Page 102 of Sunrise By the Sea

She felt ashamed, that he had seen through her so clearly. He frowned.

‘And then what? I go everywhere with you?’

‘No!’ said Marisa, feeling annoyed and ashamed. ‘I thought you might like to come with me.’

‘Very much,’ he said. ‘I would like nothing better than to be eating ice cream on a beach with you, Marisa,kotyonok.’

‘But you won’t.’

He looked pained. ‘You are doing . . . Look at how well you are doing. When I meet you you are terrified. You are mouse. And now, you work with Polly, you go out, you make friend . . .’

Marisa couldn’t bear to ask him if he meant himself.

‘You are doing well. You can do it. But you have to do it yourself. It is no use having . . .’

He mimed something which she didn’t get.

‘You are so terrible at miming,’ she said, swallowing a lump in her throat.

‘Things for helpink your legs.’

‘Crutches.’

Her heart fell. Was that really how he saw her? Last night? Truly?

‘You need to go be with your family,’ he said. ‘You have come so far. You cannot stop now.’

‘But—’

‘I have pupils with exams, I have end of term concerts, I have busy things to be doink also.’

She nodded.

‘But mostly, I think this is for you. Can you do it?’

His eyes looked at her.

‘I . . . I don’t know.’

‘I do.’

Chapter Sixty-two

Marisa stormed off the balcony. Her phone was ringing before she’d even closed her bedroom door, before she was ready to collapse in storms of tears.

It was Gino.

‘Sweets,’ he said, ‘we think . . . we think if you want to come, you should come now.’

He said it calmly and Marisa couldn’t do anything other than thank him and hang up.

With trembling fingers she checked on flights. There was a late flight to Genoa from Bristol. Without allowing herself to think about it, she booked it.

There were plenty of seats free. He could have come, she thought. He could have. If he’d cared about her.

So all his words last night, all the cosying up to one another. It didn’t mean anything. He was still heartbroken for some ridiculous girl she could never match up to and she was literally the girl next door. And vice versa.

And now she would have to do this herself.

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