“Okay, let’s do it,” I tell Alex, my voice muffled by the visor. “But don’t blame me if it all goes badly wrong.”
“Summer, come ON.”
Chloe’s voice makes me spring into action, and I swing my leg over the seat of the bike and position my feet on the pedals. After a moment, I feel Alex’s arms around my waist, and I freeze at the contact. If I’d thought our previous seating arrangement felt intimate, it’s absolutely nothing to the way he’s currently spooned against my body; his chest against my back, and his arms wrapped around me.
This is another one for the ‘best not to think about it’ files.
Even though I am most definitely thinking about it.
“You have to press down on the accelerator to get it to move,” he says, his voice coming from right behind my ear.
“I know,” I say quickly, relieved to find that my own voice sounds relatively normal.
Clearing my throat, I press tentatively down on the pedal, then hold my breath and wait for the crash.
But it doesn’t come.
Instead, the bike moves smoothly forward. I breathe out slowly as I guide it out of the viewpoint parking area, and into line behind Chloe and Jamie, who’s very deliberately avoiding my gaze.
“Well done,” says Alex. “I knew you could do it.”
And it turns out Ican. I’m doing it.
I’m actuallydoingit.
We ride back through the forest, and down the hill towards the place we started. It’s hard to talk over the sound of the engines, which is a relief, because I suspect it would be hard to carry out a normal conversation with Alex’s arms around me like this. Instead, I do my best to concentrate on my driving, silently congratulating myself as I manage to keep up with the rest of the group without crashing orknocking anything over. As we approach the little arena we picked up the bikes from, I realize I’m actually disappointed that the ride is almost over; I’ve been enjoying it so much I could easily have kept on going.
“That was amazing,” I say as Alex unwinds his arms from my waist and climbs back off the bike. “Thanks for encouraging me to do it. I don’t think I’d have had the nerve if you hadn’t talked me into it.”
“I didn’t do anything,” he replies, pulling his bike helmet off and grinning at me. “It was all you.”
“Well, thanks anyway,” I reply, feeling suddenly shy under the force of those green eyes. “I really enjoyed it. I didn’t expect to, but I did.”
Which makes me wonder whatelseI might enjoy, if I just gave it a chance?
“Summer, can we go?” Chloe says, wobbling towards us on shaky legs. “I don’t feel great.”
She doesn’tlookgreat, either; which is so unusual for Chloe that I step forward and put my hand on her forehead, assuming she must be ill.
“You’re burning up,” I say, frowning at her green-tinged complexion. “You must be coming down with something.”
“I bet I caught it on the plane,” she groans, looking like she’s about to throw up. “This is why I don’t usually travel economy.”
She doesn’t usually travel anythingotherthan economy either, but I keep this thought to myself as Jamie calls for a taxi. We all squeeze into it together, with me sandwiched between Alex and Jamie in the back, while Chloe insists on riding shotgun, with the window rolled down. No one talks much on the drive back down to the coast. Chloe’s feeling too sick to speak, and all of my conversation starters seem horribly banal when I’m sitting squeezed against the man I once thought wasgoing to be the love of my life, and the man who… I just keep bumping into, to quote Alex, himself.
I’ve totally exhausted the subject of the weather and the scenery, and am considering asking them both how they feel Brexit has worked out for us, just for something to say, when we finally pull up outside Jamie’s bar.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to drop you off at home?” I ask, as he opens the car door, looking relieved to be escaping. “Where do you live, by the way? You didn’t say.”
“Oh, here’s fine,” he replies, trying to hand me some money for the taxi, which I wave away. “I should really get back to work. Great seeing you, guys!”
He gives a small wave, which includes me and Chloe while somehow excluding Alex. Then he’s gone, heading off towards the Squirrel at a quick jog. I quickly shuffle into the seat he’s just vacated, and we travel the rest of the way in silence, punctuated only by the occasional groan from Chloe, who’s milking her ‘invalid’ status for all it’s worth.
“Just get some rest,” I tell her, as I help her back to her room. “I’ll come and get you when it’s time for dinner, okay? You might be feeling better by then.”
When I knock on her door a few hours later, though, having spent a pleasant afternoon by the pool, with absolutely no sign of Alex, Rita, or anyone else who might start asking awkward questions about me and Jamie, there’s no answer. I hover outside the room for a few minutes, before knocking again, but when there’s still no sign of life from behind the door, I decide she must be sleeping, and head down to the restaurant on my own, trying not to feel relieved.
I’m not glad Chloe’sill, obviously. I’m just glad she’s nothere, is all.
