‘Hey!’ she shrieked, excitement racing through her veins. ‘Put me down.’
‘No way, it’s time for your swim. You’ve been on Aussie soil for eight hours and still haven’t been swimming in the sea, and that is a capital offence.’
She squealed as he entered the sea, only drawing to a stop when the water reached his knees. ‘You wouldn’t dare,’ she gasped as droplets of cool water splashed onto her bare feet.
‘Wouldn’t I?’ he laughed, allowing her body to slip a few inches lower.
‘Harrison, you’re crazy. My microphone will break.’ Lizzie clung harder to his neck.
‘The only thing I’m crazy about,’ he said as he led her feet to the soft squidgy sand of the ocean floor, and drew her towards him so that it seemed every part of their bodies were touching, ‘is you.’
The cold water lapped against the bottom of her shorts, sending goose bumps across her body, or maybe that was the feel of Harrison’s toned body against hers. Whatever was going on between them it was happening quickly. Too quickly for her to process what it meant and whether she was prepared to drag someone else into this. But was that a bad thing?
‘You don’t need to look so surprised.’ He smiled. ‘I thought you knew.’
‘It’s not that. I … I just thought after last summer, when you left and I didn’t hear from you, that it was just a fling, which was fine. I mean, we live on opposite sides of the world and I completely understood; it’s not as if I was heart-broken or anything.’ Lizzie couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth. A nervous energy fluttered around her as Harrison’s arms tightened their hold on her.
He leant his head towards her until the softness of his lips brushed against hers. Like a strong current, Lizzie allowed herself to be swept away.
CHAPTER 26
Lizzie
Sometime later, although Lizzie had no idea how long – seconds, minutes – they drew apart, leaving her suddenly aware of the numbing chill of her legs in the water, and how wet the bottom of her shorts had become.
‘I’m totally crazy about you.’ He spoke in a husky voice full of desire and intent. ‘I didn’t contact you after I left England because I thought that’s what we’d agreed. That it would make it harder if we tried to stay in touch. I wanted to call you so many times, you know?’
Had they agreed that? Lizzie couldn’t recall a conversation along those lines, but at that moment all her brain seemed capable of remembering was the feel of Harrison’s body next to hers and the parts of their brief relationship that, up until that moment, she’d forgotten; like the soft groan he’d emitted when she ran her hands down his bare back, and the way her skin tingled from his touch.
‘Anyway,’ he said as he pulled her into the crook of his arm and guided them back towards the shore. ‘I have something else a little crazy to tell you, which I hope you’ll be OK with.’
‘What?’ She grinned. After the intensity of their kiss, Harrison could suggest skinny-dipping and she’d agree.
‘Well, when I got back to the office today my boss was in fits. He accused me of wagging, even though I’d cleared it with him ages ago to have this week off. Then he said, because of my “casual relationship with timekeeping” –’ Harrison raised his voice, Lizzie guessed to mimic that of his boss ‘– my holiday request for the next week has been denied.’
‘Oh, that’s all right, we’ll work around it. We can always see each other in the evenings.’
‘No way. No way am I missing out on spending time with you. Which is exactly what I told him. Which is when he said, “If you don’t show up for work tomorrow, don’t bother coming in any other time, either.” So I was like, “Bonza!” because now it means that I can spend more than just your week in Sydney with you. I can come to the East Coast, too.’
‘Wow, I’d love that, but what are you going to do when we leave? Will you be able to find another job?’
‘I reckon. I’ve got some irons in the fire, as you Poms say.’
As her toes touched the dry sand, Lizzie looked up, her eyes finding the angular waif before anyone else. She was standing on her own in the orange flickering glow of the bonfire, staring right at them. Lizzie smiled but the girl had already spun around and was gliding off in the opposite direction. With the glow of the flames on her features, Lizzie thought for a moment that she saw anger etched onto the girl’s sharp face. Before she could think any more of it, Jaddi and Samantha strolled towards her, both holding cans of lager and laughing about something. Just beyond them stood Ben, his face obscured by the camera.
