Chapter Twenty-Six
January 2017
When Jonathan was teaching, Lydia was working, and over the next few days they were in a complete routine of work by day, fun at night. Lydia switched accommodation to a more basic room but now she was spending so much time enjoying Andorra, it barely mattered. She and Jonathan were taking things nice and slow and so far, it was enough. They spent their evenings enjoying beers or wine, tapas or a la carte menus, and towards the end of their holiday Jonathan had finished working and they were able to enjoy everything else Andorra offered.
Lydia and Jonathan rode the Tobotronic, a long toboggan run. She convinced him to go shopping and to find the discount shops she could recommend for ski or winter gear. They even got to go on the Caterpillar-tracked vehicle that took them on a voyage of discovery to parts of the mountain they’d not yet seen. It was the beginning of a romance so different to what Lydia had expected.
‘So…’ Jonathan held her hand as they walked in the front entrance of Caldea, a glass and steel structure that promised relaxation, rejuvenation and all the benefits of Europe’s largest health spa. ‘…it’s your last day.’
‘It’s my last day,’ she confirmed regretfully. Because out here, away from it all, she’d begun to know herself all over again.
They paid their admission, and before they made their way to the changing rooms, Jonathan pulled her in close. ‘It’s been a pleasure, Lydia Walters. I mean it. An absolute pleasure.’
She stood on tiptoes and kissed him, giggling at the tutting woman behind them. ‘The pleasure has been all mine. Come on, we’d better move it along.’ The woman was still muttering about them and didn’t look like she’d stop any time soon.
The health spa was dreamlike in its proportions, an aquatic paradise with thermal waters. Set in the mountains, it featured inside and outside lagoons, a sauna, Jacuzzi, pool, Roman baths and an ice pool. They spent the first part of their visit swimming and making the most of the inside with its massaging baths before they let the current of the inside lagoon carry them out into the open air.
‘Now this is what I call a holiday.’ They reached the side of the pool and Lydia gazed in awe at the natural landscape surrounding them. ‘I have absolutely no regrets about being here and not stuck on top of a mountain with two skis strapped to my feet.’
‘Right now, I’d be inclined to agree with you.’
Lying back against the different-coloured rocks, smooth and shiny with water coverage, Jonathan looked as though he was enjoying this as much as she was. She rested next to him and surreptitiously watched him, face tilted to the sun, lips pink, chest half exposed above the surface of the water. Droplets glistened as they ran from his neck across his collarbone, drying beneath the sun, and it was only when he opened one eye she stopped looking, shut her own eyes and relaxed. He found her hand beneath the water and didn’t let go until they swam their way inside.
Jonathan was first to tackle the Roman baths. He sucked in his breath as he waded further into the coldest one.
Lydia had only gone in up to her calves when she said, ‘I can’t, it’s too cold!’
‘Come on. We’re told it’s good for you.’
Lydia backed away from the edge. The sand-coloured rock walls made the bath look inviting but she’d rather be in the hot bath right now than have to do the cold one first. ‘No chance. I’ll be next door.’
But before she had the chance to turn on her heel and walk over to the other more preferable option, Jonathan stood, reached out, and yanked her in. Fully submerged for a few seconds, she jumped up and yelped. ‘Oh…My…God! You…’
‘Now now, peace and tranquillity in here remember, Lydia,’ he teased, backing away from her. ‘It’s good for you.’
She splashed him enough to annoy him and when she walked up the steps, this time he followed her.
She sank into the warmer waters of the alternative bath with Jonathan alongside. ‘This is more like it.’ She relaxed into the waters heated to thirty-six degrees and lit from beneath so there was a delicate glow surrounding visitors.
Next up was the ice pool.
‘I’m thinking this is going to be worse than the Roman baths.’ Lydia gingerly followed Jonathan. ‘And don’t even think about shoving me in this time.’
‘I only did it for your own good. And look at your skin, it’s glowing.’
‘Yeah, right.’ Giggling she held his hand. A machine dropped chunks of ice, which fell into the water to melt and keep it cold. Hand in hand, they waded into the waters as far as Lydia’s upper thighs when they admitted defeat and reversed, back the other way, but not before Lydia discreetly reached down and picked up a handful of ice before it had a chance to melt.
They were almost at the door to the sauna when Lydia faced Jonathan and looped her fingers in to the top of the waistband of his swim shorts, and pulled him towards her. He dipped his head to kiss her but she smiled and with her other hand dropped the ice into the front of his shorts.
He yelped and jumped, much to the amusement of several onlookers, and although Lydia’s hand was sore from holding the freezing morsels of ice ready for revenge, she couldn’t stop laughing.
‘Payback’s a bitch,’ she said.
‘Are we about even?’
She stood on tiptoes and kissed him full on the lips. ‘I’d say so.’
This afternoon had been the perfect finale to the holiday to treat stress, muscle aches and any pains you’d introduced from the winter sports that wowed you from the get-go. But more than that, it was quality time for Lydia and Jonathan and she wondered where they went from here.
*
‘The last supper.’ Jonathan winked at her across the table that evening.
‘Don’t be daft.’ She speared a piece of roast chicken and dipped it in gravy. Her stomach was already doing somersaults at the thought of saying goodbye to him.
‘When do you return to work?’
‘I’ve got a day to recover,’ she said, ‘and then I’ll be back in the office.’
Unlike previous dinners, they didn’t linger at the restaurant this time. It was as though all either of them could think about was that this was their last night together, for who knew how long.
They settled the bill and back at the door to her hotel room, the place Jonathan always walked her to before saying goodbye, she looped her hands loosely around his neck. ‘Thank you for making this a holiday to remember.’ She brushed his lips lightly with her own.
‘Wait, are you ending this?’ He pulled away. ‘All I am to you is a holiday fling?’ He put a hand against his heart jokingly but soon pulled her in close again.
‘Do you want to see me again?’ She hadn’t been sure, not with Theo and everything she’d told him, and she’d hardly dared to let herself hope.
‘I can’t imagine not seeing you again, Lydia.’ With his fingers beneath her chin, he looked deep into her eyes.
Her hands could feel the muscles in his back as they hugged and she thought about his body at the spa. She’d been coy in her midnight-blue bikini, the least amount of clothes he’d ever seen her in. There was a strange kind of confidence hiding behind a pair of salopettes and a chunky ski jacket, even beneath a jumper and jeans in the evening, but the cloak had been taken away that day and she’d seen him looking more than once.
‘I fly back tomorrow as well,’ he said, ‘only a few hours after you, but I don’t have any plans. Can I see you?’ His hands wrapped around her waist even tighter.
A smile lifted the corners of her mouth, the doubt erased. ‘Yes.’
‘Can I come to the house, or would you rather…’
‘Jonathan, I’d really like you to come to my house.’ Theo’s rugby boots were still at the back of the downstairs cupboard, knick-knacks shoved in the bedside cabinet that wasn’t hers, lots of his odds and ends in the loft, but it was her place now rather than somewhere she shared with anyone else. She hadn’t chosen it that way, but life had evolved and made it so.
He kissed her with a passion she’d felt before, but this time he didn’t pull away and by the time she opened the door to the hotel room, neither of them said another word. They simply went inside and in Jonathan’s arms that night Lydia knew she’d fallen in love for the second time in her life.