‘I wanna see you.’ He laid her out on her right side. He stroked the small of her back over her hips. She liked the way he was looking down at her in a detached, almost appraising way.
And then:He looks at her like this.
She suddenly felt horribly vulnerable.Is he comparing me to her?He grabbed her thigh and pushed it up slightly to ease into her again. Barely a minute passed and he was gripping her hip and the small of her back, his face clenched, trying not to make too much noise as his body shook. ‘Oh God. Oh God.’
After, he flopped down beside her, breathing hard. Eventually he spoke. ‘So what are we doing for the rest of the day?’
‘Well, first we need to de-pine-needle.’ Lindy pulled her arm protectively across her chest and stood up, not looking at Adam watching her. She was now hyper-aware of her nakedness. Adam scrambled up after her and handed her the swimming togs. She accepted them and waited for him to turn so she could put them on, but he stayed looking at her.
‘I feel like we never look at each other any more.’ He traced a thumb along her hairline down to her neck. ‘Do you feel that way?’
‘I do.’ She was quiet. She did not want to do this. If they said much more she would cry, and that was not what this day was about. ‘Maybe it’s just the life stage. We have so much on the to-do list every day … So, I have a surprise but you have to be the gentleman and go get the towels and clothes.’
Once dressed they sat in the car and Lindy pulled out the notebooks and pens she’d brought.
‘Right. One each.’ She passed Adam his pen and paper and turned to face him, pulling herself into a cross-legged position with her back against the car door. ‘So the game for the day is one of us asks a question and we both write our answers at the same time and hold them up to read at the same time. Got it? The question can be about anything but we have to both write answers. I’m going first: What do we want to have for breakfast?’
Adam grinned and tapped his pen against his bottom lip. Then he wrote something.
Lindy’d known what she wanted for breakfast since they’d left the house at six that morning. She scribbled her answer.
‘OK, what do we want to have for breakfast?’ she repeated.
Adam turned his page around.YOU! Again ;)
She turned her notebook over:Sausage sandwiches, coffee and bananas with peanut butter on the beach.
‘OK, into it.’ Adam put the car into gear. ‘There’s a garage a few miles back. I hope they have peanut butter.’
In less than twenty minutes they were back, devouring buttery sausage sandwiches on the beach blanket Lindy had brought. The coffee was notably crap, but it was amazing how the beach made everything taste better. She idly began spreading the banana with a smear of peanut butter.
‘Lindy! I can’t believe I’d forgotten that’s how you eat that. Absolutely crazed, no vehicle, just peanut butter straight on it …’
‘Only you ever fixated on it – no one else ever felt the need to comment. Anyway, it is objectively the best method of pairing the iconic banana–peanut-butter combo. If you use bread or whatever the whole thing is too claggy. This is more refined.’
‘Of course, dead right. So what’s next for the day?’
‘Are you asking the notebooks?’
‘Sure, OK.’ He picked his up and thought for a moment before jotting something down.
Lindy quickly wrote her own answer. ‘OK what’s next?’ She turned hers around to reveal:Whatever you wrote.He laughed and turned his around:Go look at some … fish …?!?!
‘It’s hard to come up with stuff!’ he cried. ‘And yours is a complete cop-out. You shouldn’t be allowed do that.’
Lindy munched on her banana and pretended to nod gravely. Then: ‘OK, I’ve given it some serious thought and I’ve decided that I’m fine with what I just did. Anyway, “go look at some fish” is a great idea. We can drive to Bray.’
‘Yes! The aquarium there has a larger-than-life-size picture of topless Richard E. Grant holding a fish like a baby.’
‘It’s weird that you know that.’
‘Well, there it is.’ Adam uncovered her eyes – he’d insisted on covering them before the big reveal. ‘Majestic, isn’t it?’ They were standing in the entrance to the aquarium gazing at Richard E. Grant, as promised, cradling a large fish.
‘It’s so incongruous – we should ask someone why it’s here.’
‘No,’ Adam cut across her. ‘I never want an explanation. The explanation will probably be boring. I want to hold this no-context Richard E. Grant fish-hugging image in my mind forever uncorrupted by reason.’
The rest of the aquarium tour was surprisingly fun. They’d done lots of this kind of stuff when Max was a kid. The zoo had been close, and seeing the deer in the Phoenix Park was a Sunday-morning regular. Then the Maxxed Out camera had started to come along with them and it became something else entirely.
