May 18th, 1970

    Although I’d told her a dozen times in the past two days, Liliane was stubbornly refusing to believe me.
    “I just don’t get it,” she pressed, standing at the bedroom threshold.
    I shrugged, though the motion was subdued as I crouched to tie my shoes. “I don’t know what else to tell you, sis. He’s a nice person and he went out of his way to help me.”
    “You don’t owe him anything, though. You know that, right?”
    “Lil,” I sighed, “did it cross your mind that maybe I actually want to spend the afternoon with him?” I straightened up and held my arms out, turning around in a tight circle. “How do I look?”
    My sister smiled. “You look great. And I did wonder about that,” she admitted. “I’ve never really seen you glad about a man at the door.”
    I picked a small purse out of my suitcase and began to fill it with little things as I spoke. “Well, I hadn’t given him Lily’s number and he walked me home the other day, so he knew the address.” I tossed a lip balm and a compact brush into my purse, looking around for an extra elastic for my hair.
    “You really talked in a park all night with him,” she said under her breath. “What do you even talk about for eight hours? That’s a whole work day!”
    “I’m comfortable around him,” I replied to her in a firm tone, finding the elastic I’d been searching for. “I feel like I know him, almost, because I don’t feel ill-at-ease when we talk, or if there’s silence.” I put my wallet into the purse and hitched the strap over my shoulder. “Looks good?”
    “Cool as ice,” Liliane assured me. “Call if there’s anything. Auntie said she knows Newburgh Beach so if you need me, I’ll be there.”


    Cameron had mentioned the seals at Newburgh Beach during the night at Duthie Park. I told him I hadn’t seen any since I was a child and he offered to take me there, despite my insistence that I didn’t want to crowd his schedule.

    “I’ll be going up to Inverness with the band in the morning. We have two shows there before coming back down early on Monday,” he’d explained to me. “If you’d like, I could pick you up in the afternoon and take you to see them. There’s always a handful at the very least.”
    “That’s really nice of you to offer, Cameron. But I don’t want to be a bother,” I added.
    “It would be my pleasure, Emily,” he urged with a smile. “I haven’t been to that area in a good while myself, so I’d enjoy your company.”
    “Okay, then,” I agreed. “Monday?”
    “Yes.”
    “What time?”
    Cameron shrugged slightly. “Early afternoon?” he suggested. “Around one o’clock?”
    I smiled. “Works for me.”

    I’d told Lily of my plans and she beamed, glad that I was visiting some landmarks and interesting places. I also knew that my sister wanted to have some time with our grandmother’s sister by herself— and with what had happened before our trip, I was glad to give them all the time she wanted. I thought of it as hitting two birds with one stone: my sister would have Lily to talk to without me around and I would get to spend the day with Cameron, who I truly enjoyed spending time with.
    It was a few minutes past one o’clock when his van pulled to a stop in front of the house. I opened the front door and mirrored his smile as he looked at me, only a few feet from the door.
    “You beat me to it,” he chuckled, “I was just coming to knock.”
    “You can get me next time,” I smirked, just before giving him a hug. “How are you doing?”
    “Well enough. Glad the weather’s nice today,” Cameron added. As we walked towards the van, he asked how I’d been occupying my time.
    “I went to Dunnottar Castle with my sister yesterday, actually. What a gorgeous place that was!”
    “Isn’t it?” he smiled. “That’s a popular sight in this area, and it’s just about the same distance south of Aberdeen as Newburgh is to the north.”
    “Not far at all,” I agreed, stepping into the van when he held the door open for me. Once he’d circled the van and sat down in the driver’s seat, I thanked him for holding the door. “It takes longer than that for Liliane to get from her place in the suburbs to my apartment downtown,” I scoffed.
    “In that case, the next thirty minutes will fly by.”


