On the other hand, though, I’dlovesome respite from the bag carrying. Like… maybe he could do five minutes every half hour.
While I consider the issue, Dominic watches me, a definite twinkle in his eye.
‘What?’ I ask.
‘You trying to calculate whether you’d more hate to admit I was right or continue to carry the bag?’
‘Maybe.’
‘What about…’ Dominic pauses for dramatic effect. ‘You admit I was right and then I carry the bag the whole way and everyone’s a winner?’
I narrow my eyes. ‘You drive a very, very hard bargain.’ I think for a moment. ‘Also, though. The bag’s anightmare. I’d feel terrible ruining your day instead of mine.’
‘Firstly, I can manage.’ He does a cartoon-style muscle-flex, which makes me laugh and also, I’m annoyed to say, slightly drool (internally). Those biceps are… well, very nice. ‘Secondly, I wouldloveyou to admit I was right. I’d carry a lot more than one large handbag to achieve that.’
I’m very, very tempted.
‘Come on. You know you want to.’ He gives me a big pantomime wink, which I can’t help smiling at.
‘Fine,’ I say, not that reluctantly. ‘You win.’ I hold the bag out towards him.
‘Errrr?’ he says, one eyebrow raised, not taking the bag.
I roll my eyes. ‘Okay. You. Were. Right.’
‘I always am.’ He takes the bag like it weighs absolutely nothing and tucks it over his shoulder.
‘Suits you,’ I tell him.
‘What can I say?’ He spreads his hands, palms up. ‘Everything does.’
I roll my eyes again, but I’m smiling. He actually does look very cute with the bag.
‘I need my phone and inhaler,’ I suddenly say.
Dominic holds the bag out for me, and I take out the small crossbody bag I packed in there for such instances and then put the phone and inhaler inside the smaller bag, plus my passport for good measure.
‘So many questions,’ Dominic says. ‘You carry a bag within a bag? To go up a mountain? You think that whileupthat mountain you might urgently need your passport? And, also, I couldn’t help spying a pack of shoelaces.’ The laces nearly fell out with the passport.
‘If you need new laces halfway up the gorge, you’ll be grateful,’ I tell him.
‘Highlylikely,’ he says sarcastically. We’re both smiling though.
As I put my phone into my bag I noticed that I’ve missed a couple of messages. One of them’s from Jed.
I feel myself freeze a little. We haven’t spoken for a couple of months so he must have something to say. It’s probably quite innocuous – probably something to do with divorce admin – and I know that I’m going to read the message, but I also know I’m not going to read it while I’m with Dominic. Especially right now. That would just feel far, far too weird. Just now it felt like we were… definitely getting on quite well, despite our differences. If I’m honest, I was finding himhugelyattractive and I was loving our conversation (and the fact that I no longer have to carry my bag). Even though Jed and I are entirely no longer together – we live on differentcontinentsnow – it still feels a little uncomfortable having such a nice moment with someone else while he’s sending me a message.
‘You… okay?’ Dominic sounds a little hesitant, like he wants to ask but isn’t sure he should.
I paste a smile back onto my face and say, ‘Yep, all good, thank you. Especially now that you’re carrying my bag. Thank you!’
He looks at me quizzically, possibly wondering why I’m suddenly being so polite, before saying, ‘Great. Let’s go, then.’
The others are quite a long way ahead now, so we start walking very fast to catch them up, which (in my case), doesn’t leave much bandwidth for either talking or admiring the view; Dominic has long legs and we’re goingveryfast.
When we do catch the others up, I thank Dominic again for the bag carrying.
‘Honestly, no problem,’ he says. ‘You just need to remember forever that I’m always right, and mention it very regularly for the rest of this trip.’
