Fake Fiancée

Chapter 31: Decisions and Heartache

“You’re nervous aren’t you?” I teased, knowing that I was being hypocritical. Even though I was just kidding, I could actually see that he was kind of nervous. He was shifting his weight from one foot to the other and avoiding my eyes.

He scoffed, pretending that bungee jumping was a daily activity for him. “I am not.”

“Alright then, peanut.”

An amused smile grew on my lips as I watched Henry step onto the platform and do a double take as he looked down below. “You like the view?!” I called out.

I saw him gulp. “Definitely!” And then, after taking a deep breath, he jumped.

I’m not sure why but I nearly screamed my lungs out. Only the sound of a small shriek came out of my throat. I know it was just bungee jumping and that it was safe, but I felt like he was jumping off the bridge because of suicide.

This was another moment when I realised how much Henry meant to me. I let out a sigh. Realising how much I needed him did not make anything easier.

I heard Henry yell of excitement and I felt a whisper of a smile on my lips. I guess he was enjoying it.

My nerves increased when he finally came up from his jump, grinning like a fool. “You’ll love it, pancake!” He told me once he was out of his harness. I uncertainly eyed the water below and suddenly felt his arms wrap around me. That made me look up into his eyes. “I promise. It’s amazing!”

Trusting him, I stumbled my way over to the platform where the instructor from before was smiling at me comfortingly. The thing was, it wasn’t very comforting. “You’ll do fine,” he said with a hint of a Dutch accent.

I nodded and turned my head around to see where Henry was. He was a few feet away smiling at me encouragingly. Bless him. I then turned myself the other way and blinked as I took in the sparse river underneath me. Oh my god. I couldn’t believe I was going to jump off this bridge in a second. Why Henry wanted to do this escapes me.

Sure, you get a good kick out of it but … I could die for goodness sakes! I didn’t take death lightly.

I realised that these frightening thoughts of dying was not making this easier, so I closed my eyes and shook them away.

“You can do it!” I heard Henry tell me, as if I was going to kick the final goal for a soccer game or something.

I inhaled and exhaled slowly, and told myself that I would be ok, and that if I died, I could always haunt Henry as a ghost. Ok.

I rocked on the balls of my feet, shut my eyes tightly and finally, launched myself off the platform. My heart leapt as I fell down form the bridge. I couldn’t even scream or make a noise because nothing would come out of my throat. Air rushed past my face and I gasped when I nearly hit the clear sea underneath me.

My gasp then turned into a relieved sigh when I didn’t land in the water. For a second, I had been quite terrified of drowning there, but the cord was still holding me. I’d never thought I’d say this, but thank goodness for the cord!

Once I got back up to the bridge, Henry came over to me. My legs felt like Jell-O and he caught me in his arms. I was safe now. “Did you like it?”

Despite how terrified of dying I was, I nodded and laughed softly. I had liked it somehow. “Yeah I did.”

He grinned and nudged me slightly. “I told you so.”

After getting out of my harness and thanking the instructor (Henry hadn’t been very happy to do that), Henry drove us back to the hotel. Throughout the ride, my nerves set back in. I would have to tell him about my plan to leave. Damn.