Bon Voyage

by Michelle Betham

  ‘Robbie’s not really one for excursions and sightseeing and all that. He hasn’t got a great attention span when it comes to culture. Football, on the other hand…’ She looked away from him, taking a brief glance over at the other tables outside on the deck, full of people basking in the sunshine, enjoying a leisurely breakfast on another beautiful day aboard the MS Atlantica.

  ‘Yeah, well, Davina’s not really into all that either, to be honest. If I’d been with her in Barcelona she’d have dragged me round every shop going looking for new shoes or handbags or…’ He stopped talking as Aimee met his gaze again.

  ‘Barcelona was fun,’ she said, not able to stop the smile spreading across her face as she remembered that glorious afternoon they’d spent together.

  He returned the smile. ‘Yeah. It was.’ He was stopped from saying anything else as the waiter arrived with his coffee and he momentarily broke away from Aimee to say thanks, just as Aimee caught sight of Bob making his way through the throng of packed tables carrying a tray of croissants and a pot of coffee. Obviously for Barbara. She laughed as he rolled his eyes, and then indicated towards the back of Danny’s head, raising his eyebrows, asking a silent question. Aimee shook her head, to which Bob just threw her another one of his looks that she didn’t quite understand, mouthed “think on” and continued winding his way through the tables towards Barbara.

  ‘Everything alright?’ Danny asked, turning back around just as Aimee had stopped shaking her head.

  ‘Everything’s fine, thanks,’ she replied, admitting defeat with the magazine, rolling it up and sliding it back into her bag.

  ‘So, you off out to explore Gibraltar today then?’ Danny asked, taking a quick sip of coffee, which was far too hot to drink.

  Aimee nodded.

  ‘With Robbie?’

  She shook her head. ‘No. With Jemma. Although, given half a chance, and if you lot weren’t busy filming, she’d quite happily ditch me to spend time with Cal.’

  ‘Yeah. They’re quite the couple now, aren’t they?’ Danny said, a slight bitter tone to his voice, which Aimee didn’t miss.

  ‘She’s a touch smitten, I have to say,’ Aimee smiled, trying to ignore the dull, sick feeling taking over the pit of her stomach.

  ‘He’s a great guy,’ Danny smiled back. ‘They’ll be good for each other. He needed some kind of steadying influence.’

  ‘Steadying influence?’ Aimee laughed, finally pushing her sunglasses up onto her head. ‘Jemma?’

  Danny laughed too, that incredible feeling of just being able to be himself when he was around her flooding his body, instantly relaxing him. ‘Listen, Aimee…’ he began, but she suddenly turned away, pretending to look for something in her bag. ‘Aimee, look… I’m happy for you, okay?’

  Aimee felt like someone had tied a lead weight to her heart, her chest tightening as he spoke those words. He was happy for her. Happy she’d found someone else. Happy she’d stepped aside to let him get back to his wife.

  ‘Happy for me?’ she said quietly, slowly looking at him, those blue eyes looking right into hers.

  ‘Yeah. I mean, maybe it is for the best, y’know? You and Robbie, me and Davina… Maybe everyone’s right after all.’ But even as he said the words he didn’t believe any of them. Could she tell that from his voice? From the way he was looking at her?

  ‘Yeah. Maybe they are,’ she whispered. ‘Maybe it is for the best.’ She wished she hadn’t let herself get so involved now. Okay, so in the beginning all she’d really wanted was for him to notice her, to give her ego some kind of boost after Robbie had so cruelly battered it into oblivion, and she knew that was all he’d really wanted too. In the beginning. But things had changed, on her part anyway, and she’d thought he’d started to feel the same way too. But she’d obviously been wrong. She really had been nothing more than a stop-gap. Someone to kill a bit of time with until his problems with Davina could be sorted. She shouldn’t have let it happen. She should have been stronger. She should have listened to the part of herself that had kept telling her he would never want someone like her. Not when he had Davina Black. She should have listened to herself.

  ‘It would have been good though, don’t you think?’ Danny’s voice jolted her back to reality. ‘If you and I… if we could have got together?’ There was a glimmer of hope in Danny’s eyes that he hoped she might see, might latch onto. Something, anything to make him think that whatever he’d been told about her being in love with this Robbie guy – he wanted that to be wrong. He wanted it to be so wrong.

