One of a Kind by Jane Lovering

Author:Jane Lovering [Lovering, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2024-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

9

We found a beach and spent a happy few hours collecting shells and dabbling our feet in the fabulous blue water. Ivo bought me an ice cream and I bought him a huge whirl of candy floss, uncertain as to whether putting sugar into a system that was already rebounding to levels of energy unequalled by anybody over the age of seven was such a good idea.

I kept all my thoughts to myself. Agonising over my stupidity gave me an almost pleasurable pain, after all, here I was. Beautiful beach, fabulous scenery, and the man I cared about most in the world – I had everything, didn’t I? I wanted to bang my head against something for my idiocy, but as Ivo was the only solid thing to hand, I didn’t.

Ivo marvelled at the intricate swirls of the shells, at the colour of pebbles and the feel of the dark ridged sand under our feet. It was a little bit like being with an alien who had just beamed down onto the planet, such was his joy and focus on things that I took for granted.

‘Don’t you have an off switch?’ I asked, licking the remainder of my Mr Whippy out of the end of the cone.

He thought for a second, looking down to watch the tide sucking shingly sand around his bare toes. ‘You sound like my ex-girlfriend,’ he said. ‘And the one before that.’ His tone was neutral, observational. ‘Am I that difficult to be around? Seriously, Cress?’

I frowned. ‘It’s just that you make me feel…’ Careful, Cress…

‘Tired? Annoyed? Frustrated that you can’t get a word in? Irritated because I’m not paying attention?’

‘…one dimensional.’

That stopped him. He’d been listing provocations almost resigned, running through them like a litany of faults he’d heard so many times that they’d become defining characteristics. Now he had to think.

‘I do? Make you feel…’

‘One dimensional, yes. As though I’m plodding along on a single path, while you’re taking all the interesting diversions, absorbing all the views and then coming back to me a bit sad that I haven’t seen what you have.’ It was true. Discounting all the other ways he made me feel, this feeling that I was slightly inadequate led the way.

‘Wow.’ Ivo pushed his hands into his pockets, making the sleeves of his shirt roll up and exposing his wrists, long and pale, to the sun. His hair flopped down, hiding his expression as he perused his feet, splayed across the sandy ridges through the bubbles and splashes. ‘That makes me sound a bit like a red setter.’

‘There are certain points of similarity,’ I said, and then smiled when he looked up to meet my eye. ‘Aristocratic, long-haired, inability to come when called.’

Now he waded towards me, clonking slightly because of all the shells he had pushed into his pockets. They bulged, making him look as though he’d gained weight in very specific places. ‘I always come when called, Cress,’ he said, almost inaudibly over the sound of a nearby set of toddlers shrieking into the water armed with buckets.

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