‘Going back to London, of course. There’s no point me sticking around here any more, Penny. I have to get back. I need to get back to my real life.’

‘Oh, so we’re just a fantasy, are we?’

‘Don’t be silly. You know that’s not what I meant. But I have things to do. I can’t stay here forever. What’s the point?’

‘I can’t believe it,’ Penny gasped, shaking her head. ‘Just when we need you most, you’re leaving? You promised you would help us get back on our feet. You can be so selfish sometimes. Rob is right, you know; he should have written you off years ago.’

Elle was too shocked to reply, and there was no point, because Penny had already left the room. Had Rob really said that? She didn’t believe he could be so harsh. But then again, didn’t he have a right to be?

It was just another sign that her time here was over.

She sighed. If Penny didn’t want to say a proper goodbye, that was her decision. They would just have to make amends by phone, or email or whatever.

It wasn’t ideal, but when had her relationship with Penny been ideal? Not since she was fourteen years old, probably.

Ned drove Elle back to the airport. As they pulled away, he began humming a tune she recognised as Octopus Garden, some lyrics about hiding away from a storm.

She looked up at the sky. ‘Does that mean there’s an actual storm on the way or you trying to be metaphorical?’

Ned said nothing.

‘Oh Dad, I’ll be back soon enough,’ said Elle. ‘I’ll come and help when you move, maybe?’

She experienced her arrival of the weeks before almost in reverse. There was the hotel in the rear-view mirror as if shrinking to the size of a dollhouse. The main street could have been any street at all, nothing charming or special about it.

The people, the shops and the buildings, and then the sea itself became smaller and smaller, before they gradually disappeared to nothing in the distance. It was as if they never mattered at all.

Elle wished it were that easy. She wished it didn’t feel like the hotel, the town and the sea didn’t have a grip on her heart, trying to pull her back.

Trying to get her disappointment at Elle’s swift departure out of her head, Penny took Colin into town that evening to see a band play at the The Sugar Loaf Pub. She had since dubbed him the ‘English invader’ and he quite took to the nickname.

‘I do love it around here,’ he told her in his charming cut-glass accent. ‘The town is so quaint and lively and I’ve never seen such a stunning stretch of coastline. It’s an absolute shame that you’re going to lose the hotel.’