Hard Tail(43)

The others all laughed at my obvious surprise. "Yeah, that's kind of the point," Andy said. "Something from the mini-bar to celebrate?" He had his hip flask out again, and we all took a swig. It didn't burn quite so much this time going down.

We strung out a bit as we went through the forest, the order we rode in changing at every gate (although Adam always seemed to end up behind me, for some reason). It was, as Matt had mentioned, fairly flat, but there were plenty of natural obstacles to negotiate-tree roots, deep ruts left by winter cyclists, horse dung and the odd muddy puddle, some where you'd least expect them. As I whizzed through one and felt mud splatter up my back, I reflected that at least now I'd look the part.

"Reckon I'm dirty enough to be a real mountain biker?" I asked Adam the next time we stopped for a gate and a swig of Andy's "muscle relaxant".

Adam gave me a speculative look. "Y'could get a lot dirtier than that," he said with an odd smile.

He was probably right. There were undoubtedly a lot more puddles to come tonight.

"'Ere, Tim-I wish my wife was as dirty as you!" Andy interrupted. Everyone laughed uproariously at the cringeably old joke, including me. I decided I'd better refuse all offers of refreshments from now on if I didn't want to get done for drunk driving on the way home.

The New Forest, I was beginning to learn, was definitely not one of those places where you couldn't see the wood for the trees. Although a lot of it was, as you might expect, thickly forested, there were also large expanses of grass and heathland. They were great for varying the pace, letting us cruise for a bit before plunging back into the trees, where all the frantic twisting and turning, braking and accelerating kept us on our toes and took a lot more effort.

We passed through a thick stretch of dense gorse-one variety of forest life, at least, that even I could identify-then the view opened up on one side to show a field full of grazing deer, graceful and majestic in the twilight. All too soon we were at the next gate, which led us into enclosed woodland I guessed must be some kind of timber plantation, judging from the uniformity of the trees. 

"Y'all right?" Adam asked, coming up behind me.

"I'm fine," I reassured him. "Don't worry," I added, remembering the magazine article. "I'm not about to bonk."

Adam grinned. "Y' sure 'bout that?"

"Well, I don't think so-but you probably know a lot more about it than I do."

"Bet y're a quick learner," he said in my ear.

For a bizarre moment, I wondered if he could possibly be flirting with me.

But that was ridiculous. As far as he knew, I was straight. When had I got so big-headed I assumed every gay guy I met wanted to get off with me? If I hadn't known he was gay, the thought wouldn't even have crossed my mind. Shaking my head at myself, I cycled on, touched by his concern for the new guy and bolstered by his certainty that I was picking things up all right.

From there we passed into another enclosure, but this one was totally different, the trail snaking through a jumble of all kinds of trees that could only have grown up naturally. Darkness seemed to fall early in the forest, and we all switched on our lights. It was while I was following Matt and trying not to let his arse distract me from the trail that I became aware of an altogether furrier rump bumbling along the trail just in front of him. It speeded up as he passed but didn't leave the track, and I passed it in my turn-then looked back to catch a glimpse of a striped black-and-white face, just before it decided it had had enough of life in the fast lane and disappeared into the bracken.

Matt had stopped to take a drink of water-at least, I assumed it was water he was carrying-just up ahead. "Did you see that?" he asked as I pulled up alongside him.

"Yes-I can't believe it! That's the first badger I've ever seen, if you don't count roadkill." I tried not to sound like a kid on his first trip to Disneyland, but I doubt I succeeded. "I suppose you see them all the time," I added.

Matt shook his head as he shoved his drink back in its holder. "Nah-we've been lucky tonight. That's only the second time I've seen one."

"Really?" I was ridiculously pleased I'd been able to share this rare moment with him. For a moment, the darkness of the forest felt like intimacy-as if we were alone here. I took a deep breath-

Then Adam emerged from the gloom and skidded to a halt beside us. "Whassup?"

Matt smiled. "Nothing, Adam. Come on, let's get moving."

The moon was high and almost full as we got back to the car park. I was tired but not exhausted, which made me strongly suspect the lads had been taking it easy tonight for my benefit.

"You enjoy it, then, your first time out?" Andy asked, proffering the now much emptier hip flask.