‘Yeah, you’re right. I’m to blame here.’ I can hear the smile in his voice.
I whirl round to cast him a glare before starting onward again.
44
Luckily, it doesn’t take too much longer to find my tent, but I still make a mental note to camp next to a notable landmark next time.
‘You’re welcome for the directions,’ Elliot says with mirth in his tone as he unzips my tent and holds the flap open for me.
‘Directions my ass,’ I quip as I bend down to crawl inside. It’s pitch-black until I switch my lamp on, and the terrifying truth seems to illuminate the stiflingly small space at the same time. It’s clear what we’re doing in here – what we both hope might happen next. But the very real possibility of it going badly almost stops me in my tracks.
‘We probably would have wandered around for hours if I hadn’t spotted that flag,’ he says smugly as he seals my tent door closed. He turns to see me sitting cross-legged at the top of my mat, as far away from him as I could possibly be. He must note my nervous smile and freezes.
‘Are you alright?’
‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ I say honestly, but my shoulders are tensed up so badly they’re nearly up by my ears.
He slowly sits down on the other end of the mat, a solid metre away from me. A soft smile curves his lips. ‘Nora, we don’t have to do anything. We can just hang out. Or head back to the festival if you want, get a drink or something.’
I wrinkle my nose at him. ‘I don’t want to do that.’
‘Okay,’ he says. ‘What do you want to do?’
I press my lips together, considering the man sitting in my tent looking at me with nothing but patience. And when I start to wonder what on earth he’s doing here, I remind myself that he chose to be here. Hewantsto be here.
‘I have a question for you,’ I say.
‘Shoot.’
I wrap my arms around my knees and perch my chin on top of them. ‘What did you really think about me when we first met?’
It’s clearly not what he’s expecting me to say. ‘My first impression of you? What makes you ask that?’
‘I’m curious.’
He considers the question and makes himself more comfortable by leaning back on his hands.
‘You definitely made a strong first impression. To be totally honest, I wasn’t sure where I stood with you because I didn’t know if you genuinely hated my guts or if you were just kidding around. Or if you might just be this brutally honest, fascinating person and we weren’t on the same page. But I liked that you were honest with me. I found it really fucking refreshing. And from the start I had a feeling that you were just someone I wanted to… know.’ His brows furrow together. ‘I don’t know if that makes sense.’
‘It makes sense. So youlikedthe brutal honesty? At that point I think it might have just been straight-up rudeness.’
‘Yeah, it’s something I value after my last relationship,’ he says with a shrug, before his voice goes a pitch lower. ‘And I mean – maybe this is bold to say, but I thought you were like,unfathomably pretty. Like the kind of pretty you don’t get to see in person very often. You’re kind of all of my fantasies merged into one, actually,’ he finishes quietly.
It takes every muscle in my body to remain composed, making a conscious effort to stay sitting upright. I have no idea how to respond to a compliment like this, leaving me to attempt to stifle a grin, and failing. ‘Did you really think I disliked you?’
He snorts, then points his finger in the air. ‘I believe this is a direct quote: “maybe I’ll stop arguing with you when you stop being completely insufferable”.’
‘Youwerebeinginsufferable,’ I say with a laugh. ‘And you called me unreasonable.’
‘You were being unreasonable,’ he shoots back flatly.
‘Fine,’ I reply with a grin, letting my legs fall back down. I pull my sleeping bag into my lap and mindlessly fiddle with the material. ‘So, am I quite as sensational as you first envisioned?’ I joke.
‘No,’ he says, his eyes soft. ‘You’re better.’
Warmth floods my insides and I waste no time getting to my knees and crawling over to him to capture his lips against mine. I’d already forgotten how good it feels to kiss him; I intend for it to be quick, but find myself greedily going in for more. He leans into it but makes no move to touch me or deepen the kiss, and I know he’s leaving it up to me to escalate things if I want to. An invisible string pulls me away from him and plants me back down on my bed, a few feet closer than before.
‘Are you not going to ask me the same question?’ I ask him.
