Much to Danni’s annoyance, I had to fly out two days later than the rest of the gang, meaning I was only going to be in Greece for five days instead of seven. I had work commitments that my boss just wasn’t willing to let me get out of.

Sammy flew out with me, meaning I wasn’t entirely on my own. I was grateful for her being able to make it on the trip. My little sister was someone I could be myself with. She was someone who would keep me company when the loved-up couples were off doing their thing and Danni was working. It meant I wasn’t going to be a total gooseberry on this trip. Even if the thought of some time alone on the beach held more appeal to me than I ever realised it would.

I was learning, slowly but surely, that my own company was pretty decent.

When we got off the plane, collected our luggage and finally made our way through to the arrivals gate, Danni was waiting for us with a bright, white smile on her face, and her long, wavy, golden hair falling free.

She crushed Sammy to her before she straightened up and began to guide us out to the parking area where her little red rental car sat waiting for us.

“What is this thing? It’s the size of a pea,” I joked as I squished the bags into the tiny boot space, and then clambered into the passenger seat while Sammy squeezed into the back and Danni got behind the wheel.

“My agent sorted it for me. It’s free. Quit moaning and buckle up. I’m still not good with this whole driving on foreign roads thing.”

“Now she tells us,” Sammy said, chuckling as she fastened her seatbelt.

She was right, too. Danni wasn’t the best driver. The amount of times she had to brake hard left me with one hand permanently holding the roof while the other hovered over the handbrake, just in case she needed back up.

We finally made it to the villa after around forty minutes, and what felt like seven laps around the Wacky Races course.

“No harm, no foul,” Danni said as she blew out a breath and turned to face me.

“Uh-huh,” was all I could respond with as I remained frozen in place. “Remind me to never, ever, ever let you drive me anywhere ever again.”

“It's good to live dangerously, Del.”

“Kinda like my face when it isn’t attached to the road, Danni, baby.”

She rolled her eyes before she reached for the handle and pushed the door open. “Always so dramatic.”

When I managed to peel myself from the seat, I stretched out my entire body and looked up at the place that was to be my home for the next five days. It was incredible. Whitewashed stone reflected back at me from under the clearest blue sky I’d seen in a very long time. The heat, even though it was only mid-April and far from the height of the season, washed over my face like a blanket of enticing security, instantly making me feel relaxed.

I already felt a world away from reality, and it was only then that I realised how much I’d needed the escape.

“You coming or what?” Danni shouted from the porch of the villa, which was decorated neatly with a collection of vibrant plants, none of which I knew the names of.

Sammy ran after her friend, leaving me to collect the bags by myself. I dragged them along the pebble stone driveway without much fuss, but before I even got to the steps that led up to the villa, Alex came jumping down them with a bright smile on his face to offer a helping hand.

“Let me grab one,” he said, reaching out for Sammy’s big, heavy thing.

“Cheers, mate.” I groaned, letting him take it, even though he was barefoot and wearing nothing but a white V-neck T-shirt and some swimming shorts.

“No problem.” Alex looked at me as we climbed the few small steps. There was a look he always flashed my way. One that kinda said I promise you, I’m not the arsehole you think I am, but it’s okay if you want to believe it. I don’t blame you. It almost made me want to fall in love with the handsome bastard myself. There would have been an element of comfort in hating him. He was making that impossible, though. At this point, I was growing to really like the guy.

“You had a good couple of days?” I asked as he pushed open the front door and guided me into the house.

“It’s amazing here. Suzie and Paul are on form. Nat seems relaxed. Danni is…”

“Manic,” I finished for him as he came to a stop to rest the case against the wall.

“Always.” Alex laughed, just as I heard Natalie’s voice call out my name from somewhere across the villa.

“Marcus. You’re here!” She charged towards me, throwing her arms around my neck and burying her face there. She smelled of chlorine, tanning lotion, and the sun, and for just a single second, I forgot that she wasn’t mine as I embraced her as hard as she was embracing me, closed my eyes, and inhaled slowly.

“Hey,” I said through a smile.

When she pulled back and held on to my arms, I opened my eyes again and took her in. It was ridiculous how beautiful she was. It was even more ridiculous how that beauty seemed to grow every single day. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and she already had the hint of a tan to her skin.

“You were right, Alex,” she eventually breathed out without looking away from me.

“I told you,” he said as he folded his arms across his chest and stared at her face, his smirk growing.

“About what?” I asked, looking between them.

Natalie rolled her eyes as she answered. “I thought you’d make your excuses not to fly out.”

