could’ve checked hisbrother’s Instagram and he would’ve seen where I was each day. I try to retrace my steps since we arrived as I wrench open the cottage door, slamming it behind me.

My mind is darting around, as though I’ve suddenly become a pathologist, fitting pieces of a grizzly crime puzzle together. I have a flashback to Nacho telling me in the café that his brother was the good-looking, clever one! No wonder Matteo knew this cottage so well. He owns half of it! He probably does this all the time with whoever just happens to get the cottage. My mind immediately conjures up disturbing images of Matteo and Nacho preying on the many women who come to stay, competing against each other, laughing at how gullible women can be.

Oh fuck, I think I’m going to be sick.

I run to the bathroom and throw up. Then I burst into huge, noisy tears that just won’t stop. My bed is still warm from him. My body still sore from him. My whole spirit was lifted from being with him.

He totally had me hook, line, and sinker, didn’t he?

I slide down onto the bathroom floor, double over and sob my heart out until I am drowning in self-pity. I cry because I’ve been a fool, because I should have known the happiness would never last, because I’m still devastated my mother died and I’ve no other woman to turn to, because I have no idea what I’m doing with my life and I’m afraid I’m just going to waste it doing nothing. I’ll be stuck on this misery train forever.

Out it all comes like a white-water rapid.

‘She’s in here!’ I hear someone yell loudly, and the door opens to reveal all the girls peering in at me.

‘I’m fine!’ I bawl, tears streaming down my face. ‘It’s nothing. I’m fine.’

They part in perfect formation to let Tash hobble through, ankle still like a couple of ripe beef tomatoes. ‘I’m guessing you heard me shouting to Enreeky, did you?’

I sniff loudly and nod my head, which brings a fresh stream of loud tears. Tash hands me a towel.

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