Page 39

“Thanks. But I think the key learning from today is we need to get wetsuits.”

Hayley laughed. “Any other ‘key learnings’ from today I should know about?”

“That we should get warm before we catch a chill.”

“We can make a fire!” Hayley paused. “Or maybe we should wait until we get to the campsite? Oh, but that’s not going to be for ages.”

“It’s not safe to make a fire here. It might be better if we got warm and went for a meal instead.”

“You’re right. It’ll be too cold to sit out tonight anyway. It’s going to be so lovely by the campfire on the warmer nights, though. I can see us sitting around, drinking whisky and talking shit, just like the good old days.”

“Me too,” Anna said.

“It’s at least an hour’s drive to the campsite and I don’t know about you but I want to dry my hair asap. I love the fact we’ve got a little electricity in the campervan.”

“I agree. And I’d like to dry my hair too. Maybe just sit there with it blasting on me.”

“First one back to the campervan gets to use the hairdryer first?” Hayley said.

“You child.”

“Race me. I dare you.”

Anna picked up her stuff, already envisioning the win. “Okay, you’re on.”

“One. Two. Three.”

Hayley got going first and sprinted away, poncho towel flailing everywhere, but Anna caught up and overtook Hayley at the very last second, tapping the bonnet of the campervan in triumph.

“Where the hell did you come from?” Hayley leant forward, hands on her knees as her chest heaved.

“Didn’t I tell you I run?”

“Yeah, but marathons, I thought, not sprinting.”

Anna shrugged.

Hayley blew out a long breath. “You are full of surprises.”

Anna opened the campervan door. “Looks like you’ll have to have a wet head for a little longer.”

***

At their campsite, they stayed warm in the softly lit campervan. Anna had been impressed, earlier, at the relative ease with which Hayley had hooked up the campervan to the mains electricity at their plot. She hadn’t even complained about the basic showering facilities of the campsite.

Anna had taken pity on Hayley and let her go first with the hairdryer after all. Anna’s hair was shorter and had nearly dried by the time they’d got changed, anyway.

“You’re too nice for your own good,” Hayley had said, with gratitude in her eyes.

After a jaunt to the local pub for dinner, Anna sat at the table in one corner, and Hayley was already lying on the bed inside her sleeping bag underneath the spare duvet in the opposite corner. Hayley had brought the blanket from their university years too, ‘my blanket that you stole’, as she jokingly called it.

“It’s so cosy in here,” Hayley said. “I really love it. I feel free as a bird. Cold, but free. I’ll take it.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

With their stuff now in the van, and the functional use of space Anna had built, it was a very pleasant space to be in. Homely, even, especially with the fairy lights Hayley had put up. It reminded her of those tiny homes she’d seen people live in. Every inch of space given a purpose.

Anna liked van life. Surrounded by nature and wilderness, with free rein to come and go was something she could get used to. It was the complete opposite of her highly structured day-to-day life in Balbuinidh: work, gym, dinner, self-care, bed, repeat. Being around Hayley was good for her, it would seem. She had no idea what was coming next.