Please Forgive Me (6 page)

The man turned to back to her, his jaw twitching but, Leonie realised with some relief, there also was a faint twinkle in his eye.

‘Y-fronts,’ he repeated his mouth tightening, and she couldn’t be sure but it looked like he was trying his best not to smile. ‘Well don’t you worry,’ he continued, zipping up the case and heading for the doorway, where the hotel porter still hovered uncomfortably, ‘I won’t trouble you with them any longer.’

***

Once the luggage problem had been resolved, Leonie quickly began to settle into her holiday. She was mortified that she’d been caught red-handed rummaging through a stranger’s things on the first night, and since then she’d been avoiding the hotel porter like the plague, horrified by what he might think of this unprincipled foreigner.

But days later, she was restless and fed-up of lounging around the pool on her own, so she decided to book one of the excursions offered by the holiday rep – a trip to the Sahara desert. The two-day round trip would be a great way to see more of the countryside and get a better flavour of the real Tunisia, something that was difficult in a purpose-built, modern resort town.

The bus was scheduled to pick her up from the hotel at five am, and still half-asleep, Leonie waited out front until it trundled up the driveway. Getting on board, she was dismayed to see that it was packed with other tourists and many of the seats were already taken. So much for a window seat, she thought ruefully, making her way along the aisle, hoping that she wouldn’t end up stuck alongside some chatterbox for the next few hours.

Eventually spying a free seat – the last one on board – she checked if it was unoccupied before stowing her bag overhead with the others. Then, she’d only just sat down when she heard a male voice call out nearby. ‘Sure you’ll remember which one is yours?’

Leonie looked to her right, and realised to her horror that – in the aisle seat directly opposite and looking mightily pleased with himself – was the guy from the other night. Caught off guard she reddened, unsure what to say, but then just as quickly found her voice. ‘It should be fine,’ she replied mortified, ‘as long as some one else doesn’t make off with it first.’

 
‘Yep, you have to be very careful with stuff, these days, don’t you?’ he replied in a mocking tone, stretching a long limb out onto the aisle between them. ‘You never know what might happen or who it might end up with. Of course, most people are fine – very trustworthy – but there’s always one or two…’

Leonie could tell that he was enjoying riling her, but refusing to indulge him, she picked up her book and pretended to read.

Undeterred he went on. ‘I mean, you’d think that the majority of people would be
appalled
to find they’d picked up someone else things, and would go out of their way to
-
’

‘But I didn’t make the mistake,’ Leonie retorted, blushing furiously. ‘Someone took off with
my
bag, leaving me no choice but to –’

‘Root around in their underwear?’

Her gaze darted around, mortified that someone would overhear. ‘I told you, I was only trying to find out who
owned
the stuff,’ she muttered out of the corner of her mouth. ‘I couldn’t care less what was in there, and I certainly wasn’t trying to root around in your underwear …’

‘Ha! You should be so lucky,’ he chortled, and despite herself, she couldn’t resist a grin. She looked sideways at him, deciding yet again that he really was quite cute, even cuter than she remembered from the other night. His sandy-coloured hair was still damp from his morning shower and his skin already lightly tanned which, along with the white T-shirt he wore, nicely set off his toned arms and defined biceps. And there was no denying the pair of equally defined legs in those shorts, Leonie thought swallowing hard. But then quickly remembering the engagement ring, she gave a surreptitious glance across the way to see if his girlfriend (or now fiancée) was sitting next to him, but no there was only another man dozing against the window.

Exhaling heavily, she turned to look at him properly. Well he might be cute, but the existence of the ring rendered such observations pointless, didn’t it?

‘Look, I’m sorry about what happened with your bag. You’re right; I shouldn’t have been rooting through your stuff and I’m especially sorry about the ring – but I really did happen upon it by accident,’ she continued, aware that she was babbling. ‘I was just about to put it back when you knocked on the door – I mean I wasn’t going to steal it or anything like that. I wouldn’t
dream
of it.’

‘Could have been a major catastrophe losing that ring,’ he replied with a shake of his head. ‘When you consider all the planning that went into it, all the trying to keep things quiet and keep it a surprise… Not to mention the stress of having to propose in the first place.’

