by Sandy Barker
And then I saw it. Towards the bottom of my inbox was an email address I didn’t recognise, but a subject line that leapt off the screen. ‘I hope to see you in London soon.’ It was from him! The silver fox had kept his promise and emailed me. My hand trembled a little as I clicked on the message.
Chapter Thirteen
My heart raced as I skim-read the short email, all the while holding my breath. I exhaled and read back through it again, digesting the words.
Dear Sarah,
I am back in London, ensconced in my house, and already missing Greece. More to the point, I miss you. You cross my mind dozens of times a day – and I’ll admit, it has been a long time since I felt any kind of excitement at the thought of seeing someone again. I truly hope you will make time to see me when you arrive in London. I want to see you properly.
Yours,
James
I couldn’t help but read it a third time. This time I lingered on some of the words and phrases – ‘miss you’, ‘excitement’, and ‘properly’ – I wanted to know exactly what he meant by that. And then his sign-off, ‘yours’. Yours! I let out a long sigh.
My mind wandered far outside the confines of the net café. I immediately pictured James in his home in London – it was likely a penthouse with amazing views and expensive furnishings. He was shirtless for some reason and reading the paper while sipping from a mug of tea. He looked delicious.
And then a voice called me back to the net café.
‘Everything okay?’ asked the voice. I snapped out of my daydream and realised that Josh was reading my screen. I was too stunned to speak. Why was he doing that? I gawped at him, my mouth a huge O.
I finally found my voice and half-whispered, ‘What are you doing?’
He shook his head and looked down. ‘Oh, god, I’m so sorry – it was just instinct. You read something and reacted. I thought something bad had happened, and I didn’t even think – I’m so sorry …’ Then he put his face in his hands, reprimanding himself under his breath.
I was torn. Should I reassure him he’d done nothing wrong, or that James’s email didn’t matter? Or, should I completely freak out and run out the door? I wasn’t even mad. I probably would have done the same thing if he’d reacted oddly to something on his screen – it was a human thing to do. But, he couldn’t have read anything worse.
I took a deep breath and patted him on the back. His self-flagellation continued. ‘Josh? Josh, listen, I’m not mad. It’s all right.’ He shook his head. How did I end up in this situation? Consoling one would-be lover, while a message from another would-be lover glared out from the bright screen in front of me? I clicked out of the email and logged out of Gmail.
‘Josh,’ I said more firmly. ‘Look at me.’ He did, sheepishly, and started to apologise again. I cut him off. ‘Hey, don’t worry – it’s cool. I probably would have done the same thing. It is a little awkward,’ I added, trying to make a joke. A wry smile appeared, and he nodded in agreement.
‘Should we talk about it?’ I asked.
‘No. Let’s just go.’ He logged out of his own email account, stood, pushed back his chair, and led the way out of the café.
‘Properly’ – the word repeated inside my head as I followed Josh into the sunlight.
It was going to be an interesting end to the trip.
*
When we arrived at the dock where we had left our boat, it wasn’t there. Josh and I stood looking at an empty berth. We looked at each other, our mouths agape and our eyes wide, and we both burst out laughing as if it was the funniest thing ever.
‘Oh my god!’ we both kept saying, over and over, in between bursts of laughter. I had no idea what to do – and neither, it seemed, did Josh. We didn’t have our phones with us, so we couldn’t call anyone – and we had no idea where the others were, or why they would have left without us. We were boatless. We were people without a boat.
I thanked my foresight to carry my passport with me whenever I left the boat – and a credit card. If I had to – if we actually had been abandoned – I could get myself back to London. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. There must have been a good explanation. Still, when our hysterical laughter died down, we were speechless.
After a while of looking at the water where our boat had been, I shook my head. ‘Josh?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Where the fuck is our fucking boat?’ And then that was then the funniest thing ever, because we were off again, laughing loudly. Tears filled my eyes, and I doubled over. ‘Oh, my god,’ I gasped through the tears. I sniffled and tried to get it together.
