"Emily's living here,"
In my short life, I'm sure I've almost made my Mum choke on her tea on numerous occasions. This morning, in a little restaurant on the beach front, I'm doing it again. We'd been here an hour and for at least thirty minutes of that hour, I've been attempting to break the news about Emily. At first, it was delayed by myself, putting it off then it was my Mum complaining about Kieran having far too much of his favourite Irish whiskey the night before. Turns out he's very much in the dog house for singing as loudly as possible before taking a late dive into the pool. I can't help but laugh when she tells me.
Now, after all the delaying, I've gone and blurted Emily out in a way I really didn't want.
"What? Here? In Cyprus? What is she doing here?" She fires questions at me quickly, giving no time for any sort of reply. I gently push my empty plate away from me and it's collected by a waiter. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"This Mum, all this," I sigh gently and motion my arms out in front of my body. "I didn't want all these questions right away. I wanted some time with her on my own first, I needed that time to at least try and sort out some of the fucking train wreck I left us in,"
"And have you?" She probes gently.
"I don't know," I shrug then realise that's probably not the great response in the world. It certainly wasn't one my Mum was looking for. "I think so,"
"I knew it was strange, you meeting up with Katie so often," A laugh escapes both our lips, lasting a few seconds. That excuse was pretty lame on my part. Zoe was right, it really wouldn't have held out for much longer. "She's been here all this time,"
"Small world and all that,"
"Yeah. How is she?"
"She's great, fantastic actually, successful, beautiful as ever of course," I envelope my morning mug of coffee with my hands and tap my fingers together. "Things are so different,"
"Love it's been six years, things were always going to change,"
"I know but, I mean, well she's," I stop myself with a deep sigh and bite on my bottom lip to take a second or two to form the words right in my head. This was going to be a shock, no matter which way I said it. "She's had a baby,"
"Wha-?"
"Olivia," I interrupt by continuing quickly. The shocked expression painted on my Mum's face is probably visible for all to see. In fairness though, I've now told her two things she definitely wasn't expecting this morning. "She's five and she's the double of Emily,"
"But, I thought," she trails off, her shocked face being substituted by her confused one. "I mean, I don't know quite what to say,"
"I had the same reaction," I smile gently. My reaction was more me sprinting off the beach like my life depended on it and already, that feels like months ago. "In actual fact, I transformed back into Naomi six years ago and ran like fuck away,"
"Naomi," she groans, tossing her head back for a moment. I knew she wasn't in the least bit surprised by that.
"It's alright, Zoe set me straight," I reply. "She made me go back,"
"Got a lot of sense that girl," my Mum adds correctly. "So, is Emily, you know,"
"With anyone?" I finish, knowing that's the direction she was fully intending on going to. She nods in response, taking a mouthful of the remaining tea from her mug. "No. Olivia was the result of a drunken one night stand, which I practically shoved her into when I was a total twat. The guy sounds like a complete tosser, he knows about Olivia but decides to ignore her and ignore the fact she's his,"
"Shitty little prick, huh?"
"I turned out alright without mine,"
"You did," she grins at me rather proudly too. "Are you two okay?"
"Better," I offer up simply, finishing off my coffee. "She doesn't want to slap me across the face each time she sees me, so that's gotta be a good thing," I laugh gently, making another joke about the situation as we get ourselves ready to leave.
It's still early morning and the sun hasn't quite blazed out properly from behind the clouds, so we decide to take a de-tour along the beach whilst it's still cool and there's a slight breeze.
"When are you seeing her again?" My Mum asks rather predictably. The only surprise is that she hadn't asked this sooner.
"Tonight hopefully," I wasn't sure.
After I heard conversations between my now best friend and my former lover, I eventually slipped out of the toilet cubicle and sneaked back to the bar without them knowing I had heard everything. It stayed in the back of my mind for most of the night of course, 'it's Naomi, she's always been high up on my list' how could it not? But I said nothing and she said nothing. The three of us consumed silly amounts of wine and chatted all sorts of shit until it was late. It must of been way past 3am when I stumbled into bed and the only reason I know that was because I woke to a text from Emily that was sent at 3:35am saying she was home safe.
