“Of course this is what you drive.” Jules laughed as she relaxed into the passenger seat.
Catherine arched an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing.” Jules grinned and turned to look at the sun-drenched landscape rolling by.
The hazy light gave the day a blurring, dream-like quality and Catherine smiled for no reason other than it suddenly felt like she’d been dropped into a high-definition version of her own life with Jules filling the space Catherine hadn’t considered as empty, at least until recently. She focussed on the soft cadence of Jules’s voice as she talked about the trails she’d hiked around Mount Tibidabo and Montserrat, her enthusiasm infectious.
“God, I’m so sorry. I haven’t stopped yammering on.”
“It’s nice listening to you.”
Twenty minutes later, they arrived. Catherine pulled into a dirt lay-by under the canopy of a towering oak tree. She shrugged on the backpack containing the picnic and shouldered her other bag with the blanket and swimming kit.
“Can I help carry something?”
“Don’t worry, it’s not far.”
They fell into step on the well-worn trail, relaxing inthe sounds of the forest — nothing but birdsong and the gentle crunch of the path underfoot as they wove their way through the woodland. They reached a fork in the path.
“This way,” Catherine whispered, with a soft touch to Jules’s shoulder.
Sunlight filtered through the canopy in flickering patches, casting golden freckles over the mossy ground. The air grew cooler, the earthy scent thicker and the ferns denser, forcing them into single file. Catherine led the way, stepping over roots and ducking under low-hanging branches.
“Ah, shit,” Jules yelled.
Catherine spun around to see her snatching at a bramble caught in her hair. Her sunglasses clattered to the ground as she twisted around, trying to liberate herself.
“Fuck.”
Catherine dropped the shoulder bag and dashed over to help her.
“Here, let me…” She reached up and carefully untangled a lock of Jules’s hair from the prickly branch. “There you go; you’re free.”
“Thank you.” Jules reached up to tame her hair back into its ponytail.
“It didn’t cut you, did it?”
“It’s stinging a bit here.” She turned her head and touched her finger to a scratch above her temple.
Catherine moved closer and swiped away a strand of Jules’s hair to reveal a thin red line dotted with blood. “Ouch! Yeah, it got you.”
Jules’s lips twitched with a grin, and Catherine became aware of how close they were standing, but she was rooted to the spot, mesmerised by the way the dappled sunlight danced across Jules’s face and illuminated the green flecks in her hazel eyes.
A twig snapped in the woods, and Catherine stepped back, bending to retrieve Jules’s fallen sunglasses.
“Before we trample them,” she said, handing them over.
“Er, thanks. Thank you. Yeah.” Jules’s words came out breathy and stilted.
“Shall we?”
“Yeah.”
They continued along the path for a short while, pushing through the exertion as the barely visible track ascended to higher ground. They were both panting by the time Catherine stopped to catch her breath. She puffed out a reassuring, “Not much further now,” when in truth she couldn’t actually remember how much further it was.
Jules hung her head and held up her hand. “God, this better be worth it.”
After another few hundred metres, the trees thinned, and the ground levelled out. Guarded like a secret by sentinel pines was an untouched lake. The smooth mirrored surface reflected the cloudless sky. No signs, no other swimmers, just them at this perfect spot on this beautiful day.
