CHAPTER 49
Sunlight was bright through the curtains, and my head was a little muzzy. I stretched to full length, and realised I wasn’t alone, and my T-shirt was gone. What… Oh. Right.

She started to stir as I moved, and then turned her head to look at me.

“Morning, you”

My voices were clearly still asleep, so I simply smiled at her as she rolled towards me. It was the most natural thing in the world to lower my left arm so that she could settle onto it, her own left settling across my chest. I realised I still wore my boxers, and her pyjamas were in place. She wriggled a little to get closer to me and kissed my shoulder.

“Thank you, Mike. This is really nice. So much better than that mat, and I don’t have to wait for you to inflate… oh dear. I, or my subconscious, is getting worse. Seriously, I don’t mean the bad jokes, they just seem to come of their own accord… Oh, I give up!”

Her left hand traced the scar down my breastbone, and she raised her eyebrows in silent inquiry. I nodded in reply, no words being necessary, and she hugged me.

“Small steps, Mr Rhodes. Agreed?”

“I don’t exactly consider this a small one, Maz”

“You still took it, though. I couldn’t, could I? ‘Hi, Mike, can I dribble into your pillow tonight, please?’ isn’t exactly ladylike”

Suddenly, there were tears, and I rolled slightly so that I could cuddle her properly, then waited till they ran dry.

“Can you talk about it, Maz?”

She nodded into my chest, then turned her face once more to the side.

“I was going to make another rude joke, deliberately this time, about being ladylike, but saying I can be VERY unladylike at times, and then remembered who I was unladylike with, and, well, you understand”

“I do. How can I help?”

“Oh, Mike, you are helping! Just please keep holding me”

“Even while we’re eating breakfast?”

“Especially then. I think the others have spotted what’s going on”

“Yeah, well, you fondling my knee was a bit of a hint”

“You didn’t like that?”

“Oh, you are…”

Sod the voices: I lifted her chin with my free hand and kissed her. Her breath was awful, all beer and food leftovers, and mine must have been the same, but neither of us seemed to care just then. As we broke apart, all I could see were eyes and dimples and smile. I kissed the tip of her nose once more.

“I think we might need a good brush of our teeth, Ms Rahman”

“Agreed, but till then…”

Her kiss was even more passionate than mine had been, and once again, I happily ignored her morning after breath, until she started chuckling as we broke apart.

“What’s funny?”

“Oh, a couple of things. First, how non-diverse is that place where Enfys lives? That comment about my eyes, oh dear!”

“Oh, very! It’s a very, very Welsh in a local place for local Welsh people way. Out of the mouth of babes and all that. What’s the other thing?”

“Exactly that, Mike. The other thing”

“You’ve lost me”

“Self-inflating mat, remember…”

I had been all too aware of what she was doing to me in terms of reflex reactions, and I started to pull away. She stopped me with surprising strength.

“We’re both adults, Mike. We’re also just about sober. Last night would have been wrong, because we, our stupid consciences, what was that word? They were under the cosh. They aren’t now, and…”

She took a few long, deep breaths.

“Mike, I am about to take my own big step, and if you don’t like it, don’t agree, I will take a backward step. So…”

Her hand went to the front of my boxers, and when I said nothing, it slipped inside. My voices were now awake, and screaming in indignation and accusation, but it was none of their bloody business, and then her nightclothes joined my boxers on the floor as she rolled onto me, and things proceeded in an absolutely conventional way to what was clearly a mutually acceptable conclusion, oh god. We settled down against each other, the room heavy with the smell of our lovemaking, and I added ‘shower’ to ‘brushing teeth’ as necessities. Once again, Maz was chuckling.

“And the joke this time?”

She dissolved into guffaws, until she could regain control, and then gasped out, “What I said last night about Chad and Vern?”

“Yes?”

“I do believe I have definitely just come across the right kind of snake!”

Such an obvious joke, but it set me off as well, until there was a knock on my, our, door, and Geeta called out that breakfast would be ready in half an hour. I sobered a little, and muttered about professional behaviour in a half serious way. She sat up, fixing me with a Paddington stare.

“I don’t give a fuck! Well, not right now, as we’ve done that already…”

Off again into laughter, so I just held her to me, kissed her, and sent her away for the first shower. She stood next to the bed, looking lovely and radiant and absolutely without shame, and tried to persuade me to share the cubicle with her.

“No, Maz. And no, that is neither guilt, nor rejection”

“Why not, then?”

“I want to have breakfast. If I end up in a shower with you, we might end up losing the whole day. Go, please, but---”

She had turned to gather her pyjamas, and looked over her shoulder at me.

“What?”

“Yes, Ms Rahman, I do adore your dimples, but that view is… Shower. Go. I’ll see you downstairs after my own”

She was back in a very few minutes, carrying her holdall, and made sure she kissed me as hard as possible before releasing me for my own clean-up.

“I’ll find out what it’s like without beer breath later, Mike. See you downstairs”

I rushed through my ablutions as the smell of bacon came up the stairs, dressed in ‘casual at the beach’ style, and then slowly made my way to the table as my conscience made another attempt to shame me. Everyone would be staring at me, was the gist.

They weren’t staring so much as smiling, even Dal, and it was clear that everyone else knew exactly what we had been doing. The assumptions were there in force, but there was a seat next to Maz, and a cuppa being poured for me, so I sat down, reached out for the mug Dal was passing me, and felt Maz’ hand settle comfortably and comfortingly onto my thigh. I patted her hand, and then addressed the egg and bacon roll Geeta had ready for me, as Maz spoke.

