Chapter 11
Aaron
I’m still staring atthe screen when Will walks in and throws a protein bar towards me.
“Right,” he says, eyeing me like he’s walked into something suspicious, “what’s with the goofy smile?”
I catch the bar without looking. “It’s not a goofy smile.”
“It absolutely is. You look like you’ve just found out your desk chair turns into a motorbike.”
I lean back and stretch, trying to look casual. “Just reading something.”
Will raises an eyebrow and drops into the chair opposite mine, kicking his feet up on the edge of my desk like he owns the place. Which, to be fair, he partly does.
“Let me guess. Eve?”
I glance at him. “You’re very nosy for someone who can’t remember his own wife’s birthday correctly.”
He grins. “That was one time. And Phoebe got her dates confused. Not my fault she’s an unreliable source.”
“You believed a six-year-old over your own diary.”
“She had very strong opinions and a highlighter,” he says, then points at my screen. “So? Did she reply? Eve, I mean.”
I try not to smile again, which is a pointless effort. “Yeah. Just now.”
“And?”
“She’s been thinking about mountains.”
He stares. “Is that a metaphor?”
“No. Actual mountains. The Himalayas, specifically.”
Will folds his arms and gives me the sort of look that usually precedes a pub interrogation. “Right. And this somehow explains why you’re grinning like a teenager having their first pint.”
I shrug, but I can still feel the warmth under my skin. That steady kind of gladness that settles in when someone says something they didn’t have to say.
“She said she almost wishes she could go. To the Himalayas, I mean. And that she might not be a sea person after all.”
Will raises an eyebrow. “That’s it? She reclassified her terrain preference and that gets you all giddy.”
I shake my head. “It’s not what she said. It’s how she said it.”
Will studies me. “Mate, you’ve got a crush.”
I snort. “I’m forty-two, Will. I don’t get crushes.”
“Fine. Deep admiration with romantic overtones, then.”
“It’s not like that.”
He raises both hands. “Sure. Absolutely not like that. That’s why you look like you just won the postcode lottery.”
I ignore that. “I was just thinking… I wonder if she’d actually want to go. To Nepal, I mean.”
He blinks. “What, now?”
