Page 38 of Sunrise By the Sea

‘Do you get thatall day?’

‘It’s not so bad,’ said Marisa, almost without thinking as she went to the coffee machine.

Then she paused. It was true. Kind of. She had really stopped noticing the piano lessons during the day. They blended into each other like background noise on the radio. She played her own music through headphones and just generally got on with things. In fact, she’d almost applauded the other day, when Mrs Finnegan had successfully made it all the way to the end of ‘I Know Him So Well’ without collapsing halfway through, which had elicited a joyous shout of encouragement from Alexei.

‘It was at night that was driving me crazy. When it was just him.’

‘Is it not nicer when he plays?’

‘No! Oh my God. No. Weird, weird music.’

Polly smiled.

‘Well, you won’t have to put up with the twins for much longer.’

‘Why not?’

Marisa brought over two little espressos. Then she coloured, realising it had been so very long since she’d had company she had completely forgotten to ask people what they wanted to drink.

‘I’m so sorry . . . what would you like?’

‘I’ll never sleep,’ said Polly, smiling at the tiny cup. ‘But hey ho. I never sleep anyway. It can’t do me much more harm. Thank you.’

Marisa remembered suddenly a little packet of biscotti had turned up in her care box and jumped up to get them.

‘Oh, look at these!’ said Polly, who couldn’t resist anything sweet. ‘Oh, they’re wonderful. We should sell them in the . . .’

Her voice trailed off.

‘Why aren’t you coming up here any more?’

‘Oh. We . . . I need to cancel piano lessons. They’re just a bit pricey. Don’t tell anyone.’

‘I can’t,’ said Marisa. ‘I don’t know anyone.’

‘Okay, well don’t mention it to your landlord.’

‘I’ve never met him.’

In fact Polly knew that the second Reuben found out they couldn’t afford the lessons, he would insist that he paid for them. And that was too awful. When she and Kerensa had first been friends, of course she admired Kerensa’s drive, her iron discipline with her diet – but then she knew Kerensa loved her too, appreciated her sense of humour, liked having her around. They were equals. The idea of their longstanding friendship being reduced to a begging bowl of inequality: oh God. They had lost their money, she couldn’t bear to lose real friends too.

‘Are . . . things not doing well down at the bakery?’

Polly sighed. ‘We’ve lost a lot of the holiday trade – it’s tough all over for everyone, and my husband’s business and . . . Oh, I don’t want to wang on about my problems.’

‘We all have problems.’

‘We do.’

‘Everything will get better.’

‘Do you really think that?’ said Polly, sceptical.

‘Well,’ said Marisa. ‘I know I seem totally rubbish but . . . I never thought I’d make it here. And I did. I never thought I could move. I couldn’t even . . . well. You probably didn’t notice but I just made it all the way to the bottom of the steps to see you. Which I couldn’t have done before.’

‘Seriously?’ said Polly. ‘Wow! Well done then!’

Marisa couldn’t help smiling.

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