Chapter 14
14
STELLA
It was now Tuesday morning and Max and I were outside waiting for the coach the hotel had hired to take us to today’s activity.
I still had no idea where we were going. When we’d arrived for the daily debrief at the pool, I’d asked Jasmine, but she’d said it was a surprise.
Whilst all the other guests around us were chatting with their partners, I was standing here with Max in silence. We’d only been here for a few minutes but the awkwardness made it feel like hours.
Thankfully yesterday’s sandcastle-building competition was less eventful than the pool volleyball activity on Sunday. We were given two hours to create a beach masterpiece. Even though Max and I argued about whether or not to include windows, how many flags to have and how big the towers should be, we managed to make something half decent.
I wasn’t too bothered that we didn’t win. Especially if the first prize we won at volleyball was anything to go by.
For the rest of the day I’d avoided talking to Max by eating by the pool instead of the restaurant and burying my head in a book.
Sadly, I didn’t think I’d be lucky enough to escape spending time with him today though.
Just as I was about to pull out my phone as a distraction, a woman with white shoulder-length hair and an elegant summer dress came over.
‘Hello, young Max!’ she smiled.
‘Dorothy! Hey! How’s it going?’
‘Good, thank you. They matched me with a very lovely young man.’
‘How young we talking?’ Max cocked his head.
‘He’s sixty-five, so a whole seven years younger than me!’
‘Brilliant! You sound chuffed!’
‘I am! I’ve always wanted a toy boy!’ She winked.
‘You saucy little minx!’ Max teased. ‘Go easy on him!’
‘Not a chance! Anyway, I wanted to say thanks again for your help.’
‘No probs,’ Max said. I frowned, wondering what she was talking about. I hadn’t seen her before so she must be in a separate group.
I was happy at least that she’d been set up with someone she was interested in. And I liked that the hotel had guests of all ages too.
‘Did you find your other keycard?’
‘Yes! It was on the bed!’ Dorothy said. ‘Under my handbag!’
‘We’ve all been there!’ Max laughed. ‘Well, not the whole handbag thing, but I’ve left my keycard in my hotel room loads of times.’
‘Forgive me.’ Dorothy turned to face me. ‘Is this your lovely match?’
‘Dorothy, meet Stella. Stella, this is Dorothy. ’
‘Nice to meet you,’ I smiled.
‘I’m ever so sorry that I made Max late to your first date. I was on my way to the restaurant too, but realised I’d closed the door without my key which was in my handbag, which was also in my room and I couldn’t get back in. My knees can be a bit temperamental, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to get to reception and back again quickly enough, so Max offered to get a key for me. I don’t know what I would’ve done without him!’ she beamed.
Ohhhh. Now it made sense.
‘You would’ve been fine.’ Max waved his hand dismissively.
‘You’re far too modest!’ Dorothy patted his arm. ‘Anyway, I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it. I’m off to meet my Lionel now.’
‘Have fun. And tell him that if he doesn’t take good care of you, he’ll have me to answer to!’ Max laughed and Dorothy blushed before waving goodbye and setting off towards reception.
‘So…’ I said, psyching myself up to apologise. ‘Dorothy was the reason you were late?’
‘Yep.’
‘Sorry, I didn’t realise.’
‘I tried to explain.’
‘I know, it’s just that when you said you were with a woman…’
‘You thought the worst.’
‘Can you blame me?’
‘Doesn’t matter.’
I did kind of feel bad for judging him, but I’d apologised, so I didn’t know what else he expected me to do.
‘Coach is here!’ Jasmine announced as it pulled in front of us.
Whoa. This was no ordinary coach. It wasn’t like what we went on for school trips. This had a sleek, glossy black exterior like the ones they used to transport Premier League footballers or celebrities.
We joined the back of the queue and when we got inside, it was just as glam as the outside.
I walked along the spotless wooden flooring, taking in the sight of the tinted windows, plush grey and white reclining leather seats which had so much legroom even a basketball player could stretch out comfortably.
In front of the seats were large, shiny chrome tables that were a million miles away from the cheap plastic ones you got on trains and planes.
At the back of the coach there was even a kitchen with a coffee machine, fridge and microwave, plus loads of elegantly displayed drinks and snacks.
