Chapter Fourteen
FOURTEEN
I’m in jail.
Well, no, I’m overreacting, but I have been sent back to my seat after receiving a very stern telling-off from one of the cabin crew.
Apparently passionately making out with your colleague in the entrance vestibule while drinking smuggled champagne is not okay and to make matters worse, I don’t know what happened to the rest of that bottle.
Have they confiscated it? I don’t dare ask. Killjoys!
The situation was made even less fun when Callum was taken to ‘cool off’ somewhere else, so I’m sitting alone at the front of this plane with nothing but my sexy sexy thoughts to keep me company.
I shut my eyes and tip my head back, replaying every last thing that just happened in a blissful, second-by-second recap.
Things were about to get a whole lot hotter.
His fingers were tracing the inside of my bra.
Mine had dipped under his T-shirt, found his belly button.
I believe I was about to peel off his T-shirt?
Then a very cross flight attendant drew the curtain to one side and started speaking rapid Mandarin at us.
We’d both scrambled up, me handing Callum his glasses, him pulling me in close as if he wanted to protect me. Me melting like candlewax in the sun when he did that. Him basically holding me up at that point. I can still feel the memory of his body against mine now and it’s making me dizzy.
Pre-time loop, I’d quite regularly find my brain trotting off to Crazy Thought Town.
Once there, I’d find myself imagining what it would be like to hook up with the evil villain that is Callum Bang and let’s just say my fantasies (nightmares?) were accurate.
There’s something in the way he holds himself, his ease and confidence, that made me suspect he’d know how to handle himself in situations like this.
Hoo boy, I was not wrong.
Frustration fizzes through me as I look over at the space where Callum should be sitting, wishing desperately he was up here with me.
We’ve been told under no uncertain circumstances to keep our distance for the rest of the flight.
And I’m not quite at the fuck-it stage of life where I will willingly abandon all the rules …
I’ve not totally lost the plot. Or have I?
Kissing mortal enemies now, are we, Nina?
It is with great relief that we finally start to make our descent into Singapore. I’m desperate to see him again, especially now that I’ve sobered up. I’m just hoping Callum isn’t mad at me for getting us in trouble.
Annoyingly, I can’t find him in the scramble to get off our delayed plane and through to the departure lounge for our next flight on to Perth.
I am, however, found by Hamish.
‘There you are,’ he beams, bounding up to me like a golden retriever.
‘Oh, hello, Hamish.’
‘Are you flying on to Perth?’
‘I am,’ I answer, distractedly looking around.
‘Awesome! It’s so good to see you, Nee.’
‘Huh? Oh, yes, you too. Although no one calls me Nee anymore. I always did think it makes me sound like a body part.’
‘Hey, come on! We’ve got history,’ he says, as if this allows him to call me by an ancient nickname. I try not to bristle. After all, Hamish seeking me out like this a huge improvement on previous Mondays. I suppose it’s quite sweet?
Still no sign of Callum.
‘I’ve been thinking about you all flight,’ he adds. ‘Ever since I saw you when I first got on the plane.’
This is a turn-up for the books.
‘You have?’
‘Yeah, man,’ he says as we put our hand luggage through security. ‘I owe you an apology.’
‘Oh?’ I should be giving him my full attention, because it’s only polite, but truth is I just can’t summon much enthusiasm for chatting to Hamish right now.
‘About the way things ended between us,’ he continues. ‘I know it was a long time ago but seeing you today, wow, Nee, it brought back a lot of happy memories for me. We had a good time, right?’
‘We did,’ I admit, surprised at this Hamish 2.0.
‘And I messed up, not getting in touch like that. I should have been in contact. I thought about you a lot when I first landed.’
‘Hmm,’ I say. For a matter of weeks.
‘Ultimately, I was scared. We were still so young and I’d gone off on this shiny new adventure, and I wasn’t ready for a proper commitment. I just wanted to be a big kid still.’
‘Right,’ I say. ‘And now?’
‘Mate, I’m thirty now. The big kid days are over. I’ve actually got some big plans for the next year. Going to combine what I’ve always loved and this time, I’m going to monetize it.’
‘With objets trouvés and travelling around Australia in a campervan?’
Hamish looks at me wide-eyed. ‘How did you know?’
‘Just a good guess.’
‘See! This just proves how well you know me, even after all this time.’ He beams, leading me to a seat by the departure gate. I spot Clio and Brody up ahead, give them a wave, but still no sign of Callum. Where the hell is he?
‘How are you?’ Hamish adds. ‘Tell me everything.’
