“Yes, exactly.” I nod.
“Ugh,” Ruby groans, “I am surrounded by dweebs.”
“You know, Ruby, we can’t all live in the fast lane like yourself,” Leo tells her. “I think you’ll find that if you tried a golf lesson, you’d be pleasantly—”
“Oh my god.” Ruby gasps, looking out across the pool.
“Hear me out. Golf is—”
“No, not about that,” she hisses, turning to look at me in concern. “Matthew is here.”
I jolt my head up so fast, I almost give myself whiplash. There he is. He’s wearing Wayfarers, and a light blue linen shirt with navy shorts and flip-flops. He’s grown his hair out and styled it so it’s smoothly swept back. He looks happy and relaxed, surveying the pool and the restaurant terrace with what looks like great satisfaction.
I quickly lie back down again, flattening myself against the bed.
“What do I do?” I squeak in total panic.
“Stay calm,” Leo instructs, looking mildly panicked himself. “Everything is fine.”
“Everything isnot fine,” I retort. “My hair is a bird’s nest from the swim! I’m all sweaty and covered in sun cream! I’m literally a ball of slime!I’m a slime ball!”
“Okay, calm down,” Ruby says under her breath. “You look great and—”
“I need to get out of here! But if I stand up and walk round the pool he’ll either notice me or bump into me! I’m supposed to look incredible when I see him for the first time! I’m supposedto look sophisticated and sexy and easy!This is not how it’s supposed to go!”
“We need to discuss you wanting to look ‘easy,’” Ruby comments.
“Easygoing! You know what I meant!Now is not the time for nitpicking, Ruby!”
“Okay, maybe he won’t see us,” Leo reasons, keeping an eye on him. “Oh. Hang on.”
“Has he seen us?” I ask, my voice strained.
“No, but he is coming this way.”
“Oh my god.”
“Why don’t we—”
I don’t wait to hear what Leo is about to suggest. I do the only thing I can do in that horrifying situation: I stealthily roll off the lounger and onto the ground.
“Freya? What exactly are you doing?” Ruby asks slowly.
Without replying, I then roll onto my front and push myself up onto all fours, hidden by my sun lounger, which is acting as a wall between me and the direction Matthew is coming from.
“Freya!” Ruby hisses, craning her neck to look at me. “You’re not being shot at! You can’t just crawl away!”
But at an impressive lightning speed, if I do say so myself, I scuttle toward a large potted palm tree. When I’m safely behind it, I kneel up to look through the leaves.
Matthew hasjustspotted Leo and Ruby, and is now wandering over to them with a nervous expression. I watch the scene unfold from behind the tree.
“Excuse me,” a voice says behind me, making me yelp andvery almostblowing my cover, but I check and am relieved to see that Matthew has not glanced this way.
I turn to the waiter who has disturbed me. “Yes?”
“Is everything… okay?” he asks.
I realize that I must look rather strange, crouching behindthis potted palm tree in my wet swimsuit, with no shoes on and very grubby knees thanks to all that crawling.
