Isla and the Happily Ever After (18 page)

“Uh-uh.” I’m listening to his heartbeat.

“There was this cabin upstate that my family used to rent in the autumn – rough walls, stone fireplace, beds with patchwork quilts. The works. And when we were there, my dad would forget to be worried about politics, and my mom would forget to be worried about my dad. And we’d go hiking, and we’d pick apples from this abandoned orchard. And there’d be so many that we’d throw them into the creek just to watch them float downstream. And we’d play board games at night—”

“What games?”

“My favourite was Pictionary.”

I snuggle into him. “Of course.”

“My mom’s favourite was Cluedo, and my dad’s was Risk. And my parents would cook these home-style dinners like pot roast with mashed potatoes and baked apples—”

“From the orchard?”

“Yeah. And while they’d cook, I’d be spread out on the rug in front of the fireplace with these giant stacks of paper, and I’d draw. And…I’d look up, and my parents would be in the kitchen with this perfectly round window behind them. And all I could see outside of that window – from my position on the floor – were those pine trees.

“So I like pine trees,” he finishes. “A lot.”

I curl my hand around his thumb and squeeze it.

“What about you? Where were you the happiest?”

I have to think about it for a while. “Well, there was this one trip to Disney World—”

“Did you have mouse ears? Please tell me you had those mouse ears with your name stitched on underneath.”

I poke him. “No.”

“I’m gonna picture you with the mouse ears anyway. Continue.”

I poke him harder. “So Gen was ten, I was seven, and Hattie was four. Gen was adorable. She has those perfect corkscrew curls, you know? Plus, she was always in charge of everything. And Hattie was…Hattie. So they were getting all of the attention, like always, but then my parents surprised me with this Disney Princess breakfast. Just for me. And Belle and Snow White and Cinderella were there, and Jasmine told me that my dress was pretty, and that
I
was pretty, and it was amazing. My parents…they
knew.
They knew I was the one who needed it.”

“This,” Josh says, “is my new favourite story.”

“Of course, the whole thing was supposed to be a secret. But the second I saw my sisters, I was like, ‘Princess Jasmine thinks I’m prettier than you!’ Which wasn’t even true, but it
felt
true. Mom wanted to kill me, and Hattie threw this massive tantrum that lasted the rest of the trip, but it was worth it. Best day ever.”

“You
are
prettier than your sisters. You’re way prettier than your sisters.”

“That is…the most romantic thing that you’ve ever said to me.”

He laughs again. “It’s true.”

An unseen bird warbles, and another unseen bird answers its call. “You know,” I say, “I can’t remember the last time I was in a place where I couldn’t hear any traffic.”

“Ah, you’re a nature girl at heart. You’ve just never been given the opportunity.”

“And you’re a nature boy?”

“Definitely. See, if you come with me to New England, we can learn how to do all of those outdoorsy things you read about in your books. Exploring, camping, rock-climbing, rafting, stargazing, building fires—”

“Building fires?” I smile.

“That’s right. Fires. Plural.”

The sun dips below the treeline, and suddenly, Josh is backlit by a stunning golden light. He looks perfect even when he’s damp and sweaty and dirty. I wiggle upward until I reach his lips. We kiss, heavily, until I can’t handle it any more.

“Let’s go,” I say. It comes out ragged.

Josh freezes.

And then he’s lunging for his hoodie and backpack, tripping over himself to get moving. I grab my things, and he takes my hand as we sprint onto the narrow path. We’re laughing, completely blissed out. We run down, down, down, and the further we go, the more crowded the park gets. We race through an area that looks like a cave – perfect for making out, complete with a classical Spanish guitarist – but making out is no longer enough. We pass Gaudí sculptures, Gaudí buildings, Gaudí’s famous lizard fountain, but they barely earn a glance as we whiz by. We only have eyes for each other.

We grab the first cab outside of the park. We’re breathless. Josh hands the driver our hotel’s address, and our tongues and limbs and hands are touching, searching, groping as the streets of Barcelona whiz past our windows. We pay our distressed cabbie way too much, mainly out of guilt, and tumble back out.