“Oh, ye of little faith,” I gasped.

“Don’t worry, man. I had your back.” Alex slapped a hand on my shoulder before he laughed and walked through the open-plan kitchen and living room—all of which was decorated in white, turquoises and creams. With a smile on his face, he stepped out through two giant floor-to-ceiling glass doors and made his way outside.

“Come on. Let’s go see the others.” Natalie linked her arm through mine as she gave me a brief tour of the main living area of the villa. She eventually took me outside to where Suzie and Paul were lounging around an oval-shaped pool that made me squint. The blue was so bright. Plush grey sunbeds surrounded one side of it, and on the left was a snooker table sheltered under a veranda with a barbeque pit not too far away.

This place was something else.

After being greeted by Suzie and Paul in their usual comedy duo manner, I was told to sit back and relax. So that’s exactly what I did. I took off my T-shirt, fell back onto one of the sunbeds, threw on my sunglasses, and put my hands behind my head as I stared up at the sky.

All I could hear around me were my friends’ chatter and laughter.

It was the closest to happiness I’d been in a long time.

“Has she told you yet?” Paul asked me from the sunbed next to mine. I was half asleep, half awake, teetering on the edge between reality and fantasy as I mumbled a low groan. The warmth of the sun felt like a long lost friend wrapping me up in a hug. It was making me lazy and relaxed.

“Who told me what?” I eventually pushed out, letting my head fall to the side in his direction.

“Danni. Where you’re sleeping.”

My eyes fluttered open as I looked up at him from the tops of my sunglasses. “Where am I sleeping?”

Paul’s grin grew until he was flashing his teeth at me, but he didn’t respond.

“Paul,” I pushed out.

“Oh, Danni…” he eventually shouted across the pool to get her attention. When I followed his gaze, I saw Danni standing on the edge of the pool in nothing more than a white one-piece bathing suit. Her arms were up as she tied her hair into a neat little bun on the top of her head, and I swear, every inch of her golden skin glistened like I was staring at a version of her from the very cover of a magazine. Shit, she was beau— “Marcus wants to know where he’s sleeping,” Paul cried out, cutting me off from my thoughts.

She shook her head at him before she began to walk around the pool to us. When she came to a halt at the side of my bed, it took every ounce of strength I had not to openly stare at her silky smooth thighs.

“You’re a dick, Paul,” she scoffed.

“What’s up?” I asked, turning my head his way instead of hers.

Paul was giving me a funny look. His brow was raised as he continued to stare at me as though I was the only person there and Danni didn’t even exist. “I dunno, Marcus. What is up?” He cast his eyes down to my trousers before he wiggled his eyebrows and huffed out a short burst of laughter.

Motherfuck…

“Get to the point, Harris,” I said, my teeth slightly clenched as I tried to play it cool.

Paul raised his chin towards the sky and closed his eyes. “You’re on the sofa bed,” he told me calmly.

I frowned. The sofa bed was no big deal. “What’s bad about that?”

“Danni. Tell him where the sofa bed is.”

When I turned in the other direction to look back up at Danni, I had to squint against the sunlight, despite the thickness of my Ray-Bans. “Where is it?” I asked her, my voice strained as my neck stretched out.

“In my room.”

“Your room?” My eyes, had she been able to see them, would have looked like they were about to pop out from my head.

“It's huge. It's not like we’re bunk bed buddies.”

“Your. Room.”

“I was going to let Sammy take my bed, then you guys could have shared and I could have had the teeny, tiny box room with the single bed.”

“Share with my sister,” I croaked, scrunching up my nose. “Eww. No.”

“That’s what she said.” Danni slapped her hands on her thighs.

“I can’t share with Sam. That’s… that’s—”

“Weird. I know. She’s filled me in. Don’t worry.” Danni sat down in front of me, her warm, bare thighs brushing my knee, which didn’t seem to faze her one little bit, while I felt a twinge of something embarrassing hit me square in the shorts area.

God, I needed to get laid.

I ran my hand over my forehead without much thought, but it wasn’t long before I heard Paul snort beside me. I had to force myself to ignore him.

Danni seemed completely oblivious to my struggles. “You’ve either got a nice, comfy sofa bed in my room. Or you can take the couch in the living room.”

“There’s nowhere else?” I found myself asking. A night in the same room as Danni was sure to send me over the edge. There was no way I would get any sleep, and if I did, I was pretty sure she would wake up and scream when she saw that my morning wood was making a fucking tent out of the bed sheets.

