SUNLOUNGER 2: Beach Read Bliss (Sunlounger Stories)

by Belinda Jones

  ‘Australia is so weird, I LOVE IT!’ cried Katie.

  ‘Come on, we can go inside.’ Will took my hand – like it was no big deal – and dragged me across the street. Alert! Alert! Hands touching, this is not a drill!

  ‘Hold on,’ I said, stopping in front of the boot. I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture looking up at the boot, the moody clouds framing it, just as Will shifted his weight and the back of his head filled the left-hand side of the shot. I looked at the photo, a razor-sharp gigantic boot partially blocked by an out-of-focus blonde head. I smiled.

  ‘Did you get it?’ asked Will.

  ‘Yep, it’s perfect.’ This was exactly how I wanted to remember this moment.

  The rest of the day was spent stopping for photos, switching places behind the wheel and watching the sunshine move across the sky. By the time we reached our motel in a tiny town on the coast, we were exhausted and cramped.

  ‘Longest drive done,’ Katie yawned.

  ‘Long, but perfect,’ I said, stretching. ‘If you have to sit in the car all day I can’t think of more beautiful scenery to be staring at than the Pacific Ocean.’

  Will pulled me into a sleepy, unexpected hug. ‘You’re always positive, I love it. Night, then.’ We trudged to our rooms, Katie and I in one and Will next door.

  I pottered about for a while, unable to keep my eyes, or mind, off the thin wall separating me from Will.

  ‘Are we going to see kangaroos in the outback?’ mumbled Katie through a mouthful of pillow.

  ‘I hope so.’

  I never thought we’d be able to fit in seeing the outback on this trip. But then Will offered to take us the ‘scenic’ route to Brisbane (as if anywhere in Queensland wouldn’t count as scenic) for a two-night stay in his friend’s real, working cattle ranch, complete with red dust and everything.

  I couldn’t wait to see him a bit grubby and riding on a horse and wearing a cowboy hat. ‘Yee-hah,’ I whispered.

  God, I was so stuck in the nineties.

  *

  The following day saw the landscape fade from green to brown and then vibrant accents of red started peeping out among the shrubs. By late afternoon we were driving the three-mile driveway of the cattle station, all of us bolt upright in our seats with excitement.

  ‘You’ll really like Craig,’ Will was boasting. ‘He’s a proper good bloke. Runs this place with his dad, sister and girlfriend. I can’t bloody wait to see him again.’

  ‘How long’s it been?’ I ask from the back seat.

  ‘’Bout two years. His Dad knew my mum. The lot of ‘em are old family friends. Maybe he could tell you a bit more about her?’ I loved that he wanted to tell me about his family. And I wanted to hear it. ‘Here we are!’ he leapt out of the car before Katie had even brought it to a standstill, running up to a strapping bloke and giving him the biggest bromance embrace I’d ever seen.

  Katie raised her eyebrows at me as we climbed out. ‘He’s so cute.’

  ‘I know.’

  Will led Craig over to us. ‘Guys, this is Craig, our host. This is Katie.’

  ‘Hi. I hear you’re a proper good bloke,’ she said. Craig laughed.

  ‘And this – is Jen.’ Will introduced me like you would a new girlfriend. But then maybe I was a psycho and reading too much into it.

  ‘Oh, hi.’ Craig shook my hand. Oh, hi? What did the Oh mean? ‘Come on in guys, bet you could do with a cuppa, or a beer or something?’

  ‘Beer!’ I cried with too much enthusiasm. Then I thought, surely there’s no such thing as too much enthusiasm. So I stood firm. ‘Beer would be fantastic, thanks, it’s been a long day!’

  ‘Will been boring the crap out of you?’

  ‘I’m sure we’ve been boring the crap out of him more.’

  ‘STOP!’

  A girl our age with a messy ponytail appeared on the other side of the open front door moments before we stepped inside. She held her hand up to us. ‘There’s a shitting-great spider right in front of your faces.’

  My eyes focused on the short distance and sure enough, two foot from my face and a foot from Craig’s chest was indeed a shitting great pale beige spider, its tightrope strung across the doorframe, and her hanging out in the middle like a welcome party.

  Craig boomed with laughter. ‘Welcome to Australia, girls!’

