Escape by M.K. Elliott Page B

Just being here with him made her nervous.
    “So where are you from?” she asked, wanting to break the silence. Her voice sounded too loud in the night, but she carried on talking anyway. She wasn’t used to silence.
    “Originally? A small town in Dorset,” he said, his head titled to one side as he took her in. “No where exciting. What about you?”
    “London.”
    “Ah,” he said.
    “Ah?” she repeated. “Does that mean where I’m from says a lot about me?”
    “You just seem a bit...”
    She saw him struggling for the words. “Stressed? Uptight?” she said, filling in the gaps for him.
    He shrugged as an apology.
    “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “The thing with London is that yo u get so sucked into the place, you end up forgetting anywhere else exists. You kind of lose yourself.”
    “This place is a bit like tha t too—only in a good way.” H e grinned.
    “Have you been to London?”
    “Yeah, I lived there for a while as well, but I never really liked the place. I thought, after growing up in a small town, it was what I wanted, but I was wrong. I lived there long enough to figure out the city would put me in an early grave. Too much noise, too many people, too damn fast. I swear as soon as I got off the train, I had to start running to keep up with everyone.”
    She smiled, knowing exactly what he meant.
    “And you’ve never regretted coming out here?”
    “Are you kidding? Have you looked around you?”
    She had and she did. It was beautiful. The moon hung low over the ocean, its light reflected in the waves. A light breeze touched her skin , bringing with it the scent of the bonfire and the sweet smell of the barbeque. Laughter drifted over to them. A girl screamed with laughter as her boyfriend picked her up and dumped her, fully clothed into the ocean.
    “I came out to the island just like everyone else, backpacking, planning to learn to dive. When I went back home and told everyone I was moving they thought I was nuts,” he continued. “Bu t they had never even been here. A ll they were doing was sitting back in the UK complaining about the weather. I had no reason to stay.”
    “Lucky you,” she said quietly, thinking to herself all of her reasons to be back home.
    “And what do you d o in the big city?” he asked .
    She glanced away and bit her lip. “Not much,” she lied. “I was a late starter and just graduated, so I haven’t figured it out yet.” The last thing she wanted to do right now was start talking about her work. The violent, angry, sad place of the hospital didn’t seem to exist here. To merge the two worlds in any way seemed like sacrilege.
    He looked at her, surprised. “I thought you were going to tell me you were some executive for a corporate bank or something.”
    She laughed. “Thanks. Are you telling me I look like a banker?”
    “Look like a banker?” he raised an eyebrow, his gaze flicking across her body. A thrill of excitement race d through her. “No, Lucy. You certainly don’t look like a banker.” Then he gave a tiny shrug and his eyes dart ed away. “It’s just the way you talk sometimes. It’s as though something in your life is missing or something about it makes you sad.”
    She stared at him. His ton e had changed, suddenly serious. H is dark eyes seemed to have grown even darker. She had no idea he was so perceptive, or maybe he had simply recognized something in her th at had once been part of him also .
    “You seem to know what you’ re ta lking about,” she said.
    “I should. I was the banker.”
    “You?” S he almost laughed, but then realized he wasn’t kidding. “Wow! I would never have picked that.”
    “Well, I hadn’t picked you for the late starter, student type, so I guess we both got it wrong.”
    They smiled at each other, locked in the moment. Their eyes said more than their mouths ever could and for a moment, Lucy thought he was going to kiss her. Then he looked away and the moment was