‘Right!’ I said, more decisively than I felt. I forced myself to stand upright. ‘This is not a huge island, and this is not a huge marina. We need to find our boat.’ I grabbed Josh’s arms, shook him a little, and said, ‘Josh, we need to find our people.’ He nodded solemnly in agreement.
‘And then we need to kill them for abandoning us.’ That brought his smile back again. And he had such a sexy smile.
I looked around us. ‘Well, we could sit on this bench and hope someone comes looking for us.’ I motioned to the bench, which served as the nearest bus stop.
‘Or get on the next bus to the airport,’ retorted Josh.
‘Does Syros even have an airport?’
‘Probably. I mean it’s the capital of the Cyclades, so I don’t see why not. Santorini has an airport.’
‘Good point. So, you have your passport with you?’
‘Yep. You?’
‘Yep,’ I replied, patting my leather bag. ‘So, let’s say we fly out of here. Where to, exactly?’
‘You could come back to the states with me.’ Well, that escalated quickly. My stomach did a little flip as I contemplated what it would mean.
No. Stomach flips or not, I wasn’t ready for his hometown. His home. His people. ‘Maybe not.’
‘What’s wrong with Chicago?’ Nothing. Chicago was probably a lovely city, but we certainly weren’t at the ‘meet the family’ stage – too many connotations of something more serious. But, I couldn’t say that – we’d only just salvaged out friendship.
I deflected instead. ‘If we’re running away, we don’t want to run home. We want to go somewhere cool – somewhere neither of us has been before.’
‘Good point. What about Hawaii? Have you been there?’
‘No,’ I answered. ‘Never been to Hawaii. You?’
‘Nope.’
‘It’s kind of far. You want to choose somewhere a little closer? Like Spain?’ I’d been to Spain, but I knew Josh hadn’t. It would be fun to go somewhere like that – just us. Without five other people traipsing around with us. As much as I had come to love those five people, they had recently abandoned us.
He grinned at me. ‘That would be incredible. I would totally go to Spain with you.’
And then suddenly all the wordplay and the crazy situation of being people without a boat fell away, and it was only him and me. He stepped towards me, and in one motion he put his hands on the small of my back, pulling me closer, and kissed me.
And it wasn’t one of those tentative I-don’t-know-what-the-hell-I’m-doing-do-you-or-don’t-you-like-me?-I-think-I-like-you kisses. It was a kiss from a man who knew exactly what he was doing and what he wanted. I fell into it like I was falling into a giant pot of warm honey. Delicious.
When we finally pulled apart, I was – for the second time in only minutes – completely speechless. I hadn’t seen it coming, but it felt so right to be in Josh’s arms. And kissing him – wow!
He cocked his head to the side as if to say, ‘What do you think of that?’ I looked him in the eye and said, ‘Very nice, Joshua.’
He smiled. Sexy.
Recovering slightly from our broad daylight romantic interlude, I forced my head back to the situation at hand. ‘I am going to say that they do intend to come back for us at some point, so we probably shouldn’t run away together in case they worry.’
‘You mean like they�
��ve worried us – that we’ll never see them again? That kind of worry?’
‘We’ll see them again, silly. They love us! Come with me.’ I pointed towards the marina as I started walking. Josh fell into step beside me.
‘Or maybe,’ he exclaimed, as though he had worked it all out, ‘they’ve kicked us off the trip, and this is how they decided to tell us.’
‘You’re right. It’s most likely that,’ I replied, deadpan.
We turned onto the pier and were not far along when we saw a man who looked a lot like Gary running towards us, waving madly. When he got closer, it turned out it was Gary. Brilliant. We’d found our people.
‘Hey, you guys,’ he said, coming to a stop in front to us. I noticed he wasn’t even puffing from the running.
‘Hey, yourself,’ I said. I was intrigued about what the explanation could be. I imagined Josh was too, especially as we’d been so close to running away together.
‘I’m glad I found you,’ he said.
‘Well, we kind of found you,’ Josh replied. Yep, I could hear it in his voice – he was waiting for a reasonable explanation.
