She loved his humour.
‘Things like falling off a bike, eating so much sugar you feel sick, collecting something obsessively – like football cards or friendship bracelets – and then losing interest just as quickly.’
‘Check, check, check!’
‘What did you collect?’ She was curious.
‘Cricket balls.’
‘Cricket balls?’ She laughed.
‘Yep, although I haven’t strictly lost interest in them. It all started when I found one in a ditch in the village where we lived and it felt like such a lucky thing, a really great day. I thought, if I could find a beautiful, hand-stitched, leather-bound cricket ball then what other wonderful things might happen in my life? I was so delighted with it that my dad gave me another one and then I got one for my birthday and then Christmas and so on, and I had quite the collection. I loved them. I still love them. But haven’t added to my collection in quite some time.’
‘That’s sweet. And then of course there’s the more serious life events to tick off, like voting.’
‘Check.’ He nodded.
‘Missing a train or a flight.’
‘Check.’ He grimaced.
‘And it’s not so much the missing it that’s the life lesson, but how you recover, what you do next and how you get out of the scrape,’ she explained.
‘Nice. I like that.’
‘Erm, what else?’ She thought hard. ‘Breaking a bone – always better to get that out of the way as a kid and there’s actually nothing cooler than walking into school with a plaster cast.’
He laughed loudly, as if he could relate.
‘Sleeping under the stars.’
‘Camping? I’ve done that too.’
‘No, Ed, specifically not camping, but more coming to the end of the evening and finding yourself in a field or on a beach or in a back garden and looking up at the sky and lying there until morning, watching the movement, the light, the shifting darkness.’
‘I’ve never done that.’ He kissed her shoulder.
‘I’ve never done that either, but it’s on my to-do list,’ she confessed.
‘I could talk to you for hours and hours ... and we need to, it’s important.’ He looked a little tense and she wondered if he, like her, was already dreading their parting, even if it were only for a few hours.
‘You have! And now I need to get going!’
She swung her legs to the side of the bed and sat up, looking back as Ed sat with his arms behind his head.
‘Hurry back. I need to see you tonight. We can talk some more, really talk.’ He swallowed. ‘And I’ve got crisps. Fancy an Uno tournament? I need the opportunity to maintain my crown.’
‘Oh well, if you’ve got crisps ...’ Leaning over, she kissed him hard on the mouth, a down payment on the evening to come.
‘I want to say I love you,’ he whispered. ‘But it feels new and I’m still nervous.’
‘It’s the same for me, but you can say it. In fact, I’d like you to say it.’ She grinned.
‘I love you, Tawrie.’
‘I love you too.’
With time ticking on and keen to grab a shower before her swim, she practically ran down Fore Street and up the steps towards home, glancing back at the cottage on the corner where her lover lay, knowing reunion would be sweet. Nothing could dampen the high she felt, nothing could dilute the bubble of pure happiness that filled her up!
