Page 189 of Brighter Together

I put an arm around her shoulders and kiss the top of her head.

“The view’s better with you in it.”

She looks up at me.

“Who are you and what have you done with Tommy Atkinson?”

“I have always been romantic.”

She pats my stomach.

“Come on, Romeo. Dinner.”

She climbs into the van.

I follow.

There isn’t much to it. A mattress takes up most of the main space, with our bags and hiking gear crammed into the back.

We eat here.

Sleep here.

Read here.

And have had some spectacular sex here.

Thank fuck for curtains.

When we originally left Fellside, this was supposed to be a two-week holiday somewhere warm.

Somehow that became four weeks travelling around New Zealand in a campervan.

We have watched whales, walked through landscapes that made Ella stop talking for entire minutes at a time, slept beside beaches and lakes, and eaten far too much takeaway food.

And I haven’t checked in with Greenview Manor once.

Not once.

The first few days, I kept reaching for my phone out of habit.

Then I stopped.

Sheila took the General Manager position before we left and has already proved what I probably should have realised years ago: the hotel does not collapse simply because I’m not standing in the middle of it.

Apparently the hotel can survive without me knowing which room needs extra towels.

A revelation.

Ella hands me a cardboard box.

“Dinner.”

I open it.

“Cold burger.”

“Luxury dining.”