‘Mum, this is Marvin. Marvin, this is my mum, Tessa. You can call her Ms Dannall.’
It’s still hard for me to believe that I have a daughter who is old enough to drive a car, drink alcohol, vote – and get married. Which is what my little girl will be doing at our family beach resort in just under a week.
They’ve just arrived from Brighton and they both look jet-lagged, but happy and excited to be here.
I stare very hard at Marvin, my daughter’s fiancé. This is the first time I have met him in real life. He is often there when I video-call Nia, and he seems polite and nice. But he wants to marry my daughter, so he has to be more than polite and nice – he needs to be amazing. They met doing work experience at an IT company two years ago and have been together ever since.
I’m not sure what I make of you yet, I think to myself.
‘I am not sure what I make of you yet,’ my 70-year-old mother actually says. ‘I am not sure if you are good enough for my precious granddaughter.’
Bussu Bay Beach Resort is our family home and business in Ghana, West Africa. My parents opened it nearly thirty years ago – and ran it until about four years ago when I had to take over. My mother, who was in charge of the resort while my father took care of the watersports side of things, fell and broke her hip. Even with all the help and staff they had, they couldn’t see how to keep the business going in the way they wanted so they talked about selling it. I was living in Brighton, England, I had a great job and a great life, but I couldn’t let them sell this place when it had been all they had worked for. So I had to move here and take over.
It’d been such a difficult decision. I hated the thought of leaving Brighton, and I hated leaving Nia, but I especially hated the idea of living here after what had happened twenty-four years ago. But I had no choice – my parents needed me. Now that my mum doesn’t have to worry about the business, she enjoys bossing me around. And she enjoys embarrassing her granddaughter.
‘I suppose you are almost handsome,’ my mother says to Marvin.
Nia glares at me, trying to tell me to control her grandmother. I want to laugh in my daughter’s face and ask her: since when have I ever been able to control my mother?
‘Mother,’ I say and hook my arm through hers, ‘let’s go and show the happy couple where they’ll be sleeping.’
I whisper to Nia and Marvin, ‘It’s the Honeymoon Suite.’ Over the years, our resort has grown from ten rooms to fifty, all varying in size. For Nia and Marvin, I have chosen the biggest room that is part of the main complex, with views out over the large green palm trees and the ocean. As well as a luxury bath and shower, it has its own private patio where they can have breakfast in peace, and a little path leads down to the drop-off where the beach begins.
My mum stops and, leaning heavily on her walking stick, she turns to me. She looks at me like she is about to tell me off.
‘Honeymoon?’ she says sternly. ‘Do you see a wedding ring on my granddaughter’s finger?’
Me and my big mouth, I groan inside. ‘No,’ I say.
‘Then they will not be sleeping in the same room, let alone the room for those who are married.’ When she says the last part, my mum turns to glare at Jake, my other half.
Mum is still so put out that we’re not married, but live under her roof, that I have to keep a room free for him. Every night, if Mum is up when Jake goes to bed, he has to declare, ‘Goodnight all, I’m just off to my bedroom’. Otherwise she gives him one of her world-famous stares. Jake doesn’t complain. Just like he didn’t complain when we packed up and moved here. Mum continues to stare at poor Jake.
‘Mama,’ Jake says to my mother, raising his hands in peace, ‘every other day I ask your daughter to marry me, and every other day, she says no.’
Mum shakes her head. ‘Excuses, excuses, excuses.’
Nia says to Marvin, ‘I’m sure I told you how Grandma and me both think Mum and Jake should be married by now. They’ve been together nearly twenty years and she still won’t marry him. That’s just wrong, isn’t it?’
I smile at my daughter. I am so getting her back for that. ‘So, seeing as you agree with Grandma about people who aren’t married not sharing rooms, I think it’s best that you each get a room on either side of Grandma and Grandpa’s room?’
My grin gets even wider as Nia’s mouth drops open.
‘Sounds great,’ Marvin says.
My daughter doesn’t move. ‘I can’t believe you’ve just done that to me,’ she says.
‘Well, babe, to be fair, you did start it by mentioning her not being married,’ Marvin says. ‘And I think we’ve all learnt a valuable lesson today, don’t you?’
‘What lesson is that?’ Nia asks him.
‘Don’t annoy your mother.’
I grin at him. ‘Oh I like you, Marvin,’ I say. ‘I like you very, very much.’
Nia takes her wedding dress, hidden in a large silver cover. Marvin picks up some of their bags, and they begin to follow my mother down the hallway towards their rooms.
Before Jake and I move to gather up the rest of the luggage, we stare at each other. We haven’t talked about it since Nia said she wanted to get married here. We haven’t talked about it, but how could either of us forget the way the last wedding we went to on the beach changed our lives for ever?