by Sandy Barker
Duncan and Stuart had arranged for all of us to have dinner together that night – except Patricia (again). Duncan had chosen a restaurant he’d been to many times before, and when we arrived, he was greeted with lots of fanfare by an effusive Greek woman with very dark curly hair and warm brown eyes. She regarded the large group and waved her hands dramatically at the waiters, indicating for them to move tables together so we could sit at one long table – family style.
We stood out of the way as tables were lifted above heads, chairs moved two at a time, and place settings reset. When everything was in place, the woman smiled and told us to ‘Sit, sit, sit,’ as she bustled about giving us menus.
I sat with Josh to the left of me, Marie to my right with Gary next to her. Hannah was across from Marie, with Gerry next to her and Duncan on her right. On the other side of Josh was one of the women from the other boat, a petite, redheaded American named Kiersten.
Kiersten was the only one from her boat who wasn’t vying for the attention of her skipper during dinner. Instead, all her energies were directed at Josh, and it was quite entertaining watching it all unfold. She was behaving as though she’d been at sea for months with nary a male in sight, rather than on a boat for one whole night and one whole day. And she was ploughing through the white wine like it was water.
The flirtations began as giggles – everything Josh said was hilarious, even when he wasn’t saying it to her – and then she ratcheted it up a few notches by adding hair twisting and licking her lips a lot. All the while, she was getting drunker.
When she put her hand on Josh’s thigh, he jumped in his chair, then scooched it so close to mine, our elbows bumped while we ate. Marie, Hannah, Gerry and I watched this spectacle while swapping amused looks.
‘So, Hannah, how do you like the calamari?’ I asked, as though nothing weird was happening to my left.
‘Hmm. I can do the whole Greek salad thing, but I can’t say I’m particularly into the rest of Greek food so far.’ Her face scrunched up as she looked up and down the table at the array of dishes.
I shook my head at her. ‘You’re gonna be pretty hungry for the rest of the trip if we don’t find you something you like.’
Marie tried to help. ‘Goat?’ she asked, passing Hannah a plate piled high with roasted goat meat. Hannah’s face went from scrunched to contorted, and Marie put the goat back where it had come from. She looked at me with a smile. ‘I guess not.’
Just then Kiersten laughed loudly and Josh practically climbed onto my lap. ‘You alright there?’ I asked him quietly.
‘Not really,’ he said, pointedly. ‘Please help me,’ he added in an urgent whisper.
I made eye contact with him. ‘Seriously?’
‘Yes.’
‘Like, how much help do you want?’
‘A large amount of help.’
‘Like, “pretend to be your girlfriend” level of help?’
‘Yes. Please.’
I looked over at Marie, who was listening in. ‘Can you please hand me the goat?’
She passed it over, and I made a huge show of putting some on Josh’s plate. ‘Here you go, babe,’ I said loudly enough for almost everyone at the table to hear. ‘You wanted to try the goat, right?’
Josh caught on. ‘Sure, honey. Thanks.’ I took a piece of tomato from his plate with my fingers, and put it in my mouth, licking my fingers seductively.
We smiled at each other, and I added a cute little nose wrinkle to really seal the deal. Kiersten watched me agog. I winked at her and kept eating. She didn’t miss a beat, suddenly turning her attention to her left and laughing at Stuart’s last comment, something she couldn’t possibly have heard. She was a professional-level flirter, I had to give her that.
‘How’s that?’ I asked.
‘I think it did the trick. Thanks.’
‘Any time, compadre.’
Later that night, Hannah, Josh and I were sitting on the front deck of the boat, sipping some of Hannah’s Scotch – straight up, no ice – from plastic cups. After we told her about the liquor prices at the store, she’d rushed over to buy some.
‘I kept thinking, “What’s going to happen here? Do you want to have sex with me? Where would we even do that? We’re both living on boats – and sharing cabins!” I mean, seriously, what the hell was she thinking?’ Josh was obviously still reeling from Kiersten’s overt sexual pursuit.
‘Well, maybe she thought we all wanted dinner and a show,’ replied Hannah. She and I both laughed while Josh glared at us.
