Page 36 of Going Overboard

‘So, we’re just not going to talk about it?’ Brody says as he dries his hair with a towel.

‘Nope,’ I reply, not even looking at him. I’m busy rifling through drawers, looking for something. I’m a woman on a mission.

‘Okay… what about this then?’ he tries again. ‘Are we going to talk about this?’

I look at him and realise that he’s referring to me still in my wet dress (but wrapped in a towel) running around Todd and Nikki’s room, rifling through their things.

‘No,’ I say again.

‘Remind me why we’re doing it at least?’

I can’t help but smile at his use of the word ‘we’re’ because while he clearly is not down for this at all, he’s taking his role as my fake boyfriend very seriously. Nothing says ‘ride or die’ like turning over someone’s room together.

‘Because Nikki is clearly crazy,’ I remind him – as if there’s a chance he might not know, he did date her. ‘And out to get me. And she obviously stole my dress. We both know that she did. It’s got to be in here somewhere – check that wardrobe.’

‘Okay but…’ Brody starts slowly, walking towards me. ‘Why are we doing it?’

‘To prove that she did!’

Brody takes my face in his hands and looks deep into my eyes.

‘Jessa, we know she did it,’ he says softly. ‘Everyone knows she did it. She took your dress, she pushed you into the pool – you could probably accuse her of anything right now, whether she did it or not, and everyone would believe you because she showed the world who she really was tonight.’

I sigh, letting my shoulders sink, letting go of some of my tension.

‘She just went full villain,’ he continues.

‘You don’t have anything to prove to anyone, everyone loves you, everyone is mad at her.

But if she comes here and finds us going through her things it’s only going to make her worse and give her ammunition to say you’re giving as good as you’re getting. Don’t give her oxygen, suffocate her.’

I open my mouth to speak, a cheeky smile taking control of my face.

‘Not literally,’ he says with a laugh. ‘Come on, let’s go get changed, let’s go back to the pa?—’

We hear the door beep from where we are, letting us know that Todd and Nikki are back, and you just know they’re going to come in here. It sounds like they’re arguing.

‘Shit,’ I whisper. ‘They’re going to find us in here. She’s going to go mad.’

Brody’s eyes scan the room.

‘Quick, the balcony,’ he says, nodding towards the door. ‘It connects to the living room one.’

We rush to the glass door and slip outside, closing the door behind us. There’s a privacy screen between the two balconies, which you can open from this side, so we head through it, closing it behind us. I swear we do it just in time.

‘I think we might actually have got away with that one,’ Brody says, puffing air from his cheeks.

‘Thanks to you,’ I tell him.

The cool night air clings to our wet clothes. I’m chilly, even with a towel wrapped around me.

Brody peeks in through the glass door into the living room.

‘No one’s in the living area,’ he says. ‘We’re good. Let’s go.’

He tries the door handle but nothing happens.

‘Very funny,’ I tell him – he’s such a wind-up merchant, even when the timing isn’t ideal.

He jiggles it again, then turns to me, sheepish.

‘It is actually locked,’ he says. ‘From the inside.’

I stare at him.

‘And the privacy gates only open from the other side, don’t they?’ I say, already knowing the answer. ‘So we can’t get back to their room, or to ours.’

‘I could try and climb over?’ he suggests, eyeing it up.

‘Oh my God, Brody Ryan, don’t you dare,’ I say firmly. ‘I’m not jazzed about being trapped out here, but it’s definitely preferable to you falling overboard.’

‘I’m an athlete, I’d be fine,’ he says. ‘Climbing, I mean.’

‘I suppose, on the plus side, if you did fall to your death I could probably tell people that Nikki pushed you,’ I joke. ‘You did say they would believe me.’

‘Well, just for you, I won’t attempt the climb, even though I’m absolutely certain I can do it,’ he says, potentially a little tongue in cheek. ‘But if I meet a watery demise any other way, you have my blessing to pin it on Nikki. ’

‘Thanks,’ I say, reaching out, squeezing his shoulder. ‘Wow, how are you still warm?’

‘I took my wet clothes off faster,’ he says. ‘While you were rifling through Todd’s underpants drawer.’

‘Fond memories of that,’ I say sarcastically. ‘Can you help me take my wet dress off, please?’

‘Of course,’ he replies.

I take off my towel and turn around so that Brody can unzip my dress. My breath catches as his hands graze my bare back, his touch so warm against my cold skin. He lets the dress fall to the floor around my feet – well, there’s no point being precious about it now, is there?

I start to shiver, just a little.

‘Does this stuff happen to you all the time too?’ I ask him.

Brody laughs.

‘This is the third time I’ve seen you take a spill into the drink,’ he tells me. ‘I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it generally – I’m just surprised you haven’t ended up in the sea. Pleasantly though. I think I’d miss you now.’

As I turn around to face him, Brody notices how cold I am.

‘Come here,’ he says. ‘Let’s warm you up.’

He starts rubbing the side of my arms with his hands, then my shoulders, then down the arms again, then his hands find their way to my waist and he pulls me close.

‘Steal my body heat,’ he insists. ‘I don’t mind.’

‘I bet you don’t,’ I say with a smirk. ‘You know, for a second, before Nikki pushed us into the pool, I thought you were going to kiss me.’

‘That’s interesting,’ he replies. ‘I thought you were going to try to kiss me too.’

‘Try?’ I echo. ‘You don’t think I would have succeeded? ’

‘I mean… you didn’t succeed,’ he reminds me, reaching up to push my damp hair from my eyes.

‘Hmm, that’s true, I guess I didn’t,’ I reply. ‘No sense in trying again then, right?’

‘Absolutely not,’ he says firmly. ‘Unless it’s for, like, survival.’

I chew my lip thoughtfully.

‘Hmm, I do in fact want to survive, so…’

‘So I guess it’s on me, to keep you warm, until someone comes to let us back in, right?’ he suggests.

I playfully glance around the empty balcony, then out to sea, the dark sky and the even darker waters revealing that, sadly, there is no one else here who can help.

As he holds me close, he looks at me like there’s something he wants to say, or something he wants to do. I feel the same way, I’m just not sure what to do first.

No, wait, yes, I am.

His hands find my waist again. Mine find the back of his neck. This time when we lean in our lips get to meet. No games, no pretending, no one to push us into the water. It’s actually happening.

Brody scoops me up into his strong arms and sits me down on the wooden table that stands between the two chairs.

He crouches down on his knees in front of me, takes one of my feet in his hands, and starts kissing my ankle.

Slowly but surely, he makes his way up the inside of my leg, stopping as he approaches my upper thigh.

‘Just making sure I warm up every inch of your body,’ he tells me with faux seriousness.

‘Oh, of course,’ I reply.

‘Because these legs are freezing,’ he says as he hooks them over his shoulders, one after another .

As I look down at him, I can’t help but laugh.

‘Well, aren’t you just a regular hero,’ I tell him.

‘You ain’t seen nothing yet,’ he replies.