Chuck came and found me later that afternoon, when I was sitting out the front of our cottage. I didn’t want to be anywhere near the main house, but I knew if I waited here long enough, someone would surely come and find me. I was glad it was Chuck. I felt sick at what I had done last night, and I needed to talk to someone about it. I knew Chuck was the only one who could understand.
‘Hey, Sasha,’ he said, and came and sat down next to me in the spare stripy deck chair. ‘How are you?’ he rubbed at his face and turned to look at me. ‘Do you want to talk about last night?’
I shuddered and felt my shoulders freeze. I wasn’t sure I wanted to discuss it. It only brought home the differences between Chuck and I, how he was from a different world to mine.
‘You didn’t want Ava to see me with you, did you, Chuck? That’s why you pulled me into the outbuilding?’
Chuck looked down at his feet. ‘I guess, I don’t know. It’s just that my parents and Caitlin’s parents have always seen me as the guy who will one day marry Caitlin. I just didn’t want Ava seeing us walking alone in the dark.’
‘But you wanted to walk alone in the dark with me?’
‘I know, and I did. I like you, Sasha. Very much.’
I felt my cheeks redden.
‘And I’m sorry I ran off and left you in the outhouse,’ he continued. ‘I just thought it would be a good idea once Ava had passed us that we left separately. It would have looked even more dodgy than just walking, coming out of the outhouse together. Don’t you agree?’
I nodded. I thought back to last night, the way I had been pulled into Chuck’s chest, how I had felt his hot breath on my head and his strong arms around me. But no sooner had Ava passed us, he had let go. He told me to stay put and then come out after I had counted to one hundred. I did as he asked. I counted to a hundred. Except, when I left the outhouse, I turned right towards the tennis court instead of left back to my cottage.
But I wasn’t about to talk to Chuck about that just yet. I wanted to share with him what I had discovered in the study at some point.
‘Okay, Chuck. I like you very much too, and I trust you. And, you know, when you go back home, well, I wondered if I could write to you? We don’t have to tell Caitlin – It could be our secret. I know you’re her boyfriend of sorts, but I thought if we wrote, then she wouldn’t have to know, would she?’
Chuck turned his body so it was facing me even more.
‘What do you say?’
Chuck smiled and took my hand. ‘I would like that very much.’