“Jess, don’t be annoyed.”
“I already am. What have you done?”
“…we went away.”
“We?”
“Us. Emma booked it.”
“Of course she did.”
“Two nights. Wye Valley. Big house.”
Jess just stares.
“Over Easter?”
“Mmhm.”
“…you’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
“Claire, you cannot just disappear for a whole weekend and then casually drop it into conversation.”
“It wasn’t even a whole weekend,” Claire said. “Two nights. Got there Friday, back Sunday. Perfect.”
“That sounds suspiciously organised.”
“Emma.”
“Obviously.”
“So where did you stay?”
“Brookside this time.”
“‘This time’… listen to you.”
“Don’t start. It was perfect though. Big kitchen, loads of space, proper ‘everyone together but not on top of each other’ situation. And dare I say it, the heated pool was open...and there was a hot tub!”
“And how many of you?” Rolling eyes.
“Fourteen.”
“Absolutely not.”
“It worked!”
“Claire, I can’t even organise four people for dinner.”
“Exactly. That’s why you don’t organise it. You let Emma ring **Big House Holiday Lets**, tell them what you need, and then just… turn up. She said she just Googled "a short 2-night group break in the Wye Valley” and BHHL popped up and they were great.
Jess narrows her eyes.
“That sounds far too easy.”
“It really is.”
“And what did you do? Don’t say ‘relaxed’ because I’ll walk away.”
“Fine. We ate.”
“…go on.”
“A lot. Easter food somehow became a full event. Big breakfast situation, then snacks that turned into lunch, then someone said ‘we should probably do dinner’ about three hours after we’d already started eating again.”
“Who cooked?”
“Everyone. No one. It just sort of happened.”
“That sounds chaotic.”
“It should have been. It wasn’t.”
“Emma?”
“Obviously.”
“And the evenings?”
“Best bit.”
“How?”
“No one had to go anywhere. No taxis, no ‘last orders’, no splitting bills. Just stayed where we were.”
Jess nodded slowly.
“…that does sound good.”
“It’s different when you’ve got the space. Big table, proper seating, everyone drifting in and out.”
“And Dave?”
“Fell asleep halfway through a conversation. Woke up and carried on like nothing happened.”
“Standard.”
“Did you actually leave the house at all?”
“…briefly.”
“Claire.”
“Walk. Fresh air. Easter sunshine showing off.”
“And?”
“And Dave disappeared.”
“Of course he did.”
“Found him 20 minutes later talking to those two black pugs again. Do you remember I mentioned them last time?”
“…no.”
“Sunglasses.”
Jess laughed.
“I’m choosing to believe you because it makes the story better.”
“It’s true. I think they live there now.”
Jess leans back.
“I hate this.”
“You don’t.”
“I do. Because it sounds exactly like the kind of thing we always say we’ll do.”
“I know.”
“And then we don’t.”
“This time we did.”
“…because Emma forced it.”
“Because Emma booked it.”
Jess pauses.
“…two nights, you said?”
“Yep.”
“That’s manageable.”
“I told you.”
“No massive planning?”
“Nope.”
“Just… turn up?”
“Pretty much.”
Another pause.
“…Claire.”
“Yes?”
“Next time, don’t go without me.”
“I knew you’d say that.”
“…send me the link.”
😏👇
