Adrian admired Theo's hat, which was an awkward way to begin disliking him.
“Thank you,” Theo said on Thursday morning. “It's had a difficult holiday.”
“They improve.”
“This one got wet and developed a separate brim.”
Adrian looked at it with more interest. Mara stood between them holding a bag which contained enough things to suggest she expected the boat to continue into another season.
“He means the left side,” she said.
“I can see.” Adrian lifted his own hat from his bag. It was substantially worse, a soft grey thing which had ceased expecting anybody to mistake it for new. “This was dropped behind a wardrobe.”
Theo looked at the dent. “For how long?”
“Two years.”
“You've committed to the damage.”
Adrian put it on. “It's earned its holiday.”
Theo laughed before he could decide whether he wanted to. Mara looked at them, then toward the others gathering by the transfer. Freya was trying to persuade Kit that he did not need to carry a book for an outing advertised as swimming and lunch. Kit said a book would fit all the advertised categories if she was sufficiently unhelpful. Daniel wore a bright shirt, which Leah was already threatening to borrow.
Bill and Patrick arrived together. Patrick's luggage had supplied him with a hat so ordinary that Bill said he was disappointed. Sue had persuaded Aunt Janette to wear a smaller one, a victory she mentioned twice before they reached the boat.
The boat was white, broad and already full of the promising smells of coffee and sun cream. There were shaded places to sit and open places where several people immediately established themselves as if land had been concealing their best swimwear. The crew welcomed them, showed them around and asked them to keep the walkways clear. Kit moved his bag before Freya could touch it.
Theo waited until the people ahead had boarded, then offered Mara a hand. She took it, stepped across and let go. Adrian followed carrying one of her bags, the smaller one. Theo had no idea when she'd given it to him, and disliked noticing the arrangement.
They set off while Bill was still trying to decide which seat offered the best relationship to lunch. Theo stood beneath the shade and watched Casa Brisa fall away, pale buildings among trees. Mara had gone to the side with Freya. Her hair moved across her face, and she kept pushing it away, then giving up and laughing when the next gust brought it back.
Adrian came to stand beside him.
“I've always liked that bit,” he said.
“Which?”
“When you start leaving somewhere but haven't got to the effort of arriving anywhere else.”
Theo looked at him. It wasn't an invitation to confess something; Adrian was looking at the coast, pleased with the movement. He had sun cream along one temple which he'd missed rubbing in.
“You've got some cream there,” Theo said, pointing to his own face.
Adrian rubbed the wrong side. Theo shook his head and pointed again.
“There.”
“Right. Thanks.”
The man was getting older in exactly the same place Theo would. It was a strangely useful discovery. He stopped looking for evidence of effortless superiority and began looking at the view.
When they sat down, Adrian asked what he taught. Theo told him. Adrian said he'd been very good at science until they began expecting him to retain any of it. Theo asked what bit he'd retained.
“Some magnets. Electricity was briefly promising.”
“Briefly is a familiar electrical condition.”
Adrian laughed. He told a story about trying to wire a display lamp at work, then added that he'd eventually done the sensible thing and called someone who knew how. Theo had a story about an electrical demonstration which had been carefully tested before the class arrived and then refused to work in front of thirty children who had been promised something impressive. They compared the audiences and concluded furniture customers might be more forgiving, although not necessarily quieter.
Mara came over with cups. She handed one to Theo and one to Adrian, looked at where their bags were and sat beside Theo because there was room.
“What are you discussing?”
“Our professional achievements,” he said.
“So nothing, yet.”
Adrian smiled at her. “Has Theo told you about his classroom demonstration? We were comparing it with a lamp I tried to wire at work.”
“Several versions.”
“Then you can tell me which was worse.”
Adrian retold the story of the display lamp he had tried to wire for a customer buying a chair. Theo listened again because Adrian had shortened the opening this time and made the ending better. Mara laughed, then asked whether this was the woman who had refused the chair after buying it.
“Wrong customer,” Adrian said.
“Your customers are varied.”
“Very. I’d have no stories to tell if they all wanted the same thing.”
Theo watched her face. She was wearing the blue earrings she'd found at home before they left, and sunlight caught the edge of one each time she turned. He couldn't decide whether she looked pleased or slightly put out by the conversation. She had brought Adrian here. Theo had expected to endure him, not make the man a second audience.
Freya called Mara to look at something on the shore. She got up, taking her cup and leaving the bag between Theo's feet.
“She'll expect that to stay safe,” Theo said.
“The bag?”
“It contains the supplies for founding a small island.”
Adrian looked at it. “She didn't bring a towel yesterday.”
Theo glanced toward him, then away.
Yesterday belonged to them. He didn't need to make Adrian pay for mentioning it.
“She likes to compensate,” he said.
