The Holiday Swap. Zara Stoneley
she doubted Jimmy had even thought about the finances, he was one of those ‘everything will work out fine’ types, whereas she liked to plan. ‘It’ll be amazing. I do feel a bit guilty though, I am very fond of Jimmy.’
‘I know you are. I’m not trying to interfere in your life, whatever he says, but I’m just scared that if you don’t take this chance you’ll just say yes cos it seems the sensible thing to do.’ Her arm hung heavy round Daisy’s shoulders. ‘Just for once I want you to stop being sensible, be a bit mad and impulsive like me.’ She grinned. ‘Then you can marry him if you’re sure it’s what you really want to do, and you won’t spend the rest of your life on what-ifs. I’ll even be your bridesmaid.’
Daisy rolled her eyes. ‘That’s enough to put anybody off.’ She paused. ‘Come on then, let’s get your plane ticket booked. When is Flo expecting us?’
‘Next Thursday.’ At least Anna had the good grace to look a little sheepish.
‘I’ll need some clothes.’ To hell with the expense, this was one of life’s essentials.
‘We’ll shop tomorrow. Christ, is that the time? I’m supposed to be working in the wine bar in Kitterly Heath tonight. See you at 10 a.m.?’
***
A frighteningly short week and a half after he’d proposed, Jimmy dropped Daisy and Anna off at Manchester airport.
It was a sunny December morning. Daisy’s favourite time of the year was actually autumn, when the leaves were a glorious multi-coloured mosaic and the golden sun, low at the end of each day, had lost its harsh stare and instead wrapped everywhere in a friendly- uncle hug. She wasn’t that keen on winter, the novelty of cold mornings and ice-covered troughs wore thin after a few weeks. So going away was good, wasn’t it?
Or not. What on earth was she doing heading to Spain and wall-to-wall sunshine (although a few hours spent with Google one evening had warned of showers) when she could be riding Barney across the fields and spending the evenings with her toes being toasted by the Aga? It was mad, it was crazy, it was so unlike her.
But she was damned well going to do it, even if looking at Jimmy left her feeling like the worst possible girlfriend in the world.
Then she’d come home and know for sure whether she wanted to waltz down the aisle with Jimmy, or not.
‘Stop worrying. It’s only three days, Daisy.’ Jimmy pulled into the ‘drop-off’ zone. ‘I won’t park up, not really into goodbyes. So I’ll say bye here, okay?’
‘Thanks.’ Anna was out of the car and was retrieving her rucksack from the boot almost before the car had stopped moving.
Only three days. Three days to discover the world and experience life seemed a bit of a rum deal, tall order, whatever her dad would call it. But three fabulous days! Oh God, what if it really was as good as it sounded? What if she didn’t want to come back? What if she ended up wanting more? She squashed the thought down and was sure that Jimmy had decided she was scared, not excited. Which was probably for the best. If you’d just proposed to somebody you weren’t going to be pleased if they looked deliriously happy at the prospect of whizzing off to another country without you, were you?
She set her face to serious mode and tried to squash down the giggles that were leaping up and down inside her like a boxful of frogs. ‘You will make sure Barney doesn’t get out, won’t you?’
‘I will.’
‘I got a new sack of carrots, they’re by the back door.’
‘Fine.’
‘And he doesn’t like that New Zealand rug, it rubs his withers.’
‘Daisy I am quite capable of looking after a horse for a few days.’
‘And don’t let Mabel sleep on the bed.’
‘Don’t worry, I won’t let her near it.’
‘I would love you to come.’ Prove to me that our relationship could work, that there is something in there that adds up to a happy-ever-after. That we actually do want the same things in life.
‘I know you would.’ He shrugged. ‘Go on 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,’