Gary must have sensed that he needed to get straight to the explaining part, because he did. ‘We’re so sorry if we worried you guys. The harbour master came by and said a berth had opened up at the marina, but if we wanted it, we had to move our boat right then. No waiting for passengers who were elsewhere. Just move the boat or lose the berth.’
‘And we needed that berth, right?’ asked Josh. ‘For water and electricity.’
‘Right – exactly. If we hadn’t moved, we would have been low on water for the sail to Tinos tomorrow morning. Duncan didn’t want to risk it, so I helped him get into the berth, and then he sent me to look for you guys.’
‘It was a bit of a shock to come back to a missing boat,’ I said. Poor Gary looked like he was going to apologise again. I stopped him with a shake of my head. ‘No, look, it’s totally cool. We understand. Thanks for coming and looking for us.’
‘Yeah, no problem. I’ve got to go find Marie and Gerry now.’
‘Oh! We weren’t the only ones?’ I said.
‘No. Only Hannah and I were on board with Duncan. That’s why he needed my help. Anyway, I should get back to where the boat was before Marie and Gerry get there.’
‘Yes, of course – sorry. Go!’ I said. We sent Gary off with another round of thank yous to his back. He waved over his shoulder as he ran down the pier, but didn’t turn around.
‘He’s a good guy,’ I said as we continued down the pier.
‘He is. I like Gary. At first, I was worried he was a bit of a know-it-all …’ I looked over at Josh, and he was quick to follow up with, ‘He’s not. I know that now – he just loves conversation and he knows a lot about a lot of things.’
‘I have to be honest, I haven’t really spent much time talking with him – I mean in groups, yes, but not just the two of us,’ I admitted. ‘I’ve talked a lot with Marie – I adore her.’
‘Yeah, well Gary – he’s a good guy. He’s the kind of guy you would want on your side if anything went wrong, you know? He’d have your back and he’d know what to do.’
‘Like with the disappearing boat thing.’
‘Exactly. Anyway, if you get the chance, seek him out. He’s really interesting.’
‘I will. Hey, did you know they have a big age difference?’
‘Really? Like us?’ he asked, a teasing tone in his voice.
‘Actually, it’s more than with us.’ I poked my tongue out at him, and he laughed. Maybe he was still riding high from that kiss. It was a pretty great kiss.
‘Hey!’ I exclaimed. ‘There’s our boat!’ Duncan was jumping back and forth between the boat and the pier, hooking up various cables. Hannah sat with her feet up on a bench, apparently absorbed in a magazine.
‘Hey, Skipper,’ I called out as I slipped off my flip-flops, picked them up from the pier and stepped carefully up the gangplank.
Josh was right behind me. ‘Need a hand?’ he asked Duncan as he stepped aboard.
‘Yeah, that’d be great. Hand me that cable?’ Josh obliged him.
‘Hey, Hannah.’ She hadn’t looked up, and I wanted to gauge the extent of her hangover before engaging with her further.
‘Oh, hey,’ she said, then flicked the magazine to the next page. I assessed from her rather frosty greeting that the hangover she was nursing was monster-sized. I spied the empty mug beside her.
‘Cup of tea?’ I offered, retrieving the mug.
She looked up at me, squinting behind her sunnies at the bright sun behind me. Her expression softened a little. ‘Oh my god, I would love that.’
‘Coming right up.’ I turned back to Duncan and Josh, who were still working on getting the boat situated. ‘You guys want anything from the galley? Tea, coffee, cold drink?’
‘Is it beer o’clock yet?’ asked Duncan, who was bent over some fixture at the back of the boat.
‘Always, Duncan. It’s got to be five o’clock somewhere.’
‘Then I’ll take a beer,’ he answered, still inverted.
‘Josh?’
‘Yeah, a beer’d be great.’
I heard Hannah moan behind me – probably at the thought of drinking again.
‘Got it – I won’t be a sec,’ I said to the menfolk. To Hannah, I said, ‘Hot tea coming up, Hannah. Hang in there. Do you want toast too?’
‘Mmm, yes please.’ She licked her lips. ‘With lots of butter.’
I went below deck and assembled the odd array of beverages and snacks. Tea and buttered toast for Hannah. Beer and a bowl of salted peanuts for Josh and Duncan, and a Coke No Sugar for me. Okay, the nuts were for me too.
