Page 21 of The Rival in South Africa
The files from the day’s safarididneed to be transferred over to my laptop. I could get that set up, and then, maybe, we would be able to walk together to dinner. The files would transfer while we ate and be done when we returned.
The opportunity for a further peek into Alex’s world was too much for me to pass up.
I backtracked and unzipped the gauzy entrance to the tent again. Toeing off my shoes, I peered around, hoping to catch Alex at the sink.
Rather, the space in front of the sink was empty, and I pinched my eyebrows together, wondering where Alex had gone.
Out of sight, water turned on, the hot water heater clicking over and the pounding of the shower hitting the tile. Alex hadn’t closed the curtain. I’d assumed he was shaving at the sink, but instead, he was in the shower. I barely saw a flash of skin before I ducked out of the shower block. My cheeks flushed, and I berated myself. What was I trying to accomplish here?
And then Alex started humming a delightful rendition of Toto’s “Africa,” and I suppressed a giggle.
* * *
After dinner,we made our way back to the tent. The manager had pulled me aside and asked if I still wanted time to do a photo shoot the next day, and I had said yes. Getting to take pictures while everyone else was gone would be really helpful—both to me and the lodge—so I wanted to stay behind from the drive.
But I also needed to do it without Alex in my way.
It took me until we were both in bed with the lights out to finally say something. “I’m not going on the drives tomorrow,” I said into the blackness.
The bed bounced as Alex sat up. “Hang on a minute.” He switched on the lamp beside him. “You justaren’t goingon the drive tomorrow?”
“I have some things I have to do tomorrow.”
“Well, then I’ll stay behind with you. Take a pool day, yeah?”
“You’re still going on the drive tomorrow,” I said. “I’d like some privacy.”
“Privacy?”
When I looked at Alex, I thought I’d see anger. Instead, his brow was creased, a frown tipping his lips down.
“I thought we were getting on better,” he said. “You know, we haven’t really fought, and it’s been…what? Thirty-six hours?”
“And let’s keep it that way. Give me a day off.”
His frown deepened, his eyes narrowing. “Fine,” he bit out, rolling back to turn the lamp off.
* * *
One would thinkafter an exciting few days of early wake-up calls in the morning, wildlife sightings all day, and long social dinners, I would have enjoyed a lovely lie-in on my morning off from the drive.
Given that I needed daylight to take my pictures, I had expected to sleep in while Alex crept out. But I was woken up again by Alex jerking in bed at the drums, nearly knocking me off the mattress. He was extra loud getting dressed and ready to leave, presumably payback for telling him I needed some time alone.
At least I’d gotten to watch him pull on the leggings over his underwear. Usually, I was too busy dressing or using the toilet.
When he finally unzipped the entrance to our tent and left, I should have slipped right back into dreamland. Instead, I tossed around a bit, unmoored. Yes, I was disappointed to be sitting out the drive, but I was here in my capacity as a photographer, and I was excited and nervous to spend the whole day on a photo shoot.
That was all this was, right?
It had nothing to do with not getting to spend the day with Alex again. It was certainly easy to slip back into friendship with him, but I had to remember that he was wily.
Right. I tried to focus my thoughts. He used to be so passive-aggressive on Ion’s Instagram, always making comments with an undertone of snark.
And I thought back to Alex waiting for me at the finish line of the London Marathon, looking smug and startlingly refreshing, as if forty-two kilometers had been nothing for him.
He’d been shirtless, his hair a little long at the time, slicked back with sweat and the dampness that was October in London. Unlike most of the male runners, Alex wasn’t lean anymore. His height, for a while, had surpassed his muscles, and he’d been a gangly teen. But adult Alex, while still lean, had been surprisingly muscled.
I think it was the first time I’d seen Alex without a shirt on as an adult. Long gone were the pool parties of our youth.