Wow. The Love Hotel really knew how to push the boat out. Now I understood why it was so pricey.
The coach was already full, so I had no choice but to sit next to Max. Thankfully, I’d come prepared. My phone was loaded with eBooks on the Kindle app, so I planned to read for the whole journey.
Although we’d survived breakfast together, I didn’t want to chance it. Speaking of breakfast, yesterday I was surprised at how those photos from the volleyball tournament on Sunday came out.
In one of the pics it looked like Max was ogling me, but I knew that couldn’t be right. All of the pictures were misleading. I mean I was smiling and looked happy which of course was ridiculous.
So was that snap they took where I was wrapped in the towel and looking up at Max like he’d just invented water. Yeah, I was grateful but that was all. I wasn’t some stupid lovesick teenager any more. Now I knew better .
We didn’t get a chance to pick up the sandcastle-building pictures yet. Maybe we’d do that when we got back.
I slid into a window seat and whipped out my phone. Max sat beside me and his scent flooded my nostrils. I hated how great he smelt.
He repositioned himself in the seat, his arms skimming mine. Goosebumps erupted over my skin and I warned my body to calm the hell down.
There was a reason I’d taken out my phone. What was it again?
Reading. That was it .
Good idea. I needed the distraction.
‘Sorry.’ Max moved around in the seat again, his bare arms pressing against mine.
I squeezed myself against the window to try and create some distance between us then launched my book app and tried to focus.
‘What you reading?’ Max said.
‘Nothing you’d be interested in,’ I replied, keeping my eyes firmly fixed to the screen.
‘Is it a romance novel?’
‘Yes,’ I sighed. Why couldn’t people understand that when someone was reading they didn’t want interruptions?
‘That’s a shame.’
‘What?’ My head whipped up. ‘There’s nothing wrong with romance novels!’
‘No, I know that. I wasn’t dissing the genre. People should read whatever they want. And I love watching a good romcom, remember?’
I swallowed hard. He was right. Max always used to watch them with me. A lot of my friends’ boyfriends only ever wanted to watch action films and they were jealous that Max was happy to binge romcoms with me.
‘Yeah,’ I replied, my gaze still fixed to my phone.
‘When I said it’s a shame, I meant it’s a shame that you’re reading. It’s your first time in Spain, right? So I thought maybe you’d want to spend the journey looking at the scenery, that’s all.’
Good point. I’d been so focused on trying to protect my emotions by ignoring him that I’d forgotten about enjoying the views.
I looked up and turned to the window. Colourful flowers lined the central reservation. I’d noticed them on the way here.
As we continued along the motorway I took in the clear blue skies and observed how the landscape changed. In some places the land was yellow where the grass had been dried out from the sun and in others there were fields upon fields of olive trees.
‘It’s so different to London,’ I said before realising that I shouldn’t be making conversation.
‘Yeah. I love Spain. I always enjoy coming here.’
‘Have you been here a lot?’
‘I come a few times a year. I was here a couple of weeks ago.’
‘On holiday?’ I turned to face him. He must lead an extravagant lifestyle to be able to come twice in one month.
Although his career as a professional footballer hadn’t worked out, I bet he was still doing something that raked in the cash. Maybe he was a personal trainer for celebrities who flew him over to their holiday homes in Ibiza and Marbella just to tell them how to do some sit ups.
‘No,’ he laughed. ‘I don’t really do holidays. This is my first one in ages. And I didn’t even choose to go. I was blackmailed into coming by Colton.’
‘Colton Brown? ’
‘The very one.’
‘I didn’t realise you two were still friends.’
‘Yep. Although I questioned whether we should be when he signed me up for this and used his six-year-old daughter to coerce me.’
‘Shameless!’ I smiled. ‘My mum signed me up for this, even though I told her I wasn’t interested.’
‘Looks like we were both lured here against our will.’ Max looked at me and our eyes locked.
‘Yeah,’ I replied, trying to ignore the flutter in my stomach. ‘So.’ I looked out the window to avoid staring at him. He was annoyingly attractive. ‘You came here for work then?’
‘That’s right.’
