The Surrogate

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Wednesday September 14th. London.

Seb emerges from the airport terminal building and out into the early autumn sunshine at Heathrow. Keeping his head down and hoping he's shielding himself under his grey cap and RayBans, he tries to avoid eye contact with everyone he passes. He's not in the mood to stop and talk and have photographs taken, he's here for one reason and one reason only - to find Holly.

As per usual, it's busy here and there's a constant stream of people both leaving the terminal building and entering it, while the noise of planes landing and taking off is almost constant, thanks to the tight schedule which means that aircraft are landing and taking off sometimes as frequently as every forty-five seconds.

It takes him just a few minutes to locate his rental car, a very inconspicuous, metallic blue, Ford Kuga ST Line. He's hoping he'll blend in with this hybrid vehicle, it's definitely not as noticeable as a DBX, Porsche or Ferrari.

Once it's disconnected from the charging station, he gets in, flinging his rucksack on to the passenger seat. After sending a quick text back home to his sister to let her know he's arrived in the UK, he drops his phone into a small tray in the centre console and sets off, pulling out of the parking space in electric mode and as he accelerates, the engine takes over.

His first stop is going to be Holly's apartment. He's made numerous calls to her over the past couple of days and they've all gone unanswered and in his mind, this is the most obvious place he'll find her.

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Holly flits from draw to draw and cupboard to cupboard in her apartment, checking and double checking.

She heads to the kitchen and opens the fridge where she spots the out of date milk, a pack containing two slices of ham that have well and truly seen better days and a couple of strawberry yogurts that, like the milk, will probably grow its own legs soon and walk out of the fridge of its own accord - it's that long out of date.

She gathers the items up, pulling a face as the smell of the ham hits her. Even tho it's dried up and grey, it still stinks and she's not even going to contemplate opening the milk bottle or the yogurts.

After dumping them in the bin, she heads back to the bedroom where her case is open and filled with clean clothes.

She hasn't heard from Seb since the day she left, not that she can blame him for that. He'll be angry and hurt but his silence also worries her and that's why she feels that she still can't stay here, there's still that niggling feeling inside that tells her he's not simply going to give up and leave her alone. He's bound to turn up here looking for her sooner or later.

She's finally satisfied that she's got everything she needs for now and so closes her case before zipping it up. Standing back, she looks down and decides the floors need a vacuum, she can't remember the last time she hoovered up or dusted around the apartment and it's looking like it could do with a bit of tlc, like me - she thinks to herself. Her face falls even more at that thought because the one man who loved her and cared enough to give her that tlc is probably back at his home in Switzerland, looking after his baby daughter, alone.

Starting to feel tearful, she shakes her head at herself and goes to grab her cordless vacuum from its charger on the wall. Keeping busy is the best thing she can do, keeping busy stops her mind from going to places she's trying to leave behind.

As she sets about the task she's given herself, she glances quickly to the clock on the wall and her mind spirals out of control. What if Seb is in London? It's a relatively short flight in comparison to some of the countries he flies to for races. What if he's close by, on his way to knock on her door? Her idea to vacuum and dust throughout the apartment will have to be cut short, it's best if she returns to Ester's place.