Page 89 of One for the Road
Alistair: She fell asleep ten minutes in.I’d loved it though. For the first time in ages, my mind had gone completely blank as I flew through space.
Another laugh, louder this time. I pressed a hand to the wall, grinning.
Isla: Man, those free tickets were wasted on her.
I imagined taking Isla there. Sitting in the narrow seat, holding her hand. Glancing over in the darkness and catching her wide smile. Finding a dessert shop on the walk home and buying her a slice of every cake on the menu.
The thought didn’t feel like a chore or like I was forcing myself to make room.
Maybe we could go one day.I paused before pressing send.
She did love the stars.
Her reply came just as slowly.Sure, hit me up when the planetarium comes to Skye.
A joke. But it wasn’t a no.
The final notes of the song drew to a close, the silence ringing like tinnitus.
Play it again, I typed.
She did. And when no reply came, I let my phone fall to my chest, closing my eyes, seeing the cosmos fly behind my eyes. I fell asleep that way, irrevocably tied to this moment by a song I couldn’t even name.
This woman.
This fucking day.
23
Alistair
If there was ever a time to begin truly lusting after my fake girlfriend, this wasn’t it.
But that was the hand fate had dealt me.
Fate was a lousy bastard.
Over the next few days, I tried rationalising what had transpired on her sofa. We’d gotten caught up in the moment. Hooked up.Kindof. Adults all over the world did it every day. No big deal.
I was a fucking liar.
And I wasn’t the only one who thought so, because I was fairly sure Isla was avoiding me.
Saturday morning I’d sent her a very casual text I’d spent thirty minutes crafting.Want to hang out, we could make an appearance at today’s shinty match?
She’d replied two hours later with,Can’t, working.
Perhaps nothing to worry about on a normal day. But the morning after I’d memorised the way her thighs trembled as she came? I could have done with three or four more words.
It was probably for the best. We both needed a little space to get our heads on straight.
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I just wished said horse didn’t come in the form of a bad norovirus outbreak at the local care home. As two of the few – andavailable–doctors on the island, Amy and I were the first port of call.
We’d never been so busy.
I didn’t go home for two days.
With some of the care home staff taken ill, and those left stretched thin, Amy and I had taken to working on site, isolating infected residents and administering medication.
