“I’m going to miss you so much,” Charlie said as he rolled onto his back. His skin was coated in the coarse sand they’d been tumbling around in.
The little beach in the cove was all theirs.
Chelsea put her head on his chest. “I know. Me, too. But I obviously can’t stay here.”
Charlie didn’t say anything, probably because he knew that she was right. They couldn’t keep sneaking out to have sex on a hidden beach. She couldn’t stay trapped, unemployed and friendless, on this strange family vacation indefinitely. He thought he wanted her to stay, but he’d soon be bored with her. It hurt Chelsea to think that, but it was true. They were in something like love, but probably more like lust. There was no one else, but that wasn’t enough exactly.
Charlie spun a lock of Chelsea’s sand-soaked hair around his fingers as she lay upon him. Around them they could hear bullfrogs calling and water lapping gently against a log. Under different circumstances, it would be a kind of paradise.
But the circumstances were what they were. The centrifugal force of the Brights was pulling Charlie away from her and closer to them. The world outside was burning down and no one here seemed to care except for the ways in which it could help them. Charlie wasn’t so craven as the others, perhaps, but she didn’t love him in the way that she thought she had.
“When is your flight?”
“Friday,” she said. “My aunt should be back from her hip surgery before that. It will be a help for her to have someone around. I’m kind of looking forward to feeling useful again.”
“You’re useful to me.”
“I know, but it’s not the same thing.”
“Is it a direct flight to London? I can drive you to the airport.”
“That would be really nice, if you don’t mind.”
Charlie sat up and rolled her around so she was beneath him in the sand. He kissed her stomach and hips. The wet tips of his shaggy hair brushed against her breasts. “I might have to sneak onto the plane and escape with you.”
Chelsea smiled and enjoyed the moment, because she knew he didn’t really mean it, and that was okay.