‘That’s right.’
‘But I want to fight. I don’t want him to have the money for this business.’
‘Of course.’
‘But I haven’t ... No, no! I will find the money when he appeals it. I will. I will find a way.’
‘Alice Dorothy Matthews. Sit down!’ shouted her mother.
Alice quickly sat down again.
‘Look, Alice. I have spoken to your stepfather because we anticipated this. And we will help you financially with the legal fees until the house is sold. Then you can repay us with the proceeds. We would love to help you buy him out, but I think the house is now probably worth a lot of money and we can’t afford it. But the legal fees we can help you with.’
Alice wanted to cry with gratitude. ‘Will you? Are you sure?’
‘Of course, we are. I’m not letting that arsehole take your money without a fight.’
‘Mother. Language please! But thank you, thank you.’ Alice stood up and kissed the screen. All of a sudden everything was clear. She knew what she had to do. A little flicker of excitement lifted her mood for an instant, and then it was gone.
‘No more hiding, Mum. I’ll speak to you tomorrow once I’ve got a new phone. Now I’m off to hang around some hotel lobbies.’
The screen flickered closed to the sound of her mother saying, ‘What? What do you mean? Alice?’
Alice rushed out and strode through the apartment foyer towards the path. As she did, the porter came out of his office again trying to get her attention. ‘Madam, Madam ... I have …’
But she didn’t even realise he was there. She had something she needed to say and that’s all she could think of.
She walked through the main square hoping to find Carlos. ‘What hotels do you think would provide private yoga instructors? There’s one with yoga classes and they do belly dancing – do they do private sessions there or is there anywhere else?’ she asked him as he was clearing a table.
He looked up, surprised. ‘Alice,’ he said. ‘How are you? I heard there was some confusion last night? That you were upset?’
Alice couldn’t look him in the face. She knew if she did the tears would come again, and she had to stay angry.
‘I’m okay.’ Then she asked her question again.
Carlos narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. ‘Not the one you were thinking of on the seafront close to the station.’ He paused for a moment. ‘A Barrio,’ he said eventually. ‘That would be the one. Always holding that new age chanting stuff there.’
‘Is that the one above the beach just across from the little shopping centre?’
‘That’s the one.
‘Right. Wish me luck.’
‘Did you speak to Luis?’
‘Luis? No.’
‘Well he is looking for you. He has your phone.’
‘But I … how has he got my phone?’
‘You had better ask him. Or Ignacio. Or Felipe.’
Alice looked at him blankly. ‘I don’t understand …’
Carlos shrugged. ‘He turned up here after you had left. He had a black eye – something about a fight with Antonio. And he tried to call you, but of course you had thrown your phone away.’
Alice began to feel mixture of nausea and hope.
‘They went to your apartment building but couldn’t get an answer from you. Luis left some messages with the porter.’
‘But he sent me a message,’ she said, mind searching for explanations. How could he be looking for her when he had ended their relationship? She remembered the conversation with Marcella on the beach. Perhaps he hadn’t sent the message. Had she made a mistake? But she couldn’t deal with it, not now. Not when she had to confront everything. ‘Well as Luis has my phone, so I can’t call Ignacio. Can you tell him I’ll need him sometime next week to take me to the airport?’ she blurted out.
‘Okay.’
Alice walked across the square.
‘Are you going on a holiday?’ shouted Carlos at her back.
‘No. I’m going home,’ shouted Alice, hurrying towards A Barrio Hotel.
The hotel lobby exuded lavender scented tranquillity as Alice sank into a plush cream and scarlet sofa in a gold and red alcove. Indian music drifted from the reception desk.
I am annoyed. I am annoyed. I am very annoyed, she repeated in her head. Don’t let your guard down. Be alert. Be alert. Alice sat and watched, stroking the raised flower pattern on the arm of the sofa. Glancing briefly down, the way the leaves were drawn caught her attention, so she surreptitiously grabbed her camera from her bag and snapped a photo. Eventually a door opened and about fifty people in white robes padded out of a darkened function room, bringing an overwhelming blast of patchouli oil with them. Alice stood up, searching for Adam, the anger and indignation rising through her again, heart pounding, ready to fight. Finally. Pushing her way into the middle of the group to find him, she stood, listening for his deep, gruff voice.
