Page 24 of One Summer

‘Minor infractions?’ I say, raising an eyebrow, and he smiles sheepishly.

‘Sorry, were you expecting some quality surfer jargon just then?’

‘Australians normally have loads of cool words. Goon for cheap wine. Flaming galahs. All that good stuff.’

Nemo starts miaowing, and then takes his miaowing up a notch.

‘Sadly, you’re not hearing Australia in my accent; you’re hearing New Zealand. Not sadly – what am I talking about? New Zealand’s fucking great.’

‘Kiwis must have good jargon too.’

He smiles again and reveals an adorable dimple in his left cheek.

‘I’ll try to rustle some up for the next time we meet.’

‘We’re meeting again?’ I ask.

‘Yeah,’ he grins. ‘I think we are.’

Then he turns, and leaves, and I feel a flutter deep in the pit of my stomach.

Possibly deeper than my stomach.

Twenty-Three

Cobblestones

Billy waves to me from the harbour wall and gestures for me to come back.

‘We’ve got a bit of a problem,’ he says.

‘Oh?’

‘The driver is unavailable. Prior engagement.’

‘Right. Can anyone else take me?’

‘There is nobody else. You could walk, but you’d have to leave your luggage behind, including the cat, unless you’re stronger than you look.’

I definitely am not. If anything, I’m weaker than I look, because I present as quite sturdy.

‘I can’t leave Nemo behind. How far is it?’

‘Two miles.’

I can’t carry Nemo two miles. He’s a big, temperamental cat and his carrier is heavy. If I take him out of it and try to perch him on my shoulder like a parrot, he will scalp me.

‘Um, I don’t know what to do,’ I say.

‘Come and wait in the pub. They’ll start doing food in a couple of hours. There’s probably already a delivery of pasties in from the bakery.’

‘But how long am I going to be waiting in there for the driver to be available?’

‘No more than five hours, probably.’

‘FIVE HOURS?!’ I say. ‘I could watch half a Peter Jackson film in that time.’

‘There’s no TV in the pub,’ he says, missing my joke, such as it was. ‘But the landlady will find something for you to do.’

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