  ‘It would have been great,’ Aimee said, her voice still little more than a whisper. ‘But – but you’ve got Davina now and she… she quite obviously loves you, I mean, to come all this way, to save your relationship. So, I guess it’s time to wheel out that age old cliché, huh? Another time, another place…’

  Danny said nothing for a second. He couldn’t, he was too choked up inside because he was hearing everything he hadn’t wanted to hear. And it hurt. ‘Yeah. And anyway, you’re getting married now, aren’t you?’ he said, finally able to get the words out, forcing a smile onto his face. ‘Congratulations.’

  She looked down at her engagement ring. Oh, Danny. Why hadn’t things moved quicker between us? Then I doubt we’d be sitting here talking about missed opportunities. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

  ‘Let’s hope he treats you right this time, huh?’ Danny said, still smiling, although a headache was starting to kick in behind his eyes now and he reached down into his pocket, pulling out his aviator sunglasses, slipping them on over his eyes, shielding them from the glaring morning sun.

  ‘He will,’ Aimee replied, a touch defensively, but what did Danny really know about Robbie? Nothing. ‘Danny…’

  He looked at her, but she couldn’t see those beautiful eyes of his now, only her own reflection in his aviator shades.

  ‘Can we… can we be friends?’ She’d surprised herself when she’d said that because she hadn’t really known whether it was a good idea or not, to still have him around when she couldn’t be with him the way she’d once wanted to be with him, but Jemma was right. If she was with Cal then there was going to be a good chance that she and Danny would bump into each other now and again and the last thing Aimee wanted was any awkwardness between them.

  Danny smiled, pushing his dark glasses up onto his head, a small wave of relief washing over him. He hadn’t lost her for good. He didn’t have her in the way he really wanted to have her but at least she’d still be around. And that was good enough for him. ‘I’d like that.’

  She smiled back as that same wave of relief washed over her too. ‘Won’t… won’t Davina mind, though?’

  ‘Davina has no say over who I can and can’t be friends with, Aimee. And anyway…’

  Aimee looked at him, frowning slightly as he stopped mid-sentence. ‘Anyway, what?’

  ‘Nothing. It’s nothing,’ Danny said, sitting back in his seat, looking out at the harbour again. Why bother telling her that it didn’t matter what the hell Davina thought because him and Davina were over the second they set foot back on British soil? What was the point in telling her that? It wouldn’t make any difference. She was getting married to Robbie, and now he was nothing but a friend. So it just didn’t matter.

  Aimee looked at him, studying his perfect profile as he stared up at the blue sky, the sun bouncing off another ship that was docked nearby, his expression too hard to read. Which was a pity, because she’d been sure that he’d wanted to say something there. ‘Are you and Davina… are you and Davina okay? I mean, is everything alright?’

  Danny turned back to face her, his eyes meeting hers once again and he wished – he just wished he could turn the clock back to a week ago. Wished he could turn the clock back and do things differently. ‘We’re fine,’ he smiled. No point in letting her think things weren’t all rosy in his garden. ‘We’re okay, yeah. Getting there, y’know?’ Why couldn’t he just tell her he had no intention of calling off his divorc
e from Davina? Why couldn’t he just tell her that? Because she didn’t want him anymore, she loved Robbie, and he didn’t want to confuse her. That’s why. He just wanted her to be happy.

  ‘Good,’ Aimee smiled back, even if it was a slightly forced smile. He was back on track with Davina. She should be happy for him, but she wasn’t, and she hated herself for feeling that way. ‘I’d… I’d better get going, Danny. I promised Jemma I’d meet her at the Spa. We’re getting our nails done before we hit the streets of Gibraltar this afternoon so… well, it was great seeing you again. And I’m… I’m glad we can be friends.’

  ‘Yeah. Me too,’ Danny said quietly, watching as she grabbed her bag, threw him one last smile and then darted off into the Lido Café, leaving him alone. In more ways than one.

  *

  ‘You’re supposed to be making sure he stays away from her,’ Andy hissed to Davina as they spotted Aimee talking to Danny from the far corner of the Lido Deck. ‘I thought you had this in hand, Davina.’

