Cecelia Ahern - P.S. I Love You

“Woo-hoo,” Cindy sang over to them. She was standing up from her chair and waving at them.

“I kept you all a seat back here!”

Denise sighed loudly over Holly's shoulder and the girls trudged down to the backseat of the bus. Holly was lucky to sit next to the window, where she could ignore the rest of them. She hoped Cindy would understand that she wanted to be left alone, the major hint being that Holly had ignored her from the moment she had tottered over to their table.

Forty-five minutes later they reached Costa Palma Palace and the excitement once again returned to Holly's stomach. There was a long driveway in and tall palm trees lined the center of the drive. A large fountain was lit up with blue lights outside the main entrance and to her annoyance everybody on the bus cheered once again when they pulled up outside. The girls were booked into a studio apartment, which was a nice neat size containing one bedroom with twin beds, a small kitchen and living area with a sofa bed, a bathroom, of course, and a balcony.

Holly stepped onto the balcony and looked out to the sea. Although it was too dark to see anything, Holly could hear the water gently lapping up against the sand. She closed her eyes and listened.

“Cigarette, cigarette, must have cigarette,” Denise joined her, ripping the cigarette packet open and inhaling deeply. “Ah! That's much better; I no longer have the desire to kill people.”

Holly laughed; she was looking forward to spending time with her friends. “Hol, do you mind if I sleep on the sofa bed? That way I can smoke . . .”

“Only if you keep the door open, Denise,” Sharon yelled from inside. “I'm not waking up in the morning to the stink of smoke.”

“Thanks,” Denise said happily.

At nine o'clock that morning Holly was woken up to the sound of Sharon stirring. Sharon whispered to her she was going down to the pool to save them some sun beds. Fifteen minutes later Sharon returned to the apartment. “The Germans have nicked all the sun beds,” she said grumpily. “I'll be down on the beach if you want me.” Holly sleepily mumbled some sort of response and fell back asleep again. At ten o'clock Denise jumped on her in bed and they decided to get up and join Sharon at the beach.

The sand was hot and they had to keep moving so as not to burn the soles of their feet. As proud as Holly had been about her tan back in Ireland, it was obvious they had just arrived on the island, as they were the whitest people there. They spotted Sharon sitting under the shade of an umbrella reading her book.

“Oh, this is so beautiful, isn't it?” Denise smiled, looking around.

Sharon looked up from her book and smiled. “Heaven.”

Holly looked around to see if Gerry had come to the same heaven. Nope, no sign of him. All around her there were couples, couples massaging sun cream onto each other's bodies, couples walking hand in hand along the beach, couples playing beach tennis, and directly in front of her sun bed, a couple was snuggled up together sunbathing. Holly didn't have any time to be depressed, as Denise had stepped out of her sundress and was hopping around on the hot sand in nothing but a skimpy leopard-skin thong.

“Will one of you put sun cream on me?”

Sharon put her book down and stared at her over the rim of her reading glasses. “I'll do it, but you can put the cream on your tits and bum yourself.”

“Damn,” Denise joked. “Don't worry about it, I'll go ask someone else then.” Denise sat at the end of Sharon's sun bed while Sharon applied the cream. “You know what, Sharon?”

“What?”

“You'll get an awful tan line if you keep that sarong on.”

Sharon looked down at herself and pulled the little skirt further down her legs. “What tan? I never get a tan. I've nice Irish skin, Denise. Didn't you know that the color blue was the new brown?”

Holly and Denise laughed. As much as Sharon tried to tan over the years she just ended up getting sunburned and then peeling. She had finally given up trying for a tan and accepted the fact that her skin was meant to be blue.

“Besides, I look like such a blob these days I wouldn't want to scare everyone off.”

Holly looked at her friend, annoyed at her for calling herself a blob. She had put a little bit of weight on but was by no means fat.

“Why don't you go up to the swimming pool then and scare all those Germans away?” Denise joked.

“Yeah girls, we really need to get up earlier tomorrow to get a place by the pool. The beach gets boring after a while,” Holly suggested.

“Don't vorry. Ve vill get ze Germans,” joked Sharon.

The girls relaxed by the beach for the rest of the day, occasionally dipping themselves into the sea to cool down. They ate lunch at the beach bar and generally had a lazy day just as they had planned. Holly gradually felt all the stress and tension working its way out of her muscles, and for a few hours she felt free.

That night they successfully managed to avoid the Barbie Brigade and enjoyed dinner in one of the many restaurants that lined the busy street not far from the complex.

“I can't believe it's ten o'clock and we're heading back to the apartment already,” Denise said while staring longingly at the huge choice of bars around them.

People overflowed from the outdoor bars and onto the streets, music vibrating from every building, mixing together to form an unusual eclectic sound. Holly could almost feel the ground pulsing beneath her. Conversation between them stopped as they took in the sights, sounds and smells around them. There was loud laughter, clinking glasses and singing coming from every direction. Neon lights flashed and buzzed, each battling for its own customers. On the street, bar owners fought hard against each other to convince passersby to enter, handing out leaflets, free drinks and concessions.

Tanned young bodies hung out in big groups around the outdoor tables and strolled confidently by them on the street, the smell of coconut sun cream rich in the air. Looking at the average age of the clientele, Holly felt old.

“Well, we can go to a bar for a few drinks if you want,” Holly said uncertainly, watching the younger ones dancing around on the street.

Denise stopped walking and scanned the bars in order to choose one.

“All right, beautiful.” A very attractive man stopped and flashed his pearly whites at Denise. He had an English accent. “Are you coming in here with me?”

Denise stared at the young man for a while, lost in thought. Sharon and Holly smirked at each other, knowing that Denise wouldn't be going to bed early after all. In fact, Denise might not get to bed at all that night, knowing her.

Finally Denise snapped out of her trance and straightened herself up. “No thank you, I have a boyfriend and I love him!” she announced proudly. “Come on, girls!” she said to Holly and Sharon and walked off in the direction of the hotel.

The two girls remained on the street, mouths open in shock. They couldn't quite believe it. They had to run to catch up with her.

“What are you two gawking at?” Denise smiled.

“You,” Sharon said, still shocked. “Who are you and what have you done with my man-eating friend?”

“OK.” Denise held her hands up in the air and grinned. “Maybe being single isn't all it's cracked up to be.”

Holly lowered her eyes and kicked a stone along the path as they made their way back to their resort. It sure wasn't.

“Well good for you, Denise,” Sharon said happily, wrapping her arm around Denise's waist and giving her a little squeeze.

A silence fell between them and Holly listened as the music faded away slowly, leaving only a beat of the bass in the distance.

“That street made me feel so old,” Sharon said suddenly.