What was he asking? Really?

“What was that other news, Pablo?”

“Not for now, Caroline. It is something I must think about. A decision to make. Now, if you decide to come with us, I cannot offer an airplane ticket. My government is paying for Rita and myself, as well as a room in the Holiday Inn Express”

I snorted at that one.

“Not The Rock Hotel, then?”

“I must remain within a budget, alas!”

“I understand, far too well. I can get an Easyjet flight, no worries there, but how big is the room?”

“I have no idea. You would have to book another, I am sorry”

“Pablo? I would… You asked me about sleeping with you, like this. I am getting used to this, and, oh hell. It wouldn’t be fair to leave Rita in a room on her own, would it?”

He squeezed me once more.

“No. I have been thinking hard, but I see no solution”

“When is this trip?”

“From Monday next week, for three nights”

“Shit. Those two nights in Germany were bad enough… Can you excuse me, please?”

I slipped out of the bed, grabbing my dressing gown to cover my nakedness, and crept downstairs as quietly as I could. In the sitting room, there was a soft glow, and when I entered, I found Lauren lying in bed reading her e-book.

“Caroline? Problems?”

“Might be. Just wanted to sound you out on something”

“Okay. Nice tits, by the way, but I don’t swing that way”

I tightened up the top of the gown, feeling my blush in the half-light, as Lauren sat up.

“Problems?”

“Sort of. Just looking for some suggestions, fresh viewpoint sort of thing”

I quickly outlined the situation, and she nodded her way through them.

“So, then: you want to spend three nights testing out your replacement bits, and the kid’s in the way”

“No! Well, yes, but not like that!”

I pulled my own thoughts together, realising how true her reply actually was.

“I have got used to sleeping with someone, and it is something I have never, ever had before. He was away for two nights, and in a little while he will be flying back to his own country, so I don’t have that much time… Three nights is a big chunk to lose”

She stared at me for a few seconds, then half-smiled.

“It’s not the shagging, is it, love? You’ve fallen hard, haven’t you? First time, as well”

“Not really. First time it’s ever come back my way, though. Yeah, you’re right. Just beginning to realise it”

“So the kid needs looking after. When are you flying?”

“I haven’t decided if I am going, yet”

“Yes you bloody have. When?”

“Out on Monday, back on Thursday”

“Leave it with me, then”

“Rita can’s stay here. Wouldn’t be fair”

“Shit. Both of them. You’ve fallen for both of them, haven’t you?”

I nodded.

“What woman wouldn’t?”

“Thank fuck you’ve still got that bit right. Like I said, leave it with me. I have an idea”

I crawled back into bed, and as he drew me to him once more, he asked what I had been doing.

“Speaking to Lauren. She says she has an idea”

When I went down the next morning, she was gone, off to home and then work, no doubt. My guests spent the morning working through my music collection, as I found my own way through the airline and hotel booking process, and then we hopped a bus into the town centre for some random shopping and more American fast food for Rita. Somehow, we gravitated to the big outdoor shop once more, after I had spent half an hour telling her that no, that skirt in that shop was most definitely not ‘made for me’, and it was while she and her father were trying on what I would have called ‘approach shoes’ that my phone rang.

“Can I help you?”

“Nope, but I can help you, love. Him indoors is sort of happy, and work has agreed”

“Agreed what?”

“Bloody hell! Do you not have any idea of what people think of you there? Haley has offered to cover an extra shift, so has Kylie, and my feller has simply said that both the Chinese and the Indian deliver, but that I had to bring you back in one piece and not swap you for a monkey. Got a staff deal on a ticket, as well”

I had to sit down, my legs failing me.

“What are you saying, Lauren?”

“You booked another room?”

“Yes. A double. Pablo’s got a twin, and they put us next door when I asked”

“Lovely. Can I speak to him? Joined at the hip as you are, he’s there, isn’t he?”

I passed the phone over, and he simply listened for nearly a minute, before all but whispering a soft ‘Thank you’.

“Lauren, you are a true friend to her. Thank you. I will give the phone to her again”

“Caroline?”

“Yes?”

“All sorted. I am sharing the twin with the kid. And tell that silly sod that I’m his friend as well, and no crap about not knowing him properly. Tell him that he will always have a friend here, after what he has done….”