  ‘What do you want me to do, Andy? Stick him on a bloody lead? I can’t be with him 24/7. Jesus, I’m doing my best.’

  ‘We’re almost there, Davina,’ Andy went on, hurrying back inside, closely followed by Davina who tottered after him in high-heeled sandals and a tight-fitting strapless summer dress, her over-sized sunglasses perched in her bleached-blond hair. ‘If we can just get to the end of this cruise without any frigging disasters then I know – I just know – that I can get this band back to the top. Where we belong. I mean, why shouldn’t we cash in on the comeback bandwagon? Every bugger else is doing it, and we’re twice as good as most of them.’

  ‘I know you are,’ Davina said, trying hard to keep up with Andy as he strode purposefully back towards his cabin. ‘You deserve success again. I’ve always said that, haven’t I? I’ve always told you how much you deserve that.’

  ‘I can’t fade back into obscurity, Davina. I can’t do that again, it’s been frigging hard enough these past sixteen years, watching as bands with less talent than we ever had made it big and where were we? Nowhere. Because of…’

  ‘Because of what?’ Davina asked as the lift doors opened and they stepped inside, Davina immediately turning to the mirror on the wall beside her, checking her make-up as the doors closed and the lift began taking them down to Deck 4.

  ‘Nothing,’ Andy said, scrabbling round in his pockets for his cabin key card. ‘I just think we deserve this, y’know? Another crack at fame. We deserve to be back in the big time. I deserve it. It frigging killed me, being a nobody. It did my bloody head in, Davina, I hated it. So getting Bon Voyage back on the scene, back in the spotlight, it’s more important to me than you’ll ever know. But that’s only going to happen if we can keep everything on an even keel…’ The lift doors opened and they both stepped out, walking side-by-side along the corridor towards Andy’s cabin, ‘… and right now, the only possible spanner-in-the-works is your frigging husband!’

  ‘I’m working on him, Andy. Believe me. But you know as well as I do how stubborn he can be.’

  ‘Yeah. I do,’ Andy swiped his key card in the door, pushing it open, Davina following him inside. ‘So, just try and work a little bit harder on him, okay?’ Andy said, kicking the door shut behind them. ‘Try and use a few more of those feminine wiles on him. Make him realise why he fell for you in the first place.’

  Davina threw her bag down on the bed and slowly unzipped her dress, letting it fall to the ground to reveal nothing but a very small, bright red g-string. ‘Something like this, you mean?’ she smiled, freeing her hair from its ponytail, shaking it out so it fell loose around her spray-tanned shoulders.

  Andy watched her, taking in everything from her incredible long legs to her pert breasts. ‘Yeah. Something like that,’ he grinned, walking over to her, sliding an arm around her waist while his other hand unzipped his jeans. ‘Something exactly like that.’

  2:25pm

  Casemates Square, Gibraltar

  ‘Y’know, considering he came on this cruise to try and patch things up with you, he doesn’t seem over-keen on spending a great deal of time with you, does he?’ Jemma said as they sat outside a lovely little café in Casemates Square in the heart of Gibraltar town, enjoying a spot of lunch and a well-earned break from sightseeing.

  ‘He’s just tired, Jem. He works hard, and I think he really needed this holiday. Welding isn’t an easy job y’know.’

  ‘That bint out of Flashdance managed to combine it with an evening shift of dubious dancing down the local club – have you still got that soundtrack album by the way? – and she never looked like she even broke a sweat. Come on, Aimee. He turns up here telling you he’s sorry, begging you to marry him again, then the second you say yes suddenly he doesn’t seem to want to be with you.’ She took a sip of her wine. ‘I’m just saying.’

  ‘Of course he wants to be with me!’ Aimee said, slightly offended by what Jemma was insinuating. ‘And anyway, just because we’re engaged it doesn’t mean to say we have to be joined at the hip, does it? After all, it was me and you that came on this holiday – he’s just a gatecrasher in reality.’

  ‘True,’ Jemma sniffed, stuffing a forkful of salad into her mouth. ‘Just strikes me as a bit odd, that’s all. I mean, last night he’d rather spend time in Caesar’s throwing money away playing Blackjack than be with you in the Show Lounge.’