She nodded. ‘I can imagine.’ Leonie couldn’t help but wonder if he had proposed yet, and if he had, where was his fiancée?

‘Mick nearly had a heart attack he was so worried. Poor fella wasn’t even able to
see
straight, let alone try and get it back.’

‘Mick?’ she frowned. ‘Who’s Mick?’

‘And of course he couldn’t very well let on to Sophie what he was so wired about,’ he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘I mean, he could hardly tell her that he’d misplaced a two grand engagement ring, not when she hadn’t a clue he had one in the first place …’

‘Oh my goodness,’ she gasped, wide-eyed as recognition dawned. ‘You mean it wasn’t
your
bag at all?’

‘Whatever made you think it was?’ He was all innocence.

‘Well your theatrics for one!’ Leonie wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or annoyed. ‘All that flinging stuff around and getting on your high horse… You were so riled up, I didn’t think for a
second
the bag might not be yours!’

‘Hey, I’d just come off a four hour flight after a two hour delay in Dublin, remember? And then having got to my hotel, I had to go back out in this heat and take a taxi
another
hour out of my way to try and get the bloody bag back. The luggage was my responsibility and I felt terrible that I’d picked up the wrong one and lost Mick’s stuff, and even worse that I’d
-
’

‘So it
was
you who caused all this in the first place,’ Leonie interjected wide-eyed. ‘And to think you had to cheek to blame
me
for…’

He winced, realising he’d caught himself out. ‘Yikes! OK I’m busted,’ he said sighing. ‘And yeah, you’re right. I shouldn’t have got so upset that night. I suppose it was all my fault really.’

‘You
suppose
?’ Leonie spluttered. ‘And not only that, but then you had the cheek to start picking on me again today! I don’t believe it!’

Now he was grinning. ‘I know, I know, I’m sorry. I’m well and truly caught out now. But when I saw you get on, I just couldn’t resist, and it was only a bit of fun …’

‘Ha, bloody ha,’ was all she could say, as a smile tried to fight its way across her lips.

There was a brief silence for a bit while Leonie tried her best to pretend she was annoyed, although the truth was she was actually quite gratified that the bag wasn’t his. For more reasons than one.

Eventually, he leaned further across the aisle. ‘You didn’t
really
think I wore that kind of stuff did you?’ he muttered. ‘Y-fronts? Come on…’

Leonie grinned broadly, refusing to look at him. ‘To be honest, I didn’t really give it a second thought.’

The day-long journey seemed to pass in no time at all, not when Leonie was able to share it with such a chatty companion. Introductions were made and she discovered that his name was Adam, he lived in Dublin, and worked as an engineer for a large multinational in Kildare.

And although Leonie didn’t ask outright (she wouldn’t dream of it after their misunderstanding about the engagement ring!) she also concluded that he was single.
 

‘Mick dragged a few of us along on this holiday with him so Sophie wouldn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary,’ he told her.

‘Which was why he put the ring in the bag and not the carry-on luggage,’ Leonie said.
 
‘I did wonder about that.’

‘Yep. He couldn’t take a chance on security blowing the surprise. Bit of a risk, I thought. Turns out I was right, although we were very lucky that someone as honest as yourself found it,’ he added mocking her.

Leonie ignored it. ‘And has he done it yet? Proposed I mean.’

‘Nope, he’s still working up to it and from what I can see, he hasn’t had her to himself at all yet. Reason enough not to bring a busload of mates along with you,’ he added wryly.

‘How many of you came?’

‘Nine of us altogether. Four loved-up couples and little old me. I think things got a little bit out of hand to be honest,’ he continued with a shake of his head. ‘It started off as just Mick and Sophie and one or two of us, and then all of a sudden the whole gang was coming. We’ve all been mates for donkey’s years, so once word got round, nobody wanted to be left out.’

‘I must say it doesn’t sound very romantic to me.’ Leonie grimaced thinking she’d hate having so many people around for what should really be a private thing.

‘I know, but that’s just Mick’s way. Although, things certainly haven’t gone smoothly for him so far.’ Then he grinned. ‘I just hope to God that when he does get the chance to ask her that she doesn’t turn him down.’