‘I must say, since I started Tai chi I’ve been a better person.’ There he was, somewhere to her left. ‘It was Veronique that got me into it.’
Alice moved towards the noise, easing her way between chatting groups.
But his voice moved. ‘It’s just so helpful,’ he said.
Alice spun round and waited for him to speak again. It wouldn’t take long, she thought. Adam couldn’t keep quiet for longer than a minute. She wondered why everyone was so tall. Maybe there was a height requirement for this particular class, Tai chi for the longer body?
‘Ssssh,’ she said to herself out loud. ‘Be quiet. I’m listening.’
A couple turned around, embarrassed. ‘Oh dear, very sorry,’ said the woman. ‘I didn’t realise we were speaking so loudly. We’ll keep it down.’
‘Oh, no, I didn’t mean you,’ said Alice, reddening. ‘Please take no notice.’ She squeezed around a cluster of people nearly getting walloped by a heavy-set man demonstrating a very slow move.
‘… our new business … just getting it going, yes …’ There he was, in the corner with his arm around Veronique.
Alice walked purposefully towards him. For the first time she was ready to deal with him properly. ‘Adam,’ she said. But he didn’t respond. ‘Adam!’ She hit him on the back to get his attention. ‘Adam!’
‘Alice,’ he sighed, turning around looking down at her. ‘What are you doing here? I should have known by the jingle of those bloody bracelets that you were in the vicinity.’
‘What is she doing here?’ echoed Veronique.
‘I have something to say.’ Alice straightened her body.
The crowd began to disperse, sensing drama.
‘Oh dear. Here we go again,’ said Adam wearily.
‘Oh dear,’ sighed Veronique.
Alice took a deep breath. ‘I am prepared to sell the house.’ There. She had said the unsayable, the unthinkable, the unimaginable. She stood, waiting for the panic to return, the sense of loss, the fear. But it didn’t. She felt light and free. Her house had given her a gift. The gift of pushing Adam out of her life. The house she had built was letting her go.
‘At last!’ said Adam, triumphantly.
‘I am also prepared to let you have a proportion of the proceeds.’
‘Right, well, it is my house too, so I don’t know why you are saying it like you are giving me some kind of present,’ he said irritably.
‘Your name is on the deeds and the mortgage agreement but it isn’t your house, is it?’
‘Yes it is.’
‘No it isn’t,’ said Alice firmly. ‘I have checked through my bank statements online and I also have all the paper ones going back to when we first moved in. I can track back to the date when I started to pay for the mortgage payments on my own from my account. And it was a long time ago, Adam.’
‘Yes, but my name is still on the mortgage and the deeds so it is technically half mine.’
‘Technically. But I’m going to take it to court if you won’t settle via our solicitors. And I have kep
t every single receipt for all the work I had done and all the materials I bought.’
‘Alice, why are you doing this?’
‘You always used to laugh at me for keeping all those records, but you know, I think they will help me prove my case.’
The people in the lobby were stood, silent, pretending not to listen. Some were looking at Adam and Veronique curiously.
‘But you are just delaying the inevitable,’ said Adam slowly and condescendingly. ‘It is just a bloody house. This will cost us time and money.’
‘Not necessarily. I will instruct my solicitor to offer you a percentage of the profit from the sale.’
‘How much?’
‘Not saying. I haven’t decided yet. Wait for the letter. When’s your birthday again? I’ll make sure it arrives then. Just like you arranged for your solicitor’s letter to arrive on mine.’
‘This is ridiculous. I’m going to use the money for something useful. The business. Not just sitting in some old bricks and mortar.’
‘And I need it for my business.’
