Page 14 of The Christmas Express
But Ember now won’t meet my eye. Instead, she stares out of the window and mumbles, ‘Not exactly . . .’
Chapter 8
Ember
‘Not exactly?’ Cali raises her eyebrows up at me. She looks like a puppy dog, all doe-eyed and loyal to Bryn, and I wish I hadn’t opened my big mouth. ‘Ember, what are you telling me?’
I don’t know whether to open this particular door. Or whether to just open the emergency door we’re standing beside and jump out. But if I don’t tell her why I’m here, she’ll tell Bryn, won’t she? Before I can get there and say my piece, they’d all be messaging her, saying they’re travelling with me, asking her what’s going on.
‘Listen.’ I keep my voice low, the hum of the airplane drowning us out to any other passengers. ‘Bryn doesn’t know I’m coming, okay? And I’d like to keep it that way.’
‘What?’ she practically shouts, shifting, bumping into the toilet door, stumbling around like my words have caused another wave of turbulence. ‘What do you mean she doesn’t know you’re coming?’ She gasps. ‘Are you being a wedding crasher?’
‘No,’ I hiss, and angle my body away from where Joss is kneeling up in her seat watching us, munching on peanuts. ‘I’m not going to the wedding; I just need to see her before she gets married.’
‘Why?’
‘Because . . . I just do.’
‘Okay, but . . . why?’
I press my lips together, pushing down my annoyance. ‘It’s between me and Bryn.’
‘But it isn’t,’ Cali replies, refusing to let me drop my gaze. ‘She doesn’t know you’re coming.’
Fair point. ‘There’re just some things we need to discuss, okay? Some things I need to say to her, and perhaps some things she needs to say to me.’
‘Has she been in touch with you lately?’
‘Not directly.’ I can see her about to ask why again, so let some more words spill out before I have to go into detail. ‘Please just don’t tell her I’m coming, okay? Please?’
‘Do you think she still has feelings for you?’
God, she is so direct sometimes. And she gets away with it because of those doe eyes.
When I hesitate for too long to answer she nods and leans back against the toilet door. ‘You do, don’t you? Ember, she’s getting married to someone else.’
‘I am aware of that, and maybe in twenty-four hours I’ll be back on this plane, flying back to the UK, feeling like a massive idiot. But I’m willing to take that risk.’
Cali lapses into silence, thinking, picking at a spot on her chin until it’s flouro-pink. She’s jolted out of her daydream when the toilet door behind her starts to open and she nearly falls backwards onto a passenger still doing up their fly.
‘Haven’t you ever taken a risk for romance?’ I push, bringing her focus back on me.
‘They don’t always work out,’ she mumbles.
‘No, they don’t. But let me take this risk. Please don’t you or your friends tell her I’m coming; I just need to do this myself. I’ve come all this way.’
‘Ember . . .’
‘Cali, please?’
She looks back towards her seat, fingers trailing back to her pimple again before she appears to force her hand away. She looks me directly in the eye. ‘Let me think about it.’
Cali leaves me standing beside the toilet. Beyond the window, there’s bright blue sky and endless, snow-covered mountaintops. I press my nose to the glass, disappearing for a moment from the confines of the plane and pretending I’m out there, in the wild, in the open. I exhale, my breath misting the window, turning my view opaque.
Chapter 9
Cali