‘And what do you do? If you don’t mind me asking. You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to,’ I stuttered. Seeing as we were stuck here, I supposed it wouldn’t hurt to make conversation. Hopefully the journey wouldn’t be too long.
Okay and yeah, I’ll admit. I was a little curious to know where he was working. That was normal. People always wanted to know where their old friends ended up.
‘I run a beauty products company.’
‘What?’ I almost choked on my own saliva. ‘Sorry, I… didn’t mean… There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just not what I was expecting.’
‘Well, I couldn’t play football any more, so y’know.’ His gaze dropped to the floor. ‘Why? What did you expect?’
‘Um.’ I felt bad for raising the question. I knew career choices was a bad topic of discussion for him given what happened. And although I shouldn’t care about his feelings considering he never gave a shit about mine, I still didn’t want to upset him.
‘It’s okay,’ he shrugged. ‘Don’t feel bad. ’
The way he could still read my mind was scary.
‘Oh. Right. Okay. Well, I kind of thought you were still in the sports industry somehow. Like maybe a personal trainer.’
‘What made you think that?’
‘Just… y’know.’ I gestured to his arms.
‘No, I don’t.’ The corner of his mouth twitched.
‘Now you’re just fishing for compliments.’ I rolled my eyes.
‘Why? Were you about to give me one?’
‘Of course not!’ I became flustered.
‘Then tell me. What made you think I was a personal trainer?’
‘The… y’know.’ Oh, God. Now I had to try and answer that without sounding like I’d been ogling him. ‘Your big… muscles!’ I sighed loudly.
‘Right,’ he smirked. ‘I just like staying healthy, that’s all.’
‘Well, I know a lot of people who like to be healthy, but they don’t have arms like that .’
My insides shrivelled like a prune when I realised what I’d just said. Now he was going to think I liked him.
Giving Max the silent treatment was a much better idea than this making conversation nonsense.
‘Sounds like you’ve studied my arms a lot .’
‘No!’ I protested. ‘No more than anyone else’s here. I mean, they’re hard to miss. And you’ve always got them out.’
‘ Got them out ?’ He laughed. ‘You make it sound like I walk around flashing my balls! We’re in Spain – y’know? Where it’s hot. What do you suggest I wear? A woolly jumper? And just because I have a vest on, doesn’t mean you have to look. Does that mean if you wear a low-cut top, I should stare at your tits?’
‘That’s different!’
‘Why? ’
‘Because…’ I stuttered, struggling to think of an acceptable defence. ‘Because breasts are more sexual than arms.’
‘Really?’ He cocked his head to one side. ‘That’s funny because I’m pretty sure I remember women swooning over men’s muscles, including arms, in those romance novels you liked to read. Am I right?’
‘That doesn’t matter,’ I said, knowing I was losing this battle. He was right, but there was no way I was telling him that. ‘That’s fiction.’
‘If you say so. But anyway, thanks for the compliment. It’s nice to know there’s at least one thing you like about me.’
‘I didn’t say I…’
‘Lovelies!’ Jasmine’s voice boomed around the coach. ‘We’ve arrived at our destination!’
‘Oh, shit!’ a guy in front of us who sounded like he was from the US called out. ‘We’re going to the Caminito del Rey! That’s fucking sick!’
‘Yes!’ Max cheered. ‘I’ve always wanted to come here!’
‘Same here, bro,’ the guy said.
‘What’s the Camin… whatever you just said?’ I asked him.
‘It’s this path that hangs from a cliff!’ The guy jumped up like he’d just discovered he’d won the lottery and was rushing to collect his winnings. ‘It’s one of the world’s most dangerous paths! It hangs from a cliff and they called it the walk of death because so many people fell off it and died! I love scary shit like this!’
‘Sorry, what ? We’re going to walk on a path that hangs from a cliff ? Where people died ?’
The blood drained from my body.
As the coach pulled up and people started filing off and lining up with Jasmine outside, I stayed rooted to the spot .
I glared out the window, taking in the sight of the steep rocky cliffs. My heart raced. What kind of psycho believed coming here was a good idea?
I thought being paired up with Max was the worst thing that could happen on this trip.
I was wrong.