“Okay. I mean, yes please. That would be… that’d be lovely, thanks.”
“Perfect, let me grab my stuff. I’ll come up to you.” Owen grinned and quickly towelled off his hair, making it stick out slightly. He reached down for his bag and pulled out another giant towelling hoodie, this one in a deep, burnt orange colour, and a pair of flip flops. He walked over to the steps at the end and climbed up them before dropping his flip flops onto the pavement and sliding them on.
There was a thick, slightly faded tattoo around his right ankle with a wave pattern, and a gnarly-looking scar nestled amongst the dark hair on the inside of his calf which stood out against his tanned skin. I’d never noticed it before, but then again, I’d been trying not to look at him too closely.
“Pretty sick, right?” Owen said with a laugh as he slung his backpack over his shoulder. “Got that one in Cornwall when I was, like, nineteen? Made the horrible decision to jump off some cliffs with my mates without checking what the water was like underneath. Thankfully it was deep enough, but it was kinda rocky so I cut my leg open. But it could’ve been a lot worse, so I got lucky. Thought my dad was actually gonna kill me though when I told him I’d had to go to A&E for stitches. He’s a prettychill guy ninety-nine percent of the time, but doing stupid shit like that is a really easy way to piss him off.”
“I’m not surprised! You could have died!”
“Yeah, I could have. And I didn’t even realise it at the time. I just thought I’d gotten away with it. I remember laughing with my mate about it in the waiting room. It didn’t actually hit me how much more serious it could’ve been until about, maybe, eighteen months later when I was in Australia and I met someone whose friend had been paralysed from cliff jumping. Kinda gave me the shock I needed to take shit seriously, and now I’m all about safety first.”
“Good!” I said it with a lot more force than necessary, and both of us stopped for a split second. I felt my face heat, suddenly worried I’d ruined everything. But Owen just laughed and put his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it gently.
“I’m glad someone’s concerned for me at least.”
“Well, yeah. I don’t want you getting hurt. That would be awful!”
“Don’t worry, I’m much more careful these days,” he said, shooting me a soft smile that made my heart race. “I’ve got enough scars. I’d rather not keep adding to them.”
“Cool… good, I mean… that’s good.” I smiled, then stumbled as I tripped over my own feet, falling against his chest.
I put my hands out, trying to stabilize myself and grabbed a handful of his hoodie instead. His pecs were soft and firm under my fingers, and suddenly I wanted to bury my face in them. “Shit! I’m so sorry!”
“You’re fine, don’t worry,” Owen said, his hand gently wrapping around me. He was still smiling and, if I hadn’t known any better, I’d have said he looked pleased. I really needed to start making sure I had enough to drink before I went running, because I didn’t need to get light-headed and start hallucinating.
I pushed myself to my feet, awkwardly realising afterwards I’d used his perfect chest for leverage. “I should be more careful,” I said as I looked down at my laces, checking to see if they’d come untied and caused me to fall. Nope. It was just me being a clumsy twat.
“Like I said, you’re fine. As long as you’re not hurt.”
“No, I’m good. Just embarrassed.”
“Don’t be. I’d rather you fall against me than the railings,” he said softly. He reached up to brush a strand of hair out of my face. “Wouldn’t want you to need stitches.”
“N-No. Definitely not,” I stammered, my face so hot it felt like it was going supernova.
There was a moment of silence as we walked on towards Wendy’s coffee hut. To me, it felt almost painfully awkward, but Owen was still relaxed and smiling so maybe it was only me freaking out.
I desperately searched around for something to say. Something that would break the tension that seemed to hover in the air between us. “I was thinking I might stay late at the shop tonight and maybe start testing out some of those new flavours we talked about, if you wanted to join me. Obviously I’ll pay you for the extra hours. And you can totally say no! I’m sure you have better things to do with your evenings than spending it at work with me.”
“I don’t. And I’d love to join you, that sounds so awesome!”
“Really?”
“Yeah!” His smile had widened and it made my stomach flip. “Sounds like a perfect evening to me.”
I laughed. “I wouldn’t go that far. It won’t exactly be exciting.”
“Yeah, it will be. You’re amazing, Darcy, and I can’t wait to create some new flavours with you.” He sounded so sincere I had no choice but to believe him. And the way he was looking at me…it made me feel like I was special somehow. Important. Like he genuinely wanted to spend the evening with me and nothing else would make him happier.
Did he… would it be wrong for me to think that maybe, just maybe, he might feel the same about me as I did about him?
It was probably totally preposterous.
And yet…
There was something in his eyes, the curl of his lips, and the way he’d put his arm around me when I’d crashed into him.
And the way he’d asked if I wanted to go for coffee.
