Aurélie

Chapter Eleven

A light was flashing in her room, illuminating the sloped roof above her double bed with an intense ambulance- blue. Aurélie rubbed her eyes still groggy from sleep, and attempted to focus on the display. 4:14am. An unopened envelope signalled a new message.

Adam.

"Saw Bex at Sainsburys. Said you'd moved to Paris."

What the hell Adam? Why bother getting in touch and stating the obvious. Did he expect me to tell him I'd moved?

Aurélie shoved her phone under her copy of Vogue and pulled her eiderdown over her shoulders, rolling over onto her side to face the wall. Adam could wait. That text didn't even warrant a response and she certainly had no intention of starting up a conversation. That chapter was firmly closed. And she was starting to think that a new one might just be beginning.

The night she'd first met Adam was one of coincidence and chaos. She'd been in Kos for a week. It was meant to be the big blow out after their exams, one last blast before the end of their second year of university in a few weeks. It had been Sophie's idea, her housemate since halls three years before, and Aurélie had rolled along with it as always. Four girls, five boys. The gang, on a package holiday in the sun. Endless sea, sun and booze.

The second to last night was a bender. They went balls to the wall and drank everything. By eleven Aurélie had to put Soph to bed in the room they were sharing with their other third year housemates, Lindsey and Nikki. Aurélie was so mad at her, they were meant to be in this together. Aurélie tended to go with Soph's decisions. They all called her Shadow when they thought she couldn't hear. It's not that She couldn't make decisions, Lucille had made sure she was independent, it was just that Soph and Aurélie had been thrown together in freshens week and stuck together ever since. Really since Soph had puked up Wotsits and sweetcorn outside the front door to their halls. Aurélie was pissed that she'd got so wrecked so early on. Ben, one of the rugby lads had been trying it on all night and Soph was usually her escape route. Luckily Ben had latched on to some terracotta tanned girl with Tip-ex nails in the club so she'd made her excuse to take Soph back to the hotel. Their air-con had broken and they'd forgotten to tell reception, so after putting Soph to bed Aurélie wanted to get some fresh air. Soph's a peach most of the time, and next to Bex, she's still one of Aurélie's best friends but she's lame company asleep. Aurélie headed to the beach against the inner voice of Lucille yelling at her to not be so reckless. She knew her mum would throw a fit if she knew, but the sea always calmed her down, since summer holidays in Cornwall. She didn't want to head back to the club with its sticky floor and pervy bar staff just to see Ben play tonsil tennis with a girl named after a car.

The beach was mainly empty. Further to the left, a group of guys were having drinks around a bonfire. She pulled her navy Uni leavers' hoodie up around her neck and hunched her shoulders as she slid onto a sunbed under the starry sky. She didn't want them to see her and luckily they were pre occupied. The lapping water soothed her temper and her shoulders dropped down as she leant back to take in the moon's reflection in the water and the endless inky sky.

Aurélie chucked her shoes under the sun bed and wriggled her toes in the sand, digging troughs in the grains and digging her heels in. The sands heat from the day had evaporated and the grains were now cool and a welcome balm for her feet that had been in stilettos all night.

One of the boys from the bonfire group splintered off and came to sit next to her on another sunbed.

"Hey, I'm Adam," he nodded towards her then leant back in this chair staring up at the cosmic display of twinkling lights.

"Aurélie," she answered.

"Hope you don't mind me joining you, a week of those lads constant banter has been enough for me."

"I feel your pain, I've got friends back at the nightclub," she indicated back towards the strip of clubs 100 yards up the road, the noise of drum and base and thronging drunks still echoing down to the waterfront. "And a best mate tucked up in bed, pissed as a fart," she groaned.

"That's a bit shit, is this your last night?" He asked, shifting his body in the reclined sunbed to face her. Moonlight shone on his face, picking out sharp cheekbones and rugged stubble, hair wavy and scruffy.

"Yeah, our flight back lands at Gatwick at 8:20 tomorrow night, it's just gone so fast," she sighed, wishing the mornings they had spent hungover by the pool had actually been spent in Greek villages.

"Me too, we're probably on the same flight," he smiled and she felt her stomach flip over. Even in this darkness she could tell he was hot, his voice was smooth and assured and she felt relaxed in his company, a nice change from the unease she felt whenever she was around Ben and the other rugby lads, loud and crude and not her type.

"Thomson?"

"The very same," he held up his hand for a high five, she hit it and he clasped his fingers around hers briefly holding her hand as their arms bridged the gap between them.

"Want to come over to our bonfire? It's nice and warm," he offered as she pulled her hoodie closer around her against the sea breeze.

"Sure, thanks!" She followed Adam across the sand where three other boys were sat on logs they had pulled over from the roadside strip of scrubland.

"Everyone, this is Aurélie," Adam introduced her to the group. "That's Matt on the left, then Chris and Darren," the boys waved hello with beer bottles in their hands and carried on their conversation.

"Beer?" Adam offered.

"Yeah, go on then, thanks," she took the offered bottle and sat next to him on another log. They talked easily and endlessly, hopping from one topic to another, each similarity pulling them closer together until, before Aurélie knew if, her face was inches from Adam's and he leaned in for a kiss that took her breath away. After what felt like fifteen minutes but must have been hours judging by the warming glow coming from the east, Aurélie said her goodbyes and headed back to her room. She had exchanged numbers with Adam and was excited to tell Soph she had managed to squeeze in a holiday romance. That holiday romance became a long term relationship, Adam was on that flight back to Gatwick and they hooked up time and again in London until before they knew it they were "Aurélie and Adam."

They'd stuck together during their third year of Uni, travelling every weekend between Cardiff and Bristol, never missing a date, inseparable, in love and completely co-dependent. They had graduated at the same time and headed out into the post-Uni world of jobs and rent and bills and responsibility and it hurt them both when they realised it just wasn't working. It was that same hurt that had brought them back together time and time again during the past seven months. Hastily grabbing at each other and searching for what they once had, only to be forced to see the dead shell of their relationship in the cold light of day. It didn't do either of them any good and they both knew it.

Aurélie was so grateful for this break in Paris, it was more than a distraction and it was more than an escape. She hoped Adam would see it too as a sign that they were both moving on, that their time together had truly come to an end, as painful as that was. Although she was finding that the longer she spent in Paris and the more she found herself in the company of others, the less the sharp memories of their shared life stung, the memories losing their sharp edges and becoming round pebbles that she could begin to gently stroke for reassurance rather than blades that jabbed and cut her.

A knock at her door woke her up with a jolt. It felt like she'd just closed her eyes seconds ago, Adam's text still lurking in her phone.