Page 84 of Hot to Go

‘LOLA!’ I say, feeling my cheeks glow with a blush.

‘OHMYGOD! There’s going to be another staff wedding like Mr and Mrs Rogers. You know he proposed to her in an assembly. You want us to help you set that up? Can I be a bridesmaid?’ There is far too much information there and her squealing is starting to attract the attention of other students who look on curiously, laughing.

‘Slow down there, señorita. Does everyone know?’ I ask her.

‘Well, yeah? Viraj also recorded audio of Mr McWhippy and his wife too,’ she says, her eyes wide and excited.

I try not to laugh. You are the adult and the professional here. Do not give anything away, Mr Shaw.

‘You think we come on these trips for the culture, Sir?’ she laughs.

‘You’re here to learn some Spanish, no?’ I tell her. ‘Didn’t you enjoy the markets, chatting to the locals?’

‘Ask Tyler that. He went and chatted up all the Spanish girls. We went to Bershka instead, Sir. Where do you think I got this hoodie from?’

‘Bershka?’

She rolls her eyes. ‘The clothes shop. It’s Spanish, Sir. Miss took us. This is another reason why you should be with her. Girl knows her priorities.’

‘Shush now, Lola,’ I say, keen to shut the conversation down but also secretly agreeing.

I work my way down the corridor. I don’t know why that lad has his belongings stuffed in two plastic bags or how that person has acquired a sizeable cuddly bear. I go into a room and also see how a group of boys have made a tower out of Fanta Limón tins. How have they got through so much in the space of just a couple of days? I walk to the end of the corridor to see a door closed.

‘Señor Shaw, we’re missing Tyler from that room? Everyone else seems to have vacated, can you hurry him on? Coach leaves in fifteen minutes,’ Lee shouts at me from the other end of the corridor, walking away through a sea of trolley bags and excitable teens. ‘WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY WENT TO MCDONALD’S?’

I put a hand to the air to tell Lee I have this and knock lightly on Tyler’s door. No answer. ‘Tyler, mate? We’ve got to go. Are you on the toilet?’ It seems to be quiet in there. His room is near the roof so I head up there to double-check if he’s out there, only to find Suzie there, taking in the last of therooftop sun.

‘Hola, señorita,’ I tell her.

‘Buenas tardes, señor.’ Her skin glows, her eyes are shining and the sunlight catches in her hair as she takes in this view for the last time. I can’t look away, but I shouldn’t stare at her. This will wig her out.

‘I was told to sweep the roof,’ she says.

‘I’m here looking for Tyler,’ I say.

‘He’s not here. He’s likely asleep, knowing him. I found him earlier in the Royal Alcazar, asleep on a bench. I had to persuade security that he wasn’t a tramp.’

I smile and walk up to the ledge where she stands, looking out at the Seville skyline. There is something about the skyline of a city that is pretty breathtaking, your eyes tracing the shapes of where they meet the sky. The idea that you literally feel like you’re on top of the world. I put a hand out and she takes it, squeezing it tightly. ‘We’ve been found out, you know? The kids know.’

‘They know what though?’ she asks, slowly.

‘That we’re…I don’t quite know…that we’re potentially…a thing?’ I say tentatively, not wanting to scare her off but also wanting to admit to some feeling here. Let’s try this out, this could work. We can’t only just work in Spain otherwise we’d have to move to Spain and I don’t think that’s quite an option. I stand there and look out on to the view, mildly petrified.

‘A thing?’ she says, smirking.

‘That’s what the kids are calling it these days,’ I continue. ‘A thing.’

‘Look at you, with all your rizz,’ she jokes.

‘Apparently, you look down the corridor at my room all the time in your French class,’ I tell her.

‘I do not,’ she says defensively. ‘I just sometimes glance that way, like a good colleague, making sure everything’s OK. To check in.’

‘Sure.’

We remain standing there, looking out as the sun sits low in the sky.

‘So your thing?’ she asks.

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