The Girl in the Yellow Vest (28 page)

She’d seen his cheeks stain pink when she saw all the paper on the floor in his room. In fact, she’d never seen him so embarrassed but then she supposed Will was a bit of a neat freak.

‘What have you been doing in here?’

‘Leave it!’ He quickly stalled her from bending over. ‘I’ll sort it out later. You don’t want to be cleaning up my mess.’

They pulled a dining chair into his bathroom and he positioned himself in front of the mirror for his haircut. Sitting in that tiny bathroom, her fingers wading into his hair – the whole act seemed way too familiar. Almost forbidden.

A new awareness moved through her body as she worked, deeper and more potent than anything she’d known before. It brought to the forefront so many things that she knew but had always taken for granted or never looked at too closely.

The way their eyes could connect across a room because they got the same joke.

The way they talked for hours about the most inconsequential subjects.

Or when they sat in silence, it didn’t really matter.

The way they ate like pigs and reprimanded each other for being gross.

The way they both sang loudly in the car when a song they liked came on the radio.

When she was in trouble, he was always there for her.

When she needed someone to talk to, he was always there for her.

He knows everything there is to know about me.

Every dirty little secret.

Every embarrassing moment.

Every fault.

Every failing.

And yet . . . he was still here.

She’d been sitting with Dipper at dinner last night in Mackay. They’d gone to Victoria Street, Mackay’s restaurant hot spot. There had been plenty to choose from. Spicy Asian cuisine, Italian and, of course, plenty of Aussie favourites. Dipper had chosen a pub, which was definitely really nice. Good atmosphere. Great food. Yet all she had thought about was how much she’d love to come back to that area with Will.

‘Except maybe we’ll go to that Asian place on the corner,’ she told Dipper. ‘He loves spicy food.’

Dipper sighed.

‘What?’

‘You’ve mentioned Boy Scout three times since we got here.’

She bit her lip. ‘Sorry. It’s just that we are such good friends, it’s kind of hard not to.’

Dipper dejectedly moved his pasta around in his bowl without actually eating any. She could appreciate that he’d gone to an effort over this dinner. His hair for a start was wet and combed. She’d never seen Dipper with a parting before. He was wearing a collared shirt, a sure sign of an occasion, and the faint smell of his cheap aftershave wafted across the table towards her whenever he moved. He looked up. ‘I suppose that’s your way of telling me I’ve lost.’

‘Lost what?’

‘The competition.’

‘What competition?’

‘You don’t know?’

‘Don’t know what?’

Dipper began to turn a strange shade of purple. His fat lips formed a wide ‘Oh’ and he looked down into his bowl, confining his gaze there and refusing to look up. ‘Aw shit.’

Her lips pulled into a taut line. ‘Dipper, what’s going on? You better tell me right now.’

‘I thought you knew,’ he protested. ‘I mean, there’s so much money changing hands over this. And, you know, the bets on me went up this afternoon thanks to our date. Even I put in an extra fifty bucks on myself because I was feeling confident.’

‘
What?
’

‘I meant no disrespect.’ He waved one beefy hand, his eyes wide with honesty. ‘Just thought, you know, why not? Everyone else is doing it. And if I get the girl, why not make a fortune too? I would have shared half with you.’

‘Half of what?’

‘My winnings!’ he said as though she was daft.

‘Let me get this straight. There’s a bet going on at the moment, that you’re going to what – sleep with me?’

‘No, no,’ he assured her. ‘It’s a completely respectful competition between two guys for a meaningful relationship.’

‘Yeah, it’s respectful all right,’ she snapped. ‘Who’s the other guy?’

‘Will.’

This took her aback.

‘Wait, does he know about this?’

Dipper snorted. ‘Of course he knows!’

A flower began to unfurl its petals inside her stomach.

Why hadn’t he told her? Did he think about her that way and was too embarrassed to say so? She felt ill with both excitement and trepidation.

