Like, really good.
ELEVEN
As Callum leads me to our original seats at the front of the aircraft, I wonder whether he might gloat about the fact that he just rescued me from quite a mortifying situation with my ex-boyfriend. Use it to his advantage, somehow. But as he wordlessly eases my bag from my shoulder, stashing it in the overhead lockers and pauses to make sure that I’m settled in the window seat before he sits back down, I realize I needn’t worry. I get the impression that he’s giving me the space to think, aware somehow that my mind is whizzing around at a hundred miles an hour, and I feel genuinely touched by it.
Which is odd.
‘Hey, Callum?’ I say, turning to him after a while. ‘Thank you.’
He raises an eyebrow at me. ‘Are you sure you’re feeling okay, Moss? That sounded alarmingly like gratitude to me.’
I roll my eyes.
‘Iamgrateful. You kind of came to my rescue there. Ex-boyfriend. Weird emotions. What is it with today?’ I’m basically muttering to myself at this point. ‘How did you know?’
Callum shakes his head. ‘I didn’t. Just wanted to come and see you, I guess.’
‘Were you missing me?’ I make it sound like I’m teasing himeven though my treacherous mind would love him to answer with a yes.
‘Like a hole in the head,’ he fires back, smiling at me.
‘Well, your timing was perfect. Have you ever met up with an ex after a long time apart and … and …’ I trail off.
‘Wondered what the hell you were thinking in the first place?’ he offers. ‘A thousand times yes, Moss.’
I splutter out a laugh.
‘You have a thousand exes? You have been busy.’
‘You know what I mean.’ He twinkles at me. ‘Humphrey seems great, by the way.’
‘Stop it. Hewasgreat, once.’
‘And now?’
‘I’m not so sure.’
Callum is quiet for a minute. ‘If it helps, you did me a favour too,’ he says after a pause.
‘How?’
He casts a furtive look behind us, to where Jennifer and her ‘end of an error’ pals are sitting.
‘The one with the sash on kept asking if I was going to take my shirt off,’ he says, dropping his voice to a low whisper. ‘I was genuinely terrified.’
I let out a little huff of laughter.
‘Maybe we do make a decent team, after all,’ I muse.
‘Kat will be thrilled,’ he replies.
I take a moment to stretch my legs and enjoy my new surroundings. Callum is a much more beautifully scented travel partner, I must admit. How does he smell so good after so much time in the air? We’re about four hours in and every time he moves, I get these intoxicating wafts of spring meadow meets citrus zing.
Somebody should bottle it.
The work thing was obviously a ploy, because both of us know that there’s very little to do.
‘Do you want to talk about it?’ Callum offers.
