Max trudged up the sand to join her, flexing his toes when he stopped. Josie shook her head. “You’re mad.”
His eyes were bright, and although they were a far cry from the blue of the ocean, they seemed to absorb some of its shimmer, the green outweighing the amber today. He ran a hand through his hair—it was the kind of hair that suited the wind and salt, and the sparkle of the sunlight today made it look more coppery than usual. “Well, you never know when you’ll have the chance to do something again, right?”
“Mmm, I’m not sure having your toes frozen off is on anyone’s bucket list.”
He prodded her in the ribs and she laughed, batting his hand away. She lost her footing slightly as she did so, stumbling backward on the uneven sand, and he grabbed her free hand—the one not holding the camera—to steady her. Only, of course, being her, she overbalanced too much the other way and practically fell into his chest. He laughed softly and took the sides of her arms in his hands, cocking one eyebrow as he looked down at her. She cleared her throat, suddenly intensely aware of how close they now were, and how her heartbeat had picked up, ever so slightly.
She took a step back. “Thanks.”
He bent down and rubbed his feet dry before slipping on his socks and sneakers again. When he stood up, he hooked his arm companionably through hers as they walked. She fell into the rhythm of his long stride and slung the strap of her camera over the other shoulder. It felt so easy to fall into step beside him, and unlike the last few days she didn’t feel the pressure to say anything, comfortable to listen to the waves lapping the shore, the laughter of a child behind them.
“Get any good photos?” He nodded at her camera and she shrugged. “It’s an impressive beast, I’m not even sure I’d know how to work it—it’s an iPhone camera all the way for me.”
“I love it,” she admitted. “I bought it last year. It cost far too much money to justify, but I did it anyway.” She couldn’t really explain it, how right she felt behind the lens, how she felt like that was when she was most relaxed, and most herself. “I used to dream of being a professional photographer,” she said, smiling a little at the memory—when her friends at school were planning on being vets, doctors, or actresses, she was instructing people where to stand so she could take photos of them. The one time she was really bossy, her mum used to say. She preferred wildlife and landscape photography to photos of people now, but it was one thing that hadn’t changed as she’d grown up.
“What stopped you?”
Josie gave him an incredulous look. “Well, it’s not exactly a stable career path, is it?” Max gave a little half shrug, like it shouldn’t matter, though Josie knew that was a romantic’s view of the world and had no place in reality.
“Do you like what you do now? Marketing?”
Josie hesitated, then sighed. “No, I guess not. Not really. I went into it because it can be creative sometimes—the social media stuff especially—but my company is quite strict on what they want out there and it sort of…takes the fun away, I guess.” She brushed her hair out of her face—they were walking with the wind behind them so it kept flying around and blocking her line of sight. She probably would have tied it up if she’d known where they were going, but still, it was actually a nice sensation, the wind tangling its fingers through her hair. “Currently, my job seems to mainly involve looking at different shots of models in swimwear.”
“Doesn’t sound so bad.” She poked him in the ribs with her elbow and he laughed. “Still,” he said, “if you hate it, why do you do it?”
“I don’t hate it.” She paused, staring out at the sea for a moment. “Actually, they’re making my role redundant as of January, so I might not have a choice whether to hate it or not.” Her stomach squirmed uncomfortably—it was the first time she’d allowed herself to say it out loud, and though it wasn’t right to say that this made it feel more real, it certainly made it feel like more of a problem.
Max frowned, and didn’t answer right away, like he couldn’t quite figure out what to say. “That’s shit,” he said eventually, which made Josie laugh.
“Quite. I have a choice, though.” She scowled when she thought of Janice’s face, teeth showing in a fake smile, as she’d offered her said choice. “I can take a ‘sideways’？”—she struggled to get her hands up to do the air quotes because one of her arms was still entwined with Max’s—“move, or I can take the redundancy package.”