  ‘Just leave it, Jemma. Everything’s fine, okay?’

  ‘Okay,’ Jemma said, holding her hands up in surrender. ‘It’s just that Cal told me you and Danny had been talking this morning…’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And – I just wondered what you’d been talking about, that’s all. Shoot me, I’m a nosy cow.’

  ‘Yeah. I might just do that,’ Aimee smiled, reaching over for a piece of bread to mop up the last of her pasta sauce. ‘And, if you must know, we were just talking about staying friends, that’s all. He’s happy for me, I’m happy for him, blah, blah, frigging blah.’

  Jemma looked at Aimee, passing her a napkin to wipe off the dribble of sauce that had fallen onto her chin. ‘And you’re okay with that?’

  ‘I’m fine with that. It’s a relief, if I’m honest.’

  ‘A relief?’

  ‘A relief to know that, should we ever meet again once this cruise is over, well – it won’t be awkward, will it?’

  Jemma sat back in her chair, looking out at the view of mountains and deep blue sky that dominated the pretty main square. ‘And you’re okay with that, are you?’

  ‘Okay with what?’

  ‘With just being friends because, from what I was beginning to see last week, Aimee, you and Danny – you were heading towards something more than just friends. I mean, you almost said that yourself, didn’t you? You said you felt as though things had changed.’

  Aimee sighed, pushing away her empty lunch plate. ‘Do you know what, Jemma? I’m really tired of talking about this now. Danny and me, it’s over, please, just accept that. I have, so it would be really great if everyone else could do the same.’

  Jemma held her hands up again. ‘Okay, okay. I’m done. I won’t mention it anymore.’

  ‘Thank you. Shall we get the bill?’

  ‘I thought we could order another bottle of wine and just people-watch for a bit.’

  ‘You’re not gonna start throwing questions at me all afternoon, are you?’

  ‘Don’t get so defensive, Missy. We can talk wedding dresses, if you like. Because I have got some amazing ideas of what would look fab on you!’ Jemma leaned forward, her face suddenly aglow with creative ideas. ‘Oh, and I’m assuming I’m gonna be chief bridesmaid, am I right?’

  ‘Who else could I possibly choose?’ Aimee smiled, glad to have moved onto a subject that she felt a whole lot more comfortable with.

  ‘Nobody, of course. Who else is going to make sure you get to the church on time… actually, more to the point, who’s going to make sure he gets there?’

  ‘Jesus, Jemma. How long
did we have there before you’re straight back to it?’

  ‘To what?’ Jemma asked in mock shock, staring at Aimee with wide, innocent eyes.

  ‘To digging up the past. That’s what,’ Aimee replied, smiling at the waiter as he brought them their fresh bottle of wine. ‘Look, I know that what Robbie did means that it’s going to take a long time for some people – you included, obviously – to believe that he’s changed, but I really think he has, Jem. So just be happy for me. Okay?’

  ‘It’s just that, Cal thinks…’

  Aimee poured herself a glass of wine, knocking back half of it in one go. ‘Jemma, I really don’t care what Cal thinks, alright? Cal has no idea what went on with me and Danny, and he has no idea of the situation now. So I don’t want to know what he thinks because it doesn’t matter, and it won’t change anything anyway.’

  ‘How do you know that when you won’t let me tell you what he said?’

  Aimee held her hands up, throwing Jemma a no-nonsense look. ‘Not listening, Jem. Change the subject, come on.’

  ‘Okay,’ Jemma sighed, sitting back in her seat again, shielding her eyes from the sun as she stared out at the crowds of tourists milling around the square, the cafes and restaurants all busy, making the most of the extra business the influx of cruise passengers who were all docked there for the day was creating. ‘How’s your mam? Her and Ricardo still going strong then?’

  ‘Don’t get me started,’ Aimee groaned, slowly sipping the cold, white wine that was going down a treat in the sunshine. ‘My mam was dragging him round the on-board jewellers last night, looking for a ring.’

  ‘He’s buying her a ring?’ Jemma asked, reaching into her bag as her phone started ringing.

  ‘Well, that was the idea, but apparently he said he wanted to wait until they got back home because he knew a bloke who’s cousin’s sister could do one cheap.’