"So how are you coping without meat?" Mikaal asked, walking alongside Dalia in the unfamiliar territory known as Perth Hills.

"Not bad actually. It's just beef steak I have to avoid. Thank God I can still eat fried chicken!"

Mikaal laughed as they both stopped to look out for traffic before crossing the road.

They had just parked their cars at a small, local shopping centre in a suburb called Kalamunda. Although Dalia rarely travelled out this way, something about the place seemed familiar, but once again, Mikaal had kept their catch-up a surprise. The only clues she had were in what he had asked her to bring - at least one litre of water, a tube of sunscreen, a hat and sunnies, and finally, to wear sneakers and 'cover up' with long, loose, comfortable attire - that suggested it would be an outdoor activity.

"Can you eat beef generally, like beef burgers?" Mikaal asked.

"I'm not sure to be honest, but I don't want to risk it until I get the results, so I'm avoiding everything beef." Dalia followed closely behind Mikaal as they crossed the quiet street. "Where exactly are we going?" she asked, a furrow in her brow, scanning her surroundings, noticing it was very bushy.

"You'll see," he said, his tone cryptic.

"Why do you love surprising people so much?"

"I love surprises myself," he said matter-of-factually, "so I guess I assume other people would love surprises too."

'Hmm, so we're similar,' Dalia thought to herself, able to relate to his sentiments. She knew of people like Meagan who hated surprises - who liked being in control of things and would get overly anxious even if it was a 'good surprise'. But Dalia didn't mind 'not knowing', often finding pleasure in the thrill of the unknown - well, she didn't mind not knowing some things. Being kept in the dark over what was going on between Simon and Mikaal had driven her mad - so rather, she didn't mind being pleasantly surprised when the surprise was something she would enjoy.

"Bibbulman Track?" she said aloud upon noticing the wooden sign post at the entrance of a popular hiking trail, creases on her forehead, her eyes quizzical as she turned to Mikaal.

Mikaal's green eyes looked intently into her hazel ones, as if waiting for her to say something more. "Have you been here before?" he asked in a careful tone.

"Yes..." she trailed off, reminded the last time she had come was with Simon. It was among the activities he had organised for her to get over Blake. Dalia couldn't help thinking now that perhaps Simon and Mikaal had been much closer to each other than she had assumed. It was just too much of a coincidence that Mikaal would first take her boxing, now hiking, just like Simon had the year before. Mikaal must have learnt about these activities from Simon when they were still friends.

Unable to resist, she asked, "Were you and Simon really close?"

Mikaal's face looked off guard - a rare sight for Mr Smooth - that further reinforced Dalia's notions that she must be on the ball.

After taking a moment to collect his thoughts, Mikaal finally said, "Yeh, pretty close... in a guy way," he added with a smile.

Dalia laughed. "What does that even mean? Like, do guys open up to each other?"

"If it's the right guy, yeh."

"And Simon was the right guy?"

"Yeh, Simon's the trustworthy type."

Dalia shook her head, amused, saying, "I can't imagine it... How do you open up?"

Mikaal didn't answer straight away. Instead, he began leading the way into the thick of the jarrah forest. Dalia remained close at his heels through the narrow, winding, unmarked path. The path eventually grew wider, where Mikaal slowed down so Dalia could continue by his side.

"Usually over gaming," Mikaal said in response, turning briefly to Dalia, a boyish grin on his face.

"What? How?" Dalia's eyes were wide now in fascination.

"We chat while gaming."

Dalia rolled her eyes but smiled to herself as they weaved their way through the dense bush, meeting a small, narrow stream of water that they carefully stepped over. All the while, they kept their eyes out for the 'Waugal', the rainbow serpent of the Aboriginal Dreaming, printed on small, triangular, yellow markers fixed on the bark of some of the trees, pointing the way.

Although Bibbulman Track stretched about 1000 kilometres from the hilly suburb of Kalamunda through to the beautiful south coast of Albany, it was common for people to walk only parts of the track before either turning back or catching public transport to where they had begun.

After walking in silence, enjoying the fresh air and the sprinkles of colour from a variety of flowering plants such as orchids and bottlebrush, the trail lead them to the crest of a hill with a breathtaking view.

"Wow!" Dalia said, in awe at the sight of fluffy, silver clouds above hills of deep green, the colour turning into hues of blue as you looked further out into the horizon.

As if it was second nature, both Dalia and Mikaal reached into their pockets and pulled out their phones to record the memory.

"Really, an Android?" Dalia said, an eyebrow raised.

"Androids take much better photos," Mikaal said in retort, although amusement coloured his defined features.

"No they don't! Do you ever hear of people starting web training on 'Android Photography'? No, but you do for iPhone because of the amazing camera and the creative things you can do."

"Yeh, well let's take a photo and compare," Mikaal said, but without warning, snapped a photo of Dalia.

"Hey! I thought we were comparing photos of the view, not me!"

Mikaal shrugged, a smirk on his face as he looked at the photo on his phone screen. "Look how beautiful you look because of my Android," he said, turning his phone at an angle so Dalia could see.

"Oh my God!" Dalia's eyes grew wide with horror at the sight of the ugliest photo of herself she had ever seen - her eyes shut, her mouth open in the most unflattering way. "Delete it!" she said with fierceness.

Mikaal laughed, holding his phone out of her reach, high above his head.

"Mikaal!"

"It's a cute photo of you. I'm keeping it," he said, completing ignoring her distraught expression, starting to walk ahead on the trail

"Mikaal, please delete it," Dalia said again, her voice imploring as she quickened her pace to keep up with him.

