Page 38 of The Summer Island Swap
Whereas Rick… I’d thought about him last night when I couldn’t sleep. He was passionate about the outdoors. What with my hotel career, I was passionate about the opposite. He’d grown up surrounded by a family that worked together, holidaying blissfully with each other on a Caribbean island the grandmother had especially bought for them… whereas I…
Yet despite any differences there was something about him that demanded my attention.
I needed to calm down.
The wordsall I ever think about is Garycame into my head. It was Anabelle, in a soppy voice, talking on the phone to someone about Dad. Before they’d been married. Before she lost her happy-go-lucky laugh and self-assured stride.
A refreshing swim in the sea – that would shake off this Rick nonsense. Jonas was up for it. We just had time for a quick dip before lunch at eleven-thirty. Rick wanted us to be on the boat, ready to leave at twelve-thirty sharp. So Jonas and I left a note for Amy and Benedikt.
Talk about washing your worries away. Along with other volunteers, who’d come back from the messy morning task of preparing the animals’ food, Jonas and I splashed around, ducking each other under the water and swimming underneath, pointing out flamboyant fish. Today I’d buy a snorkelling kit. I’d forgotten how healing the sea was. My bites were forgotten, along with the blisters. I relished tropical water lapping against my shoulders and soft sand between my toes along with a current tickling my belly. I wore a new pink polka dot bikini. It stood out from the others’ functional one-pieces and I’d hurried into the sea as quickly as I could, my body feeling very conspicuous.
I’d never felt comfortable swimming. Imagining pairs of eyes scrutinising me. Boyfriends had helped dull the paranoia. Made me realise most men weren’t as judgemental as Dad.
Jonas loved it and I said he could borrow it. He’d ducked me again in response.
He and I swam out and raced back. I couldn’t stop laughing when I won and Jonas protested that his waterlogged dreadlocks had weighed him down. We both squealed when a shoal of silver fish surrounded us, weaving in and out of our legs. I felt a childish excitement as I dived down and found the prettiest shell. Jonas carefully stashed it in a pocket in his swimming trunks.
There wasn’t a swim-up bar or lilos in the shape of flamingos but this was the first time I’d felt as if I’d truly escaped England for a better location. The sun beat down and we lay exhausted on the beach, letting waves lap deliciously over our bodies. We did sand angels, our arms and legs flailing as we lay horizontally. Other people joined in. Just as we started a piggyback race Amy and Benedikt appeared.
Jonas started to run faster.
Could he be trying to impress my sister?
Except he tripped. Staggered. We both went flying and landed flat on our faces, almost colliding with Amy. I turned my head to look at Jonas spitting out sand. He caught my eye. We both laughed hard. In fact, my stomach hurt so much I couldn’t move.
‘Mein Gott! You could have both broken your necks – and Amy’s,’ said Benedikt and glared at Jonas.
We got to our feet, Jonas checking I was okay. I pulled seaweed out of his hair. Someone shouted out it was lunchtime and Malik was serving a favourite – spicy beefburgers with chips and pineapple relish. I needed to change and tidy up my hair. Apply some makeup. After the last few days the idea of that sounded exciting! The men hurried off, Benedikt still berating Jonas for being so careless.
‘Strange,’ I said. ‘They usually get on so well.’
‘I think Benedikt is a little in awe of him,’ replied Amy. ‘He was talking about how Jonas wants a rock career. Benedikt regrets not following his heart and becoming a pianist. From what I can tell he finds his banking career… suffocating. Perhaps he’s envious that Jonas is so laidback.’
‘Or… have you really not noticed…?’
Amy turned to me.
‘Perhaps those two are secretly competing for the same woman,’ I said and grinned.
‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
We climbed the ladder into our shack. Helga wasn’t there. We sat on Amy’s low bed.
‘Jonas reckons Benedikt fancies the pants off you – I think that’s jealous thinking. Jonas looked so miserable watching you two play chess last night. And as soon as you appeared just now he acted all macho and started running faster and that’s why he tripped. Ah. Of course. I bet Benedikt is telling him off because he is secretly annoyed that Jonas might have impressed you.’
‘Benedikt fancy me?’ Amy burst out laughing. ‘Sarah. Leave the crush spotting to me. There is no chemistry whatsoever between us. Not even when we sing! Benedikt’s more likely to be your type. He’s got a thing for long hair, for a start, and mine couldn’t be shorter. He told me he was growing his. I’ve never seen it out of his man bun but he says it’s already down to his shoulders.’
‘I don’t think so… I’ve sensed that he really doesn’t like me.’
‘Rubbish,’ she said in an assured tone. ‘Only today he was asking me all about you. What your type of man was. And whether you liked music.’
I shrugged. ‘So, how was the owl?’
‘Wink is still off his food. I don’t know how Jackie and Rick cope. They must get so attached to the animals they look after here. I’d fall to pieces if one died…’
‘That’s not true at all.’
She looked up from under her fringe. ‘Isn’t it? Remember how Dad sneered at me when my hamster fell ill? My eyes were swollen from crying at the dinner table. He told me to pull myself together; that I’d never make a good vet if I couldn’t cope with the death of a rodent. I… I’ve never forgotten that.’