‘You don’t have a business,’ scoffed Adam. ‘Selling bracelets to market stalls in one town in Portugal is not a business, Alice.’
‘I have just started an online business selling jewellery and photographs, actually.’
‘Do something,’ muttered Veronique. ‘The money is part of the plan.’
‘Sorry. No can do,’ said Alice firmly. ‘At least eighty per cent of the house is mine in my opinion. Probably more to be honest, and I’m going to fight for it.’
‘But it will cost you a lot of money. You haven’t got it.’
‘I will find it. I will, Adam.’
He looked at her confused, unsure what to say.
Alice stood, her feet planted firmly on the ground, knowing exactly what she had to do. The man she had laughed with and dreamt with and made plans with, who had captivated her and won her, and who she had loved more than she thought she could ever love anyone was standing in front of her. But it had gone. She could finally remember why she had loved him. And she didn’t want that any more. She stepped forward and touched his arm. ‘You were all I ever wanted once. You overwhelmed me. Do you remember? But when you started to go, bit by bit, I filled the space you left with the house. I gave it all the love that was meant for you but you didn’t seem to want any more. And now, and now,’ her voice began to shake. ‘You want to give all of what I put into that house to someone else. How dare you do that to me!’
‘Alice I … I …’ he faltered.
‘I don’t love you any more. And I don’t like you. And I’m beginning to despise you. Don’t you think that’s sad? I don’t want anything to do with you. I’m selling the house, and I’m fighting for what’s mine.’
‘Don’t listen to her,’ said Veronique sharply. ‘You should fight for what’s yours – ours.’
‘Why don’t you earn your own money,’ said Alice, ‘instead of trying to steal it from me?’
There was an audible intake of breath from the people around them in the lobby.
‘Do not speak to me like that,’ shouted Veronique.
‘Don’t try to steal my house, then.’
An elderly lady at the far end of the room began to clap. ‘Bravo my dear! You tell them!’
‘He told me it was half his,’ Veronique said quietly, her voice trailing away.
Alice turned to see Luis walking towards her in the lobby. He was unshaven and one of his eyes looked like it had been hit.
‘Luis!’ For a moment her heart loop the looped with relief and happiness. ‘Your eye. What….? ’Then she remembered the text he had sent the night before.
‘Who is this now?’ Adam’s face hardened again.
‘I’m Luis. I’m with Alice,’ he said.
‘No you’re not,’ said Alice. She couldn’t calm down. Her anger at Adam and Veronique was now being directed at him even though she now knew something about the message she’d received wasn’t right.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Luis, confused.
‘You texted me. You told me you had met someone else. It was on my birthday. You had kept me waiting all evening. How could you?’
‘Bastard!’ shouted the elderly lady.
‘I didn’t do that,’ he said.
‘But I got the text. I’d show you, but you have my phone apparently.’
‘You threw it away,’ said Luis. ‘You tried to throw it in the sea but it landed on the rocks. Ignacio and Felipe were following you to make sure you were okay and rescued it.’
Alice looked at him, trying not to crumple, finally realising how much her friends had been trying to help her.
Luis handed Alice her phone. ‘Now show me this text.’
‘How did you know I was here?’ asked Alice.
‘Carlos worked it out. Then he called me to tell me you were leaving. And I just heard every word you said to that man. Oh Alice …’ he held his arms out to her, but she backed away.
‘I knew it,’ said Adam angrily. ‘I knew there was another man, otherwise you’d still be wasting away in London.’
Alice spun round towards him. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I knew there was another man. I knew it.’
‘Is that what this is about, Adam? You left me a long time ago. What is it to you? Is that why you came out here really? You could have done this all by letter’
‘No, I’m with Veronique and I’m very happy.’
‘So you just don’t want to lose your grip on me then? You don’t want me to move on? Well I have. The only thing keeping us locked into this is my house. And I’m prepared to let it go.’
‘Yes, but on your terms.’
‘Yes on my terms.’
She looked at Luis.
‘Show me the text,’ he said.