With real shock, I heard a sob from her, and then she was speaking again, her voice slightly broken.

“And you, you stupid, thick woman, understand how much I love you. All that shit you got, and you are still here, and this, this could be something real, I watched the way he looks at you, girl… I know it’s a long time ago for me, but I watch him, and I remember what it was like with my feller, and it still is, and you have never had that till now. Shit. Going to have to go to the bog and repair my face now. I will see you here on Monday, okay?”

Click, and she was gone. I sat for a while, phone in hand as Pablo sat down and slipped an arm around my waist.

“She said to remind you that she is your friend now as well. Will Rita be all right with her?”

He nodded.

“We are in adjacent rooms. She has already met Lauren, of course, and they laugh together… yes. She will be okay. Now, important things: do you have a guide for the birds that will be there?”

“About a dozen of them. Remember we have a weight limit on the baggage!”

“Then I shall look for something lightweight for you. I think I see it”

Matching sun hats.

Monday morning saw us at the airport once more, Lauren catching up with us in the departure lounge, a broad grin in place.

“Nobbled the check-in staff! W are sitting just about together. Two window seats, an aisle and a middle”

With a cock of her head, she called me from my seat.

“We need a quick visit to the ladies’, Pablo. Tea runs through me like nobody’s business!”

I followed her down the walkway towards the toilets, but as soon as we were out of sight of the others, she stopped.

“Sorry, love, but got to be a bit heavy, so shut up and listen for a bit. You know my situation”

I nodded, shutting up as requested. Where was this going?

“Yeah, my feller, my Scott, he’s what I should have found years ago, that’s what I first thought when we got together. I was wrong. I can see that now. You know about my first husband, course”

“Sleazy---”

“--- cow from Tesco’s? Yeah that one. Thing is, and same with my feller and his ex, we neither of us would have been the same without our separate Big Fucking Mistake. Me and Scott, we danced round each other for ages, because of before, yeah? Meant that when we did get ourselves together, we’d shaken all that soppy shit out of our systems. We knew who we were, no pissing about, no play-acting. Worked for us, it did. That’s what we found out, early on, and what I ask myself… No. I bloody well know the answer. My Scott, he wouldn’t have been the same man he is now, not without that history, nor me. You… Oh, shit. You’ve never had nobody, and what worries me is that you’ll still have that soppy shit in your mind, and that Pablo, don’t get me wrong, he’s gold, love, one of the really good ones, but he’s got baggage, and you need to be ready for what that might bring up. What’s Rita think of you?”

I shook my head, trying to make my answer as non-soppy as I could.

“Honestly?”

“Of course bloody honestly!”

“Okay. I think… She’s been doing a lot of the pushing, Lauren. Seems really keen that we get together, Pablo and me. She’s been very direct about it”

“Yeah, and what if she wakes up and decides you’re trying to replace her Mum?”

“Oh, hell. I hadn’t thought of that”

“One reason I wanted a quiet word, love. Not saying she will, love, but you better have an answer ready for that one, just in case. No!”

She held up a silencing hand.

“I am not saying dump him, love, because he is a bloody good bloke, at least from what I’ve seen. Just saying… Shit. Just saying don’t forget how new all this is to you, and how it isn’t for him. This could be something really special, but just remember where I am if it crashes, okay? Hug?”

I gave her exactly what she needed, wondering as I did so which way it would go. She was absolutely right, but I had no option I could see other than walking forward with him. If it fell apart, I would at least be left with memories, which would be a hell of a lot more than I had owned before I had met him. I gave her a last squeeze.

“Come on, woman. Let’s go and see how the dice land”

She laughed, and then grinned.

“First time in my life I’ve come up with a clever answer right away, so here it is. Those dice; don’t try and load them, otherwise it will turn to shit. Come on. You giving the kid the window seat?”

“Course!”

“You’ve been there before, haven’t you?”

“Several times. For the bird migration”

“Swimming okay?”

“Not like the height of Summer, but warmer than Brighton”

“Not bloody saying much! Yeah, let’s get back”

We took off almost on time, with Pablo in the aisle seat and me sandwiched between him and Rita. There were plenty of empty seats, so we could have spread out a little, but sod that. There was plenty of interest on the way out, especially when we climbed past the Isle of Wight and I did my best to point out our camp site, but after crossing part of France, we spent far too long crossing water, followed by interminable ranges of brown hills interspersed with solid layers of cloud. I dozed off for a while, until elbowed by Rita. We were over water once more, a little while later almost skimming the water round Europa Point as the seat belt sign lit up. I looked across at Lauren, for this was the part that normally put the frighteners up newcomers.

