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Evie:I’d make him cute. And slimy.
Felicity:Ewwwie.
“Something funny?” Oliver asked as a snort escaped her.
“Just Evie. Her mind works in odd ways.”
An eyebrow cocked. “Odder than yours?”
“I’d say so. To be honest, she probably taught me all I know about being an oddball.”
“I’ll look forward to meeting her then.” Pause. “When I next make it over to the UK.”
“Oh, do you go often?” She hoped she didn’t sound all breathy.
“Now and again. I got invited to talk at the London School of Economics last year on how to demystify economics for the general public.”
“That’s impressive.”
“Not really. I just think there’s too much jargon in the world. Especially around money. It intimidates people. And that’s when you open the door for every snake oil salesman to take people like Mitch and Shelley for a ride. Bleed them dry. I hate it.”
She glanced at him with admiration. “You’re so moral. What we English call a real gentleman.”
He gave a little bark of laughter. “Always did fancy myself in a BBC period drama.”
“Oliver Blake for the new lead inBridgerton.” It was out of her mouth before she could stop herself.
Another laugh, another sideways glance out of those glinting eyes. Were they flirting? It sure felt like it. As though neither of them could keep things strictly platonic. But if not friends, then what were they? The wrist kiss kept dancing in front of her, daring her to ask him what it meant. But every time she racked her brain for a way to bring it up again, it just felt like it would be forced and awkward. She’d made a joke of it; the moment had passed.
End of story, Felicity Green.
Which was why it felt good to be distracted when suddenly they turned off the highway. It was also quite novel to be heading south instead of due east. Straight towards the bright blue ocean.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
A moment later Oliver brought them to a halt on a piece of flat rock a few metres from the cliff edge.
“The Head of the Bight,” he said. “Shall we get out?”
She nodded and unclipped her seatbelt.
Up close to the edge now, Felicity looked gingerly over. The cliffs ran jagged and flat-topped as far as the eye could see, the waves growling at their feet. It looked like great chunks of land had been bitten out by a giant dinosaur a thousand millennia ago.
And in this moment, she truly sensed the age of the place, this ancient land, ravaged by sea and sun and wind. At her feet, she noticed tiny plants poking through cracks in the dry rock. Somehow they survived these rugged conditions. The ocean out there teemed with life. And at night the sky hung heavy with stars that were thousands of light years away.
And that’s when she realised: all this emptiness was actuallyfull. And in its own unique way, incredibly beautiful.
“Gosh, it kind of makes the White Cliffs of Dover look—insignificant,” she said, awestruck.
Next to her, Oliver followed her gaze. “It’s strange to think that this was once part of a supercontinent that included the Antarctic and Asia,” he said.
“Really?”
“Yep. Gondwanaland.”
She turned and studied him, loving the way the wind had blown the hair off his face, highlighting his cheekbones and jaw. “How do you know that?”