She scrolled down and opened it, unable to read it again.
‘I did not write this text. I promise you I did not write it. Look at the text after it. I said I was on my way.’
‘Who wrote the text then?’ Alice bit her lip. Luis looked confused as he looked at her, then ashamed.
‘I know who it was,’ he sighed.
‘Who was it?’ asked Alice. But she already knew.
‘I need to explain but not here,’ he said.
‘What was her name?’
‘I was showing Susannah the farmhouse. She said she was interested in buying it. The bank manager had phoned me that day. It was bad news. I was very worried. I panicked. And so I agreed to meet there. But she wanted to buy the land and knock it down. And I don’t want to sell it.’ Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead as he looked at her.
‘Go on,’ she said quietly.
‘She made a wrong assumption about me too and when I corrected her I think she was angry.’
‘What was she doing with your phone?’
‘I accidentally left it behind, and when I went back she handed it to me.’
‘Why wasn’t it locked?’
‘I forgot to lock it … and then I texted you to tell you I was on my way.’
‘But you never came. Where did you go?’
‘I did come, but you were already gone.’
‘I was there for hours, Luis.’
Luis looked around. ‘Please can we do this somewhere else?’ he pleaded.
‘Where did you go?’ repeated Alice.
‘She drove home and I drove behind her because I was worried. And then I had a fight with Antonio. He was waiting for me at the café and blamed me for the fact that Marcella is no longer supporting the band.’
Alice looked at his black eye, fighting every instinct to go over and touch his face and throw herself into his arms. But she felt too betrayed. ‘I was sitting in the square all evening waiting for you. It was my birthday. Why did she get the wrong idea about what you wanted? Tell me, please.’
Luis sighed. ‘It was the past. She thought I was someone I never was.’
‘The man with the reputation,’ said Alice, sharp
ly.
‘It was a long time ago, Alice.’
‘Did she know about me?’
‘... yes.’
‘Did she know it was my birthday?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did she know you were supposed to be meeting me?’
Luis looked at the floor. ‘Yes.’
Alice turned and walked away. ‘You idiot,’ she said, pushing into the revolving door. ‘You idiot.’ And this time she knew she wasn’t just talking about Luis, she was talking about herself.
Enveloped by the crowds of people outside, Alice allowed herself to be carried along with their footsteps, once again, not knowing or caring where she was going, grateful to be able to lose herself in their midst. Luis didn’t turn up for my birthday. Luis followed that woman home to make sure she was all right. Luis put her before me. The words rang around her head. Adam is trying to take my house to please his girlfriend. He doesn’t care what it’s doing to me.
And as the word repeated over and over, Luis and Adam merged into one man until she couldn’t remember who had done what or why. Ignoring her ringing phone, she drifted, until she found herself standing in the square, looking at the tables, not really seeing anything. Then she felt an arm guiding her towards a chair.
‘Sit,’ said Carlos, waving his arm at a colleague. ‘Um galao.’ The glass of milky coffee was placed on the table. ‘Drink,’ he said.
Alice sipped it silently.
‘Did he find you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then why are you sitting here on your own?’
She looked at the wall. ‘It’s complicated,’ she said. You have to look after yourself and not rely on anyone else, Alice Dorothy Matthews, she thought. Thank God I have the house. She took her phone out her bag. ‘No signal. Again.’ She sighed. ‘Is there an internet café near here?’ she asked Carlos.
‘Yes, about fifteen minutes’ walk. Straight up that street until the end then turn left.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, pulling out her purse to pay for the coffee.
‘On the house,’ he said.
Hiding herself in a corner of the tiny café, Alice clicked the computer onto her London address, then switched on the satellite map, moving the icon onto her street and in front of her house. Captured on a perfect spring day, candy pink blossom burst from the cherry trees along the avenue framed by a crisp blue sky. Two doors down Mrs Thomas was tidying up her front garden under the watchful eye of her ginger cat, Marvin.
The House That Alice Built Page 26