Adrian nodded, accepting the small answer. Then Bill sat down opposite with a drink and asked which of them knew more about reclining chairs.
“This one,” Theo said immediately.
Adrian looked alarmed, but not fast enough.
Bill described a chair he'd tried in a shop, which did several unnecessary things and then refused to return him to an upright position. Adrian listened with real interest. Theo was delighted to be allowed a part in the conversation without being responsible for its direction.
“The remote was on the floor,” Bill said.
“Was that intentional?” Adrian asked.
“I don't know. Sue put it there.”
Theo began laughing. Bill looked at him, then grinned.
“She said if I bought it she'd have no incentive to continue speaking to me.”
“Did you buy it?”
“No. I couldn’t get out of it without help. That put me off.”
Adrian wiped one eye with a finger. Theo liked him more in that moment than he intended to.
The morning unfolded around them. The boat moved past stretches of coast Theo would have been happy simply to look at for the whole day. People found new positions, abandoned old ones, offered snacks they regretted packing so enthusiastically. Nina put on enormous sunglasses and said she was entering a period of mystery. Kit asked whether she would be less mysterious if she told him where she'd put his book. She told him it was on the seat he'd been refusing to occupy.
When they stopped for swimming, Theo went in with Daniel and Owen. The water was startling after the heat of the deck. He came back to the surface breathing hard and laughing at Daniel, who was making the noise of a man betrayed by a brochure.
“You can warm up in there,” Theo told him, pointing toward the boat.
“You first.”
Mara came down behind them. She eased herself into the water, shook her head at how cool it felt, then swam toward Freya with the sudden decisiveness she always acquired after the first unpleasant bit. Adrian followed more slowly. Theo recognized his expression from several years of his own swimming and told him the second minute was better.
“You've tested?”
“Not yet. We're negotiating the first.”
They swam near one another without making it a contest. Theo liked being in the water with a man who didn't need him to be having a meaningful day. Owen began splashing Daniel. Leah told them both to stop because she was trying to feel elegant. Daniel turned toward her and said elegance looked better with wet hair. She smiled, which Theo had not expected, then splashed him herself.
Back aboard, people wrapped towels around themselves and went in search of lunch. Adrian's hat had acquired damp fingerprints. Theo put his beside it and felt a disloyal affection for the ugly pair.
“They could have a little holiday together,” he said.
Adrian turned his hat over to dry the inside.
Mara arrived. Her dress had been drawn on over a damp swimsuit, and there was a small mark of salt beside her mouth. Theo wanted to wipe it away with his thumb. He kept his hands on the table instead.
“I've been told lunch exists,” she said.
They moved to join it. The food was arranged for sharing, dishes set along the shaded tables, bread, salads, something crisp and hot which people tried to carry before discovering their plates were already full. Mara glanced at Theo over the bowls, and he moved without being asked, making space for her to reach the thing she'd seen at the back.
“Thank you,” she said.
He took a portion for himself, then Adrian. Adrian thanked him too. Theo decided he liked being thanked by people who wanted lunch.
They sat with Daniel, Leah, Kit and Freya. Mara began asking why a large decorative bowl on the boat seemed to have been selected for a fruit neither the boat nor the bowl contained. Theo examined it and suggested it was part of a ceremonial display for dignitaries unable to eat.
“It comes from a palace,” Mara told Adrian. “Every prince gets one when he turns forty.”
“A limited monarchy,” Theo added. “They don't let them stay princes longer than that.”
Adrian looked at the bowl, then at Mara. He was working out the new rhythm rather than asking whether it was true.
“I'm forty-two,” he said. “I've missed mine.”
“You can appeal,” Theo said.
“To whom?”
Mara smiled. “Bill. He accepts people and luggage.”
The table laughed. Theo passed the bread, and Mara's fingers brushed his. They held for a fraction of a second, unplanned and unmistakable. He let go first because Adrian was opposite and there was food in the way and he couldn't think of a thing to do with the feeling other than eat.
After lunch the others moved around the deck, lying in warm places, talking, looking for somewhere to put their plates. Adrian stayed beside Theo and said he'd take the bowl home if they'd let him.
“I'd take a chair,” Theo said. “Almost any chair. Mine's awful.”
Adrian asked what was wrong with it. Theo told him, and found himself asking about one he might actually buy. Then he described the floral thing his father kept offering. Adrian laughed at the cover.
“Don't take it just because it's free. You'll have to look at it.”
Theo had been trying to decide whether he could live with the cover. He asked about the other chair again.
Mara stood at the side looking toward them. He smiled at her, still laughing, and she smiled back after a moment. Then she turned toward the water.
He couldn't decide whether to go to her. He wanted to. He also wanted to finish the story Adrian had begun about a customer who couldn't decide which way a chair was supposed to face. So he stayed, leaning back with salt drying on his skin, and listened until he could supply the wrong direction himself.