Taking Off!

All bets are off when Jennifer dares to prove her adventure-seeking boyfriend and his friends wrong

- NAJMA ISMAIL

‘I MUST admit, Jen, I never thought you’d go through with this.”

Jennifer diverted her brown eyes away from her cellphone, the smile beneath her sun hat fading fast as Graeme’s words reached her as she was trekking up the hill behind him.

“You didn’t?” she asked, unsettled.

“To be honest,” he turned around and, despite the load tied to his back, was still as fresh as a cucumber, just as he was earlier that morning when they’d departed for the mountain. “I expected you to have backed out by now.”

Her full cheeks lost their colour. “You were?” Her voice was hoarse and she tucked her phone into her sling bag, halting her ascent to take a sip from her water bottle.

“I didn’t think you’d . . .” he lifted his honey-coloured eyes to the colourful canopies gliding across the clear sky above them, “actually do it.”

Jennifer, too shifted her gaze upwards and observed the paragliders launching off the peak they were heading towards.

A fortnight ago she could never have imagined she’d be taking off from this mountain, let alone flying through the air above the ocean. But opposites attract, as was the case that afternoon when she and Graeme were both on pick-up duty for their respective siblings at school.

Graeme was handsome, an adventure sports club instructor, and funny, unlike the other men people tried to introduce her to.

“What a catch!” her sister had exclaimed and Jennifer felt her status elevated in the eyes of family and friends who saw her holding hands with her real-life action hero when all she loved to do was watch Survivor, The Amazing Race and Fear Factor.