“How are you getting back? Are you flying?” Gemma asked.
“No, I’ll take the train. It’s quite fast, really, and you don’t have to deal with airport security or anything like that, and I find it much more comfortable.”
Mara shook her head. “I still find it really weird that you can take a train to another country across an ocean. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could take a train to New Zealand?”
“Uh, England and France are just a teensy bit closer than Australia and New Zealand, sweetie,” Gemma said. I could tell she was trying not to be too patronising, but it failed a bit. Mara just rolled her eyes.
“I was just saying, is all!”
“Plus, the train would take ages, if you think about it. It’s a three hour flight from Melbourne to Auckland. I don’t even know how far it is in kilometres.”
“Yeah, New Zealand’s further away than you think it is,” I said. “By you I meant me, not you specifically, Mara. I thought it was heaps closer until I actually looked at it on the map properly,” I added quickly after catching the look on Mara’s face. I was slightly distracted by the feeling of Leo tracing patterns on my hand with his thumb.
“Did you know that New Zealand were in discussion to join the federation of Australia, but they pulled out because they decided they were too far away and ships took too long to get there for any major decision making,” Annie chimed in.
“No, I did not know that,” Gemma said.
I sat back and watched them, and felt all warm and fuzzy. I had a slight buzz from the beer, but an even bigger buzz from whatever it was that was going on between Leo and I.
“Heads up, six o’clock.” Gemma nudged me. It was just the four of us girls sitting at the table. Leo and Matt were up at the bar, buying a last round.
“Huh? It’s ten forty-five, not six.” I wasn’t thinking very straight - I kept running my finger lightly along my tingling lips as my mind replayed the kiss Leo and I had shared outside. Gemma rolled her eyes, and then tried to casually gesture behind me. I swivelled around, not so casually, which made Gemma kick me in the shins, but I saw what she wanted me to see. And he saw me.
“Ah, crap,” I muttered, rubbing my shin. “Why’d he come here? This is our pub. What’s he think he’s doing? Why is he coming this way? Why is he looking at me?” This last was said in a frantic whisper.
Tom smiled and waved at us. His friend Ryan trailed after him as he pushed his way over to us. There was no blonde girl to be seen.
“Hi Bea. Girls. Good to see you.” He nodded at Mara, Gemma and Annie. Mara narrowed her eyes at him. Gemma smiled faintly. Only Annie said hello.
“Hey, Tom. Long time no see. Why don’t you come over here with me, and I’ll buy you boys a drink and we can have a quick catch up?” Annie got up and tried to steer Tom to the other side of the pub. He resisted her ushering and stared at me for a moment. I just stared back at him and didn’t say anything. Why did he have to ruin everything? I’d been on such a buzz.
“Oh thanks, Annie. Um, you wanna come too, Bea?”
I shook my head mutely.
Tom stared at me intently for a moment, and then turned and followed Annie with a slightly hurt look on his face. I let out a breath I hadn’t even realised I’d been holding when Leo and Matt returned to the table, without seeing Tom. Leo gently placed a glass in front of me and sat down next to me, casually settling his arm over my shoulders. I couldn’t help it, I squirmed a bit, but squeezed Leo’s leg reassuringly when he glanced down at me in concern and started withdrawing his arm.
Matt scanned the room, looking around for Annie.
“Who’s that Annie’s talking to? And why is he glaring at us?” I wished he hadn’t asked. Leo swivelled around to look, and the girls followed suite.
“Uh, that’s…” Mara started awkwardly.
“Just an old acquaintance from uni, nothing to worry about, Matt. He’s a prat.” Gemma laughed heartily. I stayed silent, but could feel my cheeks start to burn up. I tried to resist glancing over at Tom and Annie, but I couldn’t help it. He was glaring in our direction. At Leo with his arm around me. How dare he! He had no right, no right at all. I pressed myself closer to Leo and returned my attention to him, vowing not to even look in Tom’s direction.
