The Long Weekend Read Free Page B

journey, perhaps some fancy chocolate too. Or even a cake. She was on holiday after all, so calorie count be damned.
     

The Arrival
     
    Advertised as a seaside retreat, their home for the weekend had nothing but fantastic reviews online. Vic and Stevie were hoping it lived up to its cracking credentials and first impressions didn’t disappoint. Vic whistled through her teeth as they swept down the horseshoe drive and pulled up outside the black garage door.
    “How much would this cost in London?” Vic assessed the double-fronted house ahead that possessed both style and grandeur. “Looks absolutely enormous.”
    “I bet it costs a pretty penny down here, too.” Stevie wasted no time getting out of the car and stretching again. After a few seconds, she popped her head back inside. “But just for this weekend, let’s pretend it’s all ours.”
    “You’re on.”
    Vic’s feet crunched on the gravel as she rounded the car and unlocked the boot, hauling their grey suitcases out of their confinement. She still held the view they’d packed too much for a long weekend but Stevie had told her if it could fit in the car, it was coming with them.
    These days, Vic didn’t make arguments where they weren’t strictly necessary, so she’d said nothing.
    “Come on you, let’s get this stuff inside.” Vic handed a case to her wife.
    Stevie tried to wheel it to the front door but the gravel wouldn’t allow it, so instead she picked it up with a grunt, her face flushing pink with the effort.
    Stevie turned the key in the door and Vic followed her in, scanning the extensive wood-panelled hallway hung with modern artwork. Someone was clearly a Jackson Pollock fan. Light flooded in through massive windows, with added colour waltzing around via stained glass windows overhead. It made a great first impression and Vic’s shoulders slumped with relief as she realised they’d picked a winner. With most other odds stacked against her this weekend, it was good to know their accommodation wouldn’t be one of them.
    Vic dropped her suitcase at the bottom of the grand staircase to her right, before heading across the hallway and through a door to the left. She drew a breath. This house just got better.
    “Fuck me – they weren’t lying. Babe, you gotta see this!”
    Stevie dumped her suitcase and walked to the lounge. She too stopped almost as soon as she entered the room.
    “Holy shit!”
    They were standing in the living room, the feature room, the one that made them stop on the holiday cottage website and click. It was grand – in scale, in opulence, in views. The whole of the main wall which they were currently staring out of was a mass of polished glass overlooking the garden and the sea. The cliff fell away in front of them to reveal masses of oak-coloured sand and water as far as the eye could see. It was spellbinding.
    Stevie broke into a spontaneous round of applause as she surveyed the rest of the room. Modern neutral-toned sofas, fancy coffee table, sumptuous stone-coloured rugs and the biggest flatscreen she’d ever seen on the opposite wall. Massive nature screen one side, enormous TV on the other.
    “This is amazing – I mean, look at it!” Stevie swept her hand expansively. She dropped the welcome envelope in her excitement, then bent to retrieve it.
    Vic blinked and grinned. “Wait till the others see it, they’re going to be blown away. And they so owe us for finding this.”
    “Too right. Shall we take first pick of the bedrooms as our reward?” Stevie shifted next to Vic who instinctively put her arm around her and kissed her brow, now perked up with colour.
    “Let’s do it.”
    They sprang up the stripy carpeted stairs and chose the bigger of the sea-view rooms. It had an en-suite (as did all the double rooms), a king-size bed and a pair of welcoming red felt armchairs that looked plushly expensive.
    Stevie bounced on the bed and nodded as she sprang back up without much reluctance.
    Vic poked her