Page 41 of Hot to Go

‘Come on, turn around so we can see you,’ Alicia tells me.

I turn slowly and look up, and she’s the first face I see. I’m overwhelmed with relief, fear and just plain confusion. She looks at me and does a strange yelping noise like a surprised bird. And I wave.

Hey. It’s her.Aurelie.

‘So, call me stupid, but do you two know each other? It felt like you knew each other,’ our head of Modern Foreign Languages, Lee, asks both of us as we convene at the front of the room.

I sat down after my name was announced and didn’t dare look back for fear I might turn to stone. That is her, isn’t it? I know I took quite a large knock to the head in Mallorca but I’ve been given the all-clear and the wrist is better. Maybe there was a brain bleed and she’s a hallucination. But as the briefing finished and Alicia had introduced all the new-starters, I turned to see her staring at me and really not looking very impressed at all. Seriously? And now, here we are, standing literally a metre away from each other. There’s no mistake – it is her.

‘No,’ Suzie says. ‘I just thought he looked familiar. Like someone from my yoga class, strangely enough…’ She looks me directly in the eye as she says it.

‘Do you do yoga, Charlie?’ Lee asks, surprised, in his lilting Welsh accent. ‘You don’t look the sort.’

‘I don’t. Sorry, I felt the same, some strange feeling of déjà vu? Have you ever lived in Nice?’ I ask her.

‘No,’ she replies, a little too sternly.

Lee looks back and forth between us, trying to work out the vibe. ‘Well, I am excited for the year ahead. I know you’re both super new so do come and talk to me if there are any problems and maybe we should have a little meeting after school? We can meet in room C2?’

‘Of course, look forward to it,’ I say.

‘Sure thing,’ Suzie says, before he walks away and we’re left standing there in front of each other, both of us at a loss for words.

After what feels like a lifetime of staring at each other, she mumbles, ‘Are you real?’

A teacher walks past us, ‘Welcome to Griffin Road, guys!’ We both smile then return to our face-off.

‘Your name isn’t Carlos?’ she asks.

‘Well, at least it’s the Spanish version of Charles. Aurelie is nothing like Suzie,’ I say, slightly angry that she’s accusing me of lying to her.

‘She was my French penpal when I was ten,’ she blurts out.

I laugh in response but she doesn’t take that well. She takes my arm and I try to ignore the feel of her hand on me as she leads me to a corner of the room. The other teachers continue to filter out of the hall. She leans in whispering into my ear, unfeasibly close to me…‘This isn’t funny. This is a disaster. You…You lied.’

‘So did you. Actually, your whole family lied to me. I know that cousin you were sitting with. Were you all just laughing at me?’ I tell her.

She covers her blushing cheeks and mouth with her hands. ‘I can’t believe this. I really…how is this happening? Are you hot? Is this school hot, or is it me?’ She runs a finger under her collar and I follow it, looking at the curve of her neck. Yeah, maybe now’s not the time. ‘How are we going to play this? We’re in the same department, we’re literally going to see each other every day. I’ll just quit. I’m so embarrassed.’

My disbelief turns to resignation. Something this ridiculous would only happen to me. I try and put a hand out to calm her down but she moves away immediately, looking around to check who may be watching. She stops sharply to look at me. ‘How the hell are we going to have this meeting? How can I look you in the face?’

And then resignation turns to sadness. Is she ashamed of what happened? Did she just want to leave it there on that island? Because I think about it daily. Not the sex. I mean, I think about the sex a fair bit. But I also think of a moment where two people met for the first time by the sea. I canhear the sea, feel the breeze on my face, and smell the salt. I vividly hold that image in my mind of this little sea nymph and her big brown eyes, her hair clinging to her face, pulling my T-shirt down so I wouldn’t be able to see, making ridiculous jokes about my nipples and rolling in the sand. And now that sea nymph is here in a sensible midi dress and that memory clearly hasn’t stayed with her the way it has with me.

‘You’re looking me in the face, right now,’ I tell her.

‘Car… Charlie… we’ve done stuff…’ she whispers.

I smirk and she hits me on the arm. An art teacher walks past looking very confused.

‘This is not professional. This is our first day and look, I need this job,’ she informs me.

‘Really? But what about your family champagne empire?’ I snap back.

Her jaw goes slack as she stares me right in the eye. Maybe I was wrong about her. In Mallorca, I got warm and funny. I’m now getting cold and sarcastic.

‘You were the one who didn’t show up? The one who stood me up,’ she tells me.

‘I had a valid excuse.’

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