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“You know I don’t like to be late, Gabriela.”
Gabi put down her bags and stretched her back. She kissed her nana on the cheeks. The smell of soap and the foundation cream that she’d used for as long as Gabi could remember was comforting. Nana pressed her lips tightly together and stared down the road like a skittish cat. Perhaps she was more nervous than she let on. Bless her. At seventy-five and having not travelled abroad since she arrived in the UK, it was no surprise she might be a bit anxious about the journey. “We’ve got an itinerary. We’ll be fine.”
“Not if we miss the taxi to Exeter, we won’t,” Nana said.
“He’s coming straight to your door.”
“And if we’re late, we’ll miss the train to London.”
“We’re here, aren’t we?”
“That’s not the point. You could’ve been late.”
Gabi rolled her eyes. “We have plenty of time between all our changes, so we don’t need to rush, and a taxi will be waiting for us in Granada. You can relax. I’ve sorted it.”
Nana patted Gabi’s hand. “I know, Gabriela. I’m a little nervous.”
Gabi took Nana’s hand. “That’s why I’m with you. And look, here it comes.” The driver was early. Gabi was glad she hadn’t been any later.
Nana used the cane to make her way down the steps and along the path, and greeted the driver with a jolly, “Good morning.”
He opened the door for her, and she took a seat in the back, leaving Gabi staring at the bags and wondering whether it would have been easier to just buy what they needed in Spain. The driver opened the boot of the car and stood next to it, apparently not eager to help. She dropped their bags at the back of the car and smiled at him. “Nice morning,” she said.
He grunted, giving the impression he was about as enthused at working at this hour as Gabi was being awake, and groaned as he lifted Gabi’s case into his boot. Wimp. Gabi strained under the weight of Nana’s first case, lugged it down the path, and smiled at the driver as he struggled to lift it. The second case was a fraction lighter, but it was still going to need to go through oversized baggage. Gabi had never had any inclination to work out before five a.m. The adverts for those early morning gym classes were a crock. No, it didn’t feel great straining muscles before they’d fully woken up, and no, shifting overweight suitcases didn’t set her up for the day. If she was at the flat now, she’d be turning over in bed and enjoying the restorative effects of a long lie-in before a strong sweet coffee. That would be the perfect set-up for the day.
She sat next to Nana and fastened her seatbelt. Her shirt clung to her back and beads of sweat formed on her brow. Nana was still wrapped in her coat and wearing her hat. “Aren’t you warm?” she asked.
“It’s better to be prepared than caught short, cariño.”
“Hm.”
“And I ran out of space in the cases,” Nana said.
No shit. “An outfit for every season, eh?”
Nana took Gabi’s hand and squeezed it. “I couldn’t decide what to leave behind.”
Gabi frowned. “How did you manage to lift the cases to the door?”
“I didn’t, Gabriela. I packed them on the doorstep.”
God help us getting through London. Her thumping head told her it was mid-morning already and quizzed her as to what had happened to the coffee. She stared longingly at the blue neon light of Caffé Nero as they drove past. A jittery feeling in her stomach prompted her to ask the driver to stop, but that wasn’t on the itinerary, and Nana wouldn’t like it if they strayed from their detailed travel plan.
Thirty minutes later and they were right on schedule, parked up outside St David’s station with their bags sat in a line on the path. “Wait here and I’ll go and find a trolley.” Gabi said.
“Yes, cariño.”
The distinctive coffee aroma called Gabi to the counter, and she ordered two double espressos. If Nana didn’t want hers, Gabi would happily have both. Drinks in hand, she headed towards the trolley park. It wasn’t easy juggling the two cardboard cups with a trolley that had a persistent lean to the left. What was it with bloody trolleys and wheels? With the determination of her craving-inspired body, she made it to the place she’d left Nana and their luggage, next to the lamp post just outside the station’s main entrance where the taxi had dropped them off. Exactly where Nana should have been waiting for her. So where the hell was she? Where was their luggage? The absence of caffeine enhanced her worst fears and with a racing heart, she searched among the increasing number of travellers that occupied the path in front of the building. There wasn’t a pink fuchsia hat in sight and the more she looked, the stronger the anxiety bit. “Fucking hell, Nana. Where are you?”
“Language, Gabriela.”
Gabi turned to see Nana approach pushing their bags on a trolley. Gabi took a deep breath and her heartbeat started to slow, and then the fire rose inside her again. “Where did you go? You can’t just wander off like that.”
“A nice young man gave me his trolley. He was very helpful and polite. And those are rare qualities these days. So I took him to the notice board, the one with the local attractions advertised on it. He was very grateful.”
Gabi ran her fingers through her hair, pulled at the roots and took a couple more deep breaths. She forced a smile, and the trembling in her stomach eventually abated.
Nana patted her hand. “Come on, Gabriela, we haven’t got time to stand around. I don’t want to miss the train.”