Lizzie tried to ignore the heat burning in her cheeks as her conversation and kiss with Harrison replayed in her mind, just as it would be replayed on millions of television screens the following week. She wanted to call Ben over and coax the camera away for a little bit, but she didn’t. Why was she suddenly lost for words to say to him? Lizzie pulled in her bottom lip. She wouldn’t let Ben or the documentary change her behaviour or her relationship with Harrison. The thought of a relationship sent a warmth radiating through her.
‘I’m just going to catch up with Lance for a mo,’ Harrison said as Jaddi and Samantha reached them. He planted a kiss on her cheek before striding away.
‘How was your … swim?’ Samantha asked, her voice giddy with alcohol and mischief.
‘It was good.’ Lizzie laughed.
Jaddi stepped forward. ‘What’s going on then? You two seem to have hit it off quickly.’
‘Just like the last time then, I guess.’ Lizzie smiled. ‘He says he’s crazy about me. And he wants to spend time with me whilst we’re in Australia.’ She paused as a thought struck her. ‘Is that OK with you two? Sorry, I should’ve checked first.’
‘What do you think, Sam?’ Jaddi said, looping an arm around Samantha.
Samantha shook her head. ‘I’m not sure.’
‘Me neither,’ Jaddi said. ‘It’s just, you look so … so happy, and as your very best friends, we have to put a stop to that.’
‘Absolutely.’ Samantha nodded.
‘Very funny,’ Lizzie said, grinning. ‘Seriously, are you all right with this? I know it’s not what we planned.’
‘Definitely.’ Jaddi laughed. ‘Stop worrying.’
Lizzie smiled until her cheeks ached. They’d skipped a few steps again, just as they’d done the first time, but it felt right. Yes, it was ridiculously fast, and she couldn’t begin to contemplate what saying goodbye to Harrison again would feel like when they left for America, but at that moment she didn’t care. Her future would be full of goodbyes.
CHAPTER 27
Day 35
Samantha
A gust of wind buffeted against Samantha’s blue and silver climb suit. She tightened her grip on the cable, which held her to the railing of the vast steel structure, and concentrated on keeping pace with their climb leader, Chloe. Why they couldn’t have watched the sunset from the rooftop of the hostel rather than climbing 1,332 steps to the very top of the bridge frame, she didn’t know.
When they’d first entered the climb facilities at the base of Sydney Harbour Bridge, the late-afternoon sun had been bearing down on them. It had seemed ridiculous that they would need another layer, especially one in the same stifling material as a wet suit, and especially one so unflattering, on her at least. Jaddi and Lizzie’s climb suits had clung to their bodies, accentuating Jaddi’s lithe figure and Lizzie’s petite frame. Samantha, on the other hand, was pretty sure she’d been given a man’s suit, given how it bulged and sagged in all of the wrong places.
So instead of basking in the sinking sun, spreading its egg-yolk-orange glow across the harbour, and the city beyond, she was focusing the majority of her attention on keeping as many steps ahead of Harrison as she could, so that his own views didn’t include a close-up of her bottom.
As they reached the summit and stood in the centre of the archway, Samantha turned back to face the way they’d come. Her eyes scanned the ground, now far below, for the disti
nctive silhouette of Ben and his camera. With part of the harbour now obscured in shadow, nothing but ant-like specs could be distinguished. Even the traffic crossing the bridge looked no bigger than the toys in a Kinder Egg.
‘OK, climbers,’ Chloe called out, ‘gather round for your group photo.’
Jaddi sidled next to her, wrapping one arm around Samantha’s shoulders and linking her other arm with Harrison.
‘Smile,’ Chloe said.
Samantha pulled her lips back into what she hoped would pass for a smile and wished the experience would end.
‘I can’t believe you’ve done this three times,’ Lizzie said, gazing at Harrison.
‘Are you kidding? I’d do this every week if it didn’t cost so much moolah.’
Lucky you didn’t have to pay then, Samantha thought, biting back the comment before it could leave her mouth.
It turned out that she wasn’t OK with Harrison’s sudden and constant appearance in their group, arriving when they were still in their pyjamas and groggy with sleep, and only leaving when one of them (usually her) told him to go.
