Chapter 15
Leo drove. He was glad to have something to focus on to avoid making conversation.
Caleb was far better at chit-chat than he was.
Vidya had somehow got him on to the subject of childhood illnesses, and he was yakking on about the time he got chickenpox.
Vidya either fancied Caleb like mad, if she was willing to listen to random stuff like that, or she was a very inquisitive person. Or possibly both.
It was most inconvenient to have developed feelings for this woman, who wasn’t interested in him. Worse, who was interested in Caleb. Like he could compete!
But why couldn’t it be him, just once?
Leo glanced in the rearview mirror. Vidya was staring out of the window, she wasn’t actually listening to Caleb.
Oh. She must still be thinking about her argument with her sister.
The fact she wasn’t all that interested in what Caleb was saying cheered Leo up immensely.
He focused on the road. Was it petty of him? Well, yes, but he didn’t care.
Hopefully, there would be enough at the next town to take her mind off her troubles. He glanced in the rearview mirror again. She was looking straight at him. He nodded to her. She gave him a tiny smile in return and warmth blossomed in his chest.
***
There was a pier, a low line of arcades and something that, if you were generous, you could call a funfair.
They had unanimously agreed to look at the funfair first. It was noisy and busy.
There was a funny mix of hand-painted wooden signage and LED screens.
Most of the rides were nothing dramatic, but Leo was pleased to see that there was a roller coaster.
‘I guess the nice weather has brought everyone out to the beach,’ Caleb said.
It did seem like it. There were a lot of families with kids, all wearing odd combinations of summer and winter clothes. Leo paused to help someone lift their pushchair up a couple of steps. Caleb and Vidya held a gate open for them.
‘So, boss? Are the tokens going on the company card?’ Caleb asked him.
‘I don’t think I can get away with that,’ Leo said. ‘And don’t call me boss.’ Caleb only did it to annoy him.
They each bought a handful of tokens.
‘What shall we do first?’ Leo asked, looking at Vidya.
‘Let’s see. I need three tokens for the roller coaster …’ She picked three out and put them in her pocket. Scanning the rides, she said, ‘I fancy the helter-skelter. You?’
Caleb nodded. ‘That’s about as much of a thrill as I can cope with. Let’s go. You coming, Leo?’
The helter-skelter was a red-white-and-purple-striped cone sticking up between food stalls.
A slide wound around it. People zipped down sitting on mats and slid to a halt on the bottom.
There was something timeless and real about it.
Unlike some of the other rides, there were no moving parts, and you could imagine it being used exactly in the same way a hundred years ago.
They handed over their tokens and were shown the steps that wound around the inside.
The climb up was chilly and steep, and quite dark.
Small windows running up the side of the structure let in a meagre amount of light.
The structure trembled as people went down the slide.
Leo wasn’t entirely convinced it was stable, but once you started climbing the stairs, a queue formed behind and you had to keep going.
There was no time to change your mind. When they reached the top, the light felt very bright.
He shielded his eyes with one hand while a bored-looking kid shoved a coir mat into his other.
Caleb had already gone down. Vidya sat on her mat, pushed off and vanished round the slide.
Leo sat on the prickly mat and drew his knees together.
When the kid said, ‘Go’, Leo pushed himself off.
The slide down was surprisingly fast. The salty wind blew in his hair.
The view of the small fairground switched repeatedly with the view of the sea as he corkscrewed down.
All too soon, he shot out of the end of the slide and slowed to a halt. Caleb gave him a hand up.
When he looked at Vidya, Leo knew immediately that a visit to the fairground had been the right decision. The cloud of gloom that had hung over her had disappeared. She still wasn’t her usual sparkly self, but this was progress.
He handed the mat back. ‘That was fun. Next?’
Caleb chose hook-a-duck, which all three of them were hilariously bad at. Eventually, Caleb won a small teddy, which he stuffed into his jacket pocket.
After a few more rides, they came to the roller coaster. It wasn’t huge, in the grand scheme of roller coasters, but it still dwarfed everything else around it.
Caleb shook his head. ‘I’m going to sit here on the nice, safe ground and have an ice cream.’
Vidya raised her eyebrows. ‘You don’t like heights?’