It’s a lot to be suddenly faced with a Hamish who wants to know more.
Who is actually apologetic for the way he treated me.
This is precisely what I wanted from him the first time around.
At last he’s behaving more like the Hamish I’ve held a candle for all these years, like the Hamish of my memories.
But now, post-Callum, I can’t even drum up any enthusiasm about it.
How am I meant to deal with this? There’s a little voice in the back of my head still insisting that Hamish probably is my ticket out of here, because it cannot be a coincidence that he’s resurfaced – after a decade of me pining for him – on the very day I get stuck in a time loop. Can it?
‘It’s sweet of you to ask,’ I say, ‘but look, I’m pretty tired right now.’
Hamish nods. ‘I feel you, my man. I’ve done this journey a lot. One of the best ways to deal with jet lag is to orgasm, did you know that?’
I drop my bag down on a seat in surprise.
‘Sex cures jetlag,’ Hamish continues enthusiastically. ‘I’d be happy to oblige, if you fancied a little trip down memory lane. There are plenty of places around here where we could go for some alone time.’
I am staggered.
If you’d have told the me from four Mondays ago that by the time I’d got to Singapore airport I’d have bumped into the one that got away and he’d be offering to shag away my jetlag, I would have been beside myself. I couldn’t have imagined a better outcome.
But now?
I look Hamish up and down, his eyes twinkling at me.
A life lived by the ocean has served him well.
He’s still the sand-haired salty sea dog I fell in love with.
And he’s literally offering himself up on a plate.
It’s exactly what I need to get out of here, right?
I’ve spent the past decade of my life looking back on old times, wishing I could rekindle them.
Finally, here’s my chance.
And suddenly, I just don’t want it.
All I want is my former arch nemesis and ridiculously hot colleague by my side.
‘It’s a no from me,’ I say as politely as possible.
‘Ah well, if you change your mind,’ he says with a wink. ‘Oh look, here he is. Cal, my dude!’ Hamish has broken into a smile as he looks back over my shoulder towards the security scanners.
I turn to find Callum walking towards us and my breath catches in my throat.
‘Hello, Hamish,’ Callum says. ‘There you are, Moss,’ he adds.
‘Hold, please,’ I splutter as I try to compute what’s going on. I remember telling Callum who Hamish was after my ex spotted me when he was boarding the flight earlier, but I’m very confused as to why Hamish is now greeting Callum with unbridled glee.
Have these two known each other all along?
I watch in horrified silence as Hamish pulls Callum in for a bear hug.
Seeing the two of them together is intense, like I’m witnessing a visual representation of my past and present collide.
Hamish, with his blue eyes and long blond hair, wrinkled T-shirt and stash of woven bracelets up his arm, is now patting Callum, all dark hair cascading over tortoiseshell glasses, expensive watch around his wrist, on the back.
I notice that Callum’s eyes do not leave mine. ,
Eventually I shake my head in confusion. ‘Nope,’ I say. ‘I don’t understand. Do you two know each other.’
‘This legend,’ Hamish leans back to admire Callum, ‘got escorted down to the spare seat next to me on the flight out here. He still won’t tell me why, but he had some very cross members of the cabin crew telling him in no uncertain terms to stay put.
Looked like he’d got himself in some trouble.
Dude still hasn’t told me what happened. ’
They’ve been sitting together for the last few hours of this flight?
Dear God, please tell me they slept through it.
‘A gentleman never tells.’ Callam smiles affably, gaze still pinning me to the spot.
I can feel the heat building in my cheeks.
‘It’s good, I know it is,’ Hamish carries on. ‘I reckon you were making some moves. Look at you, handsome devil. I’m right, aren’t I?’
Callum says nothing.
‘Unless, wait, was it …’ Hamish trails off as he looks at me, joining the dots. ‘Nee, are you two …’
‘Absolutely not,’ I cut in.
A flicker of rejection passes over Callum’s face and I know instantly that I’ve messed up.
Fuck. What should I do, though? I don’t feel like I owe Hamish an explanation about what’s just gone on between Callum and me, mostly because I don’t understand it yet myself.
We despised each other until very recently!
Plus it’s none of Hamish’s business. And yet, in the back of my mind, that irritating voice is reminding me that Hamish could still be my escape route.
This feels messy.
‘We’re just colleagues,’ Callum explains. It sounds innocuous enough but his words hit me like a gunshot. Tears prickle in the back of my eyes and I have to aggressively blink to dismiss them.
‘Yes,’ I say eventually, watching the shutters close across Callum’s face. ‘We’re here on business.’