Page 65 of A Cornish Love Story
‘Sterenlenn is in Panic Room Mode,’ the house said at the same time.
‘Yes, thank you, Captain Obvious.’ I rolled my eyes, then ran my fingers over Ethan’s freckle constellation, realizing I knew the shape of it by heart. ‘Has it been worth it?’
‘The house?’
I nodded, held my breath.
He glanced towards the window, where the moonlight was drifting in, reaching across the room to dust our skin, then brought his gaze back to mine. ‘It has,’ he said eventually. ‘But I’m not sure it would have been if the Smart system hadn’t broken down.’
‘Right.’ It took me a second to work out what that meant: that he was happier we’d ended up trapped together than he would have been if his showcase had gone perfectly. He was prepared to face all the hassle just to get time with me. And we only had right now– until the bug fixed itself and the house released us, or Sarah realized what had happened.
‘I think we should try out the shower.’
Ethan frowned. ‘Why?’
‘The disco shower,’ I explained. ‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been obsessed with it since I saw it. We’ve tried out the bed, the sofas. We should try out the shower next. Maybe I’ll write a piece about what it’s like to live in a Smart house for a night: I could do it without mentioning that I didn’t have a choice.’
‘That’s how you’re going to frame your article?’ But he sounded distracted, and his gaze was hazy. Perhaps he was remembering, like I was, that we were quite good at showering together.
‘It’ll be like Goldilocks and the Three Bears,’ I said. ‘The sofa was too big, the beer fridge was way too small. The bed, however, was just right. The villain in my fairy tale will be the house itself, because that voice has said some strange things, and it’s just plain creepy.’
‘It’s not …’ he started, then stopped. The look he gave me was intense, calculating, and before I realized what was happening, he’d scooped me up, holding me against him as he clambered off the bed and walked us both towards the en-suite.
‘Have you been in here?’ I asked, holding onto him tightly.
‘No.’ He opened the door and put me down gently. ‘There’s no body wash.’
‘I’m not interested in body wash.’
‘No, all you care about are the lights.’ He pressed buttons on the panel and it beeped a few times, the lights around the bottom of the shower flickering on, pulsing between red, blue and white.
‘The lights are OK,’ I said.
‘Just OK?’ He pressed another button and the pulsing sped up, the colours changing to an out-of-sync rainbow: green and crimson, violet and lemon, orange and sky blue. ‘You know you can have them flash in time to music?’
‘Let’s do that, then. Do I have to ask the creepy voice?’
Ethan rolled his eyes. ‘What shall we …’ He hesitated, his finger inches from the screen. I looked at him, standing there naked, unselfconscious because I’d given him a task and he was entirely focused on it. His body was gorgeous, strong and firm and freckled. ‘This,’ he said, triumphantly. He pressed a series of buttons then stepped into the shower with me, walking me backwards until he could reach behind me and turn it on. The water came out of the rainfall shower head perfectly warm, heating to hot in a couple of seconds.
‘What song did you pick?’ I asked, as Ethan bent his head towards mine.
‘Patience, Georgie,’ he whispered against my lips, and a moment later the song started, lights flickering in time with the opening chords, and I smiled up at him, hoping my emotions weren’t showing on my face,and that he couldn’t see inside to my racing heart. My love for him had crashed right over me, a new, confounding wave, even more intense than it had been when I was eighteen.
‘Whatever it Takes’ by Lifehouse filled the shower cubicle.
‘Oh my God,’ I said. ‘The cheese.’
‘Everyone loves cheese. Nobody can live without it, whatever they say.’
A laugh spilled out of me. ‘A staple part of every diet. What would you say this is? Camembert?’
I stretched up to kiss him as the hot water rained down on us, washing away everything except the reality of this moment: disco lights dancing and a song I hadn’t heard in years, but was now branded onto my heart for ever, along with the taste of Ethan’s kiss and what it felt like to have him back in my arms, even if it was only for a night.
Chapter Twenty-Six
July 2012
Because it was prom night and our parents had given us a bit of leeway, we stayed at the house until two a.m., even though my heart wasn’t in it. I drank the vodka and didn’t feel remotely drunk; I offered up my own stories about sixth form, about my overly passionate media studies teacher and how easily distracted he was; we laughed and joked and Kira and Freddy were drunkenly affectionate, knowing they would be apart for the summer at the very least.
