One Perfect Summer

me.’
    ‘When? In Germany?’
    ‘No. On the phone tonight.’
    I should have guessed as much.
    ‘What does your mother expect you to do, run home and woo this girl back into your arms?’ I can’t help the bitterness of my tone.
    ‘No. She told me to spite me.’ He’s a competitor in the bitterness stakes.
    ‘Oh.’ I sit down on the bed, dejectedly. ‘Do you regret how things have turned out?’ I don’t want to ask the question, but I feel compelled to.
    He doesn’t answer for a moment, which is unlike him. ‘No,’ he says bluntly. ‘If she can do this, then it proves she isn’t the right woman for me.’
    As if proof were needed?
    He reaches over to take my hand and turns to look at me. ‘We should get a house.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘We could move in together.’
    ‘Steady on, I’m only twenty.’
    ‘I could ask my parents—’
    ‘No!’ I interrupt.
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Lukas, if your parents buy you a house—’
    ‘Not buy, rent,’ he says.
    ‘If your parents rent you a house I won’t live in it with you.’
    ‘Why on earth not?’
    ‘Because it’s not right! Aside from the fact that I’m far too young to be moving in with my boyfriend . . .’
    ‘Don’t you love me?’ he asks sharply.
    ‘Yes! But that’s not the point!’
    ‘I can’t cope with this bedsit for much longer, Alice. I hardly get to see you – you’re always too busy with punting and this literary society.’
    ‘It’s you who’s always too busy with your studies!’ I say indignantly. When we see each other it’s always more on his terms than mine.
    ‘But if we lived together we could see each other every night . . .’ He tries to persuade me, but I’m resolute.
    ‘No.’ I let go of his hand. ‘I don’t want your parents’ help. There is no way I’ll move in with you if you ask them.’
    I probably should have been more specific.
    He turns up at Jessie’s a few weeks later with a brand-new, shiny silver bicycle. It’s a refreshingly bright and crisp February morning.
    ‘You bought a bike!’ I exclaim. ‘At long bloody last.’
    ‘Come for a ride with me,’ he urges with excitement. ‘I have a surprise for you.’
    I’m perplexed as he pushes past me to grab my coat and scarf from the hallstand. ‘Isn’t the bike a surprise enough?’
    ‘It doesn’t compare,’ he says with a grin, helping me into my coat.
    ‘Where are you taking me?’ I think I might burst from the curiosity as we ride away from town.
    ‘You’ll see,’ he replies with amusement, turning right onto Conduit Head Road. I follow him along a gravel road until he comes to a stop outside a picturesque thatched cottage. ‘What do you think?’
    I give him a quizzical look. ‘About the house?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘It’s lovely, but . . .’
    ‘Welcome home, honey.’ He says it in a comical voice, but I have a feeling he’s not joking.
    ‘You didn’t?’ I gasp.
    He nods. ‘I did.’
    My face falls. ‘But I told you . . .’
    ‘I didn’t ask my parents for help,’ he says swiftly.
    ‘Then how . . .’
    ‘I sold my Porsche.’
    I stare at him, gobsmacked.
    ‘It’s too late if you don’t like it,’ he adds flippantly, climbing off his bike. ‘I’ve already paid up front for the rent. Come and see inside.’
    I’m too dumbfounded to comment. I follow him in a daze.
    It’s quaint and cosy, full of antiques and Cath Kidston-style furnishings. There’s a small garden behind the house and a sundrenched field beyond that.
    He leads me up the wooden staircase. The first room is small and poky, the second is slightly larger, but the third has a king-sized four-poster bed and a view out onto the field. The excitement builds inside my stomach. Is that wrong?
    ‘What do you think?’ he asks eagerly.
    ‘It’s . . . beautiful,’ I reply. ‘But—’
    ‘Don’t say anything else,’ he interrupts, kissing me quickly on the nose.
    ‘But Lukas!’ I exclaim.
    ‘What?’ he exclaims back.
    ‘I can’t live here with you!’
    ‘Why not?’ he asks. ‘You have to move out of Jessie’s house soon – his parents are returning.’
    ‘Not until Easter.’
    ‘That’s next month!’
    ‘They said I could continue to live there.’
    ‘In Emily’s tiny bedroom?’ He tries to reason with me. ‘We’d have even less room there than we have in mine.’
    I can’t disagree. Jessie’s parents are due back soon, and while they very kindly agreed to let Emily and me continue to live in their house, it means me moving