The Summer Affair

Getting to know you

Ella

Every head turns to us as we walk into the room. Greta slinks off with a backwards wave and wink as she joins a very handsome author she’d met the previous night. I stand alone for a second, anxiety creeping in as I’m not sure what I’m meant to be doing when I feel his presence next to me.

“You look nice.” He murmurs gently. So does he. Dressed in a fine tweed suit that not many people could pull off. The top button of his crisp white shirt is left open casually.

“I’m still struggling to grasp what kind of camp has a dress code of evening wear.”

“An expensive kind” he jokes. “Shall we?” He says gesturing to a table. My stomach feels like it’s about to fall out of my ass with the amount of butterflies fluttering in it. This feels like a total dream. As we make our way over to the table set for two Oscar blocks my way.

“Kate, I was rather hoping that you might join me tonight. I’m very keen to continue our conversation on what you think we should be doing to combat homelessness.”

“Oh” I say.

“Sorry Oscar. I’m afraid I’ve already called dibs on Kate tonight.” And he takes my hand and leads me round a rather stunned Oscar.

“Thank you” I say as we take our seats.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather be dining with him tonight?”

“Absolutely” I smile. He smiles back at me and clears his throat with a light cough.

“You seem to have caught the attention of most of the male authors here.” He says, looking around us.

“As long as I have your attention.” I say, cringing inside slightly. Who the hell am I? Where is this confidence coming from. His eyes widen slightly and he clears his throat again. Oh god, I’m making him nervous.

“I’d say that’s a given.” He says simply.

A server comes to take our order. I’m disappointed that dinner appears to be just as healthy as lunch and breakfast and opt for the tenderloin pork with green beans and fingerling potatoes.

“They could really do with adding some proper carbs to this menu.” I say pouring myself some water from the elegant decanter.

“Oh yeah? What would be on your menu?” He asks, doing the same.

“Obviously Mac’N’Cheese with chorizo and topped with breadcrumbs, grilled for exactly twelve minutes and served with garlic bread.”

“Yeah, I could definitely go for that.” He says.

Now that we are sitting so closely I finally get a proper chance to look at him.

“Now you’re the one staring.” He says pointedly.

“Just admiring the view.” I say boldly, sounding much more confident than I feel. Before he can respond the waiter comes back with our food. My empty tummy gargles at the sight of it. Although my heart was asking for Mac’N’Cheese this would definitely do. We eat mostly in silence, stealing glances at one another. I can feel this electric tension between us. It’s buzzing is so powerful I can almost hear it. As our plates pie cleared he sits back in his chair.

“So” he says, his eyes glittering.

“So” I repeat, sitting back in my chair too.

“You’re confident.” He finally says.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No, no not at all. It’s just rare to meet like anyone that says what they are thinking these days.”

“And what are you thinking?” I ask.

“You’re kind of mysterious. You have this ‘aura’ as my mum would say.”

“An aura?” I repeat, raising my eyebrow at him.

“I don’t know. I guess, I just want to get to know you and I don’t really know why. But then I think you have multiple other people thinking the same as me. You seem to be having an effect on everyone.”

“I promise you, there’s nothing remotely interesting about me.”

“I find that hard to believe.” He says.

“So you’ve already decided not to tell me what your novel is about. Which is totally fine; the minute I’m out of here I’m finding it. So tell me about you.”

Ah crap. I take a deep breath. I don’t want to lie any further to him. It was bad enough that he is calling me by a different name.

“I’m sorry, if you don’t want to tell me anything that’s fine. I didn’t mean to put pressure on you to tell me things.” Oh god, he’s nice as well as attractive.

“No, it’s fine.” I take a deep breath. “It’s just that there really is nothing special about me. I am very fortunate. I grew up in a beautiful house, my father has a very well paid job and we live very comfortably.”

“And by we?”

“My brothers and I. I have two.”

“Older or younger?”

“I’m the middle child, the precious girl.”

“And what do your parents do?”

“My father is basically in charge of everything education. My mother passed when I was three.” I don’t look at him for a moment, not wanting to see the pity in his eyes.

“I don’t remember her.” I say.

“My dad, uhm he died too, I was ten.” Wyatt says.

“So I guess that makes us part of that club?” He laughs gently.

“I’m sorry though, that must be hard.”