‘Oh, come on,’ I teased, ‘it was funny.’ When he didn’t respond, I added, ‘What? Too soon?’
‘Okay, I’m going to bed.’ He got up to leave.
‘Nooo. Sit. We’re only teasing you,’ I said, tugging on his hand.
‘It’s all good. I’m just tired. Thanks for helping me out, Sarah. And thanks for the Scotch, Hannah.’
We waved him off with, ‘You’re welcome,’ and ‘Goodnight.’
When he was below deck, Hannah topped up my drink and said quietly, ‘He likes you, you know?’
‘Josh? No. We’re friends – that’s all.’
‘He does. I’ve seen him watching you when you’re not looking.’ I shook my head. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear. Even if I was attracted to him – which since the bare torso incident, I realised I was – I didn’t want it to be reciprocated. Because it would mean that something could happen. And I didn’t want anything to happen. I’d sworn off men for a good reason, and I wasn’t going to get my heart tangled up in a stupid holiday romance, especially with someone who was becoming a friend.
No way. Hannah was wrong.
Chapter Five
Hannah was right.
After she mentioned it the night before, my senses went on high alert for any sign of attraction from Josh. We made it all the way through breakfast the following morning without so much of a whisper of it, and I nearly convinced myself Hannah had imagined it, but then he did something that changed my mind.
We were about to set sail for Naxos. Josh was seated in the dining nook fiddling with his camera, and I had just finished cleaning up after breakfast with Marie. As I walked past, he grabbed my hand and said, ‘Hey.’ Tingles shot up my arm. ‘Come ’ere.’ He pulled me gently towards him, and I obeyed. ‘Let me see.’ He turned me slightly and looked at my hip.
Part of my tattoo was peeking out from my waistband, and I realised he was asking to see the rest. Without a word, I pulled the waistband down a couple of centimetres, revealing the tiny spray of cherry blossoms.
‘I like it,’ he said, looking up at me with those steel grey eyes. I felt a twinge in my stomach and another one further below.
I righted my shorts and replied, ‘Thanks,’ as nonchalantly as I could. Then I went up on deck before he gave me any more twinges. Twinges were not good when you were trying to stay ‘just friends’ with someone.
Marie, who had seen the whole thing from the kitchen, joined me on deck shortly after. She raised her eyebrows at me – not like she was being judgemental, but more like, ‘what’s going on with you two?’ I shrugged my shoulders at her. I had no bloody idea.
‘You know,’ she said in a low voice, ‘Gary is a younger man.’ She emphasised ‘younger’.
‘Oh?’ She certainly didn’t look older than Gary. It also didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out where she was going with all of this.
‘Yes, and he pursued me for a long time before I gave in.’
‘Gave in?’
‘Uh huh. I resisted because I’m ten years older than him.’
‘Wow. You don’t look older than Gary.’ I figured I should pay the woman a compliment; whatever she was doing to look after herself was working. ‘So, can I ask how old you are?’
‘I’m forty-eight.’
‘Marie, you seriously don’t look forty-eight. I would have said you were only a little bit older than me.’
‘Thanks.’ She smiled. ‘I think it’s being with a youn
ger man that keeps me young. They have a lot of energy.’ She raised her eyebrows at me again, and this time I laughed. ‘Look, this really isn’t any of my business. I’ll butt out,’ she added.
But I was quickly learning that when eight people live on a fifteen-metre boat, everything becomes everybody’s business and, besides, I didn’t want her to butt out. I wanted advice. ‘No, you don’t need to. I mean, I don’t know what to do here. I’m not looking for anything – casual or otherwise – and it’s not like we can spend any real time together if you know what I mean.’ I paused. ‘Though I do like him …’
‘And he’s so handsome,’ she interrupted.
It was my turn to raise my eyebrows at her. ‘Really?’
‘A blind woman could see that Josh is a good-looking man.’
‘A good-looking younger man,’ I said, bringing us full circle.
‘Look, you don’t need to decide anything right now. Enjoy the flirtation. If something happens, let it.’
