KEEP CALM & CARRY ON HOLIDAYING

The sun dazzled off a sparkling blue sea. A beach so perfectly golden you could swear it had been painted ran from the water’s edge to the wide promenade, dotted the whole way with colourful parasols and sunbeds. An impossibly glamorous couple on the nearest sunbeds were drinking exotic-looking cocktails. Kate’s mouth watered at the sight. This was paradise, this was what she’d been dreaming of for the past two years. This was also still 600 miles away. She took a deep breath and sighed, turning away from the poster of the Cote d’Azur stuck on the airport lounge wall to look up at the departure board again. Every flight listed was still cancelled.

‘All this technology and a little bit of rain stops everything,’ the man from Essex on the seat behind them grumbled again. The storm was raging outside, rain which had been pouring all night lashing against the windows, no let up in sight.

‘A little bit of rain?’ his wife started. ‘A little bit of rain?’

A member of airport staff rushed by looking harassed, half a dozen people trailing him, peppering him with questions. The poor man tripped over a suitcase, a group of men on a stag do helping him right himself with a few colourful oneliners. All around were fellow holidaymakers trapped by this unexpected summer storm – families, couples, friends – crammed together for hours, not even able to sleep through the noise of the storm. Just… waiting.

‘We should leave,’ a pasty, middle-aged man sitting opposite Kate told the woman next to him. ‘We’re never going anywhere at this rate.’

‘I’m not missing my holiday,’ the woman insisted, squeezing her handbag tighter to her lap.

‘What do you think?’ Susie asked Kate quietly.

Kate looked at her friend and thought she could still detect traces of Susie’s tears.

She was probably in no more of a rush to go home than Kate was. This holiday was meant to be some time apart for Susie from her husband after the revelation of his affair.

‘Well, we’re here now,’ Kate said. ‘Besides, Nate’s got his new boyfriend staying the weekend, I said they’d have the flat to themselves. Three can definitely be a crowd.’ She looked towards the window again. ‘Not sure the trains’ll be running in this, we might not be able to get home anyway. Shall we stay a bit longer?’ Susie nodded, giving Kate a weak smile that felt like the tears were still not far away yet.

‘This is intolerable,’ Essex man complained, jumping to his feet and pacing around his bench. ‘We’ve been here all night. They aren’t even telling us what’s going on.’

‘I think they’re trying their

He had lovely grey eyes, kind eyes – and no wedding ring…

best,’ Kate said, not able to bear his complaining much longer. ‘And we can see what’s going on.’ The wind battering the windows was a bit of a giveaway.

‘You’re not the only one upset, you know,’ a red-haired woman one seat down told him. ‘We’ve been waiting for this holiday for eighteen months, three times it’s been rescheduled, and now it’s going to be cancelled again. We’re all in the same boat.’

‘Which is why we need to band together to complain. Then we might get somewhere.’

‘We’re not going anywhere in this weather, any idiot can see that,’ one of the stag do joined in.

‘We were going to a street party as well, for the Jubilee,’ red-haired woman continued wistfully. ‘I know Jubilee Day has passed but they have different public holidays in France, there’s one tomorrow. Our friends in Nice, there’s a few expats there,’ she explained, ‘they’re throwing a party for the Queen tomorrow instead.’ She looked at her watch. ‘Today now. Not going to make it, are we? I was really

looking forward to that. Just another thing we won’t be able to do, like so much else the last two years.’

The wind rattled the windows again, a reminder the storm wasn’t going anywhere either.

Susie offered Kate her bottle of orange juice. ‘Do you want some of this?’

Kate looked at the bag of snacks and duty-free she’d bought. It didn’t need to be like this. ‘OK,’ Kate said loudly, ‘who’s up for a party? Right here, right now.’ She emptied two packets of crisps and a bottle of vodka from her bag. ‘I know technically it’s early morning but–’

The eyes of the red-haired woman had lit up. She scrabbled for her handbag and pulled out a bag of chocolates and a bag of fruit gums. ‘They help with the air pressure,’ she said sheepishly as she handed them over. The next thing, people were producing packets of biscuits and homemade sandwiches, someone even had a packet of scones. The airport worker who’d tripped over was offered a consolatory sausage roll.

The stag party needed no persuading. By the time they’d emptied their stash there was quite a bar going, Susie volunteering to do bartender duties, keeping them in line, a flash of her old self appearing now and then. ‘You’ll have it weak, they won’t let you on the plane if you’re in a state,’ she told one complaining about her measures.

‘We need some music,’ a younger stag said, awful thrash music suddenly coming out of his phone.

‘And that’s enough of that,’ the man who’d shut down the Essex complainer told him, taking the phone and shutting down this also. ‘Let me find something,’ he said, pulling out his own phone and scrolling through. ‘Ah, how about this?’ Old-fashioned, 1940s music started playing.

‘That’s great,’ Kate said. ‘Just right.’

‘To go with the wartime spirit,’ he explained. He had lovely grey eyes, kind eyes (and no wedding ring she couldn’t help but notice). ‘You’d think we were all going to Dunkirk.’

‘Santé,’ Kate told him, touching her weak vodka and orange to his bottle of water.

‘The Queen!’ he replied, holding up his bottle. Suddenly everyone was drinking the Queen’s health.

An elderly couple started jiving in the next aisle to a lot of cheers, others were singing along to the well-known oldie. Even a small Union Jack flag had been found and was being merrily waved.

‘Now this is more like being on holiday,’ grey eyes said admiring the party that had sprung up. ‘Well done you,’ he told Kate, ‘the south of France will have a lot to live up to after this.’ He leaned in a little. ‘I do hope you’re going to Nice, too?’

Out of the corner of her eye, Kate spotted Essex man at the airport service desk gesturing wildly towards them and had the feeling he’d found something else to complain about.

‘Yes, I am. Although by the time we get there, it’ll probably be time for us to come back.’ Kate was surprised she didn’t feel sadder about that.

Grey eyes smiled warmly at her. ‘I think sometimes the journey can be just as enjoyable as the destination. Don’t you?’