Adrian's leaving clothes were disappointing.
Mara found him in the lobby late on Friday morning wearing a grey T-shirt with a small mark near the hem and trainers which looked prepared for several tedious hours. His lovely linen shirt had been packed. So had the hat. The suitcase beside his chair was open because he appeared to be trying to persuade it to accept one last thing.
“That's ambitious,” she said.
He looked up. “Very.”
“What is it?”
“A book Malcolm's finished. He's decided I need it.”
“Perhaps he can describe the ending.”
“He already has. I still apparently need it.”
She sat in the chair beside him. He shut the case, opened it again, moved something and tried once more. This time the zip followed the corner as if it had always intended to.
“Victory,” Mara said.
“I won't touch it until I get home.”
He stood the suitcase upright and sat back. There was coffee on the small table, untouched enough to suggest he had forgotten he ordered it. She took the cup when he offered it, remembered the sugar and gave it back.
“Your standards are difficult,” he said.
“You had time to learn them.”
“Nearly three days.”
She looked at him. It seemed longer and much shorter than that.
“You said Friday.”
“I did.”
“And now it's Friday. Quite unfair.”
He smiled and took a drink. Jess came through the lobby with a bag of fruit she wanted him to take. He looked at the suitcase, then at her, then accepted it with a defeated grace Mara liked more than perfect efficiency.
“You can eat it on the way,” Jess said.
“I can carry it on the way.”
“Excellent. Don't do anything dramatic.”
She kissed his cheek, greeted Mara warmly and went to find Malcolm, who was trying to settle a dispute about which of their bags contained a charger. Mara watched her go, then looked at Adrian.
“Your people are staying?”
“Till tomorrow. They'll find their own ways to be married for another day.”
“You could have stayed.”
“I'd already booked.”
“I know.”
He lifted his cup. “I've got things to do.”
“Furniture emergencies?”
“Some furniture. My daughter's coming for lunch tomorrow. I promised I'd have food which wasn't obtained entirely by opening a freezer.”
“You could let her order for everybody.”
“She usually does.”
Mara laughed. She could see the afternoon he was going back to, an ordinary kitchen, his daughter's shelf stories, a shirt he wouldn't need to keep clean for anyone new. It belonged to him already.
“Did you have a good evening?” he asked.
She looked down at her hands.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“I stayed with Theo.”
Adrian paused with the cup near his mouth, then set it down.
“All right.”
“We slept together.”
“I gathered.”
She felt herself flush, irritated by how much that mattered now she had said it.
“I wanted you to hear from me.”
“Thank you.”
He didn't ask for more. She wanted to explain anyway, if only to rescue the experience of Wednesday from a story which might make it seem like she'd borrowed him on her way back to something else.
“It wasn't because I didn't enjoy yesterday. Or Wednesday. I mean—”
“I enjoyed Wednesday,” he said.
She looked at him.
“The fish was burdensome. The rest was good.”
She laughed, feeling the heat leave her face a little.
He picked up the bag Jess had given him and examined a piece of fruit. “I enjoyed it. I said that. You don't have to tell me all the rest.”
“That sounds very sensible.”
“It would have been different if we’d promised each other something. We didn’t.”
“No.”
He smiled. She liked his mouth again, the small upward movement at one side before the whole smile arrived.
“I don't want to get back together with him,” she said.
Adrian nodded, then looked toward reception, where somebody was asking whether their car had arrived. His taxi wasn't there yet. It would be soon.
“Freya keeps asking what happens next,” Mara added.
“You can tell her I'm going home to wash clothes.”
“A disappointing next.”
“Necessary. Some of them are quite bad.”
She looked at the mark on his T-shirt. He caught the look and laughed.
“This wasn't supposed to be photographed.”
“I could send her a picture.”
“Of my shirt?”
“Of us. So she knows something happened.”
He tipped his head slightly. Mara waited.
“You can send her the plate,” he said. “It was there for all of it.”
She sat back.
“Fair enough.”
“You can send me the plate too, if you like. Properly occupied. Olives or something.”
“It's difficult to satisfy.”
“I noticed.”
He said it warmly.
They sat until a staff member came over to say his taxi was ready. Adrian stood, took the suitcase and offered Mara the bag of fruit. She accepted it, suspecting Jess had expected this outcome.
“You've acquired a second carrier,” she said.
“I'm talented.”
He thanked the staff member, said goodbye to a man he knew near reception and asked Mara whether she would walk out with him. She went.
Outside, the light was hard and familiar now. The car waited beyond the entrance. The driver put the suitcase in the boot. Adrian moved to one side so they weren't standing where people needed to pass.
“Have a very good party,” he said.
“I'll try.”
“I believe you.”
“You won't be there to appreciate the enormous letters.”
“You’ll have to tell me afterward whether they looked as big as you expected.”
He smiled, then put a hand against her cheek and kissed her. She held the fruit bag awkwardly at her side, tipped her head toward him and enjoyed the last warm unhurried part of it. His trainers were planted firmly on the stone. He smelled faintly of the coffee he'd been drinking.
When he drew away, she wanted to say something which would keep him there for another minute. She couldn't find anything that wouldn't make him take the whole suitcase out of the car.
“Goodbye, Mara.”
“Goodbye.”
He got in, lifted one hand through the window and went. She waved, then let the hand fall. The car turned out of the entrance. There was no dramatic last look because he had to turn forward for the seat belt and the driver had a journey to make.
Mara stood in the heat with his bag of fruit. Then she went back inside.
Jess was looking for him. Mara told her he'd gone and offered to return the bag. Jess laughed and said no, she'd been hoping somebody would eat it.
“Did you have a nice day Wednesday?” she asked.
“Lovely.”
“He said so.”
Mara smiled. She liked knowing he'd said it when she wasn't there to make the story better.
She took the fruit toward the villa. Halfway along the path her phone buzzed with a message from Robin, asking whether they were still happy to meet for the portraits as arranged. She wrote yes before the question could become another thing requiring thought.
At the villa she put Adrian's fruit into the blue dish. The fish could barely be seen now. She changed for the photographs, fastening the dress herself with some difficulty.
When she looked in the mirror, her face was still a little flushed from the kiss outside reception. She let it be.