I looked up to see Antoine beside me on his haunches. I sighed dramatically, then chucked him the board wax. ‘Do it for me then,’ I said, then stood up as Delphine laughed.
‘Yes, Margot!’ she sang, and Antoine gave her a side-eyed glance.
Delphine walked a few metres away from the hut and held out her arms. ‘Minimal wind. Perfect. What will you do, Antoine?’
‘Board repairs. And I will watch.’ And when he said the word ‘watch’ he was looking straight at me. I shivered and picked up my board, walking towards Delphine.
‘Margot. What are you doing?’ She looked at my board.
‘What?’ I asked.
‘We run!’ she said. ‘The same as yesterday.’
And she was right. Yesterday we’d gone on a beach run followed by stretches before we even set foot in the water. I was blaming Antoine for that. Messing with my head. I glared and him and he smiled back, tilting his sunglasses down slightly, and I rolled my eyes before dropping the board and running after Delphine, who’d already taken off.
The training session was harder today. Which was good. It didn’t give me any time to worry about what Antoine was looking at back on the sand.
‘Your tail slide. It needs some work,’ Delphine said when we finally got in the water. ‘All of your weight, it must go on the front leg. You are not doing that.’
So I did it again. And again, until Delphine was happy.
We emerged from the sea exhausted. Antoine greeted us with bottles of water.
‘You looked good out there,’ he said.
‘Thanks,’ Delphine answered with a smile.
‘You both did.’ He took my board from me and put it on the rack. ‘Margot, you are more ready than I was for my first competition.’
I glowed with pride.
‘I am taking all the credit for her.’ Delphine put her arm round Antoine’s neck.
‘I think she can take all the credit herself,’ Antoine said, then chucked a towel at me.
And I blushed at that as I covered my face with it.
I squeezed it through my hair gently, trying to get it to dry as quickly as possible before Mum and Dad saw.
When I threw the towel back to Antoine, I noticed Delphine looking at the sky. She mumbled something in French.
‘I think they were right. What do you think, Antoine?’
‘The storm? It is coming, for sure. Lucky you had a session already.’
‘A storm? No!’ I complained. I was so looking forward to uninterrupted surf lessons.
‘You will be OK, Margot. You can do some push-ups in your caravan,’ said Delphine. ‘Oh, I must go and help Felix set up. I told him I would be there today.’
I waved goodbye to Delphine and turned to Antoine. ‘So, what did you really think?’
He stopped tidying up for a second and studied me. His eyes rested on my face before tracing my body. And it was like I could feel them, as if he was touching me with his fingertips.
‘Your bottom turn. You are dropping your back shoulder,’ Antoine said, his eyes on mine.
‘Oh really? Delphine didn’t mention it,’ I said.
‘It is subtle, and sometimes Delphine does the same thing … I can show you?’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘Yes?’
