Delicate * { Fred Weasley }

Hike

Yolanda had been out at least as late as I had been, but you wouldn't have known it from looking at her. The worst thing was that she didn't seem to be wearing any makeup and she still looked absolutely stunning. Her long brown hair was swept up into a sleek ponytail and her skin had a healthy sort of glow that you typically only see in advertisements for skincare products. I couldn't help but think of what I'd looked like in the mirror that morning: pale and tired, shadows under my eyes, my hair frizzing in the humidity.

Yolanda gave us a wide smile, revealing two deep dimples and two rows of perfectly straight and pearly white teeth. "Good morning!" Her gaze fell on Fred and her eyes lit up in recognition. "Hey, I've seen you before—El Lirio last night, yeah?"

Fred smiled back. "Yeah. Fancy seeing you here."

I was trying with great difficulty to remind myself that I didn't care what Fred did but Yolanda smiled back at him and I was fairly certain I was going to die.

If my life depended on it, I couldn't tell you half of what Yolanda said as we prepared to leave for the hike. I imagine that much of it related to things like safety and navigation and such—admittedly, not paying attention to this part was rather stupid of me, but in my defense, I was trying very hard not to notice the fact that she was offering these little asides that were clearly directed at Fred and he certainly wasn't doing anything to discourage her, what with the way he kept smiling and chuckling at her jokes. We walked down to the stables where we were all paired up with horses. I managed to register that my horse—a pretty chestnut mare—was called Coco, and my remaining brain cells were functioning enough that I was able to successfully swing myself into the saddle without injury or incident.

Yolanda's horse was a gorgeous mare that was such a pure and gleaming white that I wouldn't have been surprised to learn that she had a bit of unicorn somewhere in her lineage.

This felt almost too on the nose, considering my personal feelings of inadequacy in relation to Yolanda.

I suppose that Coco was the perfect horse for me, in a way: neither one of us wanted to be on this hike. Coco expressed her feelings by falling toward the back of the procession and making frequent attempts to veer from the established path in pursuit of some sort of greenery; I expressed my feelings by mostly letting her lag and wander, all the while desperately wishing that this hike would end so that I could crawl back into bed and pretend that half of today hadn't happened.

I shouldn't have read anything into Fred being nice to me; I shouldn't have allowed myself to get carried away. Now he had a bona fide opportunity to reconnect with a leggy pretty girl—and surely he'd been kicking himself for choosing to escort a vomiting basket case back to her hotel when he could have been pursuing a much better match. Yolanda was pretty and fit and she probably didn't vomit in rubbish bins because crowds made her feel like she couldn't breathe and she almost certainly didn't utilize the wicking properties of her athletic wear for cleaning up ice cream spills. She and Fred would probably spend the next few days having amazing island sex and falling in love. Eventually, he'd give her a giant ring that would look massive and perfect on her petite hands. They'd have a gorgeous and trendy wedding and a whole passel of good looking and talented children. I'd have to see them at Alicia's Christmas parties and smile politely when they told me how perfectly their perfect life was going.

Not that it mattered. Because it didn't. I wasn't attached—I'd simply got carried away with a biological response to a handsome man being nice to me on a very starry evening. That was all there was to it.

"All right?" Alicia had slowed her own horse and was waiting for Coco and me to catch up. "You look like you're a million miles away."

"Just tired," I said lightly, pulling gently on the reins as Coco made another attempt to wander off. "And Coco and I have some fundamental disagreements on navigation."