  ‘She’s cute,’ Katie said, peering closer. ‘Is she deadly?’

  ‘Pretty much.’

  ‘Cool.’

  Thwack. The girl belted Mrs Deadly Spider with a broom, smudging her into the door frame. ‘Take that, you bitch.’

  ‘Presenting my sister, Jamie,’ said Craig.

  Jamie scraped her hair out of her face and propped the broom against the wall. ‘Hey, how are ya? WILL!’ She visibly lit up from within and ran past us out of the house and into Will’s arms, nearly knocking him backwards.

  ‘Those two went out together in high school, before she realised she was a lesbian and dumped his ass. Now he’s the brother she never had, as she often tells me.’

  Craig fetched stubbies for everyone, along with some homemade corn bread, and before we knew it it was several hours later, we were sat under the stars around a firepit, bellies full of prime home-grown steak and heads woozy with too much beer.

  ‘Isn’t this place awesome?’ Will hiccupped, pulling his chair closer to mine. ‘Talk about five star resorts; this is the million star resort!’

  I looked up at the sky. It was true – it was like someone had sprinkled icing sugar on a blanket of black velvet. ‘Your stars are different to ours.’

  ‘Yeah, I guess they are.’ He reached over and pulled my bare legs up to rest on top of his, without taking his eyes off the night sky, oblivious almost to what he was doing.

  I turned to grin in disbelief at Katie.

  ‘Sexy bastard,’ she muttered, slurping her beer.

  ‘Do you have that one?’ he asked, pointing somewhere upwards.

  ‘Which one?’

  His arm swayed about two foot to the side. ‘That one.’

  ‘The bright one?’

  ‘No…the bright one.’ I leaned closer to him, to try and see the sky from his eyeline. He rested his warm head against mine and sighed, his arm dropping. ‘Where’d you come from?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I was doing alright until you came along.’

  ‘Did I ruin something?’ I whispered, but he didn’t sound aggressive.

  Suddenly he kissed my eyebrow. ‘My sanity.’ He snuggled down in his seat, his arms flopped on my legs, and closed his eyes. I watched his face turn peaceful and took the opportunity to touch his hair, brushing it from his eyes. Ditto.

  *

  I woke at the crack of dawn and walked out of our cabin, mid-yawn, to see a short, tufty creature staring up at me with big, playful black eyes and ginormous ears.

  ‘Katie,’ I stage-whispered.

  She appeared in the doorway, hair like Medusa. ‘My mouth feelth tho dwy. Oh!’

  I knelt down and reached out my hand. The little kangaroo took a slow lollop towards me. ‘Good morning.’ He sniffed my hand and then stretched up tall, to show off his belly as he gave it a good scratch. I laughed. ‘Well look at you. Good scratching!’ I turned to look up at Katie. ‘I love Australia.’

  Over a delicious al-fresco breakfast of pancakes and syrup, and watched by a raspberry-pink-breasted galah named Sheila, we all compared who had the worst headaches. I stole glances at Will whenever possible, noticing he already had smudges of red dust in his hair.

  ‘You guys ready to try cattle mustering?’ asked Craig.

  I jumped up and started twisting my newly blonde locks into pigtails. ‘Do you have a cowboy hat I could borrow?’

  ‘Sure do, but here in Aus you’ll be Jillaroo, not a Cowgirl. Will would be a Jackaroo.’ Craig saddled us all up and off we went, plodding across the farm with him shouting instructions to turn this way, hold, turn that way. The cattle were feeling lazy and pretty muc
h did as we told them, so it turned into a relaxing, rambling ride, the odd kangaroo bouncing past in the distance.

  Will looked delicious, and I kept inadvertently steering my horse in his direction because my head was always turned that way.

  ‘Did you ever come here with your mum?’ I asked Will on one such occasion.

  ‘I did, yeah; just once. I remember teaching her how to milk a cow, like I had any idea. She humoured me though, made me feel like a big man.’ I laughed, loving the thought. ‘Hey,’ he said quietly, causing me to turn and look at him. ‘Thanks for asking.’

