The Stag and Hen Weekend (17 page)

Phil checked his watch. ‘I don’t want to see him and I certainly don’t want to see him now when I should be at the airport. He’s okay, and while the daft old sod might not appreciate being locked up I can’t imagine that it will do him any harm.’

‘Fine,’ said Sanne flatly, ‘we’ll go if that’s what you want.’

She rose to her feet and Phil bent down to pick up his bag but then the sound of the duty officer returning to his desk made them both turn around.

‘You can come now,’ the officer called out to them in English. ‘He’s in interview room two.’

The officer pressed a buzzer and a reinforced metal door to the left of them clicked open. Phil followed Sanne through the door, along a corridor and into the interview room where Patrick was sitting on a chair behind a plain grey table.

As annoyed as Phil was, he couldn’t help but feel sympathy for his father. With an officer standing behind him he looked small and old.

‘You okay, Dad?’

‘Never better, son. I’ve been in a few nicks in my time but I must say the Dutch ones are easily in my top three.’ He looked over at Sanne. ‘Who’s your friend?’ Phil made the introductions. ‘Pleased to meet you, Sanne, although it would have been much nicer under different circumstances.’

‘Look, Dad, Sanne’s had a word with the duty officer and he says you’ll be free to go first thing in the morning. There may be a fine but I’ll sort that out now.’

‘And you’ll pick me up in the morning?’

Phil shook his head. ‘No Dad, I can’t. I’m heading back home now. There’s sort of an emergency – a work thing – it needs my attention straight away. I’ll leave a message at the hotel for the boys to come and get you. Where are they by the way? Did you lose them?’

Phil’s dad winked. ‘I’ll tell you later son, you take care and I hope you get things sorted.’ He looked at Sanne. ‘Oh, and nice to meet you love, sorry it’s been so short but maybe I’ll see you at the wedding next weekend. In my experience someone always drops out at the last minute so there’ll be plenty of room for you if you want to pop over.’

Sanne grinned to cover her embarrassment and then they said their goodbyes and left the room.

‘I’m going to go and pay the fine,’ said Phil quickly in the hope that they might be able to skip any awkward silence.

‘I’ll wait for you outside.’

Although the fine was large enough to have covered Phil’s share of a very nice holiday for two somewhere posh in the Caribbean, he was glad that for the moment at least his dad was out of trouble.

Stepping outside Phil spotted Sanne hailing another cab. She waved to him to join her and they set off to the airport.

Within minutes of leaving the confines of central Amsterdam Sanne had closed her eyes and as the driver seemed absorbed by the phone-in show on his radio Phil was free to let his thoughts roam unchecked.

He was surprised to discover that the main topic on his mind was the woman whose head now rested on his shoulder. Forty-eight hours ago she had been little more than a name in a newspaper and now later they were . . . what exactly? He thought back to the moment in the queue outside the bar when she had smiled at him and told the bouncer that he and the boys were with her and her friends. Then there had been that moment after the Van Gogh Museum when she had wanted to show him Vondlepark; was it his imagination or had there been real disappointment in her eyes when he’d had to go? And tonight at the party she had put her hand on his arm and he had felt as if every nerve ending had been alerted by a single contact. Was this all in his mind? Was he reading too much into it? And what did this mean for the way he felt about Helen?

Phil rubbed his eyes. He didn’t want to live in a dream world where beautiful women he barely knew fell in love with him over the course of a manic weekend. He belonged in the real world, the one in which his mates drank pints, his mum cooked Sunday roasts and he fell asleep on the sofa in the arms of the woman that he loved after a long day at work. A momentary fantasy versus a lifetime’s reality? It wasn’t even a fair fight. Helen was the girl he wanted, he was sure of that. She would always be the one for him.

Phil filled the rest of the journey imagining in great detail the punch he would throw in Aiden Reid’s direction the moment he laid eyes on him. One fist jabbed through the air at lightning speed and making such a perfect connection with his nose that Reid would know he’d messed with the wrong man.

