Victoria Cooke - A Summer to Remember

He gives the wheel a little shake to make sure it’s fastened on tightly and then glances up at me, his hair falling into his eyes. ‘You found your way back then?’

‘Oh, ha-ha.’ I sound very British, like the British people in American films do. It’s odd to hear myself this way and it isn’t as though I’m speaking any differently; I just sound different because of the thick American accents around me.

He stands up, wiping a streak of black grease on his jeans. He’s intimidatingly close, almost a full head-height taller than me and a good six inches too close. Scratch that, he’s six feet too close. I swallow hard, unsure as to whether I’m going to get another earful. I’m braced and ready. He’s only a foot away, and I can feel something between us. An energy of some sort which binds itself into a hard knot in my chest. I don’t step back. I put my hands on my hips and stand my ground.

‘Do you want to pay cash or card?’ he says eventually, slicing through the tension. The breath I was holding escapes. Was that it?

‘Er, cash … no, card.’

‘Do you need a moment to think about it?’ There’s a frustrating sarcasm in his tone.

‘You do know there are customer service courses available, don’t you? I bet repeat custom isn’t the foundation of your business model.’ I jab the air in front of his chest. ‘It’s a good job you’re based in a tourist town where you have a constant flow of new and unsuspecting victims to rent bikes to. You could be the Bates Motel of the bike rental world.’ Too far?

The corner of his mouth curls up in a bemused smirk that makes me all the more cross. ‘If you’re finished, and I really hope you are, closing time was fifteen minutes ago and I’m starving so I’d like to wrap this up. I open up again at 9 a.m. tomorrow though, if you’d like to carry on.’

‘Oh.’ Okay, so maybe I’m in the wrong this time but that just makes us even. ‘Well, here.’ I hand over my card, and he heads inside without a word. I follow because, well, he has my card.

‘You could have just said you were closing,’ I say when I reach the counter.

‘Well, you know … customer service.’

Touché.

He runs off a piece of paper and presents a slip for me to sign. I haven’t paid this way in ages. I look at him to check it’s right, and he gives me an impatient look, so I scribble my signature and slide the paper back across the counter.

‘All done then?’ I ask, and he nods. ‘Okay, well thank you and goodbye.’ Eurgh, why did I thank him? I just can’t help myself. He raises a hand, and I walk out with the strange feeling of unfinished business.

‘There you are!’ I spot Barney and Harry at a long wooden table in the outdoor bar. The decking offers views across the bay and the calm ocean, which appears to be resting after a busy day of throwing kayakers from their vessels. The bar is bustling, and I had to fight my way over to their corner. I plonk my handbag on the table and slump down on the bench.

‘Well, you’re not a happy camper,’ Barney says.

‘Is it that obvious?’ I ask dryly.

‘What happened to the perfect day you had planned out?’ Harry said. ‘Actually, hold that. You need a drink first.’ He holds three fingers in the air. The bartender nods and I assume three ‘somethings’ will arrive soon.

I give a wistful sigh. ‘It was perfect – I read by the pool and had lunch on the beach. Then I found the bike hire place—’

Barney gushes. ‘So, you met Ethan?’

I frown, unsure why anyone would react that way. ‘Yes. And why on earth are you friends with such an arrogant—’

Barney gasps, clutching both hands to his face. I glare at him.

‘If you keep reacting so dramatically, I’m not telling the story.’

‘Sorry, but I’ve never met anyone who hates Ethan before. We adore him and thought you would too. All the women in this town are head-over-heels besotted with him. I don’t know how he manages to stay single.’ The barman places three elaborately adorned cocktails down, breaking Barney’s trail of thought, so I seize the opportunity to fill them in on our encounter in Boston and his lack of regret today.

‘That doesn’t sound like Ethan at all,’ Barney says.

‘I don’t know; he can be a bit of a brooder,’ Harry adds.

‘I kinda like that,’ Barney says.

‘When was it you say it happened?’ Harry says, ignoring Barney.

‘A few weeks ago.’

Harry and Barney exchange glances and when they don’t elaborate, I sit confused for a minute. Then it hits me. All that talk about head-over-heels women and whatnot. They’re matchmakers, I bet he’d had a bad date that day and took his hatred of womankind out on me.

‘I do hope you only sent me there for the bikes.’ I give them a warning look.

‘Well, of course,’ Barney says, and in fairness he does look quite horrified at the thought.

Harry shakes his head. ‘Ethan is a great guy. You just have to get to know him.’

Barney rests his chin on his hands and smiles. ‘It’s as though his mother went to the gene-pool buffet when she was making him and had first dibs on all the good stuff.’ He puts on what I assume is supposed to be a female voice. ‘I’ll have a couple o’ those blue eyes, some sun-kissed skin and a chiselled jaw for this one.’ Harry giggles at Barney’s impression and it shows a side to him I hadn’t witnessed before. I swear, if these two were emojis, they’d have hearty eyes.

‘Looks aren’t everything.’

‘Well, I’ve never met a woman, or a man of that inclination, who didn’t swoon over Ethan before. You, Sam, are a tough nut to crack.’

‘I swear, if you were trying to play matchmaker …’ The thought still horrifies me.

Barney and Harry shake their heads a little too quickly and I resist the urge to discreetly check my breath doesn’t smell.

‘Good. I would hate for our friendship to be over before it’s even started.’ I punctuate my stern words with a sip of my cocktail. ‘Mmm. This is nice. What is it?’

‘It’s a ginger Cosmo. Aren’t they yummy?’ Barney sounds excited. Like Dory the fish, it seems he’s already forgotten about my warning.

‘Sam …’ Barney suddenly sounds serious, and he glances at Harry warily. Harry shakes his head and tries to brush away whatever it is Barney wants to say.

‘What?’ I ask.

Harry looks at Barney. ‘Do we need more drinks? I think we need more drinks.’ He stands up to walk to the bar.

‘What on earth is going on?’

If the ocean was guilt, a huge wave has just slapped Barney in the face and drenched him. ‘We’ve invited some friends to join us tonight, that’s all.’ He sips his drink, but the slight rise to his eyebrows suggests it’s not a simple case of friends getting together.

‘Oh, okay. What friends?’ I hadn’t anticipated there would be people joining us and try my best to avoid giving any hint of the disappointment I feel at having to share company and make small talk with strangers.

‘There’s, Susie the cake girl, Blair the gift-store owner, Marty the coffee-shop guy, who we just invited because he overheard us talking about drinks, and then … Ethan the bike guy.’ He says the last bit even quicker than usual.

‘What?’ I groan. This is all I need. I suppose I could always talk to the others. I don’t have to speak to him.

Harry returns with three more cocktails, different this time, and catches the disappointment on my face. ‘Ahh good, you told her Blair and Susie can’t make it. Don’t worry about being the only girl in our gang.’ Barney makes a cut-throat gesture at Harry to shut him up.