Page 14 of The Wrong Suitcase

‘That’s my birthday.’

‘That’s my sister-in-law’s birthday too. It’s her suitcase I borrowed.’

‘We have the same passcode.’ It isn’t a question.

‘You and my sister-in-law do, yes.’

I turn around at this, and I’m taken aback by how different he looks. Polished shoes and smart tailoring have taken him from a cute to bona fidesmokin’.His broad shoulders make his chest an upside-down V, as if he’s a swimmer. His arms look strong, and he fills those massive brogues to be perfectly in proportion. If he wasn’t so wretched, he’d be a solid ten. I swear he notices me notice, but I refuse to give him the satisfaction of a compliment.

‘Finally,’ I say instead.

As we prepare to leave the room, suitcase wheeling behind him, he suddenly remembers. ‘My key. It’s still downstairs.’

We both look at his case. He can hardly take it down to dinner with him.

‘Just leave it outside my room,’ I suggest. ‘The whole place is booked out for the wedding party. Everyone is downstairs. Nobody will steal it.’

‘Again, you mean. Nobody will steal itagain.’

I sigh. ‘It’s just a suggestion,’ I say. ‘Or else you can leave it in my room if you want, but that would mean talking to each other again later, and I don’t know about you, but my energy for passive-aggressive faux banter is all used up.’

He pushes it against the wall in the corridor, and we head back down to the celebrations in silence. I can’t wait to get rid of him.

12

Birchy

I know I’ve been a dick. I overreacted, and now I’ve got to do the one thing I hardly ever do, which is say sorry.

‘You look …’ I begin to say, the mounting weight of the wordlessness between us becoming oppressive as we navigate the halls. It comes out squeaky, scratching my throat and making me cough. It’s dark in the corridor, darker than before, and in our mutual hostile silence I can tell everyone has moved to sit for dinner. All we have to do is follow the noise.

‘You’re beautiful,’ I tell her, trying to sound matter-of-fact and not sleazy. ‘I overreacted. I thought you were coming over to …’ I don’t finish the sentence. I can’t admit to the fact that I thought she was giving me the eye. ‘But you weren’t, you were coming over to laugh at me. I’ve been having a bad day. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.’

I try to steal a glance at her, which is easier to do now her walking has slowed down.

‘These heels,’ she says, stopping to circle an ankle. ‘I’m not used to them. You can go ahead if you want.’

I stop walking too.

‘You’re beautiful,’ I repeat. ‘And I felt embarrassed that I’d got the wrong end of things.’

She switches to stand on the other foot so she can stretch her other ankle, and then stands still, looking at me. I didn’t really have a plan on where to go after ‘you’re beautiful’.I don’t even think I had a plan before ‘you’re beautiful’.It just slipped out.

I try to connect two thoughts together.

‘Come here,’ I say, stepping towards her.

She parts her lips and holds my gaze and tilts her chin up. I slip an arm around her waist, and just as she closes her eyes … I thrust my other hand under her thighs and lift her.

‘What are you doing?!’ she cries, but she’s laughing in her disbelief. She isn’t mad at me. Her playful screeching is like medicine after the terse fifteen minutes we’ve just had. ‘Put me down!’

‘I’m being a gentleman,’ I say, and I’m smiling. I add, ‘Let me save you the steps,’ and we trudge down the corridor, following the voices. Right before we turn the corner that I know will open up back to the dinner spot, I stop and put her down.

‘There you go,’ I say, hoping I sound gallant and self-assured and emphatically not like the wet weekend I’ve introduced myself as. ‘Enjoy your dinner.’

There’s a split second where I know I should walk away and not turn back, leaving her in awe and reverence at my manly demonstration of strength, but I’m a coward and don’t do that. I sort of linger, waiting for her to say it was nice to meet me or that she’ll see me later.Something.

‘Thank you.’ And then: ‘It’s such a shame,’ she tells me, brushing her hair off her face in the way I have already fallen in total lust with and smoothing down her dress over those curves. ‘Because for a second there, I thought you were going to kiss me.’

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