    We parked near the beach. Cameron took a towel-covered basket from behind his seat and shyly explained what it was. “I don’t know of any restaurants close to the beach and I didn’t want us to go hungry.”
    “So you brought food?” I asked, trying not to smile too wide.
    “Little tidbits, yeah,” he chuckled. “Scones and jams and the like.”
    “Well then,” I announced with a laugh, “lead me to the seals, basket boy!”
    After a few hundred feet of walking, I noticed the quickly approaching sand dunes and wondered aloud if we should take our shoes off, which Cameron admitted might be a good idea. Once I’d slipped off my shoes and stuffed my socks into them, Cameron did the same and handed the basket off to me, taking my shoes in return and carrying them.
    The seals were a spectacular sight. I’d last seen seals in my early twenties— nearly a decade ago— during a seven-hour northward trip to Matane, and there had only been a handful. The shore of Newburgh beach proved more exciting as Cameron and I counted nearly thirty seals, about which I was still raving when we picked a flat area to rest at.
    “What a sight that was!” I breathed, taking one end of the patterned sheet from Cameron. “Don’t tell me you took a bedsheet for this,” I asked with a laugh.
    “A tablecloth,” he corrected through laughter.
    Once the repurposed tablecloth was spread out on the sand we both sat down, sitting across from each other— though at such an angle that my left knee was nearly touching his right.
    “I forgot to ask you,” Cameron said as he took a small jar of jam out of the basket. “When am I to be bringing you home?”
    I took the jar from him. “Before dark.”
    “Blackcurrant jam,” he informed me, then nodded. “That gives us plenty of time, then.” Cameron unpacked the rest of the basket and named things as he went along. “That one’s honey. Strawberry jam. I’ve got potato scones and shortbread here, too.”
    I was touched when I realized all the thought he’d put into this. “I’ve never had a picnic at the beach.”
    “Neither have I, really.” Cameron admitted, taking spreading spoons and napkins out of the basket. “I didn’t have a basket,” he confessed with a bashful grin, “I borrowed this one off of my aunt.”
    We soon fell into a comfortable rhythm of eating and chatting, exchanging questions between us. Nothing he asked made me uncomfortable, though I’d never revealed so much about myself so quickly. I felt truly at ease, even when answering things I usually dislike sharing— like my father’s estrangement from two daughters.
    “It was my sister’s idea to come here for a vacation. Our grandmother is Lily’s sister,” I explained. “Gran was like a second mother to us. She loved it here and always called it her home, so we thought it might help to see it. Might be cathartic,” I added.
    “And has it been?” he wondered aloud.
    “Maybe. Time will tell, I suppose,” I conceded. “I certainly see why she loved that city, though.”
    “I’ve spent all my life in Aberdeen. Other than when I was on tour,” he mentioned. “I love the city, too.”
    “Wasn’t Aberdeen bombed during the war? I vaguely recall Gran talking about that.”
    “It was, yeah. The last air raid was in forty-three and I’d just turned two, so I don’t remember any of it.”
    “You were born in forty-one?” When Cameron nodded, I smiled. “Me too. What date?”
    “The ninth of April.”
    “Happy birthday,” I joked, “though I’m a bit late for it.”
    Cameron laughed, thanking me in the same breath. “What about yours?”
    “August twenty-second.”
    “Well happy birthday then, a little early.”
    I laughed, feeling my cheeks warm when he winked at me. I was enjoying his company and silently hoped the sun would linger before setting, so we could prolong our evening.