Josh kisses my neck as we check in. Our surroundings are a blur. The clerk, the stairs, the hallway. We slam our room door shut and toss our backpacks to the floor. We have the entire night, but we can’t wait another minute.

We kiss fiercely. Urgently. I throw off my coat as Josh scrambles out of his hoodie. I remove his T-shirt as we collapse onto the bed. His chest drums against mine. I roll over, climb on top of him, and find that he’s as ready as I am. He lifts my dress up and around my hips and then over my head. I pull back, breathless. “Do you have?”

“Backpack.”

I bend over backwards, stretching for his bag on the floor. I reach it and yank it closer. I find them in the front pouch. I grab one, and he helps me sit back up. He stares openly at my matching pale pink underwear. Josh has seen all of me, but never all at once.

I unhook my bra. He takes it off.

He kisses my breasts, my stomach, the line above my underwear. And then the line below it as my last remaining clothing slides from my hips. I unbuckle his belt, unzip his jeans, and tug them down at the same time as his boxers. His breathing is shallow. Rapid. I lower myself onto him. We gasp. Our arms wrap around each other, and we move together, watching each other, checking in with each other with our eyes.
Is this okay? What about this? This?

It builds. Faster.

I want him closer. I want him deeper. I want him, want him, want him. His eyes close and so do mine, and we finish as we started. Together.

Chapter eighteen

Josh’s stomach rumbles against my ear. The room is black. I unfurl from his body and lean towards the hotel’s digital clock. It’s nearly two in the morning. Josh feels me stir. “
Tapas
,” he mumbles. “We haven’t had
tapas.
”

“I think we missed dinner.”

“’s okay.” He hugs me against his chest. “Too tired to get up anyway.”

“We’ll just have to come back.”

“
Tapas
and
cerveza
. And then we’ll make love on the altar of the Sagrada Família.”

I pull away, he tugs me close, I pull away. “Be right back,” I say. “Bathroom.”

After I pee, I return for my toothbrush and toothpaste. He follows me in, and we brush our teeth. We can’t stop smiling at each other. I can’t believe that adults get to do this every day. And I don’t even mean sex, though it’s wonderful, but things like
this.
Brushing our teeth at the same sink. Do adults realize how lucky they are? Or do they forget that these small moments are actually small miracles? I don’t want to ever forget.

We climb back in bed and make sleepy, happy, minty-fresh love. He’s careful to make sure that I’m taken care of first before he collapses against me. Moonlight shines in through the windows, and I trace the outline of his tattoo with an index finger.

“You’ve never told me about this,” I say.

“You’ve never asked.”

“I
love
it.”

I didn’t mean for that to slip out in such a gushy way. Josh laughs, but it’s the tired laughter of relief. “Thank goodness.”

“Tell me the story.”

He shifts into a more comfortable position while carefully keeping me nestled against his body. “When I was sixteen, St. Clair convinced an artist in Pigalle that I was eighteen. Except he didn’t
really
convince him. He was just so pushy and persuasive that the guy gave up. It was definitely illegal.” I laugh as he continues. “St. Clair can persuade anyone to do anything. He’s, like, drowning in charisma. It’s so unfair to the rest of us.”

“Eh,” I say. “He’s okay.”

Josh pauses. And then I hear a smile in his voice. “This must be how you felt when I told you that you’re hotter than your sisters.”

I laugh louder this time. “I suppose it is.”

“Anyway, it was just the two of us, and I was the only person who got one. It was a few days after my birthday—”

“Like now!”

“Like now. I’d decided on my birthday that I’d get a tattoo, so I designed this one for the incredibly inspired reason that…it seemed cool at the time.”

“It
is
cool.”

“I consider myself unbelievably lucky that I still like it.”

“Oh, come on. You have taste. You’d never put something lame on your body.” I pause, a new thought occurring to me. “Do you want any more tattoos?”

