“No,” I admitted. I finished the dregs of my beer before continuing. “It would be nice to be a bit less lonely.”
James was quiet then. In an attempt to fill the silence I took out a menu from the little stand on the table and looked through quickly. It was only recently the pub had started to do food at all, and it was rustic at best. I worried that James would be used to Michelin star restaurants and gourmet food.
James craned his head to read the menu in my hand. “Oh, I’ll have the stacked burger. Sounds lush.” He looked up and blushed.
“Lush?” I smiled. “Well, you can take the boy out of Wales…”
“Shut up,” he grinned. I pushed my chair back to go to the bar to order and noticed his empty drink. “I’ll go and order. Am I OK to grab your next drink, or would you like to?”
“If you could, that would be nice.” James said quietly.
I headed to the bar to grab the next round.
???
A couple of hours later, bellies full and heads light, we both exited the pub. James pulled his borrowed coat around himself and shivered. “Even colder,” he said. His eyes looked a little glazed under the moonlight, but I knew mine would be too.
“Let me walk you back to your Nain’s place,” I said.
“Not yours?” I thought I heard him mutter. I wasn’t sure though, so didn’t reply in case I had heard wrong. We both turned simultaneously and walked back down Main Street. After some moments James threaded his fingers through mine and we held hands as we passed the row of closed shops.
“Can we head down to by the beach?” he asked. “That is, unless you have somewhere you need to be. I just liked being there with you last night.”
“No, no. I have time.” I looked down at my watch. It was 10pm.Almost bedtime, I thought, then mentally slapped myself. How old was I, 103?
When we reached the sea wall, the tide was in its way out. The sand still looked wet, but James tugged at my hand and we descended the steps to the sand. One of the bigger caves loomed dark and foreboding to the side, cut into the black cliff and seeming like an even darker blot in the night.
“I told you I always wanted to see the caves but Mum and dad wouldn’t let me,” James said. He gave my hand a little tug to make sure I was following him.
“I know that, but isn’t it a bit dangerous to go scrambling over rocks when we’ve both had a…” I started, but James was already climbing up to the cave mouth. I sighed, and did my best to follow him.
I caught up to him at the entrance to the cave. He was trying to look in, but the moonlight hardly lit up the inside.
“Hello?” I called in. “Is there anyone in there?”
I waited for a reply, but no one shouted back out.
“Who’s going to be in there at this time?” James asked.
“Why do you think all the teenagers used to come to the caves? It’s a prime spot to mess around.”
“Did you?” James asked.
I blushed. “No…I only ever messed about with my best mate, but we were too scared of getting caught to do it out here. We just used to take the keys to one of the hotel rooms when his Mum was out.”
James took a cautious step into the darkness, seemingly already moving on from the topic. “Have you got a light?” he asked.
I took my phone out and shone the torch into the cave. James wandered inwards without fear, then turned to look back at me. His teeth shone white as he grinned back at me in the torchlight.
“Come on,” he said. The inside of the cave was still wet and slippy from the tide, so he braced one hand on the wall for support. He found a little ledge and perched on it. He looked around the cave in wonder. I joined him where he sat and moved the torch so that he could see all around the cave. I put the phone down next to him on the little ledge and the light made weird shapes on the walls.
“You OK?” I asked. James looked a little bit spaced out.
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s just been a weird couple of days. I don’t know which way is up half the time.”
“Well whatever you need, whether you want to talk or not. I’m here.”
“Thank you,” he said. James stood then, and his body was so close he was almost pressed against me. In front of the phone’s light he was just a black silhouette. He stood on his tip-toes and threaded the fingers of one hand through my hair to pull my lips down to his.