After a long sweeping turn, we dropped steeply on the approach, finally levelling out almost level with the high-rise buildings on our right, and then there were people looking up as we got so low we were almost in the waves. A thump as we landed, and then the roar of the engines as we hit reverse thrust immediately, and a startled “Shit!” from my friend.

The plane slowed, the Devil’s Tower to our right, and after a little bit of faffing about to get to the terminal, the engines would down to a stop. Lauren was shaking her head, looking at me across the aisle.

“Is it always like that?”

“Short runway, love. Better than disembarking by boat”

I whispered some words of advice to Pablo.

“Whatever you do, do not tell them that stuff about bourgeois colonialism and that. Smile nicely, and mention the birds”

We had no problems in the end, although the two Cuban passports did delay us a little. I wasn’t sure if the buses ran to anywhere other than the bus station, so I splashed out on a taxi, after some advice to the other two alleged adults.

“Right, listen, you two! Money here is same as it is at home, but is different”

Lauren put on her best ‘officially puzzled’ expression, so I explained.

“One to one exchange rate with ours, all the coins the same, but with different tails. Pound coin, old ones, used to have a Neanderthal skull on it. The banknotes are different, but they take ours. Cash points—er, ATMs, either you get one of ours next to theirs, or the machine asks you which one you want. Oh, and rubbish bins, in the street? You need to use a pedal as well as lift the lid”

More puzzlement from Lauren.

“What the--- Why?”

“Keep the monkeys out of them”

“Oh”

The taxi dropped us off at the hotel, and once Sanchez Herrera Plus One and Nelson Plus One had been checked in, to a slightly raised eyebrow in the latter case (I could read the receptionist’s mind: two women, double bed), we made our way to our rooms, and took our actual places. A quick change to lighter clothes, which meant him taking most of his off, but we had plans. Pack a rucksack each, out of the door to the bus stop, buy a hopper ticket each, and then into Casemates Square from the bus station.

“City centre, people. The ticket buys us unlimited travel for today. But first, a late lunch. Favourite place of mine, this one, and Pablo?”

“Yes?”

“You’ll want your binoculars out of your bag”

I love the Café Solo, for a number of reasons, one of which is their snacks, like the wonderful bruschetta. They do excellent coffee, and great tea, and you can sit out in the sun and watch what seems like all of Gibraltar pass you. There is one other advantage to the place. We were partway through that bruschetta when I called for his attention.

“Pablo?”

“Yes?”

I pointed up past the Moorish Castle.

“There. Short-toed eagle”

His jaw dropped, but he twisted in his seat, slapping his bins to his eyes before letting out a slow, almost ecstatic, groan.

“Yes! And---stork?”

“I think so”

Lauren settled back into her chair, smiling.

“Caroline, love, if this is the way you go about birdwatching, then I am your girl! Is this the plan? Sunbathing, good food, and they just fly over?”

“Basically, yeah. I mean, there are a couple of other places I want to go, like Europa Point, but there’s a nice café there as well. Then there’s the Top of the Rock, the Genoese Fishing Village, the Alameda Gardens--- oh, Pablo?”

“Yes?”

“See that starling over there?”

“Yes”

“New bird for you. Gibraltar has spotless starlings; different bird to ours”

He started laughing, and it was a happy sound, and he followed it up with a grinning explanation for Rita’s benefit, and all the time, his eyes were twinkling.

“Lauren is correct, my dear one. I remember walking through scrub and forest with you, and now here we are, seeing one new bird after another, and all while sitting in a café. Where do we go now?”

I smiled back, catching what he had called me, oh yes indeed.

“I would like to take the bus down to the Point. There is a place we can sit, look at Africa. It is amazingly peaceful, and with the weather this good, and feel the wind? The birds soar over the Rock when it is hot, and then it’s all downhill to the other side2

Lauren had a hand up.

“And dinner tonight? Posh meal, or just slob? I vote for posh, because I, for one, have brought my gladrags! You, Caroline?”