  *

  I was tired. Tomorrow we were back in the car and moving on to the bustling beach town of Byron Bay. So for now I relaxed my body onto the rocking chair, swiveling it to face the sinking sun, and dug my bare toes into the burnt-sugar dust that covered the ground. It was so quiet. Not just out here, outback, but in my head. The noise of work and shouting teenagers, the pounding of rain against windows, the replaying of the final conversation with Sam; it was all a million miles away. The only sounds I could hear right now were the soft shufflings of the kangaroo, and my breath slowing down and down.

  When I opened my eyes from my doze a black box hovered inches from my face. I screamed and shot my body backwards, but being in a rocking chair it propelled me forwards again and I bumped my head against Will’s.

  ‘Sorry, I’m really sorry,’ he cried, rubbing his forehead.

  ‘What’s happening? What are you doing?’

  ‘I was just taking a photo of you. I promise I’m not a weirdo.’

  ‘Is that my phone?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why do you have my phone?’ I took it and opened it to the photos folder. Will shuffled on the spot, looking embarrassed.

  ‘You looked so peaceful and happy in the evening sunshine. I thought it would make a nice photo for your project.’

  It was a nice photo, and I did look happy. I flicked backwards, looking at the photos I’d taken for the first time. But many of them were new to me. There were pictures from me riding the horse, of my profile looking at the campfire, of me reflected in the wing mirror of the car as I stared out of the window. ‘Did you take all these other ones?’

  He nodded. ‘I’m really not a weirdo. Your phone was locked, I promise I only accessed the camera.’

  ‘But why did you take all these? Some of them are just of me…sitting.’

  He came closer, tentatively, and looked over my shoulder. ‘No they’re not; they’re you enjoying your holiday.’

  ‘This one I’m just sleeping in the car.’

  ‘Isn’t sleeping in the car all part of the trip? I don’t know, you just looked really beautiful and I wanted to capture it.’ He blushed and kicked at the dirt.

  I let this sink in. Someone wanted to take picture after picture of me, just because I looked beautiful. This meant something, didn’t it? But this was a holiday crush; it couldn’t be anything more, because he was too far away from my life. I couldn’t let myself fall too hard.

  *

  My lips rested against the surfboard. The taste of salt, the touch of cool water on my dangling fingertips and the sound of the waves patting the underside were my only sensations. The rhythmic sway of the board on the water was more relaxing than lying on any massage table.

  ‘Oi, get back here, you need to be where the waves are breaking.’

  I lifted my chin and squinted towards Will through ocean-dappled eyelashes. He was sat on his board, tanned chest glistening with sunshine and sea spray, hair a hot mess, with a big pink stripe of sun lotion stick down his nose.

  ‘Screw you,’ I murmured happily, taking a lazy paddle further away from him.

  He caught up with me in record time, blocking my route and splashing water over my exposed body.

  ‘You can do this.’

  ‘I can do this.’

  ‘It’s on your list; you have to at least try standing up.’

  Hmm. He made a compelling argument. I was so close to completing my Best Summer Ever list. Just ‘learn to surf’ and ‘tell your crush you like him’ to go. He bumped my board with his, nudging me toward the shore. ‘Stop it.’

  ‘Just try it, you’ll kick yourself if you don’t.’

  ‘I might kill myself if I do.’

  ‘Try it.’

  ‘Stop doing that.’ My board wobbled.

  ‘I’ll be right here. I know you’re not afraid of a little water. Just do everything we talked about.’

  I wasn’t afraid of the water. I wasn’t even afraid of the act of falling off, or the potential for losing my bikini bottoms. I was afraid of failing something on my list, because if I failed this, who was to say the final task would work out? And as I gazed back at the shore, where Katie was busy building the perfect tan, I was afraid of going home. Being out here delayed the inevitable.

  ‘Jen.’

  ‘I’m just going to stay here a while,’ I said.

  ‘Jen, look at me.’ His sharp tone made me look up, and he stared past me with a sudden intensity.

  ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘We need to go in now, as fast as we can.’

  ‘Fine, but one more time in on my knees then I promise—’

  ‘RIGHT NOW. There’s a shark. Go.’

  ‘What?’ Oh shit. Oh no.

  ‘I’m right behind you – now go.’

  With three strong pushes against the water, I reached the breaks. I could hear Will close behind me. ‘That’s it, nearly there. Don’t look back Jen, look straight ahead. Faster, Jen. Get your hands and feet out of the water quick. Stand up!’

