As night fell over the island I had all the time in the world to reflect on the mistakes that had led to me being in this situation in the first place.

I knew that Jessie was only a few hundred meters away but she might as well have been back in Buenos Aires or up there on the Moon that hung silently in the sky so high above me.

We had never felt closer yet so far apart. Every grain of sand between us could have been a kilometer wide and it wouldn’t have made any difference.

To top it all off, my camp was a disaster and so was hers. The temperature was starting to drop a lot more than I had expected and my light clothing wasn’t going to keep me very warm.

Jessie was in an even worse situation than I was, as she only had a flimsy t-shirt on. It might even still be wet from when we had got shipwrecked.

I looked up at the Moon, as though expecting to find the answers to my problems engraved on it. To be honest, the answers came from a lot closer to home, as I truly listened to my heart for the first time in my life.

It felt like some sort of miracle as I finally began to feel as though I understood myself. I wasn’t the rough, tough guy that I had been pretending to be. It was just some stupid part I had given myself and that I no longer knew how to escape from.

I felt some sort of indefinable emotion bubble up inside me as I thought about how I could make things right against with Jessie if only I could find my real self and my genuine personality. She was perfect for me and I had risked it all by being stupid and thinking only of shallow things.

It was so clear to me as I looked up at the dark sky over the island that I had done it all wrong from the very first second that I had laid my eyes on her. I had to admit that I had been doing everything all wrong for longer than I cared to think about.

Strangely, I felt a sense of liberation rather than regret when I thought about my mistakes. If I could admit them to myself then maybe, just maybe, I could do something to fix them as well.

Making things right again wasn’t going to be easy. Jessie might never feel able to relax with me again after what I had done and the attitude I had shown. Yet, I had to give it a try to see if she felt able to forgive me.

As soon as the ideas were clear in my head I knew that I had to act that very night, before old fears and bad habits stopped me from doing so. I had wasted far too much time already to be able to give myself the luxury of hanging around and waiting for the perfect moment before acting.

It was probably around midnight or now, or maybe even later, but I knew that she was as wide awake as I was.

I walked over to her camp and saw that she wasn’t there. She was down on the beach where the water was washing over her feet.

Jessie was staring up at the sky as well. When she saw me she sat up straight, seemingly prepared for another fight or at least an argument. That was how our relationship had always worked, wasn’t it?

I sat down on the sand beside her. Jessie looked even more alluring than normal in the moonlight and with only the gentle sounds of waves running on to the sand to listen to.

We sat in silence for a moment. The mood seemed perfect and I didn’t want to spoil it with a clumsy choice of words. She had pulled my t-shirt down over her knees and looked so sweet and innocent that I had to fight back a lump in my throat before I could speak.

“Jess, I’m sorry for…well, everything really.”

“For being a spoiled, heartless little brat?”

“Yeah, especially for that.”

“And for getting me stranded out here due to being selfish and thoughtless?”

“Yup, that too.”

“And for seducing me on your yacht?”

“Um, that no so much.”

We sat in silence for a bit longer, it was a far more comfortable silence now, though. It felt as though the heavy sense of awkwardness that had hung over us had disappeared at a stroke. Was this going to be so easy after all?

Our bodies were almost touching and I tentatively put an arm around Jessie’s shoulders. She was cold but her body felt just right when leaning against mine. She didn’t pull away, so I was going to claim that as my first small victory in the battle to win her back.

“Do you want to stay in my camp tonight?”

She was looking out to sea so I couldn’t read the expression on her face after I had asked the question.

“Hell no.” She turned around sharply to look at me. “Your camp is even worse than mine.”

“So, invite me over to yours then.”

“Do you want to stay in my camp tonight?”

“Uh huh.”

The silenced carried on for a few minutes more then she stood up and held her hand out me. After walking together to our new joint camp we sleep, with our bodies almost but not quite touching.

We were making progress but there was no doubt that they were still issues to smooth out before we could look ahead to the future with any degree of confidence.

“Do you think that a man like me could ever…win a girl like you?”

“I don’t know. What is a man like you like? I mean, what are you really like, under the billionaire bluster and the fake arrogance?”

I closed my eyes and tried to find the answer deep within me. I could almost touch it but I couldn’t yet put it into words. Who was I really? The answer moved closer and closer until I could see it at last.

“I’m just like you, Jess.”

“In what way?”

I shrugged even though I knew that she couldn’t see me in the darkness.

“I just need to love and be loved. I have weaknesses-“

“A lot of weaknesses.”

“I have a lot of weaknesses and, hey, a few good points too.”

“Such as?”

“Such as…” I closed my eyes again. This was incredible. She gave me the time and the space to find the answers within me. Was it going to work again?

Maybe 10 minutes passed. It is hard to keep track of time when you are cut off from the world and can only feel the wet sand and the silky smooth hand of the woman that you think you are falling in love with.

“Such as my desire to make the world a better place. Such as the genuine love I feel for you. Such as the way I want to make you happy more than anything else I have ever done. Did I mention that I make some mean pancakes?”

“With bananas?”

“Maple syrup, I’m afraid.”

“Ah well, it’s something I guess.”

“What are your good points, Jess?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been searching for them but I can’t quite seem to catch them in the light long enough to examine them.”

“Let me tell you then.”

“Please do.”

“Okay, so Jess is a kind generous woman who worries more about other people than about herself.”

“How could you possibly know that? It’s just a wild guess by a crazy, sleep-deprived, and shipwrecked man.”

“No. I can tell just by looking at you and listening to you. How you cared for your brother, how you have tried to make me a better person. How you have such a big heart.”

“No-one’s ever noticed any of those things in me before. I’m not even sure they really exist at times.”

“They’re easy to spot if you take the time to look. I saw them right away when I finally decided to look for them. Sorry, it took me a while to work it out.”

Finally, I felt we had advanced enough for me to put my hand on her head and stroke her wonderfully unruly hair. It was wilder than ever but somehow more adorable too. I would love to wake up and see that hair every single morning for the rest of my life.

“You’ve got great hair too.”

“Ah, I recommend swimming in the salty ocean and then sleeping on the sand in the wild for a few days to get the perfect coiffure.”

“You really go the extra mile for your image, don’t you?”

We sat down there, talking and joking until we were virtually falling asleep in each other’s arms. Something had changed in the world that night and it could never go back to being the same as it was before.

The island no longer seemed like a prison either. Now it was a place where we could really be ourselves, free from the pressures of trying to maintain our imagines or be what other people wanted us to be.

I fell asleep with a lighter heart and a freer mind that I had felt in years, possibly ever.

When I woke up in the morning Jessie was gone.