Rationally, she should have been fuming. He hadn’t told her about the bet. It was just another dishonesty on top of him discussing her private text messages with Trent. But she couldn’t seem to muster up the anger, at least not above mildly annoyed. The thing was, she was too taken by the frightening but tantalisingly new possibility that suddenly occurred to her. Will wanted more than friendship. Perhaps this new tension between them wasn’t all in her head. Could he feel it too?

Her teeth clamped down on her lower lip as it began to stretch into an excited smile. It was too early to get all hopeful.

She made a plan to sound him out about everything that morning. But many things had thrown her off kilter. His extreme makeover for one and Charlotte’s presence in the car for another. It would be ages before she caught a private moment with him in order to grill him about Trent, the bet or his own feelings.

Fortunately, the time went fairly quickly. The drive to Shute Harbour was a gorgeous one, straight through the cane fields, over lush green hills. The air around them was saccharine and heavy. Emily felt her mind open up as the sweet breeze of freedom wafted across her face and hair through the window of the car.

They passed through a gorgeous coastal town known as Airlie Beach. It was small but buzzing with activity. Because the ocean in the area was teeming with stingers, the local council had built a swimming lagoon on the foreshore, which was free for anyone to use.

Emily looked longingly at it as their car sped past.

‘Maybe we should just spend the day here and have fish and chips for lunch.’ She pressed her nose to the window. ‘It looks so relaxing.’

‘I thought you were trying new things this year.’ Will laughed. ‘You’ve definitely lazed on the beach and eaten fish and chips before.’

Emily sighed. ‘That’s how I know it’s so good. What do you think, Lottie?’

‘If I don’t want to risk my brother calling me a chicken, I think I’m going to have to learn how to dive.’

Five minutes later their ute turned into the car park at Shute Harbour, the main boarding point for ferries to the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. The plan was to catch a ferry out to a giant floating pontoon that sat on a particular section of the reef called the Hardy Reef. The ferry they boarded was an enormous catamaran with two decks. They sat on the top one, which was open-air, and Emily enjoyed taking in the breathtaking panoramic views as the ferry churned smoothly through ocean, white foam in its wake. The voyage was seamless. Giant lush green mounds rose out of aqua-blue water. There were many islands about. Some inhabited, others untouched. Some too small to be more than a couple of rocks sticking out of the ocean.

‘It’s so beautiful out here,’ she exclaimed. ‘Like paradise.’

When they finally reached the pontoon, Emily was stunned at how big it was. It was three storeys, two above water and one under, so that, if you didn’t want to get wet, you could still view the reef from the underwater viewing platform.

‘I don’t think I need to learn how to dive,’ Emily told Charlotte. ‘I’d just be happy to snorkel. Never done that before and there seems to be plenty to see on the surface.’

‘Well, I think I’d still like to try learning,’ said Charlotte. ‘I’ll book a lesson for myself and meet you guys later for lunch.’

‘Good idea,’ Emily agreed.

Emily was glad to finally have some time alone with Will. There was a lot on her mind that she needed to get straight. And yet suddenly there they were standing on the wooden deck and he took off his shirt again. All her questions dried up, as he stood there half naked handing her a snorkel. He really was beautifully built. Not bulgy like a weight lifter but more like a Greek nude – just a hint of definition in all the right places. His physique had a discreet strength that in many ways matched his personality.

He tilted his head. ‘Are you all right?’

No.
She licked dry lips. ‘Should we be wearing stinger suits?’

Will shrugged. ‘We can rent some if you like.’

‘I think that would be a good idea.’ And not just for the jellyfish protection. Since when had Will’s bare chest been anything more than skin to her?
Greek gods and weight lifters? Where’s your head at, girl?

They rented some suits and then returned to the side of the pontoon. Emily fitted the snorkel and mask over her face while she worked up the courage to ask him the question that had been sitting on the tip of her tongue all morning, and was getting harder and harder to ask by the second.

‘Er . . .Will . . .’

Splash!
He was in the water, having stepped off the edge of the pontoon without so much as a toe dip. ‘Come on, Em, it’s gorgeous.’

His head disappeared under the sparkling blue and she sighed. ‘All
right
.’