Leonie smiled. ‘Having seen that ring, I really don’t think so.’

‘So what about you?’ Adam asked then. ‘Are you here on your own?’

She nodded, hoping he wouldn’t think she was some sad sack who had no friends. ‘It was a last-minute thing and most of my friends have other commitments,’ she explained. ‘I don’t mind though, I actually quite like travelling on my own.’

‘Well, if that’s the case, don’t be afraid to tell me to push off and leave you alone. I only came on this tour because I haven’t been to Tunisia before and wanted to do something different. And I needed a break from coupledom,’ he added wryly. ‘Don’t get me wrong, they’re my friends and they’re great, but – ‘

‘Too much lovey-dovey business?’ Leonie said.

‘The opposite actually, they never stop snapping and sniping at each other. The married ones are the worst, but even Sophie and Mick are a disaster already so who knows what they’ll be like once they’re hitched! Honest to God, sometimes I wonder why anyone bothers.’

Thinking of her own parents’ bickering before their divorce, Leonie was forced to agree, although she got the distinct impression that much of what Adam was referring to was merely good-natured squabbling.

‘So as I said, don’t be worried about me getting in your hair or anything. I’m just as happy to sit here staring out the window, and listening to yer man there snoring. Delighted in fact,’ he added with a gleam in his eye.

But after that there was little chance of Leonie asking him to leave her be, and they continued chatting easily throughout the journey.

As they travelled further away from the main tourist areas, the vegetation gradually became sparser, and wild camels roamed around in the distance, occasionally crossing the road in front of the bus.

Passing through towns and villages, they saw nomadic shepherds bringing their sheep and goats to roadside markets to sell or exchange, while village children waved at the bus as it passed by.

‘It’s tempting to stay by the pool, but I’m always glad when I do these things,’ Adam commented when they stopped for lunch in a place called Nefta, a pretty little village of sand-coloured houses on the edge of a spectacular oasis overlooking thousands of date palms, pomegranate and apricot trees.

‘Me too,’ Leonie agreed, for more reasons than one.
 

On the way, the tour stopped off at the desert village of Matmata, a series of subterranean cave dwellings hidden amongst a lunar-like landscape. The area was used as a film set for the home of young Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars movies and as Adam was a big fan, this was an absolute must-see. Leonie too was impressed by how the cave-people (or troglodytes as they were properly called) had originally utilised the landscape in this way to escape from marauding Arabs and the desert heat, and it was fascinating to walk through the various homes – almost like stepping into another era, apart from the various TV aerials sticking out of the ground that gave it away.

When hours later, they reached their final destination, she didn’t know how she would have endured the long trip without Adam. They’d kept up an easygoing chat all along which kept the tedium at bay. But then, when the bus stopped at the edge of the Sahara sand dunes, Leonie felt the arduous journey simply melt away.

The view across the dunes was awe-inspiring. Immense waves of the finest golden sand undulated into the distance for what seemed like thousands of miles, while above was the clearest, bluest sky she had ever seen. It was late afternoon and the sun stretched the shadows of palms across the entire surface and gilded the sand in molten light.

Exiting the bus, she and Adam eagerly approached the camels that lined up on the edge of the dunes, waiting to show them the desert as it was meant to be seen.

Once everyone was fully geared up with burkas to protect from the sand and sun, Leonie took the herder’s lead and positioned herself upon a kneeling camel. She sat astride the animal, patiently waiting for it to stand up and move off nice and slowly when all of a sudden the innocent-looking (but notoriously bad-tempered) camel buckled forward and knocked her headfirst to the ground.

‘Ow!’ she groaned, shell-shocked. ‘What was that for?’

Perched nearby atop his own perfectly behaved charge, Adam guffawed. ‘Making friends?’ he grinned as Leonie dusted herself off and reluctantly went to get back on again. This time the camel, seemingly content at showing her who was boss stood up and moved off without complaint. She tensed a little, taken aback by how far above ground they were, as well as the strange bumpy motion of the camel trundling along in the sand. ‘Getting off on the wrong foot seems to be a bit of thing with you, doesn’t it?’ Adam went on, as their respective camels made their way further out to the dunes.