“No,” she said softly, turning to me with her sad eyes, as though she’d let me down. “Nat and Alex, and Suzie and Paul have got the two other double rooms. I’ve got the third with the double bed and pull-down sofa. Sammy wants the box room.”

“Why can’t I take the box room and Sammy share with you?”

“Umm. Me and Sammy don’t sleep together.” Danni shook her head violently and pressed her lips together before speaking. “She… she won’t sleep anywhere near me.”

“Because Danni is a sleepwalking, sleep talking fruit loop!” Paul said as he burst out laughing.

Danni reached over to slap him hard, but all I saw was her breasts stretching out in front of me, right in my direct line of sight, like the greatest gift a man could ever wish for at a sex-starved banquet.

“Arsehole,” Danni muttered before she sat upright again and cringed in my direction. “He’s right, though. I do. Last time I slept with Sammy, she woke up to find me spooning her, muttering some kind of weird sex fantasy in her ear.”

My eyes widened as I felt myself turning red with built-up tension. The need to just go and relieve myself somewhere was strong. The edges of my vision began to blur a little as I stared at her through my dark glasses and clasped my hands together in front of me.

“It was so embarrassing,” she said, rather sheepishly.

“Mmmhmm,” I mumbled, pressing my lips together and turning blue.

“I licked her ear and everything.”

“Hmm,” I squeaked.

“Maybe I should take the couch and just let you have my room.”

“No,” I found myself saying as I finally allowed myself to exhale in a hurry. Danni’s eyes shot up to try to find mine through my heavy lenses. “No, I’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yup,” I said, popping the P as I tried not to let out a suffocating sound. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

“You could wake up with me on top of you.”

“Uch. Dreadful.”

“Don’t worry, Marcus.” Danni tapped her hand on my thigh before she let it rest there. “I’m not averse to you tying me up if you have to.”

Then she laughed, jumped up, and began to walk away, leaving my eyes to trail her the whole way around the pool. I watched her slip inside the villa like she didn’t have a care in the world while I sat there motionless, forgetting how to breathe.

Danni hadn’t been lying when she said the room we were sharing was huge. A king-sized bed hugged the back wall while a huge, bright blue rug that was at least the same size as the bed rested on the marble floor in front of it. A TV was mounted on the opposite wall with a sofa bed running underneath it. My bed for the next five nights.

After shoving my suitcase into one corner, opting to live out of that rather than go to the trouble of unpacking, I opened up the doors and went to stand out on the small veranda, looking out at the ocean.

“Don’t mind me,” Danni huffed out as she walked into our room, pulling her long, wet hair over to one side as she flashed me a smile. I glanced at her from over my shoulder as she reached into a cupboard for a towel before she pointed a finger in the direction of the en-suite we were now sharing. “Just going to freshen up before tonight.”

“What’s happening tonight?”

“We’re going to do a little dancing.” She swung her hips slowly, making me swallow the small lump in my throat as I tried not to focus on the place where her swimsuit ended and the skin on her thighs began. “There’s this small beach I want to take you guys to. Some of the locals have a bit of a thing going on there. It’s a pre-season warm up, get to know each other gig. One of the guys from the local mini market invited me earlier. Told me to bring my friends.”

I grinned harder as I met her gaze. “Sounds perfect.”

“It’s a night with me! Of course it’s going to be perfect.” Then she sashayed away, locking herself in the bathroom while I turned and leaned against the wall, trying hard to blink away the silhouette of her body that was now imprinted on the backs of my eyelids.

Three hours later, after eating a mean dinner that the girls had prepared for us, we were heading down to the sandy beach of Koroni as the moonlight reflected off the dark ocean and the springtime insects of this beautiful country began to sing around us in a hypnotic song.

The only unnatural light around us was from the single taverna that sat proudly on the idyllic coved beach. Their speakers played soft Greek music out to the small gathering, and the twinkling fairy lights on the railings of the veranda had the girls oohing and aahing at how picturesque and beautiful it looked.

It wasn’t the height of summer yet, so I’d opted for a pair of jeans, some trainers, and a long-sleeved blue T-shirt for the night. Everyone was dressed down for the occasion, and as we walked onto the cool sand, each of us with a bag full of booze, blankets, and jumpers in hand, I realised just how relaxed everyone seemed.

Maybe it was the foreign country.

Maybe it was the natural elements that were giving us an unfamiliar high.

Maybe it was because we were all together—friends reunited for something other than bad news or circumstances.

