Page 86 of Closer than Ever

***

A gentle breeze caressed Anna’s face as they walked hand in hand along the shoreline all the way until the rocks blocked their path where they turned and started coming back. After amazing trips to the islands of Lunga to see puffins and Staffa to see the ethereal Fingal’s Cave, they’d made it to Islay, their last stop. Anna clung to Hayley’s arm. Hayley would be gone soon. It scratched at her peace and enjoyment of these last few precious hours. Life was going to rip them apart again. It was so fucking shit.

“How lucky are we that we get to see this beautiful sunset on our last night?” Hayley said.

Anna stopped by a sand dune, not feeling lucky about it being their last night but admiring the sky anyway. “Very lucky. Would you like to sit here and watch it go down?”

“I’d love that!”

Anna unfolded the blanket she was carrying and placed it on the soft sand. The sky turned a mixture of orange, red, pink and purple as the sun sank over the horizon. They sat close together. Hayley rested her head on Anna’s shoulder and draped her arm over Anna’s legs. Their hands entwined. Hayley’s body felt like part of hers now. They’d spent the last leg of the trip mostly having sex or cuddling in the campervan. She wanted to breathe Hayley in and never let her go. Sometimes she felt like Hayley was as essential to her as air.

Anna caressed Hayley’s arm. “I really enjoyed our visit to the distillery today. I don’t visit other ones enough.”

Hayley lifted her head off Anna’s shoulder. “Would you ever consider working at another distillery?”

“No. Why do you ask?”

“Just that you seemed super interested today.”

“It’s my passion, I guess. But no, I’ll never leave Glenbuinidh.”

“Mmm.” Hayley rested her head back on Anna’s shoulder.

They were quiet after that. The moon got brighter and the daylight faded.

Hayley stirred. She raised Anna’s hand to kiss the back of it. Her lips were warm and soft and delicate against her skin. “I want you to know that I love every second we get to share together like this.” Hayley’s voice was quiet and seemed full of emotion.

Anna’s heart filled with warmth and happiness. “That means so much to me, Hayley. I do too.”

Hayley looked at her. Her face was so close to hers. Her eyes were dreamy, and wistful, but also serious. And a tiny bit sad? “You look so beautiful tonight, Anna.” She leant over and planted a soft and slow kiss on Anna’s cheek, near her mouth. She stayed by Anna’s face, and took a deep breath, as if something was on her mind. She pulled back.

The tide was going out. It was nearly imperceptible, but the sea was retreating, a bit like their time together. The thought unsettled her.

What they were sharing was amazing in every sense, but was it real? How did Hayley feel? Anna hadn’t verbalised much of what she was feeling. The intensity of what they were sharing was damn near overwhelming. She couldn’t shake the fact that their time together was only temporary. She didn’t know how to handle it.

After Hayley dropped her off at Balbuinidh, she was leaving to go to Europe and, beyond that, her new path to freedom. She’d made no promises to Anna about anything. She’d even said as much when talking about the chocolates that incredible day they arrived in the fancy hotel room. The chocolates were insignificant, but something about the casual way Hayley had said those four words, ‘I can’t promise anything’, had been echoing around Anna’s mind since. Was a holiday romance all that Hayley wanted? And if so, would their friendship ever recover?

Would Anna?

“You’re very quiet,” Hayley said, gently bumping her shoulder.

“Sorry. Got a lot on my mind.”

“Like what?”

The moon shone bright in the twilight. “I’m thinking about us, to tell you the truth.”

There was a long pause. “And?”

“How do you feel about us now?”

“I’m fucking ecstatic. Can’t you see I’m, like, smiling all the time? I’m so thrilled we’ve started this new dimension to our relationship. We started out as friends, yes, but this feels like it was destined to happen. I’ve never felt this connected to someone. The way we just fit each other. It just works. It feels right to me. I mean I never expected in a million years that this would happen. I didn’t even know if we would still get on like we used to. I wasn’t sure if you were going to be the same way with me or not. I also wasn’t sure if you were still going to force feed me cups of tea every five minutes, which I’m sorry to say is still the case, but I am willing to accept it.”

Anna laughed.

“See. I make you laugh. That’s a good sign.”

“You do make me laugh.”

---