Daisy, do this, this thing that you need to do, then promise me you’ll come home and we can go back to being like we were.’
‘I promise I’ll be back home soon.’ She couldn’t promise they’d go back to how they were because that had already changed. They could either move on to married life, or…
Neither of them mentioned what she was supposed to be coming home to – him, the rest of their lives, setting a date; the words sat like the wallflower at the party, wilting but determined to stick it out until the bitter end. Clinging to hope.
‘Go on. Bugger off. Anna’s waiting.’
She got out of the car, tugged at her suitcase and tried not to grin, because that wouldn’t be fair. She was finally doing it. Finally going.
***
As the plane banked to the right and started to make its way along the coast, Daisy was glad that Anna had insisted she sit where she had when they’d checked in for the flight.
‘You need Seat F, the window seat.’
‘Why?’
‘Because that way you will see the whole of Barcelona as we come in to land. It’s dead impressive; you can see everything.’
Of course she would. Anna knew, because Anna had, of course, been to Barcelona before. Everybody had been everywhere apart from her.
‘Oh wow, look Anna, it’s like a grid. All the streets go across or down.’
Anna grinned. ‘Apart from that diagonal one.’ She giggled. ‘It’s called Diagonal.’
‘Funny.’
‘I’m being serious. Honest. And that’s the Torre Agbar,’ Anna, peering over her shoulder, pointed, ‘there, like that gherkin thing in London. And the Sagrada Familia is up there, and that hill is Montjuic. We need to go there.’
‘Do we?’ She had spent the last couple of days wondering if she wanted to do this at all. But she had to. She had to prove to, well to herself, yes definitely to herself, that she wasn’t a dull-as-dishwater failure heading towards a hermit existence before she even hit thirty. And she wanted to. And now, as the plane started to descend towards the runway, it was as though a switch had flipped inside her and she couldn’t stop the smile that was tugging at her mouth.
She was finally doing something.
***
‘Come here, we don’t need that.’ Anna grabbed the map from Daisy’s unresisting fingers and crumpled it up with a look of glee. ‘Don’t look so horrified.’ Then dropped it into the bin they were passing with a flourish.
Daisy frowned and was about to complain when the Aerobus they had just stepped off pulled away – and she saw it.
The fountain that she’d seen in the guidebook. Two fountains in fact. ‘Wow.’
‘God, you are so easy to impress.’
‘They’re massive.’ She took a step off the kerb, she just had to see these close up.
‘Hang on,’ Anna grabbed her arm, ‘unless you can tell me how to say “call an ambulance” in Spanish?’
It wasn’t just that the fountains were big; everything was. When the traffic lights changed and Anna let her cross the road into the massive square she found herself spinning on the spot trying to take everything in. Fields were one thing, I mean she expected space in the country – but in a city? Kids were squealing as they chased enormous bubbles, and an… ‘Is that really an Apple store?’ Anna nodded. ‘Wow, Jimmy would have a field day, he’d never come out.’
‘Stop thinking about Jimmy, look,’ Anna took her by the shoulders and turned her round to face the way they’d come, ‘an enormous Corte Ingles – you know handbags, clothes, shoes.’
‘I’ve got a handbag.’ She whirled back round at the sound of flapping wings to see a black leggy dog scoot across the wide-open space, scattering the pigeons. It reminded her of Mabel; Mabel loved chasing birds. She missed the big lolloping dog already, they’d never been apart since she’d got her as a gangly out-of-proportion eight week old pup.
‘Stop thinking about Mabel.’
‘I’m not.’
‘You are, so.’ Anna stuck her tongue out.
‘It’s amazing.’ Changing the subject was always a good idea when Anna got into uber-bossy mode.
‘This is just the start, welcome to the big wide world, Daisy Fischer. Fancy a beer?’
‘I thought we were going to Flo’s? You do know where she lives?’
‘Kind of.’ Anna grinned. ‘Chill, who needs maps? I’ll sort it out, it just looks different to last time I came. Or maybe I’m thinking of Madrid.’ The grin slipped into a frown.
‘Anna!’
Anna laughed.
‘Maybe we should ask somebody?’
‘Rubbish, that’s cheating. Maps are for wimps. Come on, it’s this way I think.’ And before Daisy could object, Anna had straightened her rucksack on her shoulders and was marching back the way they’d just come.
It was only when they got to another square – this time with a large cathedral at one side – that Anna’s confident march slowed down. Which was actually quite a good thing, as Daisy felt she was in a fast-forward film.
‘That isn’t supposed to be there.’
‘Well it doesn’t look like anybody’s moved it for a few hundred years. What do you mean, isn’t supposed to be there? Can we go in?’
Anna frowned. ‘I think we’re going in the wrong direction. We’ll have a beer here while I work it out.’
‘So we can’t go in?’
‘Tomorrow. Beer. Beer and tapas, then my brain will work better.’’
Daisy raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you sure you should have binned the map?’
‘I’m just popping to the ladies, then we’ll go and find Flo’s place.’
‘Fine.’ Daisy was only half listening – there was a map on the next table, left by a couple who’d been too busy arguing to remember it, and any second now it was going to get whisked away by a waiter.
Anna turned her back and Daisy made a grab for it.
‘I can’t believe you came without a map!’
Daisy jumped guiltily, in very much the same way that Mabel did when she’d stolen a chicken leg off the table and still had the evidence in her mouth, then looked up. Straight into a pair of grey-blue smiling eyes.
A tall blonde girl, with the kind of tousled beach-babe look that on Daisy would be more ‘I need to wash my hair’ than ‘I
