Lucy in the Sky

years later. I cried and cried at the time. It felt like leaving was the most soul-destroying thing in the world. But it’s amazing how you adapt. I love England now. I love the city where I live and work and I love going home to Mum and Terry’s house in Somerset. I also love having two brothers–well,two stepbrothers–Tom, who is twenty-one, and Nick, who is eighteen. It was lonely growing up with just Mum and me.
    There are kids with armbands splashing in the pool. A young couple appear at the top of the stairs. They’re both wearing jeans and carrying backpacks and they almost immediately wipe their brows. I’m glad I packed my dress.
    I think I’ll have another cocktail. ‘Excuse me. Could you tell me what this is again?’
    ‘Singapore Sling, madam.’
    That figures. ‘Another one, please.’ The bartender nods and gets to work. What’s in them, I wonder, grabbing a menu from further down the bar. Grenadine, gin, sweet and sour mix and cherry brandy…Mmm.
    This Singaporean pop music is actually quite catchy. James would laugh if he could see me now, drinking cocktails and tapping my feet.
    Maybe he did hide my chocolate cherry liqueurs as a joke. I still don’t accept his story that he gave them to a tramp.
    Okay, here’s the thing about my boyfriend. He is prone to the occasional crazy white lie. But I genuinely believe he doesn’t mean any harm. For example, at the party on the night we met, he told me his mum was once offered £10,000 to sell her chocolate cake recipe to the boss at Mr Kipling. He no doubt assumed I’d forget, but a few months later I went for afternoon tea at his parents’ house and his mum, a tiny little sparrow of a thing, happened to be serving chocolate cake.
    ‘Is this the infamous recipe?’ I asked her knowingly, and she replied, ‘Oh, no, dear, this is from M&S. I burn everything I bake!’
    When I questioned James about it later, he cracked up and asked me where on earth I’d got that idea. I told him and hedenied it, laughingly insisting I must’ve dreamt it. I don’t know, maybe I did.
    There have been other lies, which I know I didn’t dream–some of them quite inventive. Like the one about his grandpa snogging Marilyn Monroe when she sang for the troops in Korea. I found out from James’s dad later that the old guy didn’t even fight in the Korean War, and anyway Marilyn had just married Joe DiMaggio at the time. I Googled it and everything.
    But his mum selling her chocolate cake recipe to Mr Kipling…That’s my personal favourite. Little ratbag. Sometimes I think James could be an actor. But no, he’s far too good as a lawyer.
    And he really is. He was promoted six months ago and got a massive pay rise. That’s how he could afford to buy me those earrings for my birthday. Knowing James, though, even without the promotion he would have saved up for six months to get them for me. He spoils me rotten. I get flowers at least once–sometimes twice–a month and he’s always taking me out to dinner and buying me presents. My friends think I’m ludicrously lucky.
    There’s a high-pitched buzzing and I can hear a plane taxiing by. It’s noisy, as if we’re going through a car wash. I watch as a balding forty-something man makes his way down the steps into the swimming pool, his pot-bellied stomach shuddering with every step. Three young guys are sitting at a table on the other side of the bar, drinking beers. One of them looks over at me and then turns back to his mates and says something. All three turn round and grin.
    I feel so much happier now. Damn it, I’m going to have another one.
    ‘Singapore Sling?’
    ‘Yes, please.’
    I’m feeling a little tipsy. I know you shouldn’t really drink on your own but, bugger it, I’m on holiday. And I’ve been through a lot in the last, how long has it been? Fifteen hours or so? I wonder if I’ll laugh about this in years to come. It’s starting to seem pretty funny now–but I imagine the three Singapore Slings help.
    The thought of poor James going home to an empty flat, sleeping in an empty bed and missing me…I wish he could’ve come to Australia as well. If he hadn’t received that promotion he would have asked for the time off, but at the time I was booking my flights, he felt it was too soon. I really wish Molly and Sam could meet him.
    There’s a couple in the spa and they’re kissing. The balding forty-something is doing breaststroke and he keeps copping an eyeful every time he swims