Page 43 of You Float My Boat

I tapped my card against the reader, grabbed the sandwich and the bottle of water from the counter, shoved them in my bag and moved to the side to wait for my coffee.

Every muscle in my body ached this morning. I wasn’t sure if it was the lack of sleep I was running on currently or the way training had stepped up, or just the general fact that my mind didn’t want to stop whirring with thoughts I had no business having. Probably all three.

I did what I always did, and squeezed along my shoulder, hoping it might ease the tightness building, though it didn’t seem to help. I needed a massage. I needed something …

‘Charlie?’ called the barista, waving around my Americano far too haphazardly considering it was boiling water. ‘Char—’

I was also far too precious about my third coffee of the day to risk him spilling it. I snatched it away before he could finish calling me again, and turned around to find Gordon standing behind me.

‘Oh, Charlie, hello.’

‘Hey, mate. How’s it going? How long have you been standing there?’

He looked at his watch, ‘Twenty-three seconds.’

‘You waiting for a coffee?’

He shook his head. ‘No, I don’t drink caffeine. I’ve ordered a hot chocolate.’

Mmm, hot chocolate. Even the thought of thick hot chocolate warmed my insides, unfortunately it wouldn’t even touch the sides of my tiredness, especially as I was stifling a yawn, ‘Good choice.’

‘Are you tired?’

‘You could say that.’

Maybe itwasthe lack of sleep that had my body dragging itself through the motions of the morning. Truthfully, I was still trying to catch up on all the sleep I lost by kissing Violet, though the not kissing her didn’t help with that either. Not one bit.

In fact, the not kissing her had made things worse.

And then there’d been the meeting after class, the hand-holding, everything in the rules, including the rehearsing.

Since Violet had been awarded her role, we’d only managed one session together, where I’d played all the parts opposite her character. I still wasn’t entirely sure what the play was about – secret identities, secret crushes and secret something else, she’d said, but I wasn’t sure what that meant. If I was being honest, I hadn’t exactly given it my full attention because every time Violet spoke I was too captivated by watching her mouth move. Then I’d lose my spot on the page when it was my turn to speak and it kind of broke the momentum of her concentration.

I’d had to hold the spot on the page with my finger, like a fumbling idiot.

I’d never been fumbling in my life, but Violet Brooks seemed to bring out that side of me.

‘How’s training going?’

‘Good, tiring.’ Tiring was the soundtrack of the day. ‘But it’s worth it, because we’re going to win.’

Gordon’s head bobbed, ‘Good, glad to hear it.’

‘You coming to watch?’

‘Yes, I shall be there.’ His eyes lit up enthusiastically, ‘My parents come to watch too, and we spend a long weekend in London with my sister.’

‘That sounds fun. I didn’t know you had siblings,’ I replied, realizing I actually didn’t know a huge amount about Gordon’s life outside university, mostly because he was usually talking so much about his own achievements, they kind of all merged into one. Plus, the zoning out was an issue.

‘Hot chocolate for Gordon,’ shouted the barista and I reached between the two guys in front to grab it for him.

‘Thanks. Are you on your way to our tutorial?’

‘Sure am.’

‘Great, we can walk together, and I can pick your brain on a few ideas I’ve had,’ he said, taking a long gulp of his drink before wiping away the chocolate sprinkled milk moustache which had been left.

‘Cool. Sounds good. How’s chess club?’ I asked, weaving my way through the small group of students all waiting for coffee.

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