Page 96 of You, As You Are

“Here. Number eight,” he said a minute later.

Maisie craned her neck to see around him. “Wow.” Their accommodation was definitely to her liking, namely because the curved roof was covered in slate tiles and the tiny wooden cabin looked completely weatherproof.

Thistype of camping, Maisie could do.

Their pod was raised from the ground and sat on decking, a few steps leading up to a table, two wooden reclining seats, and French doors. She could picture a scene from a film happening here, could see an old man in a straw hat playing the harmonica whilst his golden retriever lay at his feet of an evening.

She didn’t know if Iain shared her enthusiasm or not because he headed straight to turn their key in the door, allowing her to step through first. The decoration was simple, full of natural woods and olive greens like a little fairy house, but what caughtMaisie’s eye was the fact that the one bed that they had … was tiny.

“We’re not going to fit,” she said, deflating. “Look at the size of you, and the size of?—”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence like I think you’re going to.” Iain barged around her with his bags.

Maisie’s mouth snapped shut. She got that the cabin was small, but maybe fairies really did live here ifthiswas supposed to fit the both of them. They hadn’t even discussed sleeping arrangements yet. The man wasn’t blind, and she wasn’t daft – whatever happened, they were both never going to fit on that bed together. Not comfortably, at least. And not with an appropriate amount of empty space between them either.

“Well you can’t tell me you think thatthisis a normal sized bed.” She flayed her hand at the thing that called itself a two-person bed, shifting her focus to find that the tiny couch would barely fit two people sitting, let alone have the function to turn into a pull out.

Ted sniffed around at his leisure while Iain dropped his duffel bag on the floor, kicking a smaller bag he’d kept tucked under his arm under the bed. “It’ll do.”

“It’ll do?” Maisie let go of her bag with athudon the floor.“It’ll do?”

“We don’t have much alternative. Unless you want to be driving back home after coming all the way here?” The way Iain looked at her with murder in his eyes said that she’d be walking home if that was the case.

Maisie hadn’t let go of her fury about this entire situation yet, still fired up about being played. Her phone hadn’t had any signal as they’d traipsed through the forest pathways to call Vera and give the woman a piece of her mind.

“How about I take Ted, and you can sleep in his bed?”

Iain’s side-eye as he checked out the kitchenette amenities could’ve killed. “Very funny,” he said drolly. “I don’t know why you’re stressing about the one bed when we have a bigger problem.”

“Oh?” Raising an eyebrow, Maisie cocked her hip. “What’s that then?”

What problem could possibly be worse than having only one tiny bed between them?

Roaming the four feet of cabin, Iain perused the walls like he had all the time in the world, hands tucked behind his back, until he ended at the half-open door at the rear. Looking back at her, he said, “The one bathroom.” Then strode in, turned dramatically, and shut the door behind him.

One bath—Maisie’s eyes flew wide. “Don’t be such a man!”

She swore she heard Iain’s laugh rumble from inside whilst he did god knows what in there.

Ugh.This weekend was supposed to be calming, and all it was going to do was give her greys and stress lines. She removed her backpack and slung it on the settee.

“I’m going outside!” she yelled over the rush of water that began in the bathroom. “And I’m taking Ted.”

The knock on the door made Maisie whip her head out of the beans on toast she’d rustled up using the cabin’s tiny stove. As it turned out, being prepared was one of Iain’s greatest redeeming qualities; he’d had the forethought to Google the campsite’s amenities beforehand and brought food supplies.

Unless squirrels had learned how to knock, there was a person right outside of their cabin, where – ever since she’d returned from taking Ted out exploring – they’d done little morethan bicker back and forth over who got to use the bathroom first (she did) and who slept furthest from the door (she did), as well as who controlled the radiator temperature (what a surprise,she did).

Iain unfurled from the tiny attempt at a sofa chair to his full height, and Maisie was more than happy to let him go to the door instead of her. They were in a forest … in the darkness of evening … in the middle of nowhere, and she didn’t particularly fancy the idea of being kidnapped. In London, she absolutely did not go near a knock on her door after dark.

Iain’s body took up the entirety of the doorway, peeking out whilst Maisie silently tried not to panic, but then his spine relaxed and he flicked a switch to illuminate the decking before opening the door.

Standing in the darkness with a tiny torch pointed at her feet was the woman from the information centre who had checked them in.

“Hi, sorry to interrupt. I forgot to mention when you checked in that it’s set to be a clear night tonight, and we often lead a group out through the forest and a neighbouring field to view the stars when the weather is good. Would you be interested in joining us?”

“N—”

“Yes,” Maisie cut in, sliding off the bed to join them. “We would.”

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