“It was. Our housekeeper - Betty, she practically raised us. Which i was obviously grateful for when I started puberty. Nobody wants to be asking for advice about periods from their father.” Why on earth am I talking about periods. I peek up at him and he has this strange expression on his face. I change the subject.

“Your turn.”

“Probably the opposite to you. Spent most of my childhood moving from place to place. My mum, she was an alcoholic. Recovered now, but yeah. It was a bit of a mess.”

“Oh I’m sorry Wyatt.”

“Don’t be. It’s what got me into writing. I used to write to escape.”

I want to reach over and hug him. Hug the vulnerable little boy that obviously still haunts him. But I just gently touch his hand.

“This is pretty heavy for our first proper conversation. How about we go back to the period talk?” I can’t help but let out a laugh, which I’m afraid sounds more like a snort. I can see Greta turning to give me a told you so look out of the corner of my eye.

Wyatt

It isn’t until midnight that I return to my room. I’m pleased to see that someone has been in during the day and cleaned up my mess. My head is almost spinning with giddiness from the evening I feel like I’m thirteen again, having my first kiss with Abigail Porter. I head to the bathroom and splash my face with cold water. Every time I close my eyes I can see her. I see her face, lit up with laughter from something that I’d said. I’d never made Farrah laugh like that. She’d always said my humour was crude, too dry. I was always on best behaviour when I was around her and her family and friends. I’d forgotten how good it felt to just let go. She was so mesmerising to talk with I hadn’t noticed the others looking at us with questioning looks and raised eyebrows. I strip off the ridiculous suit and hop into the shower. The cold water seems to calm me down and my head slowly starts to clear as the water hits my skin. I don’t know how long I spend in the shower but by the time my head finally hits the pillow I’m out like a light. For the first night in years, I don’t dream of anything. No bird song, no trees, nothing. When my alarm goes off at 5:30am I positively bound out of bed. I take particular attention to my appearance before I head to the woods for morning yoga. I see that my agent Francesca has also packed me some ridiculous designer gym wear. Designer clothes were really not my thing. Growing up we didn’t have the money to spend on rent, yet alone nice clothes and I could think of hundreds of things that my money would be better spent on. I’m pleased to see that I’m not the first one there and head over to Greta who’s signalling for me to join her.

“Good morning Wyatt darling. You’re up early.”

“Good morning Greta. You know the phrase ‘early bird catches the worm’.”

“Any by worm you mean Kate?”

“I don’t think I’d compare her to a worm.”

“Not what I meant.” She says poking me in the chest.

“You certainly looked like you were enjoying one another’s company last night.”

“Well yeah, she’s great. How do you know her?”

“Oh we go way back.” She says waving a hand at me.

“And uh”

“Yes she’s single, yes she’s gorgeous and yes you should pursue it. I think she’s exactly what you need to bring you out of this funk you’ve been in since that unnatural blonde exited your life.”

I forgot how honest Greta could be. Truthfully I didn’t know her that well. Our agents had introduced us to one another at a reward ceremony nearly two years ago and we had caught up at every event since. I’d made the mistake of introducing her once to Farrah, who promptly accused me of having an affair with her and stormed out of the venue.

“I think you’re getting a bit ahead of yourself Greta.”

“We’ll see.” She states.

I see Kate walking to the woods with Oscar and instantly feel that tug of jealousy. I can see she doesn’t look interested in the conversation and I’m pleased when she scouts the group of people congregated to find me. As our eyes meet that dimpled smile flashes at me and she politely excuses herself from Oscar.

“Good morning.” She says as she lays her yoga mat down next to mine. “Sleep well?”

“Like a baby.”

“You know, I always find that expression bizarre. My brothers and I used to wake up every hour.”

“Your poor parents.” I say.

“You mean, the poor nanny. I don’t think my parents once did the wake ups. My father takes great delight in telling everyone that we went through twelve nannies when Hugo was a baby.”

“That’s pretty impressive.” I laugh. Not as impressive as the outfit she’s wearing. As she takes off her hoodie I can see that it clings to her in all of the right places. I’ve never been as aware of someone as I am her right now. Why did she have this effect on me? I’m grateful when the instructor asks us all to be quiet as we begin. Something starts to wake up inside me, something that had been dead since Farrah had left me and it had felt like my world had ended. I couldn’t place my finger on it but it had the sense that something exciting was about to start and my life was about to change again.