Rachel paced the hallway frantically. She had been packed since last night and been dreading this moment ever since. She had been like this all morning so far, feeling twitchy and unable to settle, and since Melissa had text her five minutes ago to say they were on their way to pick her up, it had got even worse. She felt butterflies stir in the pit of her stomach at the thought. This would mean she would have to see Eddie again for this first time since school had broken up for the summer. They hadn't exchanged so much as a text message and now she was going to have to endure a four hour drive in the same confined space as him, with Melissa and Phil alongside them, only serving to make the situation even more awkward. She wondered for what felt like the millionth time how she would react when she saw Eddie, and how would he act in return? Would there be an air of awkwardness between them after their near kiss a few weeks ago? Or would he have forgotten all about it and dismissed it as one of those drunken moments that meant nothing?
Hearing the beeping of a horn outside her house, Rachel picked up her weekend bag, checking that all the doors were closed, before setting the alarm, locking up the house and heading towards the car. She was about to find out the answers to at least some of these questions. As she walked down her front path, Eddie emerged from the car and approached her, taking her bag to place in the boot with the rest of the luggage. His breath caught in his throat as he saw this version of Rachel. He had never seen her looking like this before, dressed for a car journey in a lovely light marl grey tracksuit and black Ugg boots, she looked 10 years younger than she did in her work attire. It was a very casual look, but one which he thought she looked beautiful in.
"How have you been?" he asked her quietly, feeling a blush creep on to his cheeks at the thoughts flashing through his mind, making him unable to look her in the eye.
"Fine thanks," Rachel replied, feeling equally as awkward, "just enjoying the time off, chilling out, you know?"
"Great" Eddie responded, "me too… yeah… just chilling, great."
They both turned around, hearing a voice near the front of the car, and found Melissa opening the front passenger door to let Rachel climb into the seat behind her, where she would be spending the journey with Phil.
"Hi Rach!" she greeted her sister enthusiastically, "Looking forward to the weekend?"
"Can't wait yep" Rachel replied, not managing to make her tone of voice quite as enthusiastic as she had hoped, "Can't wait."
Climbing into the car, Rachel greeted Phil and proceeded to question him about his holidays so far, what he had been up to, where he had been, how his friends were, anything she could think of really to avoid having to strike up a conversation with Eddie and Melissa. Eventually though, they ran out of things to talk about, and Phil placed the ear phones from his I-pod back into his ears and averted his attention to the game on the PSP in his hand. This was going to be a long journey.
"So Rach," Melissa began, turning in her seat to face her sister, "You bought a nice fancy new dress for the occasion then?"
"Not really," replied Rachel "I had a look in a few shops but didn't really see anything I fancied, just brought an old faithful little black dress, should do the trick".
Rachel didn't want Melissa to know she had spent practically three days straight in department store changing rooms attempting to find the perfect dress, convincing herself she wanted to look good for the family she hadn't seen in far too long, to show them how well she was doing in her career and how things had taken off for her. It was most definitely not, as she had told herself repeatedly, anything to do with wanting to impress Eddie, nothing at all. She had in the end however plumped for a dress she remembered she already had hidden at the back of the wardrobe, one that she knew enhanced her figure perfectly without looking like she'd tried too hard, and had plumped for just buying some new jewellery to wear with it.
"Me neither," replied Melissa, "Didn't want to make too much of an effort you know."
Both women looked around startled as Eddie let out a rather loud snort.
"Are you joking?" he asked Melissa incredulously, "Don't listen to a word she says Rach, she dragged me around the Trafford centre for an entire day before I left her to her own resorts for the next two days in search of the perfect outfit. And judging by the size of the case I had to heave into the boot she's invested in more than one!"
Melissa giggled and grinned conspiratorially at Rachel,
"Well you never know what might happen at these sorts of do's do you Rach? I wouldn't want to walk into the room and find another woman in the same dress as me, or to find that my outfit completely clashed, or, God forbid, matched yours now would I?"
Rachel felt her stomach lurch at Eddie's response to this;
"Mel don't be ridiculous darling, it wouldn't matter if ten women all had the same dress as you on, you'd still look better than all of them!"
She breathed in sharply, feeling a stabbing pain in her chest as he said this. It was obviously his way of telling her that he and Melissa were as strong as ever, and anything that may have happened between the two of them had meant nothing. Pulling her own I-pod out of her handbag, Rachel told the others that was feeling quite sleepy and was going to try and doze for a while. Placing her head on the cool glass of the window, Rachel put her earphones in and closed her eyes, trying to force her mind to think of anything except him, and the conversations that had just taken place.
The rest of the journey continued in much the same manner; Rachel and Phil were silent in the back of the vehicle, and Melissa was leafing through a small pile of fashion magazines she had brought along for the journey, occasionally spotting a dress she quite liked that she had managed to miss during her mammoth shopping expedition and sighing to herself. Eddie sat behind the wheel and tried to keep his eyes on the road. This was proving difficult however as Rachel's head had lolled back slightly as she had nodded off, placing her square in his line of vision every time he checked his rear-view mirror. She had a small smile fixed upon her face and she looked perfectly content as she slept. Eddie privately thought how beautiful she looked when she was completely relaxed. She very rarely wore that expression in school and it suited her. Whatever she was dreaming about was clearly making her happy.
Finally, after just over four hours of driving, they had made their way through the country lanes on the outskirts of Bristol and Eddie announced their arrival at the hotel. They all stared out of the windows of the car in shock at the sight before them. The hotel was stunning, a very old looking building, set in majestic, well-groomed grounds, in full bloom in the July sunshine. It was beautiful, and a place Rachel privately thought would have been better suited for a wedding than a 70th birthday party. Aunt Gladys was clearly going to be celebrating in style, and Rachel smiled at the thought of her delighted face as she arrived later on and was told the reason they were there. Eddie pulled into a parking space and they all piled out of the car, glad to stretch their legs at last. Taking their luggage from the boot of the car, the four of them made their way up to the hotel, Melissa pulling her huge pink suitcase along behind her and looking frantically at her watch.
"I'm booked in for a massage in twenty minutes," she told the others, "We'd better get checked in quickly."
"Of course mum," Phil replied sarcastically, "we wouldn't want you to miss out on any pampering now would we?"
Just then Phil's phone beeped and he announced to the adults that they would have to check in without him as he was going for a kick about around the back of the hotel where some of his cousins who had already arrived had assembled.
"OK darling," replied Melissa, "Just make sure you come back in plenty of time to get ready for the party won't you. In fact," she continued, eyeing the queue at the check in desk, "I'd better get going myself, looks like we'll be waiting quite a while here, and I really don't want to miss out on any of my treatments, I got a fantastic deal. You two will be ok to sort out the rooms won't you?"
"I suppose so," Rachel replied, trying to keep her tone of voice even whilst simultaneously panicking about being left alone with Eddie. There was no denying that there was a tangible tension between the two of them still and she had no idea what to say to him.
"Thanks you two, your stars." Squealed Melissa, "See you later."
And with that she skipped off in the direction of the spa, leaving Eddie and Rachel standing in the check-in queue with the bags, avoiding each others' gaze and both trying to think of something vaguely intelligent to say to cut through the tension and get some sort of conversation flowing between them.