Chapter 10
I wake to a tickling sensation. I open my eyes slowly, hoping last night wasn’t a dream and that I do have a hot Scottish guy in bed next to me.
I glance down first. The sheet is hugging my lower half, and my top half is naked.
The tickling feeling I can now see is the handsome Scottish man gently grazing his finger over my breast.
‘Hungry?’ he asks.
‘Hungry for what?’ I wink.
‘You’re insatiable lass,’ he jokes. ‘Didn’t last night fill you up?’
‘Many times,’ I laugh, moving my mouth to his, giving him a quick peck on the lips.
‘I need some coffee and some food. Last night’s leftovers aren’t going to cut it.’
I raise my head to look over him to the floor, which is littered with paper plates and various scraps of food.
‘You’re right. That doesn’t look appetising. ‘Now that you mention it, I am a little hungry. ’
Jock kisses me quickly on the lips taking more time to kiss the nipple he’s been tickling making it stand to attention even more. He leaps out of bed, finds his clothes on the floor, and pulls them on. He tugs his baseball cap and puts on his dark sunglasses.
‘I’ll go forage. I want you right there when I get back,’ he orders, sliding furtively out of the cabin, pulling the door closed behind him.
While I am back in bed, and still naked when Jock returns I did sneak in a quick refreshing shower and cleared up the detritus of last night’s snacks. Jock returns carrying a cardboard tray with two takeaway coffee cups and two brown paper bags.
‘Cafe au lait and a pain au chocolate, madam?’ Jock asks on his return.
He places the coffee cups on the bedside table, passing me two brown paper bags marked with oil from the pastries.
Stripping down to his underwear, he slides into bed beside me.
He passes me a coffee and I give him one of the bags.
‘Mmmm, this is delicious,’ I say as flakes of pastry flutter from my mouth to my chest. ‘Thanks!’
‘Anything for you girlfriend,’ Jock replies.
‘What?’ I freeze.
‘What?’ he asks, confused.
‘Oh, nothing.’ I realise he probably didn’t mean I was HIS girlfriend, just that I’m a friend, who is a girl, with whom he has had sex. Actually, that doesn’t sound very good now that I think about that. ‘It’s just that you said ‘girlfriend’, and…’
‘And?’
‘And… What are we doing Jock?’ I ask, hating myself for being so uncool.
‘Eating brunch?’
Surely he can’t be that thick.
‘I mean this.’ I wave the paper bag in my hand over our half-naked bodies.
‘Naked brunch?’
‘Oh for fucks sake!’ I take an angry bite from my delicious pastry treat, setting free a cluster of flakes.
‘Well, obviously you’re my girlfriend if that’s what you mean?’ he genuinely looks confused.
‘Really?’ I beam.
‘I wouldn’t be eating pastry with you half naked in bed if you weren’t my girlfriend.’ He mirrors my cheesy smile.
I wonder briefly if this, the eating pastry in bed with bare chests, is the deciding factor in what makes us boyfriend/girlfriend, not all the amazing sex we’ve had in the last 24 hours.
And how many skinny bird girls he’s had sex with who thought they might be his girlfriend, but he’d never shared a meal with them in bed?
I won’t let these intrusive thoughts ruin this moment.
He has rubber-banded back to me.
Jock is my boyfriend.
I, Bella, am Jock’s girlfriend.
Jock and Bella.
Bella and Jock.
Jella?
Bock?
5 pm
I’ve just woken up from a post coital, lazy afternoon nap with my boyfriend.
‘Hungry?’ he asks.
I think I love you.
Fuck.
Did I say that out loud ?
I study Jock’s face for any trace of fear or shock.
Nothing.
‘Well, are you? Hungry, I mean?’ he repeats.
5.30 pm
‘I’ve got pizza and wine,’ Jock announces lifting them proudly before throwing his baseball cap on the floor. ‘You’ve got dressed,’ he says sadly.
‘I thought it was about time,’ I laugh. ‘I had to scrape the pastry flakes off my chest first, though.’
‘I got into the pizzeria just ahead of the hordes. The next wave of Terrible Tourists is here, I just saw the bus coming through the gate,’ he laughs.
‘Terrific Tourists,’ I correct him. ‘They pay me my meagre wages, remember! It’s a two-night tour, so they’ll be off to Monaco soon for dinner, and the campsite will be quiet again.’ I reassure him.
Jock sits on the far end of the bed pizza box balanced on his lap he flips the lid open. I admire the various meats atop a crispy base, dripping in melted cheese.
‘Why are you sitting so far away?’ I ask. ‘Scoot over here with that pizza.’
‘I need to get in before you, or I’ll starve,’ Jock laughs.
I start to move away from my pillows, leaning towards him, reaching for a piece.
Jock moves away from me teasingly. I’m startled as my cabin door flings open.
My jaw nearly hits the floor as my doppelg?nger bursts into the room, wielding a crumpled newspaper like it’s a lost chapter of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, and she’s just discovered irrefutable proof that all men are, in fact, Martians.
‘Fucking hell Bella, you’re only on the front page of the bloody Daily Mail,’ Isla screeches.