‘It’s hvala,’ he said. ‘You say it like the French say voilà, only with an “H”.’
Kate gave it a try, but only managed an odd mumbling sound.
‘Just keep practising – you’ll get it.’
‘How long did it take you to learn the language?’ she asked, peeling back the corner of her paper bag and taking a generous bite of pizza. She had never eaten one topped with octopus tentacles before and spluttered as one of the curly fronds tickled the inside of her nose.
Alex waited until she’d wiped tomato sauce off her face, then said, ‘I’m still learning.’
‘I was terrible at languages at school,’ she confessed. ‘Dropped German and failed French with aplomb.’
‘Isn’t “aplomb” a French word?’
‘Touché.’
‘And that one?’
‘Oui, monsieur.’
‘Now you’re just showing off.’
Kate laughed at that. Really laughed. Not at herself for a change, or because she thought she should, but because she had found something genuinely funny. And because right now, in this moment, eating pizza with this man she had just met, in a country that was almost entirely new to her, she experienced a feeling that had been absent for quite some time.
Happiness.
Chapter 11
‘So, what was it you did before you were made redundant?’ asked Alex, as he led Kate through yet another warren of backstreets and out into the town square. The piazza was far busier now than it had been when she meandered along the harbour in search of a taxi boat, and almost every outdoor restaurant table was occupied. Behind them, the tower of St Stephen’s Cathedral loomed tall and resplendent, while the marble paving slabs below glowed like embers in the lamplight.
‘I worked as an assistant in an auto parts office,’ she said, grimacing over the memory of her former boss, Jakub Kowalski, giving her the bad news.
‘I think this will be good for you,’ he had said. ‘I can tell that you are bored here. I see you staring off into space and I think to myself, “What is she dreaming about?” I do not think it is accelerator cables or windscreen wipers.’
‘I love windscreen wipers,’ Kate had mumbled, but Jakub had already made up his mind, telling her encouragingly, ‘Don’t see this as losing a job, see it as the gift of a fresh start – the push you need to make the changes you want.’
Kate wondered now if Jakub would agree that fleeing the country was an adequate enough life change. When he had paid out her severance package of three months’ salary, did he envisage her blowing a sizeable chunk of it on plane tickets?
‘It wasn’t exactly the most glamorous of jobs,’ she told Alex. ‘But it was better than being unemployed.’
‘That’s why I work for myself,’ he said. ‘That way, I can never be sacked.’
Kate smiled in reply.
‘I can’t believe how warm it still is,’ she said, lifting her heavy sash of curls off her neck. ‘I’m tempted to dip my feet into the water over there to cool down.’
‘Fun tourist fact for you,’ said Alex, stopping not far from a small lavender stall. ‘This square was an inlet once; we’re standing where the sea used to be.’
Kate looked down, then back up at him.
‘I never used to be that fussed about the sea,’ she told him, ‘but since coming here, I have found myself oddly drawn to it. I guess because of how beautiful it is, and how clean – like something out of a glossy travel brochure. I’ve never seen sea like it.’
‘Have you been in for a swim yet?’ he asked.
‘No. I was going to go for a paddle in Jerolim,’ she said mildly, ‘only I was scared off by a load of naked people.’
Alex laughed. ‘I was wondering when that was going to come up again.’
Kate almost raised a comical eyebrow at that remark but stopped herself. The two of them had strayed into flirtatious territory and she didn’t want him to get the wrong impression.
Pizzas eaten and wrappers binned, they crossed the square and began to stroll along the Riva, a flotilla of super yachts on one side of them and a battalion of ritzy bars and restaurants on the other.
‘I wouldn’t mind one of these,’ she said, gesturing towards a particularly expensive looking vessel. Three storeys high and gleaming black and chrome, it boasted polished wooden decking, built-in bar, a long wraparound leather seating area and a gym on the lower deck. There were two jet skis fixed to the back and – Kate had to blink to be sure she hadn’t imagined it – a Land Rover bolted to the floor.
‘Who can afford such luxury?’ she wondered aloud.
