Jess is finally going! That New Zealand holiday is at its dawn, and all she can think of is landscapes, walks and adventures. But what she does not expect to find, is what is waiting around the corner - someone.
Someone who will turn her holiday up...
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Floorboards creaked ominously, each rasping groan signalling imminent danger. The walls stared, wide-eyed and threatening, each inch of striped wallpaper a traitor in disguise. The door at the end of the corridor was a treacherous heaven - promising yet deadly.
At least, that's what Jess saw in her mind.
Thankfully, the carpeted floor did nothing to betray her footsteps, and the bright lights, blending with the rich warmth of the evening Sun, illuminated every inch of the benevolent walls. The only threat was that door.
It stood resolutely before her, marking the stark boundary between an innocent glance, and a sneaking attempt at deceit.
She was inches from it, her hand outstretched, ready to grasp the handle. She knew this was dangerous - wrong. She knew that if her mother, now napping in her bedroom, found out, she was done for.
Yet, Jess saw in her mind's eye the boy to whom she had made her promises; the countless unspoken promises that had intertwined between them as they stood facing each other that other day. And she knew this was bigger than the rules she was breaking.
Hand on the doorknob, she sucked air into her seemingly empty lungs, and-
"Ruff!"
Jess shut her eyes and groaned.
"Obi..."
There was a furry presence by her legs. Even jumping up on his back paws, the spaniel could only reach her midthigh.
Jess bent over and gently pushed him down. "No Obi. Not today, okay boy? I can't take you today...
"I'm sorry Obi, mum'll kill me!"
He continued to gaze up at her, tail wagging, eyes hopeful.
Sighing, she retreated from the door, leading him back into the kitchen. Thanking her lucky stars that her family were old enough to favour naps to evening walks, she surreptitiously emptied a few treats into his food bowl.
He simply looked at her. Jess thought he seemed disbelieving.
She nudged the bowl. "Go on." She wasn't going to give up just yet.
She had been thinking a lot lately of the way it had felt, relaying everything to Janine earlier that day. How it had felt sharing the precious memories with her; revisiting them with fondness and longing.
And, most of all, she remembered the way her friend had reacted.
It had shot like a bolt of lightning into her head - just how lucky she was, for the most part, that everything turned out the way it had.
How lucky she was that she had ever met James at all! She and Janine had been joking and dreaming about this kind of thing happening for (she had to admit) years. And now it actually had.
