Page 11 of Swim To Me

“But—”

“Shhh… close your eyes.”

“But—”

“Shhh.”

“But I don’t even think I have a concussion so—”

“I’ll give you one myself if you don’t close your eyes and let me sleep for another hour.”

Ah. Sisterly love.

“Istill think you shouldn’t have cancelled work, Aura. I’m perfectly fine.”

From across the table of our favourite cafe on Kings Road, my sister gives me a deadpan stare. “I work in a retail job selling lingerie. It’s really not that big a deal.”

I take a sip of my perfectly blended mimosa. “It will be if they fire you.”

Aurelia scoffs. “I’m the best saleswoman they’ve got. They’re not going to be firing me any time soon.”

Pinching at the dainty gold hoop adorning my earlobe, I gaze out at the other cafe customers. Pretty much every seat is taken, not a surprise seeing as it’s a sunny Saturday in the heart of London. Men in suits congregate together, expensive laptops out, cups of steaming coffee placed precariously beside the keyboard. Groups of girls and women sit together too, a collection of cocktails already growing, a myriad of different sized shopping bags, each extravagantly stamped with a brand name, sitting at their heeled feet.

A group of friends sitting in the corner, their drinks untouched, even seemed to be filming for some sort of TV show,what with the boom mic hanging over them recording their every conversation.

“What should we do with the rest of our day then? Seeing as how I’m not actually concussed, no thanks to your threats, we—”

“That’s debatable.”

“What?”

“I said ‘that’s debatable’.” Aurelia repeats, picking up her own bloody Mary cocktail. “You’ve actively not mentioned it all day… but I can’t stop thinking about it. If you’re not jumping at the first chance to ring your sexy lifeguard,afterhe wrote his number down and everything… well then, I think there might be something wrong with your brain after all, Delilah.”

“I should have known you weren’t going to let this lie.” I can’t help but scoff. “How did this conversation—”

“Are you, or are you not, going to ring him?”

Fucking hell.

I toss back the rest of my mimosa, feeling my left eye twitch at the hit of pure champagne sitting in the bottom of the flute.

“I’ve decided I’m not going to ring him, Aura, it was a mistake, I don’t even need to learn how to swim because—”

“You don’t have to ring him to ask him to teach you how to swim! You could ring him up and ask for—”

“Please don’t finish that sentence.”

To my surprise, Aurelia falls silent, the loud chattering of the cafe falling back into place behind us.

“Look,” I attempt to compromise. “I’ll have another think about it, okay? But until then, let’s have a nice day out. I saw a new independent jewellery store open up on the corner, we could have a mooch round? See if anything sparkly catches our eyes?”

Aurelia bobs her head in silent agreement.

“Finish the rest of your cocktail while I pop to the loo and we’ll get going, alright?”

When I get back to the table, bladder emptied, hands freshly washed and moisturised thanks to the complimentary lotion provided in the bathroom, it’s simply the look on my sister’s face which tells me something’s up.

She’s fucking done something. I can sense it.

---