‘Sheiks, shipping magnates, film stars,’ Alex intoned, sounding unimpressed.
‘I wonder what they’re like inside,’ she went on, running her eyes over mahogany panels and sparkling spotlights.
‘They have air conditioning, hot showers, TVs, Internet, king-size beds,’ Alex listed. Then, as Kate turned to him in surprise, he carried on, ‘I’ve been on a few. Quite often they’re a bit worse for wear by the end of season, so when the passengers fly off home in their private planes, they hire local folk to clean and fix things. One of the yachts I worked on last year had starry sky panels in the bedroom ceilings. Can you believe it? Now why would you need one of those when you’re out at sea, with a front-row seat to the real things?’
‘Maybe they would rather be in a nice clean bed than in a hammock out on the deck,’ Kate mused. ‘I know I would.’
For a beat or two, Alex said nothing.
‘What’s wrong with that?’
‘Nothing at all,’ he said levelly. ‘I’m just surprised, that’s all. You seem quite bold to me; a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go after it.’
Kate had to shake her head at that – he had got her so wrong.
‘Are you telling me you’re not adventurous?’ he pressed, then, when she made no reply, ‘You must have done something in your life that scared you a bit?’
Kate’s smile withered and died. ‘To be honest,’ she admitted, staring stoically at her feet, ‘most things scare me.’
‘None so much as choking on octopus pizza?’
Kate appreciated his attempt to lighten the mood, but she could not quite bring herself to laugh along with him. The single most courageous thing she had ever done was the one thing that had backfired the most spectacularly. What she should have done was remain true to cowardly self and erred on the side of utmost caution. If only she had, then she might not have lost everything that mattered.
‘You don’t need to walk me all the way back,’ she told Alex as they reached the far end of the Riva. ‘I know how to get to the hostel from here.’
‘It’s all right. I would rather see you home, if that’s all the same by you. Thought I might catch a kip in one of the dorms – get an early start in tomorrow.’
He sounded unsure all of a sudden and Kate cursed herself for making things awkward. Casting around for something to say to change the subject, she noticed a raggedy old boat bobbing just offshore. It was white – or had been once upon a time – but now the hull was a mess of peeling paint and water stains. The small cabin at the front was buried under all manner of nets, pots of paint, broken planks of wood and stained carrier bags, while yet more pots, tools and unidentifiable objects hung down over the sides. Kate was surprised it was able to stay afloat.
‘Would you look at the state of that old thing,’ she exclaimed. ‘Talk about the Littlest Ho-boat. Who do you think it belongs to, Captain Calamity? Captain Collector of Crap? Someone should do the poor thing a favour and sink it.’
‘You mean that boat there?’ Alex pointed.
‘Of course,’ she said with feeling. ‘Do you see any other boats here that are about fifty years past being condemned?’
‘Well now, I see my boat,’ he said.
‘Yours?’ she repeated. ‘Which, er, which one is yours?’
‘That one right there,’ he said. ‘What was it you said, the Littlest Ho-boat?
That’s the one.’
Kate squirmed. ‘You’re joking?’
‘No, not joking.’
‘Oh god. I’m so . . . Oh bloody hell.’
Alex wasn’t smiling, but he didn’t look offended, more bemused. Kate was about to apologise more coherently when she felt her phone start to vibrate in her bag.
‘Saved by the bell,’ she joked weakly, only to freeze as her stomach leapt up into her throat.
It was James.
Chapter 12
All those unanswered messages, all the days that had passed where she hadn’t heard so much as a murmur from him, all the times she had stared at her phone, willing it to light up with a call or even a simple notification – and now here he was, wanting her again.
Kate stumbled away from Alex, her fingers swiping hurriedly at the screen.
‘Hello? Hello, James? Is that you?’
‘Kate – where on earth are you? I got a weird ringtone.’
‘I’m––’ Kate hesitated. Her plan was never going to work if she gave away her location right away; the whole point of dis-appearing was to be out of reach, far enough away that he would miss her; that he would realise how much he still loved her.