I made it up the ladder without spilling a drop – hot or cold. Hannah practically lurched at the plate of toast and stuffed some into her mouth – I figured I would probably have to make her more.
Duncan opened his beer, took a swig, and sighed out a satisfied, ‘Ahhh,’ as though he was in a beer commercial. ‘So, did Gary find you, or did you find us?’ he asked as he rested against the edge of the boat.
‘Gary found us – but only after we’d thought to head down the pier,’ Josh replied.
‘Yeah, sorry about that. Poor timing with most of us off the boat, but I didn’t want to miss this berth. Would have made for a shitty trip to Tinos tomorrow – pun totally intended.’
‘It’s cool, Duncan. We didn’t think you’d deserted us or anything,’ I said. Josh raised his eyebrows at me, and I laughed. ‘Well, maybe a little at first.’
‘Yeah, that’s a little closer to reality.’ Josh was such a bugger. I poked my tongue out at him. ‘That’s twice,’ he said.
‘What’s twice?
‘You keep poking your tongue out at me. I’m starting to think that either you like me – or you’re in the second grade.’
My first instinct was to poke my tongue out at him. I curbed it. Instead, I sent mock daggers at him through my eyes.
‘Oooh, you’re kinda scary when you’re mad,’ he joked.
Hannah piped in with, ‘I’m guessing that if Sarah really gets mad, she actually is scary.’ Duncan thought that was hilarious, as evidenced by a loud guffaw coming from the top deck of the boat where he was doing boat things.
‘What’s that supposed to mean? Are you turning on me too, roomie?’
Hannah waved me off. ‘You know what I mean. I heard all about that dinner with the rude Ossies from Marie. You don’t put up with anyone’s bullshit. You can own that, you know – it’s something I like about you.’
‘Whaaat? Liddle ol’ mee? Wha, Ima sweet as piah.’ I donned my best Southern accent and batted my eyelashes at her.
She rolled her eyes in reply. ‘Mostly you’re sweet as piah, but if something goes down, you’re the girl I’d want to have my back.’
‘Thanks, Hannah. That’s lovely of you to say.’ We must have been done with touchy-feely time, because she made a sort of squinty-scrunchy face and wen
t back to her magazine.
‘Hey, Duncan!’ Josh called to our skipper, who was now at the bow of the boat.
‘Yo!’ we heard in reply.
‘Have we got plans for dinner – you know, all of us?’ Josh asked.
A mop of blonde hair appeared above us, and Duncan jumped from the top deck to the back deck. ‘I dunno,’ he said. ‘Lots of good places to go on Syros, for sure. Do you think everyone wants to do something together tonight?’
‘I do,’ said Hannah. That surprised me. She seemed a little hot and cold with spending time with the whole group. But then, the other yacht wasn’t in the marina, so it’s not like she was going to hook up with their skipper that night.
‘Yeah, me too,’ Josh said.
‘Me three.’ I put my hand up like we were in school. Maybe it was my near miss with being a person without a boat, but I suddenly craved being with our people, all of us together. Our floating family.
‘Cool. I’ve got a few ideas. I’ll have a think, and we’ll talk to the girls and Gary when they get back. Tee something up – sound good?’
‘Sounds good, Dunc.’ I loved Duncan. He was a good bloke, as we say in Australia. I sat back, sipping my Coke and taking it all in – the briny air, the sun warming my face, the beautiful town of Ermoupoli, my new little family, Josh.
Josh … And then my bugger of a mind made the leap to …
James. And that email. ‘Properly’ indeed.
My mind oscillated between the sexy, quick-witted American, and the worldly, exciting European – also sexy, I might add. I remembered what James had said in the email and felt a twinge in my stomach. He wanted to see me. Did I want to see him?
If I was honest with myself, yes. Yes, I did.
And why wouldn’t I? He was the fairy tale. Tall, mysterious, handsome, rich. Did I believe in fairy tales anymore? Was I Aurora waiting for the prince to awaken me with a kiss?
A kiss.