Page 42 of The One That Got Away

‘I know.’

Our eyes connected. Stella looked so pretty today. Then again, she always did. The yellow sundress she was wearing suited her skin tone and even though she wasn’t wearing any make-up, she was stunning.

I wished things were different so I could lean over and kiss her.

Shit. Where the hell did that come from?

I’d always loved kissing Stella. Sometimes we just used to kiss for hours. Okay. Maybe that was a slight exaggeration, but we used to kiss a lot. It was one of my favourite things to do.

For a split second, I wondered if her lips were as soft as they used to be. Then I remembered it was irrelevant. She wasn’t interested in me romantically and the feeling was mutual. We were just being civil. That was all.

‘So.’ I broke the silence and looked down at the half-eaten omelette on my plate. ‘The playlist you sent was cool. Thanks.’

‘I hope the message of gratitude came across.’ A small smile touched her lips.

‘It did.’

‘Your playlist was good too. Although it made me sound like I’d battled through some deep adversity rather than just walking for a few hours!’ she laughed.

I’d picked: ‘Eye of the Tiger’ by Survivor, ‘The Climb’ by Miley Cyrus, ‘Roar’ by Katy Perry, ‘FIYAH’ by will.i.am and ‘Brave’ by Sara Bareilles.

‘I disagree.’ I shook my head. ‘You faced a fear. Did something that was challenging, so those songs fitted perfectly. You were really brave.’

This time, Stella didn’t argue. Instead she smiled.

‘Thanks.’

I’d hoped that we’d made progress last night and it was feeling like we had. Stella had thanked me several times and that smile was the cherry on top. Today was off to a great start.

After breakfast, we headed to the briefing where Jasmine told us that we’d have free time all day, then there’d be a group barbecue and party in the evening. Sounded good.

‘So what do you wanna do today?’ I asked. Part of me regretted it as soon as the words flew out my mouth because when I suggested doing something together outside the compulsory tasks yesterday, Stella blanked me. But the other part saidfuck it.

Like I said earlier, we were making progress.

Although it was kinda hard to admit, I wanted to spend time with her. And I might be misreading the signs, but Stella also seemed like she wanted to.

As well as being more civil, at breakfast I’d caught her staring at me for longer than normal a couple of times.

Anyway,whatever. The worst she could say was no.

‘I don’t know. Maybe we could hang out by the pool?’ she asked.

‘Cool. But we should get our photos first.’

‘Good point. Meet back in reception in ten minutes? I just need to get changed.’

‘Okay.’

Nine minutes later, Stella strolled towards me looking hotter than a jalapeño.

She was wearing some sort of crochet cover-up dress, but I could see that she had a pink bikini underneath.

I tried not to replay the memory of Stella’s bare tits in my head. It was getting harder and harder not to be affected by her presence.

‘Got them?’ she asked.

‘Yep.’ I waved two envelopes in the air.

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