I found myself blushing slightly, for I had indeed put something smarter into my bag, as well as one of my few sets of heels, and simply nodded. Lauren grinned.

“Good! Cause you is not the only one who can work a bloody computer, Nelson. We have got reservations for seven thirty tonight at the Waterfront. My treat”

I shook my head.

“Not cheap, that place. I’ve eaten there”

“Yeah, and I have a free bloody hotel room for three nights, so nyah! Show on the road, then?”

Pablo settled our tab, and we walked back out through Water Gate to the bus station for the bus down to the Point, and I was happily pointing out every bloody thing I could, from the Mamma Mia pizzeria through the Rock Hotel and the cable car to the distillery, and after passing the mosque, we climbed off at the last stop. I insisted we stop for ice cream before walking the short distance to the path in front of Harding’s Battery and its stone benches. As we walked, Lauren reached out for my right elbow, stopping me eating my own lolly. My left hand had ended up held by Pablo, in some magic way.

“Caroline?”

“Yes?”

“Shut up for a bit, love. You’re like a bloody tour guide! Just relax for a bit. We are here, it is sunny, I’ve got a 99. All is right with the world. Don’t need no chatter! Now, that big lump over there will be Africa, then? Just yes or no, all right?”

“Yes. Good. These bench things for us?”

“Yup. Always find it really peaceful here, despite all the crowds it gets”

“Then let’s be peaceful for a bit”

She was right, of course, and I managed about five minutes of contemplation before we were both scanning the rocks and water with our bins, and totting up a range of gull species, pipits and passing raptors.

“Oy, you two!”

He answered for us.

“Yes?”

“This nicer that doing it in Cuba? Nice seat, and an ice cream?”

He grinned across at her.

“An English phase I heard from my woman here: I could get used to it. Oh, and another--- it’s a tough job, but I will take one for the team!”

‘My woman’…

We finished our ice creams, and Lauren rose from her seat, tugging Rita up with her.

“Caroline, me and this one are going for a walk, take some pics. Nowhere to get lost round here?”

“Not really. Just head for the café. We will, later, for a cuppa”

“Pablo? You okay with me dragging her away?”

“Who better to look after her? Do not let her talk you into buying fast food”

“Laters, then!”

The two of us settled back into our near-silent scanning. With the murmured litany of bird names: yellow-legged, Med, Audouin’s, gannet…

“Caroline?”

“Yes?”

“We will be going home soon, Rita and myself”

My guts lurched. Here it comes. I remembered Lauren’s words, and one thought kept fighting with another: ‘at least I have known love now’, and ‘I can’t lose this’. And where did that word come from?

From me. I realised, or rather finally acknowledged, that I loved him. No doubts, no confusion; just simple acceptance of an obvious fact. I did my best to keep my tone calm, level.

“I know”

“I have a difficulty with this, and so does Rita”

More of Lauren’s words came back to me.

“I am not trying to replace her mother, Pablo”

He squeezed my hand, still looking out to sea, eyes scanning for passing birds.

“We have spoken of this, and she knows. You miss a lot of what she would say, Caroline, because of the languages, but her words are clear, her feelings. She told me that you would not, could not, replace… My own English, sorry. ‘Would’ has the two meanings here. Her meaning was that she understood that you did not wish to, not that it was not something about to happen. What she said was wiser, and she asked if you might add to her mother, not replace her. She is very, very clear, Caroline, in that she does not wish to lose you, and she has vowed to improve her English so that she can tell you that herself”

“I don’t want… Oh, shit, what can we do?”

He turned to look me in the face, one hand cupping my chin.

“Grey eyes…”

With a shock, I saw that his own eyes were moist. He shook his head, almost sadly.

“This, this I did not anticipate, when I took an English lady to see birds, and she turned out to be so timorous, so shy. So generous”

“So artificially made”

Why on Earth did I come out with that? He paused, then shook his head.

“So natural in who she is. I have no illusions there, and nor should she. You. I have news, but there are issues I need to resolve. I await some information. Please be patient, my dear one”

“What information, love?”

Fuck! Ball dropped big style with that word. He simply raised an eyebrow, then nodded.

“Yes. I think so too. Now, where are we going? I think the children should be collected before Rita acquires a burger and fries”

“Chips”

“Chips, then. Where to now?”