My vow didn’t last long. I heard a slight commotion and turned. Tom was shaking Annie’s grip off his arm. Within a moment he was standing over us, an unreadable expression on his face. I had no idea what he was thinking. It felt weird; I’d nearly always been able to read Tom. Well, except for that whole secretly planning to break up with me for a month before he did thing. That had come out of the blue. Maybe I couldn’t read him so well after all. For a moment I thought he was going to punch Leo, but when his fist shot out, it was open.
“Hello, I’m Tom.” He held out his hand for Leo to shake. He ignored Matt and everyone else at the table. Leo looked puzzled and glanced at me.
“Hello. I’m Leo.” Leo took his arm from around my shoulders and shook Tom’s proffered hand.
“Nice to meet you, Leo. And where are you from?” What was he playing at?
“Belgium. And yourself?”
“Melbourne. Same as Bea.” Tom had barely taken his eyes off me, even though he was talking to Leo. I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes away from his. I was frozen in mortification.
“That’s nice,” Leo said blandly. I managed to tear my gaze away from Tom and switch it to Leo. I felt like a rabbit caught in a trap. Leo looked relaxed, but his grip on my hand under the table had tightened. I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not.
“Isn’t it. And how did you guys meet?” Tom nodded at me. I frowned at Tom. He had no right to be grilling anyone in my life, let alone Leo.
“We met in Portugal,” I said quickly. “Leo’s here on a business trip. We all decided to meet up.” Not that it’s any of your business, I wanted to add.
“Great. That’s great. Well, you two have a… lovely… night.” Tom turned suddenly and stalked off.
I could feel everyone’s gaze on me.
“Well, that was weird. Who was that?” Matt broke the awkward silence.
“That… was your ex, wasn’t it? The one you told me about?” Leo turned to me and asked. I nodded.
“Sorry about that. I don’t know why he did that.”
“Because he’s a jackass,” Mara helpfully supplied.
“Sorry, I tried to keep him away,” Annie moaned.
“Hey, no it’s all cool,” I said.
“Are you okay?” Leo asked me quietly, as the rest of the group started a round of Tom-Bashing. I shot him a quick smile and nodded.
“I’m fine. It’s no big deal.” I hoped he’d believe that. I wasn’t sure if I did.
I couldn’t quite recapture my feeling of contentment after Tom’s strange visit. Within fifteen minutes, Gemma had started yawning her head off, and it became contagious.
We all walked Leo back to the tube station. He gave me a quick kiss on the lips while the other girls discreetly walked ahead of us.
“I had a good night tonight,” Leo whispered to me, holding me close.
“Me too. I’m sorry about… the end of the night. I don’t know what he was thinking.”
“It’s okay. It didn’t ruin it.” He gave me another kiss. This one lingered a bit longer. Leo broke the kiss with a small smile and gave me a long hug. I could have stayed like that, just leaning into his warm embrace all night, but he broke it off.
“As much as I’d like to just stay here with you all night, I’d better go.”
“Okay,” I said, slightly disappointed. I’d been half wondering if he’d want to come back to my place, or if he wanted me to go to his hotel, but I supposed he didn’t when he said that.
“Why didn’t you go with him?” Mara asked me when I caught up with them a couple of minutes later. I frowned at her. We walked briskly back to our flat, under the trees that were starting to bud with the promise of Spring.
“I’m not that
easy,” I said more defensively that I meant to. Truth be told, I would have liked to have gone back with him to his hotel room, and wondered why he hadn’t asked me. I didn’t really want him coming back to my place just yet. I would be too paranoid about the other girls all listening in.
“Bea, my sweet innocent girl, what have I been telling you? You won’t truly get over Tom until you shag someone else. And that gorgeous man who is so obviously totally into you is a great candidate!” Mara said.
“Hey, you said in Portugal that kissing someone else was all I needed,” I protested.
“Did I? Well, I meant shagging.”
“Right,” I said.
“I don’t know about this,” Annie said. I looked over at her. “Sorry, I just… he seems like a really nice guy. Does he know he’s probably just a rebound?”
