Page 35 of An Island Promise

As they flew towards the UK and back to real life, Gem tried to focus on the positives. She had the rest of the summer to enjoy before she’d be escaping overseas again, yet she couldn’t shake off the feeling that a little piece of her heart had been left behind on Ibiza.

22

JULY 2023, PRESENT DAY

‘You’re quiet,’ Caleb said on the drive back to Spirit after lunch at Maria and Juan’s.

On the horizon, the sky was awash with dusky pink and fiery red. Caleb had been right about a long lazy lunch lasting into the evening.

‘I’m just thinking,’ Belle said as they sped along the tree-lined road back towards Santa Eulalia.

‘About what?’

Gem and Diego was what she was thinking about. She turned the depth of her friend’s deceit over and over in her head. Her shock at Diego’s confession had made her want to phone Gem and yell at her, but she certainly hadn’t been prepared to do that at Maria’s.

‘I was thinking how lovely it was to have a proper family meal like that,’ she said instead.

Caleb made an appreciative huff. ‘It’s one of the things I love the most too.’

‘I think that’s why friendship has been so important to me, because I’m not close to my parents and I have so few memories of joyful family times, which I’m guessing Maria and family haveoften.’ Belle turned her head to the open window and relished the breeze massaging her face. ‘I assume it’s similar with your friendship with Cara. I’m closer to my friend Hannah in London than I am to my own family and it’s the same with childhood friends like Laurie…’ She couldn’t bring herself to say Gem’s name, not without the fear of her true feelings tumbling out.

‘It’ll be good to have your friends coming out then and to take time off. You must miss them.’

‘Uh huh.’One of them at least, she thought.

‘By the way,’ Caleb said, clearing his throat, ‘there was a cancellation so I swapped your friends from a standard room to a poolside suite, so there’ll be space for all three of you.’

‘Oh my goodness, you didn’t have to do that.’

‘It’s my pleasure.’ His expression was unreadable in the dusky light, his attention firmly fixed on the road.

By the time Caleb had dropped her back at Spirit, she’d calmed down. Chatting to him about something unrelated had helped; the last thing she now wanted to do was talk to Gem. She felt foolish for not seeing through the lie Gem had spun and for being so ridiculously hung up on a man who’d thought so little of her that he’d slept with one of her best friends when the opportunity arose. Because what was there to be mad about when actually, in hindsight, Gem had done her a favour? Any lingering rose-tinted longing for Diego had evaporated with the truth.

She kept her emotions in check, something she’d got good at doing since the accident. Decompartmentalising and convincing herself she was fine had been easier than actually dealing with feelings, although often that would backfire when underlying worries would slip out as a recurring nightmare. But as for the Diego situation, she’d have the opportunity to confront Gem when she came out to Ibiza the following weekend. There’d be no escaping her and her lies then.

The week flew by in a whirl of organisation and celebration with a private party at both Spirit and Serenity, and Belle was grateful to have work to focus on.

The first club night at Ushuaïa for Spirit’s guests was scheduled for the week when Laurie and Gem would be staying, which focused her mind on her friends and cemented the thought that her dream about the ‘what could have been’ with Diego was well and truly over.

When Gem and Laurie arrived a week later, everything was fine. At least, it was on the surface. Belle was acutely aware of the underlying tension with Gem, and just how heartbroken Laurie was following a second failed IVF. The three of them hugged and Belle showed them to the poolside suite, yet she was chock-full of mixed feelings. The last time she’d seen Gem had been at their friend’s wedding in Norfolk. The last time they’d properly spoken, Gem had entrusted her with the news about her and Dan having split up, something Laurie still didn’t know about. Now Belle knew the truth about what had really happened in Ibiza ten years ago, it would only be a matter of time before it all came tumbling out.

‘Wow, this must have cost a fortune.’ Laurie gazed round open-mouthed at the spacious suite with touches of wood and stone alongside pops of burnt orange and zig-zag patterned cushions. ‘You seriously have to let us pay our share.’

Belle shook her head. ‘I got a staff discount, plus Caleb upgraded us to this room when there was a cancellation. And honestly, it’s my treat. It’s only one room, not three.’

Laurie ran her hand along the crisp white bedspread. ‘It’s certainly better than the San Antonio hotel we stayed in.’

‘We were twenty-one and skint,’ Belle reminded her.

‘I’m still bloody skint,’ Gem grumbled, ‘and being thirty-one doesn’t make a blind bit of difference apart from it being even more depressing.’ She turned to Belle. ‘But I’m grateful for your generosity. Sort of figured you wouldn’t have offered unless you wanted to and could afford it. So thanks.’

Although it was said with a begrudging tone, Belle let it slide. The minute they arrived was not the time to let rip with Gem about everything she’d been bottling up over the last week. There would be opportunity for a serious talk later.

Laurie opened the doors to the pool and stepped on to the sun-drenched deck. Belle followed her out to where the wooden steps disappeared into the azure water. The pool wasn’t private but it was only shared with four other luxury suites, each with their own swim-up terrace. Belle couldn’t think of anything better than waking in the morning, slipping into a bikini and diving straight into the pool.

Laurie turned back to Belle. ‘I can’t even begin to explain how much I need this.’

‘I think we all do, in our own way.’

---