“I don’t know. Maybe someday I’ll get a big garden rose on my other arm.”

“Ha-ha.”

“I would.” And he sounds hurt that I don’t believe him. “I want a lot more of these nights with you, Isla. I want
all
of my nights with you.”

When the sunlight streams in through the windows, it’s the happiest morning of my life. We’ve shifted in the early hours, but our legs are still hooked together.

I stare at his adorable, sleep-rumpled hair and his long, lovely spine. I touch the skin of his back with the tip of one finger. He rolls over. He smiles at me languorously. With contentment, I scoot in closer for a kiss. “Mm,” he says. “Is next weekend too soon to do this again? Switzerland. Let’s go to Switzerland.”

“You’ll be in New York next weekend.”

His smile falls.

“Next-next weekend,” I say.

“Deal.” He brushes my hair away from my shoulder, leaving it bare. “
So.
Tell me. Who’s the better bedmate? Me or Kurt?”

“Kurt, obviously.”

“I knew it.” He kisses my nose and hops from bed. “I’ll be right back.”

“Hand me my phone? I wanna double-check our departure time.”

Josh digs it out from my bag, tosses it to me, and goes into the bathroom. The door shuts. I flip the volume switch from silent to on. The screen illuminates. My heart stops.

“No,” I whisper.

Twenty-nine new messages. Kurt. Nate. Hattie. The school. My parents.

“Josh? Josh!”

The bathroom door bursts open. “What happened? Are you okay?” And then he sees the way I’m clutching my phone. The blood drains from his face.

“No,” he whispers.

I start crying. He tears apart his own backpack, yanks out his phone, and swears at its screen. “Kurt. Nate. My mom, like, a hundred times. My
dad.
”

I’m sobbing now.

He paces the room. He rakes his scalp with both hands. “It’s okay. It’ll be fine. I’ve messed up before. It’ll be fine.”

“How will it be fine? This’ll go on my record!” My entire college future vanishes. I feel faint. My stomach churns, threatening upheaval.

“No. I’ll take full credit for this. You won’t get in trouble.”

“How won’t I get in trouble? I’m just as
here
as you are. In
Spain.
” I scroll through the texts, trying to piece together a timeline of events. But I can’t focus.

I listen to Kurt’s voicemail, and he’s completely freaked out.
Hattie was asking around for you, and Nate overheard, and then they noticed that Josh was missing, too, and they came to me, and I had to tell them where you were. I’m sorry, Isla. I had to tell them.

I’m an idiot.

I am
such
an idiot.

How could I have forgotten about Hattie? She’s the one person that I can always count on to say or do the wrong thing. Of course she’s behind this. And of course Kurt was the one who couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

Josh sinks beside me onto the bed. He places one hand on each side of my face and touches his forehead to mine. “Breathe,” he says. “Breathe. Breathe.”

“I don’t wanna breathe!”

“It’s okay,” he says. “I’ll call the school. You call your parents.”

Everyone is furious with us. Maman screams so loudly that I have to hold the phone away from my head. Josh gets an earful from Nate, and then I force him to call his mom. She won’t pick up, so he leaves a message. He refuses to call his dad, but I insist, so he calls his dad’s security aide instead.

And then he makes me text Kurt and Hattie.

They
aren’t furious – they just want to know that we’re okay – but I’m not feeling so charitable towards them. I tell them we’re fine, we’re coming back, the end.

The train ride to Paris is the opposite of the one we took to Barcelona. The sky is sunny, but our car is dark. We hold hands, we don’t let go, but our grasp still feels like that. Like
grasping.
Like we’re trying to hold on to something that’s slipping away. Neither of us speaks of the thing that we fear is about to happen. I cry, and Josh holds me. It was selfish to think about my problems first. What he’s facing is much, much worse.

Our dread and terror grow. We’re almost back to the dormitory when Josh can’t take it any longer. He pulls me into someone’s private garden. There’s a pair of French students on lounge chairs, smoking clove cigarettes and soaking in the last warm rays of the year. They hardly even blink at us.