“He knows about Tom… but… I don’t even know if he’s just a rebound. I’m… I dunno. Why are we analysing this now? We’re not serious or anything, I’m fine, I haven’t fallen in love or anything, we’re just having a bit of fun and enjoying each other’s company.”
“Okay. Slight change of topic, but what did you think of Matt?” Annie asked a bit hesitantly.
“He seems pretty cool. I didn’t talk to him that much to be honest, but from what I saw I liked him,” I said.
“Yeah, he’s cool. Why? You like him?” Mara asked.
“Maybe…” Annie laughed.
“Go for it,” Gemma said.
“Have you heard from Greg, Gem?” I asked.
Gemma shrugged. “A couple of emails. Nothing major.”
“Do you want to hear from Greg?” Mara asked.
I was a bit surprised when Gemma just shrugged again. She seemed to really like him when we were in Lisbon.
“I don’t really care either way? I mean, if we bump into each other again that’d be cool, but I don’t think I’ll be going out of my way to meet up with him or anything. It was a bit of fun while it lasted. Holiday flings, yay!”
I laughed. “Good on you.”
We got home and I quickly said goodnight to the others. I stood leaning against my door for a few minutes with my eyes closed. What a night. I was still faintly buzzing from the alcohol, but it was wearing off. I undressed and sat on the edge of my bed for a moment. I thought about writing an email to my mother - I owed her one - but relegated that task to the next day.
I stretched out under the covers, luxuriating in the feel of the cool clean cotton against my bare skin. I should wash my sheets more often, I told myself, like I usually did after washing my sheets.
I ran the evening through my mind, going over everything I could remember. I had been enjoying it so much before Tom turned up. Why did he have to come and spoil it? It wasn’t fair. I’d honestly not thought about him at all since Leo had turned up at the tube station. Why did he have to come to that pub? He knew Annie worked there. He knew I was trying to avoid him, to get over him. And it had to be while Leo was there didn’t it. Well, I had wished for him to see me in the company of a hot foreigner last time I’d bumped into him in the supermarket. Served me right again. Leo definitely qualified as a hot foreigner! Leo… what was I doing? What was going on there? I liked him. I was pretty sure of that. But I had to be careful. Annie was right; it probably wasn’t going to lead anywhere. Oh well, I told myself. I’d worry about that later. For now, I decided, I’d just go with the flow and see where it washed me up.
Chapter Nine
To go or not to go
A chat window popped up. It was Leo. We were both actually online at the same time for once. I smiled to myself and snuggled down into my pillows, pulling my laptop onto my lap.
Leo: hey you!
Beatrix: hey hey
Leo: I was just writing you an email :)
Beatrix: Keep writing :) I like emails!
Leo: Haha, maybe I’ll finish it later. I like talking to you properly better ;)
Beatrix: Fair enough! How are you? How was the party?
Leo: I’m good! The party was fun. I think my sister had a good time.
Beatrix: What’s your sister’s name? I didn’t ask before.
Leo: Kaatje.
Beatrix: I have no idea how to pronounce that. But it looks pretty!
Leo: :-) I’ll tell you in person :-)
Beatrix: That would be nice :)
Leo: I have been thinking about that, actually.
Beatrix: About what?
Leo: Seeing you again. I have a few days off next weekend (Thursday through to Sunday). I was wondering if you’d like to come to Belgium? You told me that you haven’t been before. I can be your tour guide and I know a beautiful piano that you can play. If you can’t though, that’s totally okay. Don’t feel pressured.
I all but ran out into the lounge room. It was empty. I dashed into the kitchen where I found Mara and Annie cooking.
“Leo invited me to come visit him in Belgium!” I blurted out. Mara and Annie both turned to me.
“Awesome! When?” Mara asked.
“Next weekend? Is that too soon?”
“Pfft. No. Are you going?”
“Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Do you think I should?” I bit my lip and had to deliberately stop myself from tugging my pony tail.
Annie rolled her eyes at me.
“Do you want to go and visit him?” she asked matter of factly.
“Well, yeah!” I said after thinking about it for half a second.