  My right leg slipped into the cold water, thrusting my heart into my throat. I gripped the wobbling board and pushed up, as a wave burst into rippling whipped cream behind me, and leapt my feet under, just as Will had shown me.

  Crouching low, my whole body shaking, my eyes fixed on the beach, I rode the wave just long enough to make it to shallow water, where I toppled off the board and dragged myself onto the sand.

  Will glided in next to me and enveloped me in a hug that toppled us both backwards. ‘YOU BLOODY DID IT!’

  ‘What?’ I gasped.

  ‘You totally surfed all the way in!’

  ‘Where’s the shark, can you still see him?’

  ‘You stood up, J! For a really long time!’

  ‘Will, we need to warn the other swimmers.’

  ‘Well…’

  I stared at his bashful, happy face and felt a fool. ‘Are you kidding me?’

  ‘Yay you,’ he cheered, quietly.

  ‘THERE WAS NO SHARK?’

  ‘But you surfed…’

  ‘BUT THERE WAS NO SHARK, AND MY HEART NEARLY STOPPED, AND—’

  Will touched my face, his hands scratchy with sand. ‘Are you crying? Jen, don’t cry, I’m sorry.’

  I was crying, though I hadn’t noticed. A hysterical laugh escaped. ‘You’re such a…’

  ‘I know. I’m really sorry.’

  I grabbed a handful of sand and ground it into his shoulder as hard as I could. ‘A shark? Really? That’s the dirtiest trick in the Aussie book.’

  ‘Bad Will.’

  ‘You’re lucky I’m a cool surf chick, and I’m being really chill about the whole thing.’

  We stared at each other for a moment, him checking, unsure if I was still angry, me trying to think about being angry while noticing that his eyes were the same colour as the soft mint sea.

  Suddenly Katie was on top of me, throwing me back down on the sand. ‘You did it – you surfed! That was insane!’

  ‘It was definitely insane,’ I nodded, side-eyeing Will with a smile.

  ‘Super proud of you; that’s all but one thing ticked off the list.’ She smirked behind Will’s head.

  ‘What’s the last thing?’ he asked, standing up and pulling us both to our feet.

  I stared Katie down. ‘I can’t remember; I’ll have to check back at the hotel.’

  ‘OK. Let me know if there’s anything I
can do to help.’

  *

  That night, Jay Z woke me up. It was pitch black in our hippified Byron Bay hotel room when Katie’s phone started blasting with his track that she used as her ringtone.

  ‘Bloody hell, sorry,’ she mumbled, falling out of bed, grabbing her phone and crawling towards the bathroom.

  I pulled the covers around me. The further down the coast we got, the colder the nights were getting. It would be nice, one day, to have a warm body next to me again that I could push my feet against.

  I must have dozed off, because it seemed like forever until Katie came out of the bathroom.

  ‘Is everything OK?’

  ‘Um.’

  I flicked on the bedside light, illuminating the flowered wallpaper and neon furnishings. ‘Katie, what’s happened?’

  ‘Nothing bad, everyone’s fine. It’s just…Joe has to go on another work trip, to oversee the opening of a hotel in Vancouver. He’ll be gone for two months.’

  ‘Whoa. That’s the longest he’s ever been away for, isn’t it?’ She sighed, which I took as a yes. ‘Will he be able to come back and visit?’

  ‘He wants to, but he thinks it’s going to be so full-on that he’ll have to work nearly every day. And it’s a full day’s flight there and back anyway.’

  ‘Will you be able to visit him?’

  ‘I could probably go for maybe a week in the second month, but I’ve just had two weeks off. I’ll start to lose clients if I ditch them so quickly again.’

  ‘When does he leave?’

  ‘The end of the week.’

  ‘Oh.’ We got home on Sunday. I hated the words that were about to come out of my mouth, I didn’t want the holiday to end, but this was more important than my reluctance to go home. More important than my silly infatuation with a guy I’d known for little over a week. ‘Let’s change our flights, go home the day after tomorrow. Then at least you’ll see him for a day or two before he leaves.’

  She nodded. Shame soaked me as I realised I wish she’d protested rather than agreed. I was so selfish.

  So this was it. One more night with Will. One more night down under, when it had felt like we had all the time in the world. My heart felt betrayed, like I’d only broken her a couple of months back and now I was treating her like shit again.