In his defense, mind you, he’d opened up a lot in the last two days. Yesterday, he had been down to try anything and hadn’t shied away from visibly enjoying himself. But that had just been one day.
A small part of my mind reminded me how much I’d enjoyed seeing him like that, knowing it was my influence at play. I didn’t just like it—I’d loved it. It filled me with a strange sense of satisfaction.
Ugh; I wassoconfused.
“Lily,” Nigel called from behind me.
I turned in my seat to find him approaching me with Mark, Will, and three girls.
“Morning,” I said, forcing a cheery voice.
“These are the new roommates,” he gestured to the girls. They were all cute, and while probably younger than me, they at least looked like they had a few years on the guys.
“Hi,” the dark-haired one said. “Nigel said you were American, too.”
“We are,” I said.
“We?” she arched a brow.
“Oh, me and the guy I’m traveling with—Harrison. He still hasn’t woken up yet.”
“We’re about to grab breakfast and then catch the ferry to Mykonos. You have to come,” Nigel said.
“That does sound like fun,” I admitted.
It was obvious that Harrison wasn’t dying to go anywhere with these guys, but after yesterday,Iwasn’t dying to be alone with him. Biting my lip, I stared at the door to our room. Should I wake him up? Go without him? My gut told me he would be pissed if I went with the second option. And although everyone seemed normal enough, I probably shouldn’t wander off alone with a group I barely knew. Still... the chance to get away from him for the day and avoid dealing with my embarrassment wasverytempting.
“I’ll go,” I said, still not sure what to do about Harrison.
Just then, the door to our room opened. Harrison stepped out, wearing a simple white T-shirt and black shorts. Something flickered across his face when he saw me standing there, but vanished when he noticed the rest of the group.
“Morning, handsome,” Nigel called. “You ready to go to Mykonos?”
“I can’t believeyou were going to go without me. Do you know how stupid that would have been?” Harrison said in a low, irritated voice as we took our seats on the ferry. The rest of the group from our hotel was already seated a few rows ahead of us.
“I wasn’t going to go without you.”
“Really?” He leaned in, eyebrows raised, and nerves swirled in my stomach. “Then why were you all standing around ready to go when I walked out?”
“I was going to get you,” I insisted, although internally I had been debatingnotdoing just that.
His gaze hardened. “You’re lying.”
“What does it matter?” I asked as the ferry started to move. “We’re both here now.”
“It matters because I need to be sure you’re not going to run off on me just because things got a little complicated last night.”
My pulse quickened and I looked away. The ferry swayed back and forth as it moved through the water with surprising speed.
“Hey.” Harrison’s voice was much softer this time, which just made it that much more impossible to meet his eyes. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. Just know that I really don’t want anything to change between us. I’m... I’m having fun with you. Just like you wanted. We’re only halfway through this trip and I really don’t want that to stop now.”
“I don’t want it to stop either.” The butterflies in my stomach were getting a lot more aggressive.
After a minute, he let out an exasperated sigh. “You can’t even look at me.” His voice was a mix of disappointment and frustration.
“Yes, I can,” I insisted, briefly meeting his eyes before proving his point and ducking my head again. I lifted my tiny crossbody bag onto my lap, eager to pull my phone out for adistraction. But as soon as I felt the weight, I realized it was too light.
“Shit,” I said, rummaging through the contents. It was useless. I knew without even looking that my phone wasn’t in there. Images flashed in my mind of me setting it down on one of the small tables by the pool. I had been so flustered when the group approached me, and then when Harrison came outside, I had completely forgotten to grab it. Now I could only hope that Maria would find it and get it back to me later.