‘It’s not the heights,’ said Caleb. ‘It’s being thrown around at high speeds in a small tin can. You two go ahead, though. Take your life – and your lunch – in your hands.’
‘Can I leave my handbag with you?’ Vidya was already removing it from where it was slung across her body.
‘Sure. Do you want me to hold your glasses as well?’
She hesitated. ‘I can’t see very well without them.’ She undid her ponytail and refastened it tightly at the nape of her neck. ‘There. Hopefully, my hair should hold the arms of the glasses more securely.’
Since he didn’t have long hair, or a spare pair, Leo handed his glasses to Caleb and followed Vidya.
‘How well can you see without your glasses?’ she asked him.
‘I can get by,’ Leo said. ‘Just don’t ask me to read anything.’
They got in next to each other. The bar lowered onto their laps.
When he looked across at her, she gave him the most dazzling grin.
Even without his glasses he could see the excitement on her face.
It gave him a warm feeling in his chest. He wished he could reach over and touch her.
She was so close, but in the back of his mind, he heard the people from HR talking about boundaries.
They’d been so firm on the matter of inappropriate conversations at work, he could only imagine how much worse it would be if Vidya reported unwanted touching.
The ride was cranked up to the top of a slope, going higher and higher. Somehow going slowly was worse than plummeting at speed. Leo’s heart rate increased. A glance showed him that Vidya’s eyes were huge and she was tightly gripping the bar in front of her tightly.
They reached the top of the ascent and the moment before they tipped downwards seemed to last forever.
Just when he felt he couldn’t take it anymore, the carriage plummeted.
The air whipped out of his lungs. Vidya screamed.
Her hand clutched at his. He was too preoccupied with hurtling down the slope to respond.
The roller coaster had a loop-the-loop, and after more twists and turns they were returned back to the starting stage.
Leo’s heart was loud in his ears and his nerves were singing.
Vidya laughed, then turned and grinned at him, eyes shining, and he thought he’d never seen anything so joyful in his life.
Her eyes met his. If he’d been a different sort of bloke, he would have swooped in and kissed her right there.
Her smile faded, but her eyes didn’t leave his.
Her hand was still on top of his. It would take only the smallest movement to kiss her.
The restraining bar lifted, forcing them to move apart. She removed her hand from his and the loss of contact felt like a tragedy. Still, probably for the best. She was a work colleague after all. As such, she should be off limits.
He stood and offered his hand to help her out. She took it without hesitation. Something inside him vibrated with pleasure. Although he wasn’t holding her hand particularly tightly, he noticed she didn’t let go for a few seconds after she was out of the carriage.
At the exit, Caleb was standing by the gate, finishing off a 99 cone.
‘Good ride?’ His tone suggested that he had seen the bit with the hand holding. Leo was too happy to care.
‘It really was,’ Vidya said. She bounced in place for a second. ‘I’m buzzing now.’
‘Well, in that case, it’s probably the perfect time to hit the arcades,’ said Caleb, as he held out their stuff.
Vidya took her handbag and slung it over her shoulder. ‘Let’s do it.’
Leo put his glasses back on and walked alongside her. His hand felt empty without hers, so he stuffed it in his coat pocket.
***
Vidya hadn’t been in an arcade in years.
After the bright sunlight, it was dark inside, but it was noisy and chaotic.
Lights from the machines flashed in different colours, and there was a cacophony of beeps and bings and trills.
For a few seconds it was overwhelming. She followed Leo and Caleb towards the machines and slowly acclimatised to the lighting and the sounds.
Leo leaned towards her and said, ‘What do you fancy trying?’
She looked around. This wasn’t the sort of thing she did. ‘I … don’t know,’ she said. ‘What requires the least hand–eye coordination?’
But then there was an ‘oooh’ and Caleb bounded off and put his money in a vintage game machine. Vidya and Leo shrugged to each other and went to watch.
The game involved Caleb using a joystick to shoot things.
It wasn’t interesting to watch, but she was distracted in any case.
Leo was standing next to her. When she had first got into the roller coaster, she hadn’t appreciated how close they would be.
Sitting so they were thigh to thigh had felt …
almost as though she was trespassing on his space.
It would have been fine if she didn’t fancy him, but since she did, it had felt like the most insistent call on her attention.
She hadn’t dared look at him in case he’d notice.