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This relationship and the situation between us all is fragile, so I can actually sympathize with Andreas for wanting to keep it all on the downlow. If his family is as rambunctious as he’s been telling us, they might have descended like vultures, picking us clean with all their questions.
Girl, I amfartoo pretty to be eaten alive.
I squeeze his hand. “Itisthe truth. We’re all friends.Bestfriends!” I cry, bumping shoulders with Colby and making him laugh. “If you say they’ll enjoy the surprise, then let’s give them a good one.”
Andreas smiles, looking relieved. “Okay, great. So what do you want to do when we arrive?” he asks. “Head straight over to my parents’ place? Or check into the holiday rental first?”
I stare at him as I feel my very atoms vibrating in distress. “Boo, there’s a surprise and then there’s a downright horror show. You want us to go see your family after thirty hours of traveling?”
He glances at Colby, who shrugs. “Uh, it probably makes sense to drop our bags first and brush our teeth.”
“Sugar!” I shriek with a snap of my fingers. “She needs an entire spa day and a wardrobe change, not to mention some form of cat nap.”
Andreas blinks and raises his eyebrows. “Okay. Understood,” he says evenly and respectfully. “This evening it is.”
Good. I would hate to have to spank my Daddy. I don’t think we’re quite there in the relationship.
Yet.
* * *
It takes about an hour for us to get down to Brighton, or so I’m told. I wouldn’t know. Apparently, once we finished our conversation, I immediately fell dead asleep.
Luckily, our stop is the end of the line, so it doesn’t matter that it takes Andreas and Colby a while to get me conscious again. But eventually, we manage to get ourselves and all our luggage off the train and onto the platform without anyone getting injured. I’m feeling extremely delicate from my lack of sleep, but Colby squeezes me to his side, giving me strength.
I grin down at him, not wanting to spoil any part of our adventure by being a grumpy kitty. I take a deep breath of fresh, cold air and shake myself before grabbing the handle of my suitcase.
“Lead the way, sir!” I cry at Andreas, giving him an elaborate wave of my hand. He laughs and snatches it out of the air to give my fingers a quick kiss before letting me go.
My heart skips a beat. I do that to Colby all the time, but he’s only just started doing it back to me. That is the first time Andreas has done anything similar.
I like it. A lot. I hope that’s okay.
We make our way down the platform, through the barriers, and across the concourse until we eventually find ourselves outside. It’s not really raining, but it is very windy. The sky is brighter here, though, than in London. Andreas points in front of us along the main street that the station sits at the end of.
“Down there is the beach,” he says.
I love how Colby gasps. He’s always lived by the water. I visited the beach a lot back home growing up, but it’s like a compass to him. He navigates his life by the ocean, always knowing what direction it is in relation to everything else. I feel like it’s almost…spiritual for him. More of a religion than the one his family tried to force onto him. I know being inland is one of the many things he dislikes about our place in Mount Druitt, and overlooking the bay is one of the things he loves the most about Andreas’s apartment.
“Can we go down there?” he asks.
“Later,” Andreas promises. “Right now, I think it’s best if we head over to the holiday rental.”
As much as I don’t want to disappoint Colby, I have to agree with Andreas. It’s been a LONG journey, mama, and this queen is ready for a shower, a metric ton of moisturizer, and some more shut-eye.
There’s a taxi stand outside the station, so we wait our turn for one. We manage to get all our luggage in the trunk and pile our carry-on bags between me and Colby. Andreas sits up front and makes small talk with the driver. Between the little cases and backpacks, Colby and I hold hands. We don’t say anything, but I can feel the excitement between us like electricity.
Colby starts sitting up straighter. The directions on the driver’s phone say we’re only a minute out, and there’s something about the vista that’s even prickling at my mind. It’s so empty behind these houses. No trees or telephone poles.
I think we might be near the coast.
When the car comes to a halt, Colby bolts out the door and dances on his tiptoes by the trunk, his fists balled in an attempt to contain himself. I laugh as I grab the smaller bags and pull them out onto the curb while Andreas pays the driver and thanks him.
The house we’re parked in front of is a two-story with a sloped roof and a light wooden fence running around the property. It looks like a modern build with big windows. Andreas said he managed to book it thanks to a last-minute cancellation.
I have a feeling we’ve really lucked out.
The taxi drives off as we drag our cases up the short pathway through the front yard that consists of a nicely kept lawn and an artsy little metal windmill collection. Andreas stops at the front door and gets out his phone. There’s a small black box mounted on the wall that he punches a code into, then pulls the front down to reveal a key.