There had been an amusing moment on their second day in Sydney when Harrison had suggested to Ben that he ‘bunk down’ in Ben’s dorm room to save himself the journey back and forth to ‘the rellies’ every day. Ben had replied in a deadpan tone, ‘That’s never going to happen, mate.’ He’d accentuated the word ‘mate’ just enough to leave Samantha wondering if she wasn’t the only one vexed by the new addition to their group.
Then there was his constant use of slang words which none of them understood. In all of their conversations with other Australians, whether from Sydney, or visiting from another part of the country, no one had used a single slang word, so why did Harrison drop them into every sentence? What was he trying to prove? It would be like Samantha highlighting the fact that she was from London by conversing in cockney-rhyming slang.
‘I think once will be enough for me,’ Lizzie said, turning slowly around and gazing at the view.
‘It’s a shame Ben’s missing this,’ Jaddi said.
‘I don’t think Ben was particularly disappointed.’ Lizzie smiled. ‘Did you see his face when they said he couldn’t bring his camera? I’d say he was relieved to be keeping his feet on the ground.’
‘He could’ve come anyway,’ Jaddi said. ‘I’m sure Caroline wouldn’t have minded if he’d have stopped filming. This is too spectacular to miss.’
‘It’s totally different up here at sunset, that’s for sure,’ Harrison said, pulling Lizzie towards him and drawing her into another kiss.
Samantha hated how he’d inserted himself among them; an interloper in surfer’s clothing hijacking their trip, and worst of all hijacking Lizzie. It was this last thought which made Samantha loathe herself to her very core. Her very best friend, the reason she was on this trip in the first place, was happy, and if anyone deserved to be happy it was Lizzie. If anyone deserved to fall head over heels in love with a hunky Australian, it was Lizzie. So why did it irk Samantha so much? Was it as simple and pathetic as jealousy?
‘I’ll be sad to leave Sydney,’ Jaddi said. ‘It’s such an amazing place, especially with our very own tour guide.’ She winked at Harrison.
‘Gotta try surfing though, and the Gold Coast is the place to do it. Not so many shark attacks.’
Lizzie frowned. ‘I’d prefer it if you said “no shark attacks”.’
‘Babe, I’ll be there to punch the suckers on the nose if they come near us.’
‘Umm,’ Samantha nodded. ‘Punch them on the nose, that sounds like a foolproof plan for fending off a shark attack.’
‘Don’t knock it, Sammy, I’ve seen it work.’
‘Really?’ Lizzie asked without any hint of sarcasm. Samantha was starting to miss Lizzie’s abrasive comments.
‘Yep.’ Harrison grinned. ‘I was with Jimbo and Lance …’
Samantha stepped to the other side of the arch, and out of earshot of Harrison’s story. Her eyes focused on the soft afternoon sunlight casting long stretching shadows of the bridge on the river.
She ground her teeth together, her head reeling from his comment. Sammy? Since when was that a name? It was no better than when he’d called her Sally. She was a Samantha, and very occasionally, and only to Jaddi and Lizzie, she was Sam. Never ever was she Sammy.
CHAPTER 28
Jaddi
‘Hey,’ Jaddi whispered in Samantha’s ear. ‘You OK, Sammy?’
Samantha blew out a puff of air. ‘Watch it. We’re a long way up, and the next person who calls me Sammy is going in the water. I just hope it’s him.’ She nodded her head towards Harrison.
‘He’s not that bad, and he’s making Lizzie happy.’ Jaddi followed Samantha’s gaze and smiled at Harrison.
‘I know. I’m sorry.’ Samantha sighed. ‘I didn’t mean to grumble. I’m being pathetic. It’s just hard. This is our time together, not his. The days are flying by and we don’t have time to be sharing Lizzie with him.’ Samantha scrunched up her face.
‘We’re still all together. You’ve never minded about Ben being with us.’
‘It’s not the same, and you know it. Ben’s different.’
‘Talking of Ben …’ Jaddi smiled, desperate to cheer Samantha up. ‘Do you think he likes Lizzie?’
‘I don’t know. Why?’
‘Oh, come on. All those little sideways smiles he gives her when he’s not filming.’
‘And the bottles of water. He’s like her personal water assistant.’
