Page 32 of Unfinished Summer

Zee skips out a few minutes later in her usual cut-offs and T. She’s chosen the necklace I saw on her stand. “Right. What first?”

“A walk on the beach, ice cream for breakfast, then a small shopping trip. Lunch on the headland if the sun plays ball, maybe a game of truth or dare.” I take her hand in mine.

“All my favourite things, except the dare part.”

“Well, we can improvise.”

We start at the far end of the beach so that by the time we finish the length of it, the ice cream shop is open. Zee hasn’t stuck to a single flavour so far. She’s like a lucky dip—I never know what she’s going to choose—whereas I’ll choose chocolate every time.

“What do you fancy today?” I ask as we approach the window.

“Umm, I think today is a strawberry day. I need the sweetness.”

I order, and we sit on the beach wall in relative silence.

“Why don’t you have a favourite flavour?” I ask. A silly question, but I want to know everything about this girl.

“I don’t know.” She scrunches up her face. “I guess I like a few different things and don’t want the same thing over and over.”

“But you like some things better than others.”

“Not really when it comes to ice cream. It’s ice cream.” She looks at me like I’ve grown a third head or tried to argue the world is flat. And it just makes me smile at her.

“Okay. Well, I love chocolate. Come on. If we’re finished?” I help her jump down from the wall and steer her towards The Silver Tree.

“Why are we going in here?”

“I told you. Shopping.”

“But I don’t have any money,” she whispers into my shoulder, hiding her embarrassment as we step inside the shop.

“This is on me.”

“Your savings for travelling the world?”

“This won’t break the bank.” I look around the shop and hope there’s something more in keeping with what I have in mind.

Near the counter, I see a row of bracelets hanging on a rack, braided leather with silver pieces threaded through. They look cool and will work. “Here.”

The woman helps and takes the ones I’m looking at off the stand. There’s a wider one with less silver I like, too.

“Pretty.” Zee turns the one with the silver beads over in her fingers.

“I’ll take these.” I hand them both to the lady, who looks between me and Zee and smiles.

“Jayce,” Zee looks at me, and I just shrug. “I want you to have something from me.”

“I get that. I was thinking more like your baseball cap, though.”

“Well, I want you to have this.”

“Do you want them wrapped?” The lady asks.

“No. Just as they are.” I pay, and we head out of the shop, and we sit on the wooden bench overlooking the beach.

I look down at the pieces of leather in my hand, and my chest fucking hurts. My hand locks around the bracelets as I play out the rest of our hours together.

“Here.” I pull the bead, widening the leather bracelet to slide it over Zennor’s wrist before tightening it back up. I pass mine to her, and she does the same, securing it on mine.

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