“Okay. I’ll go deliver these drinks, and I’ll let you figure it out with your sister. No pressure. Except that I’m agog with curiosity about you. Dying of it, in fact. But really, no pressure.” He’s grinning as he says it. It seems as if his smiles hang around his eyes and mouth, looking for any opportunity to return. I can’t help but laugh in response. I’m still smiling as I walk to the wingback chairs.

“You seem to have made quite the impression,” says a wide-eyed Carrie, taking her pint of lager from me. “Do tell. Who is that?”

“That,” I say, enjoying the revelation, “is the hotel manager I told you about.”

She stops with her pint halfway to her mouth, a parody of astonishment. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope. It turns out we were at school together.” I settle into the seat opposite her. I would never have imagined she drank pints. Some sort of expensive Czech bottled beer, perhaps, but not lager in a pint glass. I don’t want to explore the layers of stereotyping exposed by my surprise.

“Wow.” She looks across the bar at the rowdy group to whom Ben is delivering drinks. There’s some fifteen of them, perhaps slightly more men than women at first glance. “And he remembered you?”

“Yep. I have that effect on people,” I say, tongue firmly in cheek, and she laughs. “Actually it seems my family history is quite the local legend. Even the gym guy knew about it.” I take a sip of my vodka tonic. Probably everybody in that group, if they are from round here, will know my story. For a moment I consider bolting, but there’s no point in putting off the inevitable. “Ben’s asked us both to go across and join them.”

Carrie’s eyes light up. “We should totally do that,” she says decisively, then quickly backtracks. “That is, if you want to. If you just want to have a quiet drink, I’m fine with that, too.”

I laugh. “Carrie, I know you’re dying to meet the locals. It’s okay to say it.”

“Yep, I am. I’m not like you; I’m a people person, what can I say?” Now that I’ve let her off the hook, she’s perfectly happy to laugh at herself, but her words catch at me nonetheless. I’m not like you; I’m a people person. I know I’ll find them turning over in my mind later. But she’s forging onward. “We’re here for a while. It would be nice to have a few people I can grab a coffee or something with.”