Instead of jumping straight off the edge she made for a small steel staircase that descended slowly off the side of the pontoon. He was actually pretty spot on about the water. It was warm, crystal clear and calm. Only gentle waves lapped at her waist as she once more made sure her mask was firmly fitted. She could see shadows of colour under the water but nothing too spectacular to behold. She popped the end of the snorkel in her mouth and then pushed out horizontally into the water so that liquid enveloped her body in one gentle glide.

WOW!

Diving in was like being transported to another world. A magical world.
It’s just like
Finding Nemo
down here.
She had always thought that the Disney cartoon must exaggerate the vibrancy of the reef. But now, she realised, it didn’t do it justice.

The colours that had seemed dull above water now jumped out at her so vibrantly it was hard not to be humbled by the beauty of it. Everything was alive.

Everything.

As an engineer she found that fascinating. This structure, so enormous in size you could not see where it started and ended, was fully organic. Coral of all different shapes and varieties clung together, flat and plate like, thick and spikey, leafy or like bare branches. It didn’t matter. It pulsed with life she had never seen the like of before.

And the fish . . .

The fish were just spectacular. Tiny fish, fish the size of her head, fish that were bigger than her. They swam around her arms, through her legs. They pecked on her mask, kissed her lips and cheeks. And they were so pretty. It was like being enveloped by a swarm of butterflies. Reds, greens, blues, yellows, hot pink! Fluoro colours were certainly very fashionable down there. This one fish the size of her hand was mad at her for some reason and kept charging her. Perhaps she was swimming directly above his family’s home. He’d back himself up and then charge at her snorkel mask. Just before he hit her face he would dart away and then do it again.

She felt a hand slip into hers and turned in the water to see Will now floating beside her. He smiled and tugged. She nodded and floated with him across the surface of the coral. There were giant clams below about half the size of her body, which would snap shut without warning when she glided over the top. They gave her a fright at first but then she got rather used to them. Their lips didn’t completely seal, so you couldn’t lose an arm or a leg or anything. It was just funny. She saw turtles and morays and even a reef shark.

The reef went on forever. Everywhere she went there was something new to look at. It was like a giant magical underwater forest lit by the sun. In some areas the reef stopped and went vertical, as though she’d reached a cliff face. She imagined this was where it would be great if she had diving gear on. But she wasn’t disappointed. There was so much to see with snorkel and mask alone. Also, at least on the surface, everything was so well lit. She figured the deeper you went the less you would see without artificial light.

She didn’t know how long they frolicked for. An hour, probably two. But the time seemed to go so fast in that underwater city that Emily hardly noticed it. She and Will couldn’t talk but they still managed to communicate, pointing at things and dragging each other through the water. Silence had never been an issue for them and nor was it now as they played like children. Occasionally, they surfaced to chat about what they had seen but Emily didn’t ever feel it was the right time to ask him the question. So she waited until he asked her if she’d like to go to lunch.

They swam towards the sunken stairway attached to the pontoon and a crazy desire shot through Emily’s heart. Will took her hand again to help her up the stairs and this time, instead of leaving it innocently held for balance, she shifted her fingers and threaded them through his. She knew exactly what she was doing. But she didn’t care. She wanted to know what it would be like to make that shift away from friendship to something more. Something so much deeper and more profound that she could feel the power of it aching in her bones as they ascended the stairs. His hand tightened around her own, making her feel like just for a second he understood, like he knew what she wanted to know. She pushed her mask off her eyes, enjoying the fresh air on her face. He halted at the top of the stairs and she stopped walking a second later so that her body pressed into this. He didn’t move to make more room for her on the top step. Instead he pushed back his own mask and looked down at her for a second.

An expression, a strange mix of hope, pain and regret, crossed his features. And disappeared. She had never seen him so guarded.

‘Em . . .’

‘Yeah?’ she breathed.

He disengaged his hand and walked on. ‘We should go get lunch.’

‘Oh . . . yeah okay.’ She followed him to the change rooms in silence, feeling she’d done something wrong.

Before she could query it, however, he said, ‘I’ll meet you in the dining room, okay? After we get changed.’