"Ekon?" My Mum repeats, after I finish telling her all about what Emily does for a living nowadays. We're making our way back of the apartment. "That's the big one on the front isn't it? I'm sure I've seen it,"
"Yeah," I answer casually. "It's not something I ever imagined Emily doing but she's really made a go of it, it works,"
"I can't believe she's been so close the whole time,"
"She's asked about you," I say, making my Mum's smile beam even more. I laugh at that. She always did love Emily. They had this bond, right from day one & when Emily felt like she couldn't turn to her own Mum for support, which was more frequent than it ever should of been, she turned to mine. "I think she's really missed you,"
"I'd love to see her again,"
Zoe's awake and out worshipping the sun when we get back to the apartment. After Mum slips away to find Kieran, I strip off into a bikini and venture outside, taking up my usual spot on the lounger next to my best friend. Despite her eyes being closed over, she knows it's me.
"Sleep okay?"
"I feel like shit," she groans, slipping the sunglasses from her face to look at me properly or at least try to. "Don't get me wrong, Naoms, Emily is really lovely but she is totally to blame for the way I'm feeling right now,"
"Someone a little hungover eh?" I smirk teasingly and lay back, grabbing the sun lotion from her bag.
"Aren't you?"
"I didn't neck three bottles of wine," I laugh and spray some lotion onto my legs. "I told my Mum about Emily, I think a part of her is already planning big grand reunions,"
"As predicated," she grins, positioning her sunglasses back on her face. "Despite me feeling at my horrendous worst, I had fun last night, thanks,"
"Emily passes the test then?"
"Massive improvement on your last," she shoots me a sly smirk, one that I jokingly roll my eyes too. "Not that that's difficult, of course. Are you seeing her today?"
"I think so," I nod, taking another glance at my phone, this time, there's a new message waiting. One from Emily. One asking me to go round to her apartment later, if free. I smile broadly and immediately text back.
"No need to ask who that is," Zoe chuckles, nodding towards the phone in my hand. I only glance up at her for a second, before finishing the text. "In all the years I've known you, I've never seen you look at your phone like that, nor have I ever seen you turn to complete mush around someone,"
"You make me sound like some pathetic teenager in love," I say, a slight laugh escaping my lips. "She's got today off, she's invited me over,"
"So what are you waiting for?"
"You don't mind me going?"
"No," she laughs like the question I had just asked her was completely crazy. "We don't have much of this holiday left, you shouldn't waste a minute when you can spend some quality time with Emily,"
I found it surprisingly easy to remember the route to Emily's apartment and arrived at the front of the driveway a little over an hour from when she invited me over. After standing motionless for a mere few seconds, I climb the steps and raise my hand to knock the door when it unexpectedly opens before me.
"Naomi," Olivia beams with pure excitement, catching me off guard when she throws herself towards me for a somewhat unexpected hug. My heart melts in my chest. "Mummy said you were coming over. Can we draw pictures again, please? No, no, can we go swimming? You promised,"
"Hey missy," Emily appears from the hallway and as she comes into my eye line, my throat hitches up. I'm pretty certain, for a moment, I forget how to breathe. Emily looks sexy in anything, that I was always aware of but Emily today is taking things to a whole new level. "Let's let Naomi come inside first, yeah? Hey,"
"Hi," I plastered a grin across my face.
"Sorry about Liv," Emily starts as we make our way through to the lounge of the apartment. I accept a cold drink and we both take a seat, Olivia sneaks in between the both of us and Emily ruffles up her daughter's hair. "She's been super excited since I said you were coming over, haven't you?"
Olivia nods her head cutely. It brings an even wider smile to my lips.
"Must be the effect I have on people," I wink jokingly, my heart swelling at the thought of Olivia genuinely being happy that I was coming over for the day.
"Can we go to the pool and play now? Then can I show you my room?"
"Tell you what," I start off as she slips off the chair. "Why don't you go grab that ball of yours and I'll go get ready for swimming, yeah?" She rushes off happily and I notice that Emily has a familiar look on her face. She tries to disguise it and I laugh go myself quietly. "What?"
"Honestly?" She says then trails off for a few seconds. I never take my eyes from her, especially when she allows hers to fall back into mine. She chews her bottom lip. "Liv wasn't the only one that was excited you were coming over,"
"Really?" I smirk with slightly more confidence flowing through my body. "Well, we can draw pictures and you can show me your room later if you like,"
"Cheeky," her eyes glisten and her smile widens. "I've got other things in mind for later,"
"That so?" I swallow hard, allowing Emily's surprise flirting to knock me off guard a little. I think she knows and revels in the fact it has too. "Care to share then, Fitch?"
"Maybe later," she replies simply, leaning forward slightly before she pushes herself up from the sofa. "You best get changed,"
"Em, if you want to see my body that much you know all you have to do is ask,"
"Fuck off, Campbell," she shoots back with a playful disgusted glare, causing us both to catch a dose of the giggles. "I'm gonna go check on Liv, we'll wait on you out in the garden,"