He turns his back to me. I stand stunned, waiting for the butterflies in my core to settle down, the buzz in my limbs to fade. My breathing too, is frantic. I place a hand over my heart to feel it jumping in my chest.
That’s when he starts to laugh.
“Nowyou’relaughing?” I say.
He turns to face me with a challenging glow in his eyes. “You bit me.”
“Yeah… Sorry, it’s sort of a party trick of mine. It doesn’t work for everyone.”
“It worked, don’t worry.”
Oh wow, this is mental. I rack my brain for ways to change the conversation. When I do speak, my voice is squeaky. “I think, on that note, we should probably find somewhere to camp. This place is going to turn into midge city in about twenty minutes.”
James sighs. Nods. Then follows me out of the ruins and we walk in silence, calming all our senses as we seek a spot to pitch up for the night.
*
We find a piece of land next to a quietly trickling stream. It’s covered in little stones and rocks we move in order to provide a semi-comfortable space to lie on. The grey skies have finally broken and although the rain that dampens our clothing again removes the issue of midges, it provides the same result. We need shelter.
Once our tiny tent is pitched and ready, we both climb in, James lying down on his back, groaning as the pain from his fall last night and the long walk today start to take effect. He fidgets, rolling from side to side slowly trying to find a comfortable position. I sit up cross-legged. This is partly because, clearly, there is a chemical reaction occurring between us now and I feel that the more space between us (albeit entirely limited due to the puny tent we were provided with), the less likely it is a reaction will occur.
James finally rolls onto his back in defeat, blinking at the ceiling. “This is our last night out here, right? We can’t be that far now… right?”
“I’d get the map out so we could play guess where we probably are again, but I don’t see much point.”
“Please give me hope.”
“I see. You wanted the answer you want to hear, not the likely, most probable one?”
“Exactly.”
“Yes. We’ll make it back tomorrow. Can’t you hear all that city traffic? We’re practically in the suburbs,” I add as the sound of more raindropstap, tap, tapon the material we’re sheltered by.
James grins. It’s a calm grin. “Could be worse.”
I try not to accept that as a compliment but granted it’s difficult. We’ve been at each other’s throats for so long, it seems crazy he might actually be enjoying spending time with me. I lean over to grab a protein bar from the bottom of James’ bag because I can feel the early evening hunger coming on. When I hear his stomach rumble too, I laugh, pass him the first one, before getting another for me. We chew in silence, pausing to take gulps of water from our bottles whilst we listen to the world outside our tiny tent.
James clears his throat. “Do you think I’m an uncle yet?”
“Oh, you must be. How many days has it been?”
“This will be our third night out here.”
“There’s no way labour can last three days. Right?Right?”
He laughs, rubbing his face and pushing his hair back, holding his arm above his head. “Nah, I think they get surgical before then.” He gulps, his face dropping to a serious expression. “I hope she’s ok.”
“I’m sure she is.”
“I should really be there. If not for her, for my sisters too. And Mum. She’ll be losing her mind if anything is wrong.”
“I’m sure everything’s fine.”
James nods. “Yeah, you’re right. Sophie is strong.”
“Like you,” I say. And what? Is he strong? Do I think that or am I just trying to make him feel better? I can feel a blush creep into my cheeks. I look away, my eyes settling on his socked feet at the end of the tent.
He sighs. “I’m not strong out of choice. Mum had a… bad patch… after my dad absconded. She was left completely on her own with four kids on a nurse’s salary and a shit heap of a house. I don’t know when it happened, but I just started taking charge. Somehow it felt like the natural thing to do.