    Our conversation slowed naturally and would pick back up when one of us had an interesting thought and so far, it was working well. Cameron had just finished telling me what being a travelling musician entailed and I’d confessed to being an amateur painter— though I hadn’t touched a canvas in many months— and a catch-all clerk at a general store, when another dip in conversation fell over us.
    ‘Strange how I’m so calm,’ I thought, watching the ocean and picking a seal out of the waves. ‘I never expected to be on a date during this vacation.’
    Though Cameron hadn’t called it a date and neither had I, it still felt like one. How could a picnic on the beach be platonic, anyway? Not to mention the way my chest tightened and my cheeks turned red when he’d laugh at a joke I made, or even just smile at me.
    ‘Who would have thought that the mess at Gran’s funeral would have brought me here, sharing jam with a man who makes my—’
    “Is everything alright, Emily?” Cameron’s soft voice broke through her rambling thoughts and she looked at him. “You look like you’re thinking hard,” he added with a lighthearted laugh.
    “Everything’s alright,” I answered with a smile. After the funeral, I felt like I’d never be truly happy again.
    “You’re sure?”
    I nodded, grinning happily. “I’m sure. Everything’s going to be alright,” I murmured, and truly believed it.
    Though he wasn’t aware of the train of thought that had led me to that declaration, Cameron smiled anyway; his smile as genuine as my own. Just as I turned my attention back to the ocean, I felt the warm weight of his hand on mine and glanced down to my lap, watching his fingers curl around mine.
    My heartbeat picked up its pace— I noticed Cameron’s grin from the corner of my eye as I shifted my hand just enough to slip my fingers between his.
    ‘Do I ever want to kiss you,’ I whined in my head, feeling the desire to do just that rise inside of me. Would I ruin this moment, if I did? Would it matter either way, since I was leaving Scotland in just over a week?
    I didn’t let myself wonder and leaned towards him, pressing my lips to his cheek in a firm peck. When I pulled back, Cameron only smiled; though I could see the light blush on his skin when he squeezed my hand and had to stop myself from kissing him again.


    “I really enjoyed myself today, Cameron. Thank you for taking me to the beach.”
    “It was an absolute pleasure, Emily.”
    I looked at Cameron after he spoke, and he briefly glanced back at me, smiling. “I’m glad you had a good time, too,” I added.
    “I certainly did. And it’s not yet sunset, so I don’t think your sister will badger you too much,” he teased.
    I noticed the street name as Cameron turned right, and I realized we’d be at Lily’s house within a minute or two. I scrambled to find something to say. But what could I tell him? ‘I’ve never enjoyed someone’s company so much, so please, come see me again tomorrow’? Not a chance!
    “Liliane will be fine,” I finally replied. “She’d been wanting to talk with Lily anyway, so at least I gave her a good chunk of the day to do it.”
    “You seem like a better sibling than you give yourself credit for. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”
    “Isn’t everyone a little hard on themselves sometimes?” I replied.
    “Yes,” he said, slowing down as he eyed a place to park. “But not everyone should be.” He pulled the key out of the ignition and looked at me, an indecipherable look on his face. “You can’t always be your own worst critic. Come, I’ll walk you to the door.”
    “God forbid I let someone else do it,” I retorted jokingly, opening the door and stepping onto the street. “You mentioned another show tomorrow, right?” I asked when he joined me, leading us across the street.
    “In Dundee, yes. One of the last few for this tour.”
    “And once it’s finished?”
    “We’ll record an album. We have demos ready and the lyrics down, we just need to fine tune it all in the studio.”
    “I don’t think musicians are as superstitious as theatre actors, but break a leg anyway,” I chuckled.
    “Superstitious or not, I’ll take whatever I can get,” he laughed. “Break a leg, good luck, Godspeed, any of it!”
    There were only a few feet left before we reached the door, so I turned to face Cameron. “Thank you again,” I told him with a shy smile. “Today was really nice.”
    “I should be thanking you,” he insisted. “It was a very nice day.”
    “I might be a blackcurrant junkie now, thanks to you.”
    Cameron laughed quietly at my joking accusation and I couldn’t help chuckling along with him.
    “You’ll have a good rest of the evening?” he inquired, rubbing his hand on his jeans.
    I nodded.
    “Good.” His eyes darted to the ground and then back to my face. “I, well… would it be terribly forward if I kissed you good night?”
    ‘How cute is he!’ I grinned, nodding slightly. “I was actually hoping you would,” I confessed.
    If I had blinked, I would have missed Cameron taking a step toward me and placing one hand on my cheek and the other on my arm. The kiss was tame, a firm press of his lips to mine; simple but achingly teasing all the same. I looked into his eyes when he broke the kiss and was struck— for the second time today— by the warmth they showed.
    “Have a good night, Emily,” he murmured, brushing a few strands of hair from my face and kissing my forehead in a quick motion.
    I was convinced I had turned to a deep shade of red, but managed to string a sentence together. “Good night, Cameron. Drive safe.”