Page 56 of Ride the Wave

‘You should go get warm,’ he says.

‘I’m fine!’

His lips ease into a smile. ‘You’re shivering. You should head home.’

My heart sinks a little at the rejection, and I kick myself. At least one of us is acting like a professional. I seem to have forgotten the reason I made today happen in the first place: so I could talk to Leo about his past while we were out surfing together. Instead, all I’ve done is talk aboutmypast. In my next lesson, I need to keep my game face on and pull it together.

‘Right. Yes. I should,’ I state, hands on my hips, back to being myself and not a swooning teenager with a crush on her surf teacher.Ugh. How cliché. ‘Thanks for the lesson, Leo. See you tomorrow.’

Turning away from him, I start treading through the sand towards his truck in the car park where I left my bag. Walking back home in my sandals with all this sand stuck to my feet is not going to be particularly comfortable, but I don’t seem to care.

Huh. How much can change in a day.

‘London, wait up,’ I hear Leo call behind me and I spin round to see him following.

‘Oh shit, the wetsuit,’ I say, realising why he wanted to catch me before I left. ‘Sorry, I forgot you need that back. Here,’ I turn my back to him and pull my wet hair over one shoulder, ‘can you unzip it for me?’

For a moment, nothing happens and I stand still, waiting, wondering what’s going on back there. I’m about to turn around to check he hasn’t walked off when I feel his fingers at the nape of my neck, gently moving the strands of hair still plastered to the wetsuit out of the way. With one hand holding the top of the suit at my neck, he draws the zipper slowly down to the bottom. Turning my head slightly to one side, I can feel his eyes as well as the cool breeze on the exposed skin of my back. His hands linger a beat too long.

Eventually, he takes a step backwards and I turn round to face him.

‘Thanks,’ I say, as I note his jaw tick. He looks furious.

He gives me a sharp nod.

My face on fire, I start peeling the wetsuit off me, shimmying it down to my waist, and he quickly looks away out at the ocean. When I’m standing in my bikini, I hold it out to him but he doesn’t move. I realise that he probably wants it in the back of his truck anyway, so I toss it in there as I reach for my bag, pulling out the white top I was wearing earlier and pulling it over my head.

‘The wetsuit was not why I came over here,’ he says suddenly, glancing back at me.

‘Oh?’

I balance against the side of his truck to pull my shorts up over my bikini bottoms, doing up the button at my waist.

Frowning, he wets his lips. ‘What are you doing tonight?’

‘Tonight?’ I reach in my bag for my sandals. ‘Why?’

‘I’ve got my dad coming over for some food and I thought…’ He trails off, staring at me and seeming uncertain of what he’s trying to say, before collecting himself. ‘You could join us if you’re not busy?’

‘Oh!’ I’m taken aback by the invitation, a thrill rushing through me that he doesn’t want the day with me to end here, either.

‘You don’t have to if you don’t want to; maybe you’re writing or, I just… we’ll be talking tactics and nutrition, you know… important surf stuff, so I figured you might want to be there. For the article,’ he concludes, running a hand through his hair.

‘Oh.’ That makes more sense.For the article. I hide my disappointment, embarrassed yet again for thinking that he wants me to be around on any kind of personal level,which would be hugely inappropriate, Iris.

‘Yeah, that sounds great,’ I say with a polite smile. ‘Good idea.’

‘Great. I’ll message you a time.’

‘Okay.’

He nods, but doesn’t leave. I stand awkwardly, one sandal still in my hand.

‘Right, I should go,’ he says, almost as though he’s reminding himself. ‘I’ll message. About the time.’

‘Yes,’ I say, breaking into a grin. ‘You said.’

‘Yeah.’ He laughs at himself. ‘I did.’

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