"I'll think about it," he said as they approached a decline, the reddish-brown coloured dirt mixed with stones forming stairs that wound downwards, green trees and some flora on either side.

"Will we be walking back up this way?" Dalia asked, her mind now distracted by the length of the decline.

"Yep."

Dalia moaned. "That's going to be a killer," she said, imagining the challenge of trekking uphill on their return.

Mikaal chuckled. "It will be, but we can take it slow."

Their morning turned out to be an amazing experience, a perfect balance between heart racing activity during upward slopes, and therapeutic relaxation, walking parts of the track comfortably on level ground, feeling the cool, gentle breeze on their faces, and hearing the calming sounds of birds in the distance. There were moments when Dalia was out of breath, gasping for air following a steep incline - they would take a break those times, gulping mouthfuls of water and snacking on the nuts Mikaal had brought while taking in the serene surrounds.

One and a half hours later, according to her Apple Watch, they had trekked about five kilometres - it was at this point that Mikaal suggested they turn back.

"Are you sure this is the way?" Dalia asked, worry growing within her, remembering she and Simon had gotten lost last year. They had found trying to follow the markers confusing, not realising they had ended up following one of the walking trails that veered off Bibbulman Track. Thankfully, they had bumped into a couple who lived locally who had given them directions to where they had started.

"I've done this track a few times before, so I'm pretty sure."

Dalia felt herself relaxing at the sound of the confidence in Mikaal's voice. It then occurred to her that she hadn't yet used this opportunity to grill Mikaal with more questions. After weighing whether to be direct or indirect in her head, she recalled that he had been quite receptive to her more straightforward approach, so she asked, "How come you haven't been on Facebook that long?"

"You've been stalking my profile?" Mikaal asked, amusement in his voice.

"No... Okay, sort of," Dalia surprised herself saying. Why she had admitted that so easily, she couldn't be sure, except for the fact that Mikaal was walking in front of her during this narrow part of the trail, so it felt less confronting while he wasn't looking directly at her - or the other fact that Mikaal seemed to have that effect on her, making her feel completely at ease in spite of the worries of her mind or the warnings of others.

"Well, when you have many women you're trying to keep good relationships with, Facebook becomes a dangerous thing..."

"Oh," Dalia said, the wheels of understanding turning in her head - that actually made a lot of sense. It would be much harder to keep multiple girls happy if they were able to know of each other through Facebook. Dalia couldn't help remembering how bothered she was reading the suggestive comments of pretty girls on Mikaal's profile - and she wasn't even in a relationship with him! 'Actually, why did it even bother me...'

"But I'm long past that phase, so that's why I joined recently," Mikaal added quickly.

"Okay," Dalia said in a flat tone, having nothing else to say, once again, conflicted internally by this revelation - it should bother her, deter her from considering a relationship with him, but oddly, it didn't.

It was at this point that they reached the steepest part of the trek that they had come down earlier. Dalia groaned, her legs already complaining in anticipation of the torture to come. While Dalia wheezed through each step, her legs feeling like lead, Mikaal comfortably matched her snail's pace, keeping close behind her.

A little while later, they were rewarded with the same picturesque views from earlier at the crest of the hill - which reminded Dalia of the awful photo Mikaal had taken of her.

"Mikaal, how can I convince you to delete that photo?" she asked, her hazel eyes pleading.

"Take a photo with me," he said a little too quickly.

"Hang on, was this your plan all along?"

"Maybe," he said unapologetically, his lips upturned in a small smile, his green eyes dancing.

Dalia shook her head before saying through a sigh, "Okay," conceding defeat. Although she felt gross, strands of hair stuck to her forehead, hot and sweaty from the two and a half hour walk they had completed so far, anything was better than that picture.

Mikaal moved closer to her with enthusiasm, positioning his Android phone in front of them, holding his left hand at an angle so they could both see themselves clearly in the display. Dalia tried to push away her awareness of his chest resting against her left shoulder, focusing her eyes on the front facing camera and flashing a genuine smile.

"It's a good photo," Mikaal said, allowing her to hold his phone this time as she took a closer look at the picture of them.

Although she didn't disagree, she remained silent, handing his phone back to him as she tried to silence the unwelcome thoughts about how good they looked together.

"I'll send you the photo on Messenger when we get reception," Mikaal said, before he busied himself, swiping his phone screen several times then giving her his phone again. He then instructed her on how to delete a photo on an Android, following through on his promise.

They continued walking after that, twisting through the same trees on thankfully flat ground. Finally, they arrived at their starting point, Dalia collapsing on the shaded bench just in front of the Bibbulman Track sign.

"Thanks, I really enjoyed today," Dalia said with earnestness, feeling exhilarated in spite of the exhaustion.

"Me too," Mikaal said, joining her on the wooden bench.

Dalia reached into the left pocket of her black sweatpants to take out her keys before they walked back to their cars. Frowning, she dug into her other pocket, then took off her red backpack, rummaging through its multiple compartments in motions that grew more frantic. Her heart thudded loudly in her chest as terror rose inside and up to her dry mouth. "Please no..." she said to herself in a quiet, desperate tone.

"What's wrong?" Mikaal asked, turning to face her, his eyes exuding concern.

"Mikaal, I think I've lost my keys..."

---

Hello hello readers new and old!

I really enjoyed writing this scene... Maybe because it reminds me of my hiking adventures with a bestie. If you are in Perth or visit Perth, you should definitely check out this hiking spot - but not alone, because we did get lost!

I hope you enjoyed reading this next instalment. Thank you so so so much for your likes and comments - I'll never say it enough how much they motivate me to keep writing :)

Can't wait for you all to discover more of the story that is to come ;)

-Noelle