Phil didn’t care whether it ended with the police being called or pictures of him across every tabloid in the country, all he cared about was kicking seven bells out of Aiden Reid.

Reaching the airport Phil gently roused Sanne and paid the driver before climbing out of the car. He felt oddly calm. Everything was going to be okay. Everything was going to turn out for the best.

The first sign that his initial feelings of well-being might be premature came when he looked at the departure board and saw that that there were no flights in or out of the airport until 5.05 a.m. The second sign came when he realised that there was no one manning any of the low budget airline desks and the KLM desk said the first available flight to the UK that wasn’t already fully booked wasn’t leaving until seven in the evening, a whole hour after he would have been flying home with the boys anyway.

‘And there’s no way you can get me there any earlier?’

‘Without taking a transfer somewhere else? No, and even then I couldn’t guarantee you’d get there any earlier. It’s the middle of summer, Mr . . .’ she glanced down at his passport that he had handed over during the course of the conversation, . . . Hudson . . . the height of the holiday season, many airports are already at maximum capacity. I’m afraid it’s just one of those things.’

Phil barely spoke a word in the cab on the way back into Amsterdam. There wasn’t a great deal to be said. If even half of Sanne’s claims about Aiden were true, the chances were he would have been too late anyway.

‘Do you think she always loved him?’

The question was as much a surprise to Phil as it was to Sanne. She looped her arm through Phil’s pulling him closer to her.

‘Don’t do this to yourself, Phil. It’s not worth it.’

‘I’m not sure she did,’ continued Phil quietly. ‘I think . . . I think she really did try her hardest to get over him. You would, wouldn’t you, if someone had hurt you like that? You’d make all kinds of promises to yourself not to let them do something like that again. But wouldn’t a small part of you always be wondering “what if?” Wouldn’t some part of you – a part that you might not want to exist – still be holding out for that happy ending? It’s how we’re built isn’t it? No matter how many times you get slapped in the face you have to believe that next time will be different. And then in comes the guy who hurt you all those years ago, and he wants to make things better and to prove he’s not all talk – this time it will be different.’ Phil looked out of the window at the bright lights of the passing buildings. ‘How could she not fall for that? How could she not think that if she chose him it would finally lift the shadow that he’d cast over her life? All that hurt, all that suffering wouldn’t have been for nothing then, would it?’ He looked at Sanne. ‘If he’d have come back to you like that, would you have taken him back?’

Sanne couldn’t meet his eyes.

‘It’s fine,’ he said, reaching across to take her hand, ‘it really is, I wouldn’t have expected you to answer any other way. Everybody’s got an Aiden in their life and I’m pretty sure that in time Helen will become mine.’

The traffic on Herenstraat had been stationary for the best part of twenty minutes. Tired of watching the blue lights of police cars and an ambulance, Sanne paid the driver and climbed out of the car. Unsure of his exact plans Phil climbed out of the car too and joined her on the pavement.

‘What are you going to do?’

Sanne yawned. ‘I’ll walk home from here. My place is the other side of town but it shouldn’t take too long.’

‘You can’t walk on your own at this time of night. Let me take you home. I’m pretty sure that I’ve got the hang of this place so I won’t get lost when I head back to the hotel.’

‘Have you forgotten?’ grinned Sanne. ‘You’ve already checked out.’

‘Then I’ll check back in again, or if the worst comes to the worst I’ll wake up one of the boys and kip in his room.’

They turned left along Herenstraat heading in the direction of Prisengracht. Apart from the odd cyclist and occasional car, these streets were empty, making it seem like he and Sanne were the last two people on earth.

They were too exhausted to talk and as if to counter the silence at some point their hands reached out for one another in the darkness and formed a union of fingers.

Skilled as he was at avoiding such issues, Phil couldn’t manage more than a few moments without wondering exactly where the end of this evening might take him.

