“Just having breakfast.”
“Ah, okay, that puts brunch out of the picture. Never mind, there is a Plan B. And a Plan C. And a Plan D. I could go on.”
“No, that’s fine. So…?”
“So, wait for the signal.”
“What? The signal? What signal?”
“You’ll know it when you hear it. Wait and watch, my dear Elyssa.”
“Are you—?”
But he’d ended the call.
Elyssa wanted to feel cross and put out, but instead, she felt strung taut with exhilaration and curiosity. What the hell did Jay have planned? If she knew him at all, it would be something totally unpredictable, and possibly dangerous. Deciding what to wear was going to be the least of her worries.
She played it safe with jeans and a pretty cotton blouse, clipping up her mane of tawny hair and pulling on canvas deck shoes for a casual, summery look. She was not going to give him the impression she was making a big effort for him. The big effort was not hers to make. And yet, something at the core of her did want to pull out the stops for him, make him desire her with a fierce burn, make him unable to forget her.
“Play it cool,” she chided herself. “If he wants you, he wants you. No extra coat of lipstick is going to make a difference. Look, Elyssa, you only live once, and you haven’t even started yet. You want him. Take him.”
Her internal pep talk was interrupted by the clear, clean jingle of a bicycle bell. She popped her perfume spray back in her handbag, peered out through the net curtain in her childhood bedroom and emitted something between a laugh and a scream. Jay was leaning nonchalantly on the wall, holding up a tandem bicycle by the handlebars, not even facing the house but staring off towards the end of the street.
Elyssa galloped down the stairs and flew through the front door, shouting a hurried goodbye to her parents.
“Jay!”
He turned around, peering over his rock-star cool shades and allowing a slow smile to light his features. “Ah. Madam. Your conveyance awaits you.” He bowed exaggeratedly, resting the bicycle against the wall, and stepping forward to take Elyssa’s arm.
“I have never been on one of these before, and it’s years since I rode a bike!”
“You’ll get the hang of it. It’s like riding a bike.”
Elyssa clicked her tongue and lightly slapped his forearm. “Come on then. Where are you taking me in this fairytale carriage?”
“It’s a bit of a magical mystery tour. I wonder if you can guess en route?”
Jay slid a long leg over the front crossbar and looked over his shoulder, grinning at Elyssa as she tried to get comfortable on the unfamiliar machine, still confounded by its appearance.
“I’m sure we’re going to topple this thing,” she said nervously. “What’s in those baskets? Are they heavy?”
“Heavy enough. Got your feet on the pedals? Are you ready? Hang on tight.”
It took some wobbling, some squealing, some lightly grazed shins and a lot of laughter, but eventually they set forth, sailing down the slope and out of town on to the verdant country lanes that surrounded the place where they’d grown up. Elyssa tried to guess their eventual destination, but every time she thought she had it, Jay took an unexpected turn. Over bridges and through tunnels they went, alongside the railway line for a stretch, then through a deep woodland. Just when Elyssa felt sure her knees were going to seize up forever, Jay swept around a corner into the grounds of the ruined abbey they had often visited as teenagers.
“I didn’t know you could get here that way!” Elyssa remarked. “I didn’t know it was so near to the forest.”
“I have the map of this county permanently seared on my brain,” said Jay, applying the brakes and leaping off the bike, helping Elyssa to follow him.
“You miss living here?” Elyssa almost staggered on alighting, her legs were like runny jelly.
Jay caught her, bringing her close to his side with a lightning-quick arm.
“Yeah, of course. It’s a beautiful place. I miss everything about it. Can you stand?” He chuckled, steadying Elyssa with a hand on her shoulder while he unloaded the baskets from the tandem. “Let’s go and sit down. We’re not as young as we were. Our old joints are creaking.”
They found a spot that they both remembered, a grassy knoll shaded by the overhanging section of ruined stone wall, where long, mournful windows with pointed arches let shafts of sunlight through to pierce the shadows.
“I came up here,” said Jay, laying a cloth and spreading himself out on it beside Elyssa, “the night of the Leavers’ barbecue.”