“Catalan Bay. Then back to get ready for dinner; the place Lauren has booked isn’t a cheap one”

He drew me to him for the gentlest of kisses, then tugged me to my feet.

“We have two days, my love, to seek birds. Let us not forget that there are four of us. Tomorrow?”

“Um, cable car? Amazing place, lots of monkeys…”

I rattled on, stunned at his casual return of that word, and we gathered Rita and Lauren from a table at the café before catching a bus round to the eastern side of the rock, our first monkey up on the hillside, and the steps down to the sandy beach and, yes, another ice cream. I was on holiday, and words had been exchanged. The fact that we could look straight up to the top of the Rock and check out the migratory birds circling as they waited for the right winds was simply a bonus. The day held so much warmth, and not all from the sun.

Lauren was ready early that evening, and insisted on a taxi to the Waterfront, on the basis that “In these shoes? I am not walking all that way! Got three days left”

Pablo actually had a suit in his luggage, and shiny shoes, but he left the tie in our room after only a little nagging from me. I found out later that he had actually slipped the thing into his inside jacket pocket, but never mind, as he didn’t wear it.

Lauren was in a long dress, in leaf green, with what I called cheese-wire sandals that were most definitely not for striding all the way to the restaurant. I had what I now thought of as my dancing shoes, plus a longer dress than I would normally have worn, to mid-calf in navy. Rita, in her turn, was looking very much the young woman, in her own posh frock and low heels, her hair up and a touch of make-up to her face. Lauren was grinning happily.

“Bloody hell, don’t we look posh! No dripping food down your fronts, people, cause we are dining in a select establishment of haute cuisine and absolute poshness, not Maccy Dee’s. yes, I meant that for you, Rita. You two should’ve seen her eyes when she saw the size of the burgers in that Europa place!”

The taxi was on time, our table was ready, and of course the staff spoke Spanish, which let Rita emerge even more from her shell. The food was delightful, the wine was acceptable, the puddings were an absolute indulgence, and just as we moved to the coffee-and-bill stage, Pablo’s phone buzzed at him.

“Excuse me, ladies. I have the text”

Lauren sniffed, slightly adrift after the wine.

“We’d say ‘a text’, Pablo, mate!”

“He looked at me for a second, before turning back to her.

“No, my friend. ’The text’ is correct, for it is one I have been waiting for and…”

He quickly scanned his phone, than let out a very deep sigh, his shoulders slumping, then put the mobile away.

“Lauren, Caroline, this is a message from my embassy. Caroline, we have said things to each other today, important things. Are you comfortable if I share them with our friend here?”

I nodded, after only a few seconds of thought. After all, who else was a closer friend? Pablo squeezed my hand.

“Thank you, my love”

Lauren’s breath whistled.

“Really?”

I nodded, yet again, like some stupid ornament.

“Yes, really. What was the text about, love?”

“Confirmation. I work for our government, Lauren. A civil servant, you would say. My business, the guiding, it is an extra job. It has made some news, outside of Cuba, and that is largely because of my friends in Germany, and the photographs this woman has delivered. My country wishes to make the guiding a formal business, to establish guides in the tourist areas, from local people. That will require that the right people be collected, selected, sorry, that they be trained”

I couldn’t speak, but Lauren was already there.

“They want you to do some of this training, then?”

He shook his head.

“No, they do not. I have no skills there. I know the birds, but I am no teacher. Other people will do that. I am a simple civil servant. Simple civil servants can be moved to new simple civil service jobs. The foreign ministry, you would say, wishes to sell Cuba as a green destination for holidays, and this will become part of it”

I found my own voice at last, for he was smiling.

“What does this mean for you and Rita?”

For us?

“That my new role has been approved. My…”

He pulled his phone out once more, then read out some of the message.

“My credentials are to be presented to the Court of St James as a very junior cultural attaché for tourism at our London Mission. Rita and myself, we will be going home as planned, but then, after…”

He shook his head, then looked up, grinning.

“I do not know what the arrangements will be, how the Mission will house us, but, well, after we have been home, the two of us, I feel we will be returning to, well…”

Another grin.

“Can you wait for me until I come home properly, my love?”

Rita was crying, but when we had our bottle of cava, and poured her a glass, she cheered up.

My man left me in October, but he was back for Christmas. New Year, new life.