They took a left into Egelantiersgracht, a pretty tree-lined street with houses on either side overlooking the central canal, stopping a little way before the first bridge.

‘This is my place,’ said Sanne, and she reached into her bag for keys.

Phil looked up at the five-storey house, wondering which of the flats belonged to her.

‘I’m guessing your place is the top one.’

Sanne shook her head.

‘Okay, the next one down.’

She shook her head again.

‘The next one?’

She shook her head one last time.

‘You own the whole bloody lot?’

Sanne shrugged. ‘What can I say? I had a good divorce lawyer.’ She pointed to the top of the house. ‘The top floor is a sound-proofed studio and I use the bottom floor for my yoga classes or the odd dance class, and I’m always having friends and their kids over to stay but yeah, basically, it’s just me and a big old house.’

‘I should go,’ said Phil quickly. Now that the moment he had been trying not to think about was here it was disconcertingly unreal. ‘I’m sure I’ll be able to find my way back.’

Sanne held his gaze.

‘You don’t have to.’

‘Maybe not,’ he replied, and looked down at his hands that were still entwined with Sanne’s, ‘but can you think of any way this might be a good idea?’

Sanne shook her head, and still holding his hand she opened up the heavy front door and they stepped inside.

Sunday

16.

Something as simple as a person entering a room can be enough to break the spell between two potential lovers; a new dawn can have a similar effect.

With his arms still wrapped tightly around Sanne’s waist Phil had been thinking about this phenomenon as he watched the tiny shards of light breaking through the wooden shutters across Sanne’s bedroom illuminating the dust particles in the air and making them appear to dance.

Sanne gently squeezed the hand that had been resting on her belly.

‘Are you awake?’

Phil yawned. ‘Yeah.’

‘Did you sleep well?’

‘Okay. You?’

‘Not bad, though I can’t imagine I’ll be good for much today.’

There was a silence. Phil wondered what might be going through Sanne’s head. ‘I’ve been thinking,’ he began. ‘Maybe I will go and pick up my dad. Make sure he’s okay and everything.’

‘Yeah sure, of course, you should do that.’

‘But once I’ve got him, maybe the three of us could go out for breakfast.’

‘That would be great. There are a couple of nice places in Waterlooplein overlooking the Amstel, they aren’t too far from where your dad’s being held.’

‘Sounds great. How long do you think it should take me?’

Sanne shrugged. ‘Not long. If I meet you in an hour by the Spinoza statue you should have more than enough time.’ Phil swallowed as Sanne wearing nothing but a T-shirt and her underwear, crossed the room and disappeared into the hallway. She really was stunning.

Returning a few moments later with a towel and a toothbrush still in its packet Sanne handed them to him and sat down on the edge of the bed.

‘You can use the en-suite to take a shower or there’s another bathroom down the hallway.’

Phil picked up the towel. ‘I’ll use the bathroom down the hallway and leave you in peace for a while.’ He looked guiltily at his suit trousers lying on the floor.

‘I’m going to make myself a coffee, do you want one?’ said Sanne.

Phil interpreted this as code for ‘I’m going to give you five minutes to put your trousers on,’ and said yes in relief.

Sanne left and he slipped them on. Feeling a sudden heaviness in his heart, Phil lay back on the bed and began to wonder if he wasn’t in danger of making the biggest mistake of his life.

Nothing had happened.

Although if he was being totally honest it wasn’t for want of trying on his part. It had been Sanne who had saved him from himself. Ready to abandon nine years of loyalty Phil had made every effort to let her know how he felt. After all, he wasn’t cheating when he’d already been cheated on was he? But Sanne would have none of it. She wanted to be close to him, but she made it clear that she didn’t want to be anyone’s cause for regret. And so while certain lines had been crossed, others hadn’t even come close to being traversed and, while not even a single kiss had passed between them, the fact that they had awoken partially dressed and wrapped in each other’s arms spoke volumes about what they had felt.