. . . a frosty shower #2
My thumb floats over to the bottom of the screen, hovering timidly over the button to end the call. Noah catches on and I look to him for strength, but he motions for me to do the right thing.
I suppose he’s right . . . Parents or not, I can’t hide from them for ever. Plus, if I hang up right now it will only make things worse. Sara is not one to give up. Ever. I shut my eyes tightly, take a deep breath and open my eyes to find my sisters awaiting my next move.
‘That is Noah,’ I say slowly.
‘And who is Noah?’ Paige says, smirking.
Sara’s features, on the other hand, are pinched so hard that they knot in the middle of her face.
‘Noah is my roommate,’ I say calmly.
‘You booked a room with a stranger?’ Paige asks cautiously.
‘Not a stranger, per se . . . we’re, erm, well, we’re travelling together,’ I manage to say.
I watch as Paige’s mouth falls open, corners raising into a smile.
‘Are you still with us, Sar?’ she asks, lapping this up.
Sara’s frozen in real time. Buffering, even, without the fault of the Wi-Fi.
‘Put your roommate on the phone,’ she eventually says.
Her voice is strained – frailer, but still incredibly chilling. Paige’s eyes are alight, excited at this new development as my heart picks up tenfold in my chest.
‘I don’t think that’s—’
‘Amorie. Put him on the phone. Now,’ Sara says.
I glance up at Noah, still standing across from me in his towel.
He looks as nervous as I feel, but I beckon him over nonetheless.
I watch the girls’ faces contort as his wet, bare-chested frame sidles up next to me on the bed.
Paige gasps immediately, the sound shocking Noah out of his nerves and back to his regular chilled smile.
Oh, how I envy that smile. I am anything but chill as I eye Sara’s shift from quiet rage to something far louder.
‘Hi, I’m Noah, or Barrier Boy; I go by both. You must be Sara and Paige. I’ve heard so much about you,’ he says warmly, filling the silence.
‘Barrier Boy . . . as in your first date?’ Paige gasps again. ‘Oh, this is fun. You’re travelling together? I must have missed this in the column.’
Noah laughs at her excitement and Paige takes the moment of levity to lean closer to her phone and shamelessly ogle his water-speckled abs.
She nods in approval, sending a not-so-subtle thumbs-up my way, which Noah clocks immediately and throws me a smug wink in response.
If I could feel anything I’d cringe, I’m sure.
Paige definitely just broke a rule by proxy.
But unfortunately, I can’t feel. I can’t move.
I can’t speak. I’m frozen under the lasers Sara’s shooting at me through the screen.
‘Yep, that Barrier Boy!’ Noah continues proudly. ‘And no, it is not in the column. We’re keeping this part low-key . . . premium intel only.’
He nudges me playfully, attempting to snap me out of my inertia, but, unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done. Although the contact from his wet elbow does send a fizz of something incredibly dizzying through my bloodstream. I shake it off.
‘So how long has this been going on?’ Paige asks excitedly.
‘Since we first met. Amorie here just couldn’t get enough of me after our first night together,’ Noah replies.
‘Your first night together?’ Paige squeals.
I watch Sara’s eye twitch. It’s enough to bring my voice back.
‘The date we went on our first night together! The drinks at the first bar – the ones I spoke about in the column! Nothing more,’ I say.
I can make out Noah trying to catch my eye over the ‘nothing more’ comment, but I dare not look his way. The guilt will be clear on my face and I cannot have Sara kill me over misconstrued information.
‘It’s so nice to meet you both!’ Noah says, impervious to all tension. ‘You must be Paige, which makes you . . . Sara?’
I shudder as he addresses her directly. When she doesn’t reply, I risk a glance her way and spot her looking just as taken aback at his cool-headedness as I am.
‘Yes, that’s me.’ She finally speaks, her voice frosty and unwelcoming.
‘You must hate the idea of her travelling with me. I’d be the same way if I had a younger sister and she was hopping around countries with some random man she met abroad. What can I do to ease your worries?’
It is an incredibly bold move – one I honestly didn’t expect from him. I risk a glance back at the screen and am surprised to see that it is working . . . Sara’s icy exterior is thawing, likely due to the shock.
‘Erm, well . . .’ She trails off and I have to bite my tongue to keep a gasp from rolling out of my mouth. Sara is never speechless, but Noah seems to have stumped her. She opens and closes her mouth, grappling for a response.
