‘OK. I saw you on the beach the day that this was taken. I was windsurfing with my mate, Alex, and the wind had taken me a bit closer to shore. I glanced over and saw this girl in a really pretty yellow dress…’
My hands went to my face again. ‘Oh, God, you were the windsurfer,’ I mumbled through my hands.
‘And then you were under the water. I never really saw your face. The brief glance I got, it was sort of covered with your hair. Hence, I’ve never put two and two together before. As I turned, you jumped up out of those waves like a shark was after you.’
‘It was cold!’
‘I could tell.’ He chuckled.
I glared at him again, this time meaning it. ‘So not helping.’
‘I guess that’s when Tilly took this shot.’
‘Not intentionally. The camera was in burst mode.’
‘And then you seemed to lose your balance and went down again.’
‘Bloody pebbles. Besides, I wasn’t the only one who lost my balance, I seem to recall.’
‘No, you’re absolutely right. I was just recovering when I looked over again and there you were… on your hands and knees, looking like that!’ He pointed to the now-closed laptop. ‘Jesus, woman, I nearly bloody drowned because of you!’
‘I was trying to get up!’ I said, my pitch rising as I flapped my hands and colour flushed my chest and face.
‘I know you were.’ He looked over at me. ‘Come on, Libs. You have to laugh about it. It’s only me that saw this. And you can delete it now, if you like.’
‘I’ll be having some serious words with Tilly.’
‘I’m sure it was an accident. Normally she’s great at what she does, isn’t she?’
‘Yes, she is. But this? This is mortifying! I can’t even look at you.’
From behind me, I heard Charlie move. He came over to the window, and began bending further and further down until I was forced to meet his eyes.
‘You’re going to put your back out.’
‘It’s worth it if it means we get past this.’
I turned away from him. ‘I’m all right. Just mortally embarrassed.’
‘Don’t be. It put a smile on my face for the whole day.’
‘You’re really not helping, you know. At all.’
‘Come on. It’s done. And like I said, it’s only me. There are worse people to have seen it, let’s be honest.’
‘When you were windsurfing, you were with someone else.’
‘Yes.’ Charlie saw my eyes widen. ‘But he didn’t see anything,’ he added quickly.
‘How do you know?’
‘Because when I came up coughing and spluttering, having swallowed half the English Channel, I blurted out, “Did you see that?”’
‘Oh, thanks.’
‘Sorry. It was just rather unexpected early on a Friday morning. I wasn’t quite prepared.’
‘But he didn’t?’
