At least something good had come from my escapism.
That looks sick! Are those … chains??
Yes! Really tiny ones. Is that ok??
Yeah, I mean, I’ll need to find the right materials to get that effect, but it looks too cool not to try. Let’s do it.
On Monday, we all lined up in Fatima’s lounge to get measured. It was the first time I’d seen Phil do his thing. I’d sent everyone their character portraits I’d done, and after a few tweaks, I had them ready to share with Phil so he knew what to measure. I went first, and then Grey, and then Jack, who smacked at Phil’s hand as he got a bit cheeky measuring his inseam, and we all laughed.
“Is that really necessary?”
“Yes, it most definitely is,” Chloe insisted. “Ignore him, Phil.”
“Don’t I always,” Phil responded from behind Jack, now measuring from his shoulder to his waist.
Once Jack was done, he came over to where I sat on one end of the sofa, making Phil’s requested tweaks to Yorick’s armour. I cursed the traitorous butterflies in my stomach for taking flight when he came over, especially after how last time with Jack had panned out.
“Hey,” he said, sitting down next to me, turning on the cushion so he was facing me.
“Hey,” I said back, not looking up from my tablet.
“So,” he said, “I was thinking, I know the hike was quite … eventful. I’m thinking that’s a solid three hundred XP.”
“Three hundred,” I said, nodding my head. “That’s pretty good.” I had no idea if that was pretty good, but I was willing to go along with it.
“Well, how would you like some more?” There went those cursed butterflies again.
“XP, or hiking?”Or near misses?
“XP,” he said wryly, and I was almost sure he could tell what I’d been thinking. “I figure we could do something else. Something a bit more challenging.”
I nodded slowly, not sure that I liked the sound of “challenging”, but unwilling to admit that. “Sure,” I said. “What did you have in mind?”
“I’ve got a couple of kayaks. I thought we could take them out on the river.”
“Which river?” I asked, my face pulling into a grimace. Jack laughed.
“The Wye,” he said, as if that should have been obvious. “The same one we went swimming in before.”
I pulled a face. “Yeah, but that river looks very different in its kayakable sections than it did running through the back garden.”
“Fair. But you said it yourself; you want to be a bit more adventurous, right?”
“What about the weather?” I asked. It had been raining all weekend.
“It should clear up by then. But even if it doesn’t, we’ll be wet already. Come on Morgan, what do you say?”
I pretended to consider it, but I knew I’d say yes; I really did want to put what happened behind us, if only so I could stop replaying the almost-kiss in my mind. He was offering me a clean slate I intended to accept. And an adorably endearing puppy dog face.
“Let’s go for it,” I said. “When?”
“Saturday morning?” he asked. “Ten am. Wear a swimsuit.”
“Morgan!” Phil called from the lounge, where he was rolling up his measuring tape. “Let’s talk about your text?”
“Coming!” I called, thankful for the distraction from Jack. I stood up and walked back around the table. “Looking forward to it,” I said to him.
“Back at ya.”