‘But—’
‘No buts. You can’t control everything, Sarah, especially feelings.’
I considered what she’d said. I did like to control things. Maybe that’s why the whole thing with Josh was messing with my head – and other parts of me. I didn’t want any kind of romantic entanglement with him – or with anyone – and I did not want anything happening in such close proximity to six other people.
*
The sail to Naxos was incredible. Unlike our trip to Ios, we could sail the whole distance without power, and for most of it the boat was at a forty-five-degree angle. I had to wedge myself into the galley to make a ploughman’s lunch of tzatziki, bread, tomatoes, olives and feta. Josh helped to ferry the dishes to everyone who was up on deck, which was everyone except Patricia. She was still sleeping. Shocker, I know.
After sending Josh up with six plates – one at a time – I negotiated the ladder myself and popped out into a mist of briny sea spray. It was one of those moments you read about in travel magazines, with the sun bright in the sky, and the sounds of the mainsail snapping against the wind and the hull smacking into the waves.
With a little difficulty, I settled onto a bench next to Marie and held on to the railing with one hand while I ate with my plate balanced on my lap. She smiled at me as she finished a bite. ‘This lunch is delicious. Thank you so much!’
‘Of course! It’s my pleasure.’
‘Gary and I’ll do the grocery shopping next time, and we’ll do the lunch prep. That way we all get a chance to help out.’
‘Sounds perfect, Marie.’ I shoved a huge blob of tzatziki into my mouth with a piece of bread. It was delicious, and I moaned with pleasure at the taste.
‘I told you it was good!’
I had literally bitten off more than I could chew, so it was a while before I could reply. ‘I could happily drown in a vat of this stuff.’ She laughed, and I took another bite of bread piled up with tzatziki. I was blissfully in love with life.
‘You know,’ she said, leaning closer, ‘I’m worried I may have been a little too nosy this morning.’
I immediately looked up to see who might be listening to us. Even though Marie was right next to me, it was a small space and not really the best place to have a private chat. Josh was deep in conversation with Gary and Gerry, something about studying abroad. Hannah appeared to be reading a fashion magazine, which was an incredible feat considering the angle of the boat and the whipping wind. And Duncan was, of course, skippering the boat. Still, I lowered my voice.
‘You don’t need to apologise. You’re just looking out for me, and I enjoy talking to you. It’s one of the reasons I booked this trip – to meet new people. And I think we have a great group here.’
‘I agree. We do. Even if one of us is a little, um, challenging.’ I didn’t need to ask who she was referring to.
‘I mean, can you imagine being on the other boat with all of those flirty women?’ I asked.
She laughed. ‘God no! I wouldn’t want them anywhere near Gary, either. That one from last night, the redhead, she seemed hell-bent on getting together with Josh.’
‘Yeah, poor guy.’
‘Well, as long as I didn’t overstep earlier …’
‘You didn’t. We’re good.’
She took the last bite of her lunch and signalled she was taking the dish below deck. She navigated the short distance carefully, stopping to take Gerry’s and Gary’s plates, then disappeared below. I went back to my own lunch, and right as I took another big bite, Josh caught my eye.
He’d pushed his sunglasses down onto the bridge of his nose and was looking over them. He smiled at me and then slid them back into place. Damn those twinges. I promised myself to rein it all in – all of it. The attraction, the flirting, everything.
*
After docking at the marina in Naxos, Duncan took us to a scooter rental place. I did my absolute best to convince the man with the scooters that a passport was as good as a driver’s licence, but he wasn’t having any of it – not even when I offered a large deposit. I was going to have ride on the back of someone else’s – and that person was going to have to rent a bigger scooter. With the two couples sharing and Patricia off at the nearest bar, it came down to Hannah and Josh.
And when Hannah said, ‘I don’t know how confident I would be riding a 70CC. I’ve only ridden a 50CC scooter before,’ I did nothing to assure her that she’d be fine and that there was barely a difference between the two.
Nope. I kept quiet and looked at Josh, who didn’t miss a beat. ‘You can ride with me,’ he said.
