He nods and says, ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to keep you so long.’ He stands as I do and even though he’s tall, I don’t feel any fear. There is nothing, absolutely nothing predatory about Finn.
‘Yeah, this was fun, we can do it again.’ I’m surprised by the words as they leave me, and that I mean them.
‘We can go on a hike,’ he says, ‘there isn’t anything on in the cinema, it’s all useless at the moment.’
‘A hike?’ I say.
‘A hike,’ he repeats, grinning. ‘I hike with a load of people at the weekend; it’s fun, you’d like it.’
‘How do you know I’d like it? People are always telling me I’m going to like something. Like skateboarding when I was fourteen. Hated it. Fell off and wrecked my elbow. What’s that about, insisting that people are going to like the things you like?’
‘Don’t know, I’ll talk to someone in the psychology department tomorrow. Bound to be a syndrome,’ he says,straight-faced. ‘But I thought you might like being up the mountains, all the space, feeling the wind in your face.’
‘I have had the wind in my face all evening,’ I say. ‘Do you know what it was like getting here?Twenty-five minutes of rain and wind.’
‘No, seriously, Sid, it makes you feel free.’
I look at him for a beat and his face is animated.
‘I reckon you’ll enjoy it, and two hours up the mountains will show you if you do or not. If you don’t, you never have to do it again. And I will then do something that you really want to do like –’ his eyes glint – ‘rollerblading?’
‘Why would I want to go rollerblading? Because I’m a girl?’ I sniff. ‘I was actually very good at rollerblading when I was younger. I could go backwards and everything. Never knew why I wasn’t good on the skateboard.’
‘I just fell off the blades,’ he says, ‘I think I was too tall, thecentre-of-gravity issue meant it didn’t work. My sisters made me go out with them and they loved watching me fall. But seriously, a hike?’
‘How do I know you are not going to bring me up the mountains, attack me with an industrial stapler, kill me and bury the body?’
‘There is that,’ he agrees. ‘But I’ve got away with it so often before...’
His wicked grin is actually lovely. He has a dimple in one cheek.
‘Of course, you could tell someone where you are going. Give that younger sister of yours access to your phone’s location so she knows where you are at all times.’
Sounds fair. ‘When will we do this hiking thing?’
‘Saturday? It’s supposed to be a beautiful day. I was thinking of going up myself, but everyone who hikes with me is busy. The lure of Christmas happening in the distance is hauling people away from the outdoors and into shopping centres. But I just have to get out: it clears my head, has this meditative quality that I love.’
‘OK,’ I say, ‘if you promise not to attack and kill me, then bury me up the mountains – in which case, I will haunt you forever.’
‘Understood. First, you have proper boots, right? Bring a rucksack, water, something to eat and warm clothing.’
‘I thought we were going up the mountains for a bit, not to the Antarctic for a week.’
‘It’s pretty cold up there this time of the year; beautiful, but cold, and it will be sunny, so maybe a bit of sun block.’
‘Sun blockandhiking gear.’
‘You’re going to love it. I’ll send you the details. And if you are going to duck out at the last minute or if it’s raining or if there’s a gale force blowing, tell me, I’ll be going up there anyway.’
‘OK, thank you.’ I reach into my bag for my wallet and he says, ‘Oh, I paid.’
‘You are not supposed to pay, we are supposed to be going Dutch on all this stuff, friends do theequal-paying thing.’
‘Well, after we have hiked, if we have coffee and buns or whatever, then you can pay, right?’
‘Deal.’
‘Deal.’