‘Away,’ she said. ‘I needed a break after everything that you – everything that happened.’
‘Away where?’ James pressed, and Kate took a deep breath.
‘Somewhere I can walk around freely without worrying that someone will point and laugh because they’ve seen a video of me making a tit of myself on the Internet.’
Even as she said it, Kate quailed. Now was not the time to goad him – not now she finally had his attention.
James let out a long-drawn-out sigh. The sigh of the reluctantly guilty.
‘How are you anyway?’ she asked, doing her best to sound more conciliatory. ‘How is everything there? How’s work? And your family?’
‘I’m fine,’ he said, although she could tell he wasn’t. ‘It’s weird in the house, though. So quiet with just me here.’
Kate swallowed.
‘I guess I never realised how much you did around the place,’ he admitted. ‘You know, keeping everything tidy and doing the garden and that. My mum came over yesterday and almost had a heart attack when she saw the state of the kitchen.’
‘I bet she did,’ said Kate, feeling slightly cheered. James was not coping well without her; he needed her there with him and perhaps now he had realised as much.
‘I saw Robyn the other day,’ he went on.
‘Oh?’ Kate was taken aback. Her friend would surely have been straight on the phone if that were the case.
‘Yeah,’ muttered James. ‘And you know, if you wanted to send one of your mates round to spy on me, you should have chosen someone with a less obvious car.’
Robyn drove a bright yellow Mini painted with daisies. It was undoubtedly bold, but suited her sunny personality perfectly.
‘I didn’t send her round,’ spluttered Kate. ‘I haven’t sent anyone round – I wouldn’t do that.’ She had reached the low wall that ran alongside the harbour now and collapsed down onto it. Alex was still standing by the water where she’d left him, his eyes trained not on her but the distant dark shapes of the Pakleni Islands. There was a smear of varnish on the back of his shorts, she noticed absently.
James was mumbling something unintelligible about her and Robyn having some sort of stalkerish scheme up their sleeves.
‘Even if I had sent Robyn over there to check up on you – which I didn’t, by the way – would it really be such a horrible thing? Just because you decided to throw me out doesn’t mean I stopped caring. I still worry about you; still think about you. I still love you, for god’s sake.’ Her voice cracked as she fought to keep the tears at bay.
James responded with another sigh. ‘Listen, you don’t need to worry about me. I admit, it is a bit weird you not being here – but that doesn’t mean my decision was the wrong one. I do miss you, of course I do, but my feelings haven’t changed.’
‘Neither have mine,’ she protested. ‘Does that not count for anything? Does love not count for anything?’
Another sigh.
‘I will always care about you,’ he told her steadily. ‘I don’t know what more I can say. I called because I thought you sent Robyn over here, that’s all. I’m glad you’re OK and that you’re apparently abroad somewhere having a holiday. You deserve it, Kate; you deserve to be happy. That’s all I want for you; it’s all I’ve ever wanted for both of us.’
‘Being with you is what makes me happy,’ she said in a small voice. ‘Please, James. I know this isn’t right, us not being together. It feels wrong; I feel all wrong. I know things got tricky, but surely we could have tried a bit harder. We still had options and––’
‘Listen,’ said James, more gently this time. ‘We shared so many great times and taught each other so much. Just because it’s over doesn’t mean it was a waste. Don’t focus on this part, think about the good times – the happy times.’
‘I can’t,’ she mumbled, fighting a second sob. ‘My life feels so empty without you, James. I need you. I don’t work properly without you.’
‘I don’t believe that, Kate,’ he said, sounding forlorn. ‘And you know I’ll always be here for you as a friend. I would come over and give you a hug now, if I could. But I can’t, can I? Not when you’re in . . . Where did you say you were again?’
‘I didn’t.’ Kate grasped her one remaining trump card. ‘And I don’t see why I should,’ she added firmly. ‘You wanted me gone, so I went. The further the better, right?’
‘Now you’re just being silly,’ he grumbled. ‘Why won’t you tell me where you are? Why all the secrecy?’
