We sat like that for a few minutes, not moving. I wanted to talk to her, ask her how she felt about what had just happened, but I couldn’t find the words.
So I said nothing and just held her.
And right then, it was everything.
7
EMMA
My hands shook as I opened the notes app on my phone and read the list again. It didn’t seem like much, but it was all we had. For now, at least.
Kissing Nick had been an explosion of chemicals, like fizzing candy going off in my mouth, a chemical reaction it was impossible to describe. My whole body tingled afterwards and the truth was I could have sat there in his arms forever.
But all good things must come to an end, and eventually, the cold got the better of us both. Plus, of course, we desperately wanted to give our idea a try. Because if we could work out a way of being together away from the bandstand, then it really would change everything.
I’d felt giddy and anxious with expectation as Nick and I had both checked our lists – mine on my phone, his on a piece of paper torn from a notepad which fluttered in a breeze as he clutched it.
‘So, our watches are synched, we’re sure of that are we?’ I said. Goosebumps had formed on my arms and I shivered.
‘Perfectly,’ he said.
‘And you’re ready?’
‘As ready as I’ll ever be.’
We stood for another moment. I studied his face in the dimming light, the contour of his cheekbones and the slight shadow of stubble on his chin, and I longed to reach out and touch his lips again. But it was time to go.
‘Hopefully see you later then,’ I said.
‘Hopefully,’ he said gently. Then he turned and jumped off the bandstand and disappeared like a popped bubble.
I hurried home through the gardens, where the rose bushes shivered in the unseasonally cold spring breeze, and out into the park. We had almost an hour before our plan began and there was no way I could eat anything. My stomach was in knots. Instead, as soon as I got home I poured myself a glass of wine and ran a bath and sat in it, warming up. As water lapped at my sides and steam rose around my face, I tipped my head back and closed my eyes and tried to imagine Nick sitting in the same place. He’d said he preferred a bath to a shower, but did he spend hours soaking in it, full to the brim with bubbles the way I did, or was he quick and efficient? There were so many everyday things that I didn’t know about this man, and I knew that if we couldn’t get our experiment to work, they’d probably remain a mystery forever.
I hauled myself out of the bath and hurriedly dressed. We’d agreed to put our first item on the list into action at seven o’clock, and my phone told me it was nearly time. I clipped my damp hair off my face, then hurried down to the kitchen and opened the back door. It was dark now and the wind had got up even more. I picked up the empty wallet Nick had given me as his personal item (‘sorry, it’s all I really have on me’, he’d said, as I’d handed him one of my favourite MAC lip glosses) and clutched it in my left hand as I stepped onto the back step. I wrapped my cardigan more tightly round me.
Three minutes to go.
The garden was peaceful tonight, most of the trees still bare of leaves. A dog barked a few gardens away and I could make out the quiet whine of a distant motorbike.
My stomach was in knots, and I wondered how Nick was feeling. What if this worked, and we somehow found a way to be together? What if, against all the odds, we succeeded in beating the laws of physics?
It seemed futile. But we had to at least try.
I checked my phone again, the screen glowing brightly in the darkness. One minute.
Thirty seconds.
And then.
Time.
We’d agreed we would both stand here on the back step for five minutes, in exactly the same place, to see whether we could recreate the feeling I’d had that he was somewhere in the fabric of the house just after we’d first met. ‘Should we do anything else while we’re there?’ I’d asked.
‘I don’t see that there’s much point,’ Nick replied. ‘Just make sure you’ve got your feet in the right place, hold my wallet in your hands, and see what happens.’
I looked down now and checked. Feet a foot apart, a couple of inches from the front of the step, a foot from the left. I shuffled to the right slightly and planted my feet firmly.
Then I clutched the wallet to my chest and closed my eyes.
