‘No we don’t. We have nothing to say to each other,’ she fumed.
‘Jesus, Grace, I made a mistake. I was a massive fool. I’m sorry.’
‘Yes, you did look like a fool and you made me look like one also.’ She started to walk along the beach away from him. He chased after her.
‘I love you, Grace. I really love you. I didn’t know how to tell you that I was wealthy. Our relationship wasn’t about money, that’s why I love you,’ he said as he followed her.
‘You made it about money when you chose not to tell me.’ She spun around to him.
‘I can see that now.’
‘Good, now get out of my life.’
‘What is your problem with me being rich?’ It was his turn to be angry now. ‘Did you like that I was a hopeless no one when you met me, a bike courier? Did that give you the upper hand, Grace?’
‘How dare you say that! I never thought that. I liked that we were just trying to make it on our own. You pushed me out of your life, you told me nothing about yourself, nothing about your life and I was the fucking fool, who didn’t ask. I thought love was enough,’ she said, facing him.
‘It is enough, Grace, love is enough.’
‘I don’t think it is, Frank.’
And she kept walking away from him.
‘Grace, please,’ he cried.
She turned around and saw he was crying.
‘I love you so much. I’m so, so sorry,’ he said.
‘Oh, Frank.’ She felt her heart break. ‘You fucked it up so royally.’
‘I know.’
They stood facing each other. ‘Can I stay here for a while, with you?’ he pleaded. ‘Can we try and get to know each other, no secrets?’
Grace looked at a small sand crab chasing another one at her feet. They reminded her of Frank and herself. She looked up at him. ‘You can’t stay in my room.’
‘I know.’
‘If I want to be alone, then I will tell you.’
‘OK.’ Frank accepted all the terms she placed in front of him.
‘No sex.’
‘Of course,’ he nodded.
They stood waiting and she resisted the urge to reach out and slap and then kiss him and instead she turned on her heel and walked down the beach.
Grace actually enjoyed tormenting Frank. She met him sometimes for breakfast and then other days ignored him when she went to the beach. She wrote him long questionnaires about his life and interests and read the carefully written answers in her room, laughing at his honesty and candour.
The truth was Grace did love him and part of what he said about her wanting to have the upper hand in the relationship had cut her deeply but she wondered if it were true. She had known Frank as the person who didn’t think about money or worry about appearances, and now she didn’t know how to classify him in her life. She realised she didn’t know him at all, as either a rich man or a poor man.
She picked up the phone next to the bed and dialled his room number.
‘Hello?’ he answered.
‘Did you really sail around the world when you were twenty-one?’ she asked.