Kate could hear a kettle boiling in the background and pictured him in what was once their kitchen. It had been James’s grandparents’ house, once upon a time, but it had been she who had turned it from sad and dingy to cosy and bright; she who had added all the little touches that made it a home. How could he stay there without her? How could he bear it?
‘If I come home, will you see me?’ she pleaded. ‘There’s stuff we need to talk about; things I want to ask you.’
‘Kate, we’ve already been over this. The facts are what they are, and I’m sorry if that sounds harsh, but I have to do what’s best for me.’
James had switched the telly on. Kate could hear the Match of the Day theme tune. The pain of this, of his apparent disinterest in her continued suffering, almost rendered her mute. Glancing up, she saw that Alex was strolling towards her, a questioning expression on his face. He was concerned about her; worried that she might be upset. A man who was basically a stranger cared about her more than James did.
Rage surged up inside her then, as hot and destructive as lava, and she gripped the phone tighter in her hand.
‘Do you know what, James?’ she said, hissing the words so that Alex would not hear them. ‘Maybe Robyn was right – maybe I’m not the one who should feel sad right now.’
And then Kate did something she had never done to James before. She hung up on him.
Chapter 13
Robyn responded with predictable indignation.
‘I have a patient who lives on that road, for god’s sake. Does James honestly assume I have nothing better to do with my time than spy on him? I hope you told him to naff off.’
Toby was gleeful.
‘You hung up on him? Oh, well done! I bet you feel even better than those rowers did when they won gold for England.’
Kate, however, felt utterly wretched.
She should never have allowed herself to become so accusatory with James, or to be so rude to him. Once she had calmed down enough to realise quite how big a mistake she’d made, she tried to ring him back to apologise, but he ignored her call. Nor did he reply to the message she sent, telling him how sorry she was and that she had only lashed out because she was hurting.
Half tempted to book a flight back to London and turn up at his door, Kate was
only swayed by the one smidgeon of hope she had left: he had called her. He might have pretended it was because he’d spotted Robyn’s car and wanted to confront her about it, but the fact was, James missed her. He had said as much. And that was something. It was the only something Kate had.
Today was a Wednesday, and as a reward for all the hard work she had put in at the hostel over the past few days, varnishing bunks, smoothing Polyfilla over cracks and poring over paint charts, Toby and Filippo had hired a speedboat and were taking her out for the day. They had extended the invitation to Alex as well, but he had declined, saying he would rather stay behind at Sul Tetto and supervise the local plumber and electrician, both of whom had arrived to do some last-minute tinkering. Kate hoped he wasn’t using it as an excuse to avoid spending time with her. Alex had taken her to the finest pizza parlour in Hvar, chatted to her and kept her company when she was feeling low, and she had repaid his kindnesses by first making fun of his boat, then crying about her ex all the way back to the hostel. He must think she’s a complete nightmare.
Still, today was a new day, and the sunshine that greeted them outside the hostel was optimistically bright. Kate took a moment to pause and enjoy the feel of it. In the short time she had been in Croatia, she had gone from being someone who lurked in the shadows to basking like a lizard, her efforts so far earning her the beginnings of a modest tan – or, as Toby had thoughtfully remarked the previous evening, ‘a mass coming together of freckles’.
Hvar was dazzling this morning; her white stone walls seemed to gleam from within. Kate looked up to see wooden shutters propped open in welcome behind balconies dripping with plants. Flowers burst like cheerleader pom-poms through cracks in the walls, the blue sky above them paint-splattered with birds. As they drew closer to the harbour, large sprawls of cacti clambered out from the earth, their spiky fronds and paddle-shaped blooms so alien yet at home amongst the swirling dust.
There were many elements on the island that continued to mesmerise Kate, but none more than the sea, so alive as it was with colour. Not only blues, but greens and golds, crests of silver and pockets of the deepest black. It was intriguing yet astounding, stirring and soothing her in equal measure whenever she stared down into its glistening depths.
The Getaway: A holiday romance for 2021 - perfect summer escapism! Page 7