I nodded, ‘Of course.’ Staring at him made me realise, I was still yet to know his name. I started to pick from the pile of clothes finding my undies and stepping my legs back into my denim skirt.
‘Yeah, mate, so sorry. I’m just a couple of minutes away.’ He hung up the phone and picked up my top, holding it, standing in front of me smiling. His grin was so gorgeous, infectious, I couldn’t help but smile back, I lifted my hands over my head, and he pulled the crop down over my arms and head, dressing me perfectly. He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me in, kissing me. Pressing his lips tightly into mine it felt more intense than just moments before. He reached one of his hands to my face, holding the side of my chin, holding my gaze.
‘You should really get dressed and go,’ I said.
His face and shoulders dropped, ‘You’re not going to join me?’ he said.
‘I don’t think I’m going to go back to the club. I think I’m going to order an Uber from here. I have some things I really need to get done at home.’ I did not want to back into the club. I wanted to head home, I wanted to book my ticket. I wanted to go and restart my life, exactly how I had always wanted.
‘Are you sure?’ he said, unable to hide the disappointment in his eyes.
‘Yeah, I’m good, you should really run back though. You haven’t got much time,’ I said.
‘I can’t leave you here, at least let me wait till your car comes,’ he said, reaching out to grab my hand, but I ignored it as I started picking around the rest of the clothes that were on the ground, quickly pulling my skirt over my hips. I grabbed my phone out of my front pocket and clicked on the Uber app. I was sure there were only two drivers in my town but the same man who dropped me off at the club a couple of hours before popped up on my phone, accepting my ride. ‘No, I’ll be fine. One is already coming, it’s only three minutes away.’ I said, holding up my phone up for the DJ to see.
He started to pick up his clothes that were scattered around the grass. ‘I didn’t expect my night would go like this,’ he said as he pulled on his jeans, ‘not at all. But I have to say, it was one of the best nights of my life.’
I smiled; but I didn’t speak, I didn’t know what to say, still breathless, and my mind was in overdrive. I hoped the look in my eyes said it all. Tonight, felt like a perfect moment of realisation, intensity, lust for life, and the future. It was a perfect moment of exactly what I needed.
‘Let me wait for you,’ he said,
I held up my phone again, ‘Two minutes, it’s fine, seriously, you’re going to be late, go!’ I said, playfully pushing him towards the hill.
He hugged me again, this time kissing my lips ever so softly before turning around to run back up the grass hill towards the traffic lights. He stopped for a moment and turned around ‘Wait… do I get to know your last name?’ he said.
‘I don’t even know your first,’ I replied.
‘Lucas,’ he said.
‘Scully… Emma Scully.’
He gave me one last smile and I watched him jump over the fence, landing even smoother than on the way down here. Lucas… I thought… oh my gosh, how did I not know? He was Lucas Jones.
Chapter 4 — Him
She walked ahead of me with confidence, strutting up the alleyway.
I was happy, finally something different, a little town to explore. I felt my heartbeat faster when I thought about leaving Torey. I was meant to be at work. But it was only going to be for a couple of hours. And my god did I need to give myself this time. Just an hour with a gorgeous girl, there didn’t seem like harm in that.
Emma’s strut came to a halt, and she looked back at me. ‘I’m sorry that you’re stuck in this town. I don’t think anywhere is going to be still open to get a snack,’ she said as we started to walk further down the alleyway and towards the street.
Emma wrapped her arms around her body when I stood close to her, keeping tension in her shoulders but keeping her head held high. She was keeping an extra guard up around me. I understood that. I was a complete stranger to her, who just made her lie. Being a DJ doesn’t carry the best connotations and I could tell she wasn’t a fangirl.
‘So, we’ve got just over an hour, what would you like to do?’ She stood, staring at me. We had just reached the intersection of the backstreet alleyway and another street filled with stores. They were all closed and looked a little run down.
‘What do you do when you need to escape?’ I wanted to see the town through her eyes. I wanted to experience a moment, in her special place. Her hazel eyes glittered at me as though she knew the perfect place.
‘Yeah, I know just the place. It’s down here,’ she said. walking ahead, her strut slowed, and her shoulders began to relax, she let her arms hang by her side as her eyes flickered down the street like she was lost in a past memory. I bet as she walked her mind would take her back to the moments of what one simple street had given her. Maybe she had her first kiss, standing in a shop front, opposite the bakery. Maybe her first job was as a check out chick at the tiny corner store. Conversing with the locals each day about the story on the front page of the newspaper. I’m sure she would have learned to drive on this street, she would have been a risktaker at least once, honing through red lights. It was marvellous to watch her; I didn’t know what that felt like. To have a connection to one place, to really feel at home, to be surrounded by a memory. A memory that bought joy and a memory that lasted more than one night.
As we reached the end of the street, there was a dead-end of overgrown grass and a large wooden fence. Emma crossed the street and walked straight towards the fence. ‘I guess we’re going this way.’ I ran to catch up to her, crossing the street to the fence.
She ran ahead of me smiling and climbed. ‘I hope you don’t mind getting a little dirty,’ she called out. I smiled running up and leaping over the fence to the other side.
I gazed out at the river mouth and the full moon lit up the grass where we sat, overlooking the river. Sitting in her happy place made me think about a place I used to visit years ago, back near my house. It was a hill inland, they called it the Panorama. I used to sit on the top and watch the sunset over the mountains from one side and the sunrise over the city from the other. I guess it was still my favourite place to go, although I can’t remember, the last time I went up there. They built houses on either side blocking the views, bringing society into the beauty of nature. Not that I didn’t like that, I thought it was beautiful how all humans revert to being in nature, how we live to be amongst the green and the beaches. I just don’t know why we felt the need to destroy beautiful sanctuaries with manmade buildings. But I particularly loved the view, to gaze at the city from the hill. To admire the contrast of the buildings. To feel the energy, to want to be a part of the excitement and drive that the city gave me, whilst sitting amongst the stability and foreverness of a tree that had been there long before me and no doubt many years beyond me. Maybe it was time I found a new place. Just for me, one to get away to. But I also found it ironic, to be sitting amongst the beauty of nature and wanting to be amongst the city life. Yet when I find myself in the chaos of a packed-out club, I bring myself back to the presence of being alone, with my music somewhere beautiful in nature. It felt like such a backward human need to always want the opposite of what we’re presented with.
‘So, this is your place?’ I said, walking down the hill of where she had led me, she sat herself down on the grass near the river and I took a seat next to her.
‘Yea, this is my place. I think I love it because no one comes here. It does feel like mine,’ she said. She sat comfortably and a smile took over her eyes. I looked at her and thought, that must be what it looks like, to feel at home. ‘I love this place because it shows me a world beyond here. This town is all I have ever known. But I do know that I wasn’t meant for it. This place isn’t meant to be my home. I don’t know where is yet. But right here is where the river opens to a world that is beyond — and this spot makes me almost taste the salt air on the other side,’ she spoke with openness and a drive in her voice that I could almost feel in my body. I’d been in her position before, but it had been a long time since I had felt that full directional drive.