‘I know.’ Jaddi nodded. ‘Sometimes I want to wave my hands in the air and say, hey, look at me, I’m thirsty too.’
Samantha laughed. ‘Do you think Lizzie knows?’
‘I don’t think so. She’s always been a bit oblivious to men liking her.’
‘Should we tell her?’
Jaddi scrunched up her nose. ‘Nah. She’s pretty wrapped up in Harrison right now. It’s hard to see how telling her that Ben fancies the pants off her will help. It could end up making things really awkward between them.’
‘That’s true,’ Samantha said. ‘I don’t want to rock the boat with the filming. At least Ben gives us space to be just us, unlike someone else.’ Samantha nodded towards Harrison. ‘I can’t explain it, but things have been different since Harrison showed up. Lizzie’s been different.’
‘I know Lizzie has been focused on Harrison this week, but it will calm down soon enough, I’m sure,’ Jaddi said. ‘How about I engineer some time for just the three of us once we get to the Gold Coast. No Harrison, no Ben, no microphones.’
‘How?’
‘Let me worry about that. You just try a little harder to be happy and not to hate Harrison so much—’
‘Is it that obvious?’
‘Only to me. I’m sure the others are oblivious.’
Samantha sighed. ‘I just wish I could be more like you, but I can’t sweep it all to one side and bounce around as if everything is fine. Everything is not fine. It’s an effort every day not to cry, or shout about the injustice of it all. She’s twenty-nine. How is that fair?’
‘It’s not.’ Jaddi swallowed back the lump forming in her throat. ‘But Lizzie doesn’t want us to be sad.’ She threw a glance to Lizzie, still enthralled in Harrison’s story. ‘We have to be happy for her. I’m not thinking about what will happen at the end of all this, I’m just trying to live in the moment, enjoy every bit of our time together before it all ends.’ Jaddi was lying; of course she was thinking about the end. It had always been the three of them. How were they supposed to go back to their old lives without Lizzie there completing the trio?
Just then, Chloe cleared her throat. ‘Time to get moving, climbers, whilst that sun is still setting.’
Jaddi idled for another moment. It wasn’t the burnt-orange sky, now turning a dusky purple, that Jaddi was thinking about, but Samantha’s words echoing in her head. I can’t sweep it all to one side and bounce around as if everything is fine. Is that what she was doing
? Sweeping reality under the rug just like her parents. Jaddi’s upbringing, her entire family for that matter, had always been about skirting around truths and glossing over difficult subjects. Like her Uncle Prem’s unexplained disappearance. Not a single word had been spoken about it in fifteen years. She hadn’t gone to the funeral. She hadn’t known there’d been a funeral, or even been told he’d died, let alone how. If she hadn’t found the note he’d left when she’d been rummaging in her father’s study for a pen, she might still have believed he was off enjoying himself in some remote corner of the world.
Jaddi had adored Prem – his exaggerated gestures, his multitude of brightly coloured turbans, the way he seemed to know her thoughts before she’d voiced them, and the fact that he hadn’t succumbed to his parent’s pressures to make his marriage to some horrid woman, whose name Jaddi couldn’t remember, work.
It had been years later before she’d realised why.
It was another reason Jaddi loved Suk, she realised with a sudden ache in her chest, as she clipped her safety cable to the railing and began the descent. They had a shared acceptance of the maddening ways in which their families acted. They didn’t always agree on how to handle them, but they understood.
CHAPTER 29
Day 36
Lizzie
‘… and this is the kitchen-living room with a pretty spectacular view of Coolangatta Beach, when it’s not pitch-black outside, anyway.’ Lizzie held the camera out and turned slowly around the apartment. ‘Thank you, Caroline and Channel 6, for moving our booking at the hostel to this fabulous apartment.’
Lizzie wasn’t stupid. She knew someone at Channel 6, probably Caroline, had decided that the viewers at home had seen enough of dorm rooms, and that an apartment, especially one with Harrison in, would make for more interesting footage. Nevertheless, the threebedroomed apartment on the ground floor of a twelve-story apartment complex, with its balcony overlooking the ocean, and its own private access to a long stretch of sandy beach, was a welcome change.
One Endless Summer Page 14