“Life moves on, folks, and so does the day. What are your plans, Vern? The rest of us are back in the office tomorrow”

The young man flicked a quick look at Chad.

“Um, my shift starts at ten tomorrow, and Chad is my ride---”

Maz, yet again, snorting, as the rest of us made rude comments, and Chad blushed bright red; I held up my free hand for silence, the other being on top of hers.

“Ms Rahman here has been delivering doubles entendres even worse than that one, so leave the lad alone. Kul, Geeta? Your place, so your call”

Kul looked at his wife, who simply nodded, and he then pointed at Chad.

“That lad’s been smiling, and that’s better than having to work with a miserable sod pining for the fjords. That’s in Tassie, isn’t it? Fjordland?”

Vern shook his head.

“Nope. Place I have always wanted to see, though: New Zealand. Just have to git there by jit, I suppose”

Even I got that one, so we started to plan the day, as Kul chuckled, before rubbing his hands together and making ‘Mwahaha’ sounds, to Dal’s obvious exasperation.

“Dad, just say you’ve planned for this, and we can get off to the beach”

The boy turned to the rest of us with a sigh.

“Chad, Vern, he’d already guessed what might, you know, you two, so we stocked up on barbie stuff. Mum’s got her foot on the brake, so no heavy session tonight, but we’ve got enough in”

Another quick look between Chad and Vern, and Kul’s hand was straight up once more.

“Don’t even think about objecting. Everyone here is a colleague, or, well, involved in keeping a colleague happy and thus productive. We are the ones with the space and the actual barbie. If the rest of you want to sort the supplies on other weekends, that’s all the quid pro quo we seek. Or should that be dollar pro quo?”

Vern was still trying, and Kul shushed him once more,

“Look: I get to see my friends, including my best friend, happy. What’s not to love?”

We spent an hour or so before leaving for the beach as breakfast settled, looking at the Margaret River websites, both for the cottages and the cliff climbing, and I pumped Vern (having to tell an imaginary Maz to shut up at that image) about his trad climbing experience, which turned out to be minimal.

“Got a mate who had a go a few years ago, and he bought some of the kit. Nuts and things. I could ask for a loan”

“He would do that?”

“He would, after this. Tim sent me an SMS last night—do you mind?”

He started typing into my laptop, bringing up his employer’s website, and then a promotional video, and I felt my own cheeks glow.

The video showed several of us, including Dal, trying to surmount that problem at the lip of the impending wall. Dal was described as an aspirant but inspired, Maz as an example of pure grace, but me, well, my blush was clearly there.

“Here we see newly-arrived English rock star, partner to that graceful lady, showing how to do the moves with power and flexibility, and now our very own instructor Vern Benning with style and a wonderfully smooth extension. There is no ‘type’ for climbing, just like there’s none for having that Aussie Fair Go. For more on how to join us…”

Vern shrugged, trying to hide some nerves that still shook his hands.

“If, Tim… He’s made some assumptions”

He dropped his voice almost to a whisper.

“I guessed what was going on with you and Maz, and, well, Chad confirmed it, so if you want, we can pull the vid as soon as”

I called across to Maryam, and she joined us.

“Something you need to watch”

She sat in silence as it played, then grinned at me.

“Partner, eh? To a rock star? Going up in the world! And I look really good in that video, too. Getting changed for the beach, then?”

She closed my laptop, drew me to my feet and then up to my room, where, with almost no hesitation, she stripped naked once more.

“Mike, this is for me, as well as you. I am…”

She looked towards the window, blinds still down, before turning back to me.

“I am starting to feel like, oh, words… Like coming home. Being like this is part of it. I want to feel comfortable with you, and you with me, and, well, no. Not now. Beach first”

I realised what she meant, and sat down in embarrassment, as she pulled her costume from the holdall and slipped into it, reaching for her trusty beach dress.

“Swimmers, Rhodes! Now!”

I started to turn away, and she reached out to stop me, so I followed her example, even though it was slightly difficult to get into my own costume, for a bloody obvious reason. She watched me throughout in silence, until remarking that we would have to talk about the scar some day.

“Not just now, though; when we’re at the right place, okay? I’ve brought a face mask today. And I’ve left a couple of pairs of spare knickers in your sock drawer”

She slumped, just a little, head tilting.

“Conscience is still there, Mike, still shouting. I am doing the best I can to ignore it, and, yes, I know all about holiday romances, workplace ones as well, but if I normalise things, take over your sock drawer, what are we doing today, going to the beach, meal with friends---normal. Shut the guilt down with banality. Just understand it if I blow hot and cold for a while, and oops, there goes my mind again. Freud would have loved me. Are you up for that sort of---I give up. You know what I’m saying, so I will make one simple declaration: unless you object, I won’t be using that mat again”

Two cars saw us to the beach, and our walk down was hand in hand for six of us, to my delight. Chad caught my grin, and shrugged.

“Not as easy here as it would be over Sydneyside, but not too bad. Oh, and I have news: my cuz has some possible campervan partners lined up”

Suddenly he was laughing.

“Moving and shaking, Mike, that’s what you do best, I think. We sending that lot over there to press the flesh for us?”

Maz stopped dead, staring at her feet, before looking back up with a grin.

“Nope! Not even starting on that one—it’s too easy. It’s going to be a hot one, Mike, so keep that T-shirt on”

A happy grin, dimples in place.

“For now, anyway”

Her dress came off in one smooth movement as we dumped our beach stuff on the sand, and yes, her costume did fit much better than the borrowed one.

A voice sneered about cheating, and I told it silently to bugger off.

It was probably just jealous.