And envisioning sitting behind him on a scooter, my legs straddling him, my arms wrapped around his waist, I said, ‘Okay,’ and then followed it up with a slightly too enthusiastic ‘Thanks!’ A niggling thought about keeping things platonic raised its head. I shushed it.
The ‘who’s riding with who’ thing settled, we donned our helmets, climbed onto our respective scooters, and followed Duncan and Gerry out of the town and up into the hills. It was getting late in the day, but Duncan wanted to take us to a vantage point where we could look out over the town and the marina.
We pulled off the road and took in the view. Like Santorini and Ios, Naxos was magnificent, especially with the sun low in the sky, streaking the rugged landscape with broad strokes of pink and orange. Unlike the previous islands, however, Naxos tugged at my heartstrings a little. It felt almost like a homecoming.
‘Tomorrow we’ll head out after brekkie and explore the whole island. There are lots of ruins, and nice little towns to see. We’ll get lunch in one of ’em – I know a great place. You’ll love it.’
We got back on our scooters – I placed my hands as chastely as possible on Josh’s waist – and headed back to the marina. As we were keeping the scooters overnight, we lined them up next to our boat. Duncan grabbed a heavy chain from the boat, ran it around all the scooters, and padlocked them together; he’d clearly done this before.
I suddenly realised how hungry I was. ‘Duncan! What’re we doing for dinner tonight?’ Duncan hadn’t led us astray yet when it came to food. We were welcomed everywhere we went – he seemed to know everyone on the islands – and the food was always excellent. Fresh, tasty, authentic and delicious. I was in foodie heaven. He proved himself again that night when we settled in at a waterfront café for pizzas, sans Patricia of course.
Although it was a departure from the traditional Greek fare we’d been enjoying, the café didn’t disappoint. I devoured a whole pizza to myself – without any self-consciousness and without any remorse. I thought about it briefly afterwards, realising how freeing it was not to berate myself over something I ate, or to calculate it in terms of how much cardio I would have to do to negate it. I hadn’t thought about calories or working out in days. It felt good.
After dinner, there was some discussion about what to do next. Most of the others wanted to go to a bar Duncan had mentioned, but I was keen to get back to the boat. I’d slept better the night bef
ore than I had for days, thanks to Hannah’s sleeping pills, but I was still catching up, and I wanted a chilled-out evening. ‘I’m going to head back,’ I said to the group.
‘I’ll come with you,’ replied Josh. My stomach flip-flopped, and I looked at the others. The guys didn’t seem to care what was going on with Josh and me, but Marie and Gerry exchanged a look, and Hannah’s expression soured. I didn’t know what else to say, so I turned on my heels and started walking away. ‘Have a great night,’ I called over my shoulder. It didn’t take long for Josh to catch up.
‘Hey, wait up.’ He fell into step beside me.
‘Good pizza, huh?’ I was really going to have to work on my conversation skills.
‘Yeah. Seriously good pizza.’ So was he.
We both fell silent, and I became overly aware of the lack of conversation. Since we’d met, we’d done nothing but talk – books, movies, travel, family, life, the universe, everything – and suddenly I was struggling to find anything to say. Apparently, my hormones had rendered my brain useless.
Then I realised it was the first time we’d been alone since he’d done the flirty thing with my tattoo. My senses went on high alert. Was he going to make a move? And if he did, would I let him? When we arrived at the boat, Josh offered to make us a drink. Was that a good idea, or the worst idea ever?
‘Sounds good,’ I said, even though I was leaning towards it being the worst idea ever. ‘I’ll wait up here,’ I heard myself say, trying to do what I’d promised myself – rein it in. Because all I could think of was being naked with him on his bunk, and I knew that was far less likely to happen if we didn’t go anywhere near his cabin.
I carefully climbed onto the top deck of the boat, directly over the dining nook and the galley, and got settled on the inflatable dinghy. I’d found the spot a couple of days before when I was looking for a comfy place to read. A few minutes later a cup appeared over my shoulder, and I gratefully took it. I had a sip while he sat beside me. ‘You make a hell of a G&T, you know.’