Page 19 of Ride the Wave

‘Do you always announce the start of casual chats and take minutes of them?’

‘I’m not recording this interview,’ I assure him, tapping the screen of my phone. ‘When I do that, I will let you know and, if it’s all right with you, I’ll record them so I don’t misquote you. This is a chat to talk through how the next two weeks are going to pan out.’

‘Right. So what’s with the notepad?’

‘It’s so I can note down anything useful you tell me today, like your general routine, where and how you like to train and exercise, who it might be a good idea to speak to – stuff like that,’ I explain, before lowering my pen as he shifts in his seat. ‘You know what, you’re right. I’m going to put this away.’

I shove my pad and pen back in my bag, annoyed that I’ve already made an error. I need to make him feel relaxed. Instead, I’ve automatically gone into full on journo mode, pen at the ready to note down anything he says. He made it clear that he needs to be eased into this process. I’m going to have to work to make up for my mistake in creating an unnecessarily formal atmosphere.

‘Sparkling water,’ Marina says as she approaches our table again, placing it down in front of me. ‘Anything else?’

‘Glass of white wine, please.’ I smile. ‘One from the Algarve if possible.’

‘No problem,’ she says. ‘Another round, Leo?’

I turn to see him watching me again, a small smile playing across his lips.

‘Sure. I’m having a cheat day.’

As Marina leaves, I sit back in my chair and gaze out across the beach.

‘Not a bad view. I can see why you’d want to live here.’

‘Mmm,’ he says non-committedly.

‘I really appreciate you talking to me, Leo,’ I emphasise, watching a seagull swoop down along the top of the water before rising again. ‘I understand your hesitation, but I’m on your side. This isn’t about tearing anyone down. If you want, I can send you a selection of my previous features that have been a similar format so you can read—’

‘I’ve read them.’

I turn to him in surprise. ‘You have?’

He knocks the last bit of his beer back and Marina arrives with my wine and another bottle for him. I try not to drink when I’m working, but I’m making an exception to the rule. If he’s more comfortable in an informal atmosphere, that’s what I’ll create.

‘What did you think?’ I ask tentatively, taking a sip of wine.

Leo considers my question before answering: ‘I can see why my mum chose you.’

I wait for him to expand on that but he doesn’t. I don’t probe him any further. From his neutral expression, I’m guessing that my writing didn’t overwhelm him with joy, and I’d rather not have a confidence knock. Better to leave it there. I don’t need his good opinion. What matters is that Michelle Martin and theStudioteam think I’m the person for the job.

He’s stuck with me and there’s nothing he can do about it.

We fall into silence, watching the waves rolling in and out. I decide that he needs to be the one to make the first move and I can be very stubborn when I want to be.

Finally he sits up, leaning on the table.

‘So, how will this work then?’ he asks, tapping his fingers on the coaster. ‘A couple of interviews and we’re good to go?’

‘I don’t like to give an exact number of interviews at first, because we’ll sometimes naturally fall into conversation, but yes, roughly two or three formal sit-down talks would be about right, depending on how long they are,’ I say breezily as though I haven’t been waiting to talk about this since I landed in this country. ‘If you can also give me a rough schedule of your training, that would be helpful.’

‘My training is surfing,’ he mutters. ‘You won’t learn much from it.’

‘I’ll learn plenty,’ I counter, unfazed. ‘Just like I learnt about freestyle skiing from watching a professional skier ski. You don’t need to worry about that side of things; you focus on doing what you do and let me worry about capturing it all for the audience.’

‘Fine. A couple of interviews and you watch me surf a bit,’ he grumbles. ‘I’d say that can be wrapped up in the next two days or so.’

‘I’d rather not squeeze it all in in a short amount of time. I’m here for a couple of weeks so there’s no rush. It’s not just about the training and what you tell me; to really get inside your head, I have to experience your lifestyle a little. Training for your comeback in a surf competition isn’t only about surfing, right?’

‘That’s exactly what it is,’ he says defiantly, swigging his beer.

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