As we leave, luggage in hand, Freya hugs absolutely everyone, apparently already very close friends with most of them.
I pick her up twenty minutes later from a water fountain in a nearby village and it isn’t an exaggeration to say that when I round the bend of the road and see her standing there, I feel as though my heart swells. Like, again, I was missing her.
‘Well, hello,’ I say as she climbs into the car. ‘Do you come here often?’
‘Never,’ she says, leaning back against the car seat and closing her eyes. ‘Ineverdo weekends like that. What the actual fuck happened there? What world did we get sucked into? Sonja’s an actual lunatic.’
‘Good weekend overall, though?’ I ask. I really don’t want her to regret thewholething.
She opens her eyes and gives me a slow smile. ‘Yeah.’ Then she smiles more and says, ‘Some of it was amazing.’
I nod, pleased. Itwasamazing.
‘I loved the baking,’ she says.
Oh. Okay. I nod.
‘And I didn’t actuallyhatethe assault course in some ways. The net bit was fine. I was pleased to discover that I was good with mud. And the whole thing did feel like a big achievement, and who doesn’t love to achieve?’
I nod again.
‘And the ice bath,’ she continues. ‘Obviously I hated it and obviously we all know that they’re a fad and not genuinely health-giving, but at least I can now say with authority that I’ve done one. Two, in fact.’
I pause my slight disgruntlement that she still hasn’t mentioned our night together. ‘What? Theyarehealth-giving? Well-documentedly?’
She shakes her head. ‘Nuh-unh.’
‘Hmm. I’ll let that pass until I’m not driving and then I will send you some definitive articles on the benefits of ice baths.’
‘And I will retaliate with definitive articles on the quackery of the ice-bath movement.’
‘Okay, no. I’m going to prove my point assoonas I finish driving.’ I look both ways before turning off our country lane onto a main road. ‘Anything else good about the weekend?’
‘The treetop thing this morning. I hated it in the moment. But I have at least proved to myself that I can do things I hateandthat I’m not wrong when I say that I absolutely hate heights and so I’m not holding myself back unnecessarily from things like bungee jumping because I really would hate them.’
I nod.
‘Also I enjoyed you thwarting Sonja on the reptile experience,’ she continues.
I nod.
‘Also, the salsa dancing was obviously amazing. So much fun.’
I nod.
‘Yeah, so I think that’s it.’
‘Nothing else stands out in your mind?’ I enquire.
‘I don’t think so.’ She’s leaning back again with her eyes closed, grinning while she does so.
I turn to look at her properly for a moment while we’re at traffic lights, and a shot of some strong emotion that I can’t quite identify courses through me.
I look back at the road ahead and say, ‘Did you get a great night’s sleep?’
‘Yeah, no, it was too short. Someone really annoyingly kept me up late.’
‘Really annoyingly?’ I enquire.