Whatever it was, gratitude took over. They hadn’t needed to take me back in, but they’d done so anyway. There was something to be said for people who refused to give up on you, even when you gave them every reason that existed to walk away.

The night got started quickly and without much fuss. Some of the locals came over to greet us after we’d settled on a collection of blankets and made a social circle for ourselves. Their thick accents and enthusiasm for the upcoming season made all of us feel welcome. I learned a lot about the way they operated. About how they viewed the tourists who visited their small towns with both love and hate. About how they, more than anyone, appreciated the smaller, more unnoticeable things in life, like spending time with good friends and the sound of laughter around a dinner table, seeing the smile on someone’s face when they were sunbathing, listening to nothing but the ocean waves in front of them. How they enjoyed seeing families together without the stresses of everyday life getting in their way. How they got to see the best of humanity because when people are a world away from responsibility, they let their guards down and showed their true selves.

Paul was on good form as usual, making the locals laugh with his wit and charm. Danni was in the spotlight, although she never really, truly seemed to notice the way every single man stared at her in her tight-fitting blue jeans and her loose, white vest as she spun around in circles, dancing with Suzie, Sammy, and Nat. Alex, for the most part, stayed standing on the outer edges of the crowd, never being rude or aloof, just always too busy watching his girlfriend being happy. His legs were always parted as he stood there with one hand in his pocket, his other hand holding his beer, his smile ever present, taking Nat in like he couldn’t believe she was really his.

It was in those moments of people-watching that I began to wish that something could have worked out with Alice and me. Despite the way she’d left the apartment that night and the ridiculous demands she’d put on me, I still couldn’t forget that she had, in fact, told me the one thing I’d never hear her say again.

She loved me.

There were times when I saw the way Paul and Suzie looked at each other, the way Nat and Alex moved in time together, and I wondered if Alice had been my one shot at having that kind of love in my life. Was I being the biggest idiot in the world letting her go?

Was I a fool for refusing to waste years of my life just waiting?

As the beer took over and the night wore on, my thoughts of Alice became too much, forcing me to push up from the blanket and head to the shoreline. The ocean was something I would never tire of. There was a beauty to it. A majestic power in the way the crackle, the hiss and the fizz reverberated around you, playing its part in the giant snow globe we called Earth. Whenever I stood before it, imagining how deep it went, how many different hearts beat beneath the surface, and how much life remained hidden in there, I always felt so small.

Insignificant.

But it was good. It was a reminder that life was bigger than me, and not everything had to be seen to be understood. Some things had to be left to the imagination. Some things had to remain a mystery in order to survive.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Nat wheezed out as she came to a stop beside me after a small jog across the beach.

“Incredible.”

“I sometimes wish I could pack everyone I love up in a suitcase and take them across the world with me so every one of us could experience views like this every day of our lives.”

I let my head fall to one side to look at her. She was wearing the same serene expression on her face as I was as she watched the moonlight bouncing off the surface of the sea. In all the time I’d spent with her, I’d never seen her look so relaxed. It made me smile even more. I guess that’s when you knew you truly loved someone—when their happiness came before your own.

“You’re going to have a good life, Natalie.”

Her eyes met mine before she spoke. “We both are.”

“But now… now is your time. You deserve it.”

“It’s yours, too. You just have to believe it.”

“I don’t know about that,” I said through a weak smile.

Natalie huffed out a small, barely there laugh before she shook her head and smiled flatly. “You don’t see yourself clearly. You don’t realise how much you deserve it, too. You just need to figure out who you want to be. You have to open yourself up. Allow yourself to be vulnerable again. Don’t be cautious. That’s never been you. Go on adventures. Make mistakes. See places. See the world. If you don’t try to see as much as you can, how are you going to know what it is that you really want?”

I stared at her, the smile slowly falling from my face as I began to understand just how much she’d grown in our time apart. She was right. Being cautious wasn’t who I was. It never had been. But I couldn’t bring myself to tell her exactly how afraid I was at that point in my life. Having freedom is only exciting when you’re not afraid of getting lost.

“I’ll figure it out.”

“I know you will.” She smiled. “It’s what you do. For some reason, I know you’ll always be okay.”

“Permission to ask for a refund on life if you get it wrong?”

Natalie laughed. “Everything will change, and soon, you won’t care about being careful.”

She reached up to give my arm a squeeze before she spun around and jogged back to the rest of the gang, leaving me staring back out at the water, knowing that whenever you felt stuck, it probably meant it was time to make a major change.