Noah continues. ‘Well, if it helps, I’m twenty-six years old, also from London – although west-based so not quite near you guys.
I am DBS checked – I volunteer at a hospice, so I have to be – have no criminal convictions and have never even got a speeding ticket.
Also, I can assure you that my intentions with your sister are entirely pure.
In fact, she is helping me find “the one”, while I help her fulfil her eighty-date contract. ’
Something shifts on Sara’s face. I peer closer at the screen to make sure I did in fact see what I thought, and it’s true .
. . she is smiling. Smiling at Noah and his bold, pointed chatter.
Granted it’s only small and you can actively see spasms in her cheek as she tries to stop herself, but it’s there.
She is smiling. Noah made her smile. I never once saw that as a viable outcome.
‘Thank you, Noah,’ she says.
She’s still tight-lipped, but there’s a new softness to her tone that she’s struggling to hide.
‘That was wild,’ Paige says. ‘You’re like . . . the Sara Whisperer.’
‘Paige, enough,’ Sara huffs, rolling her eyes.
‘What? It’s impressive,’ Paige replies, giggling to herself. ‘I’ve never seen anyone do that so fast! Amorie, you might have to keep this one.’
‘Paige!’ It’s my turn to exclaim.
‘I’m just kidding! Pure intentions and all that.’ She throws a wink Noah’s way. He winks back and the pair share a smile at my expense before Noah directs his grin back to me.
‘I like her,’ he says.
‘I like you too!’ Paige says. ‘You sure there’s nothing between you two? You’d make a great brother-in-law.’
‘Paige, I’ll hang up!’ This leaves my mouth as a flustered growl that shocks all three of my participants. They’re all evidently amused as I quickly become the butt of a group joke.
‘Anything else you wanna know?’ Noah asks, granting me mercy as they bring their attention back to him.
‘Are you naked?’
I shriek. ‘PAIGE!’
But she doesn’t back down.
‘You’re sitting next to a wet set of abs and I’m the weird one for asking?’ she says.
‘In front of your sister? No way!’ Noah says, unperturbed. ‘Let us not forget the pure intentions.’
Paige stifles a laugh while Sara looks on with pursed lips, attempting to keep her stern resolve together.
‘Okay, that’s all, thank you, Noah. We won’t keep you any longer – you keep sitting there shirtless and you may catch a cold. Amorie, texts and calls from now on, okay?’ Sara says politely, wrapping it up.
‘Yeah, of course,’ I sigh.
I feel my spine slowly unfurl as I start to comprehend what has just happened.
‘Bye, Squeak, love you!’ Paige says, ready to hang up. ‘Nice to meet you, Noah.’
‘The pleasure is all mine!’ he says back.
Then my phone snaps to black, the two of them gone and half-naked Noah still sitting next to me.
‘Why do your sisters call you Squeak?’ he asks.
I still can’t look his way. Not while he is wet and shirtless and wet.
He continues anyway, relaxing further into my bed. ‘Is it because you get all cute and squeaky when you’re uncomfortable?’
The droplets on his arm brush against mine before they hit the top of my duvet. I feel a chill wash over me as he lies back none the wiser, bringing his hands under his head and closing his eyes to take a deep, relaxed breath.
‘You can’t sleep there,’ I say, ignoring his question yet again.
‘That’s totally the reason,’ he surmises, rooted in his place.
‘Noah,’ I say, shooing him lightly with my arm.
He opens one eye lazily and crooks his neck to make eye contact.
‘Can’t I just have five minutes? That call took it out of me.’
He yawns as he says it, I assume for dramatic effect. The movement stretches his body, his muscles tightening and the towel shifting ever so slightly . . . I turn my head away so quickly I nearly give myself whiplash, then start barking orders at him.
‘Off! Now! And put some clothes on!’
Or at the very least, I try to bark. It comes off as less of a bark and more of a frantic and desperate squeak. His eyebrow raises at the sound.
‘Easy there, Squeak,’ he says, teasingly.
‘Don’t call me that,’ I say, bringing my voice down an octave. ‘And move. Now.’
His grin grows tenfold, lapping up my frustration but listening nonetheless. His abs ripple as he rises and I pry my eyes away as fast as they’ll go.
‘Of course, anything for my totally platonic roommate.’