‘You didn’t need to.’

They went their different ways without another word.

They stopped trying to speak, or act as if things were normal. It was easy not to meet, with the hotel to themselves. She didn’t want to eat with him, or be with him, she didn’t want to talk, she just wanted to lie down, she tried it, but it was too warm to stay in bed, and the Wi-Fi was weak. She came downstairs.

She curled up on the swivel chair in the hall, and looked at YouTube kittens, and US politics on her phone, while Dan took up residence in the sitting room, with a beer, and played Skyrim. Hours and hours could be lost like that. They were.

*

The afternoon faded quickly and night fell. The fifth day. It was the fifth day since Alex died. She scrolled through videos of empty things, brightly coloured, comforting things, and stared at them with great attention. The view of the drive dimmed, and then it was completely dark. The windows showed the ghostly mirrored desk, and stairs going up to nothingness. The swivel chair kept swivelling. She had to put her foot on the floor to stop it. Her other leg went to sleep. She released it, shaking it out to get the blood flowing.

She heard an engine. Bright white headlights swept across the windows.

‘Shit,’ she said, jolted from her digital anaesthetic. ‘What now?’

Rubbing her dry eyes, she went to the window and peered out. A big black minivan was parking in front of the hotel. It stopped, and the doors opened, and two men got out, dressed in black, intent on something, signalling to one another. Then, like an apparition, her mother, steadying herself on one of the men’s arms. Like Cinderella, she had been transformed. She wore a silk dress, in bold rose colours, like moth wings. Griff climbed out too, and Liv went to him on tiptoe, and took his hand. The two men were dressed as waiters. No, they were waiters. One of them opened the back of the van, and started rummaging inside. Dan came into the hall.

‘What the hell?’ he said.

Griff looked in her direction and Bea ducked out of sight, but there was no avoiding them. They heard footsteps on the gravel, and the doorbell rang loudly.

‘Did they tell you?’ he said.

She shook her head.

He shrugged. ‘Can’t ignore them.’

‘We could.’

He opened the door.

‘Can’t you put the bloody outside light on?’ boomed Griff. ‘We can’t see a thing out here.’

‘It doesn’t work,’ said Dan.

‘The mountain has come to Mohammed. Are we allowed to say that these days?’

Griff strode inside, slapping his shoulder.

Liv came in behind him, light-footed; a different person.

‘Oh, there you are!’ she said, spotting Bea in the shadows. ‘My Bea-Bea.’

‘There you are!’ repeated Griff.

‘Yup,’ said Bea. ‘What’s going on?’