Page 29 of The One That Got Away

‘Last night I fell asleep, so I didn’t have dinner.’ Skipping meals, even though it wasn’t intentional, wasn’t good, but I wasn’t about to lecture her. ‘Glad you enjoyed the playlist, though.’

She flashed a mischievous grin, before turning to the waiter who’d just arrived and placing her breakfast order.

‘I got the photos.’ I slid the envelope I’d collected from reception earlier.

‘What photos?’

‘The photos from yesterday. For the Love Task book thing. I haven’t looked at them yet because we’re supposed to go through them together.’

‘Let’s get this over and done with.’ She pulled out the selection and placed them in the centre of the table.

As Stella flicked through the photos, she frowned.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘These can’t be right.’ She went through the selection again. ‘These are…’

‘Nice?’ I replied.

‘Yeah.’ Her face creased. ‘They’re all happy and smiley and… this is fake.’

I picked them up to have a closer look. There were photos of each of us hitting the ball across the net, one with us smiling as we high-fived after winning a game and Stella wrapped in the towel I gave her after theincidentlooking up at me with what a stranger might wrongly assume was awe.

The next shot was a photo I’d prefer wasn’t taken. It was me looking at Stella like she was a snack I wanted to devour. The last picture showed us outside the pool grinning as Jasmine handed over the gold envelope containing our nightmare prize.

‘I see what you’re saying. How many do we have to choose again?’

‘One each.’ I put them back down in the middle of the table.

If I was being honest, I’d choose the one where she was in the towel, looking up at me.

She looked happy. Grateful. Relieved. Like she actually likedme. I used to love the way Stella looked at me. It was a million miles away from the death glares she’d given me since we were paired up.

I also liked the triumphant high-five photo. A flashback of the bolt of electricity I’d felt when our hands connected jumped into my brain and I pushed it out again.

Nope. I couldn’t choose that photo either.

‘I like the one of us hitting the ball over the net,’ I said.

‘Only becauseyou’rethe one hitting it.’

‘No, that’s not why I…’

‘Fine,’ she snapped. ‘Choose whatever you want.’

‘What about you?’ I asked. ‘Which one doyoulike?’

‘If I was forced to choose, then maybe the envelope one. Even though the smiles are fake and we won’t get to use the prize, it shows that we won the competition, so it’s like an achievement, which is good.’

‘Great,’ I said, relieved when the waiter returned with our breakfast.

At least our first set of Love Tasks were complete.

After breakfast we’d be heading to the pool to find out what today’s activity would be.

I’d like to say I was looking forward to it, but seeing as it meant spending more time with Stella, the chances were slim.

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