And it’s time to go.
We’re spread between three jeeps. In ours, it’s Mike, Judith, Flavia and me.
Flavia looks like she’s having a wobble when our jeep driver starts going through a safety routine.
I whisper to her, ‘Pretty sure not all guides bother with the safety chat. This is agoodthing.’
‘Very good point,’ she replies, looking immediately cheered up, and I feel pleased with myself all over again.
We have the great good fortune to see hippos, elephants and buffalo during the afternoon. At the beginning, Flavia grips my hand very tightly, possibly not even aware that she’s doing it, but as I murmur a couple of my statistical platitudes into her ear, and mention how extremely sturdy the jeep is and how very competent our guide seems, she begins to relax, and soon she’s exclaiming in hushed but excited tones just as much as the rest of us.
At one point, just after we’ve spied a lioness lying in the sun with her cubs and our guide has told us that we’re particularly lucky to have seen them at this time of day, Flavia turns to me, beaming, and says, ‘Can you believe that only two days ago we were in drizzly England?’
I beam back at her and, yeah, it’s just a great moment out here in the bush with this amazing woman and these other nice people.
As we head back through the vast plains to the lodge at the end of the day, Flavia suddenly gasps and says, ‘I didn’t take a single photograph.’
I didn’t either, I realise. I was too busy enjoying Flavia’s company when I wasn’t admiring the scenery and the animals.
‘Don’t worry,’ Judith tells us. ‘I took some. I’ll forward them to you.’ She sets up a group chat and everyone who took any (basically everyone except Flavia and me) adds their photos and videos.
‘I need to send some to my mum now,’ Flavia says. It’s lovely how close their family are to each other. My own family are more… distant. We love each other, but that doesn’t necessarily always extend tolikingeach other and wanting to spend too much time together.
As Judith and Mike both get busy posting photos to the new group chat, Flavia says quietly to me, ‘Thank you so much for your pep talk earlier. It really helped. I’ve had an amazing day and I wouldn’t have done if I’d been terrified the whole time.’
‘Hey, no, nothing to thank me for.’ I’m about to say more (although I’m not sure what) when Maxim claps his hands to gain our attention.
‘We’re going to have sundowners out on the terrace,’ he tells us. ‘You’ll be shown to your bedrooms now so that you can freshen up and get changed if you like.’
When we’re shown to our room, Flavia stops dead just inside the door, and I walk straight into her. When we’re untangled from each other, and I’ve pushed all thoughts of her beautiful softness out of my mind, I look around, and immediately see why she looks so shocked. I’m not really sure why it didn’t occur to either of us before now that we wouldn’t have a suite.
The room we’ve been shown to has a very long window to one side overlooking the bush – displaying breathtaking views – and only one other door, which is on the opposite wall and leads to a bathroom.
In the middle of the room, there’s a gigantic, modern, four-poster bed. I shake my head slightly to dispel an image of Flavia in the bed, and look round the rest of the room.
There are a couple of small sofas, one under the window and one on the wall opposite the bed. The room’s furnished in greens and beiges, with a lot of textured wood, which nicely reflects our wider surroundings. It’s a great room. For a couple.
Flavia and I look at each other, both of us a little wide-eyed, and then she asks the man who’s shown us to our rooms, ‘As a matter of interest, I wondered whether there were any spare rooms in the lodge? I mean, this is beautiful and we both love it. I just… wondered?’
‘I’m so sorry but it’s full,’ he tells us, his brow immediately furrowed. ‘Is there anything wrong here? Anything we can do to improve it?’
‘No, no,’ we both rush to say. ‘It’s perfect.’
‘We love it,’ Flavia adds. ‘It was just an idle question. Really. Welovethis room. Thank you so much.’
As soon as the man has gone, closing the door behind him, Flavia says, ‘Okay, no arguments. I got the bed in the hotel. These sofas are wide but shorter than you. I’ll take a sofa tonight and then I get the bed again tomorrow night and that’s more than fair as far as I’m concerned.’
I shake my head. ‘Can’t do that.’
Flavia lowers her voice and begins to explain at great length in a whisper why I can and will.
I’m trying not to laugh.
‘What?’ she asks, a little frostily. ‘Nothing I am saying is funny.’
‘Loving your cloak-and-dagger low voice. But everyone knows we aren’t a couple so there’s no need for it.’
‘Oh. Yes. Very true. Well, fine.’ And then she repeats herself really loudly.