“Then do it,” Mara said. “It’s only for a few days right? If he turned out to be a total gross slob, then you can just come back. Or go stay at a hostel or whatever. Belgium’s really nice. You’ll like it. Great beer and chocolate. And oh my god, the fries. Remember the fries, Annie?”
Annie laughed. “Yeah, of course I remember the fries. It’s all we ate for practically the whole time we were there. Frites with mayonnaise.”
“Mayo?” I wrinkled my nose.
“Yeah. You haven’t tried it?”
“No. I generally eat mine the normal way. You know, with tomato sauce,” I said in a dignified voice.
“You are in for a culinary revelation, my dear!” Annie smirked.
“Did you seriously just eat chips the whole time you were there?” I laughed.
Mara shrugged. “Pretty much!”
“What are you cooking? It smells really good.” I looked into the saucepan simmering on the stove.
“That’s just black beans. They smell so good, don’t they?” Mara said and gave them a stir, wafting the steam into her face.
“We’re trying to cook this Mexican style bean mixture that my brother makes. It’s so yum. I’ve been craving it,” Annie explained. “I got him to send me the recipe. Which was apparently an arduous task, as he made the recipe up and had to actually write it down, which he informs me was very difficult and I’d better bloody appreciate it.”
“Cool. Well, let me know when it’s ready.” I stuck my tongue out.
I rushed back to my room and picked up my laptop. I should go, right? Tom was in the past. I hated having to make choices. Going to visit Leo… well, that felt like a big choice that could change things. If I didn’t go… well, then this whole flirtation or whatever it was, with Leo would probably fizzle out. I wasn’t romantic enough to think it could sustain itself on a few days in Lisbon, an evening in London and dozens of emails. It was too fresh and new for that. But Tom… it would really feel over and like I was actually moving on and forward, away from Tom. I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about that. Stupid brain. Stupid heart. Why couldn’t it all be easy and straight forward? On the other hand, I’d get to see Belgium with a local. I couldn’t really turn down that opportunity, could I? I opened the laptop back up.
Leo: Bea?
Leo: Are you there?
Leo: I’m sorry, if it’s too much too soon. Forget that I said anything.
Oops. I should have said something sooner. The poor guy probably thought he’d scared me off. I started
typing quickly.
Beatrix: Sorry! I just had to check on something in the other room! I would absolutely love to come and visit you :)
Leo: Oh! That’s great news. Sorry, I have to run, my sister just turned up. I will talk to you soon, and also see you soon! xox
I grinned to myself, and then started looking into how to get to Ghent.
I walked around in a blissful daze for the next few days. My tranquility was ruined though, three days after I bought my train ticket to Belgium.
I was sitting on my bed, with my laptop open and a glass of wine next to me. Well, a mug of wine to be precise. Mara had broken our last wine glass the night before.
My computer made a pinging noise that I’d only recently learned to associate with a new Facebook message. I’d been meaning to turn it off, but kept forgetting. I opened the browser and then frowned at the name now flashing at me. Aruvin. Why on earth would he be messaging me? He was Tom’s best friend. He’d completely ignored me the last time I’d seen him. I hovered my mouse over the X, seriously considering just deleting it without reading, but curiosity got the better of me.
I should have just deleted the message. It wasn’t from Aruvin.
Hi Bea,
It’s Tom. Please don’t delete this. I know you’ve got me blocked, so I asked Aruvin to send this for me. I hope you don’t mind.
How are you? It was good to see you the other night. Really good. You looked great. And happy.
I’m glad, really I am.
I’ll keep this brief and get to the point. I miss you, Bea. I miss you so much. I miss us. I’m starting to think I made the biggest mistake of my life, letting you go. Seeing you the other night made me realise something.
I want to see you again. Properly.
Can we hang out? Just grab a coffee or something and see how it goes?
I understand if you don’t want to, but I’m begging you to give me another chance. At the very least you’ll get a free coffee out of it ;-)
Unexpected: A Backpacker Romance (The Backpacker Romances) Page 10
