“God that feels good,” he said. He looked over at me and put his hands on his hips. I nodded at him stupidly. He was almost naked now, apart from those tight boxer brief things he was wearing, that didn’t leave much to the imagination, I might add. And then suddenly, a loud whistle pierced the air. We both turned at the same time to find a policeman staring at us.
“No fires on the beach!” the policeman yelled and moved towards us.
“Shit!” I looked at Alex and then, as if we were both thinking the exact same thing, we ran!
12 April
Dear Diary,
I have thought about it overnight. And this will be my last entry. I want to assure you that this has nothing to do with you, it is all me. Well, it’s all Matt to be honest. I can no longer write about him like this. This book is a record of our relationship—or lack thereof—and I have to stop it. I have to move on. I have to do something to get over Matt, and soon, because I do not know how much more my heart can take.
No more later. Goodbye. Forever.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
We ran as fast as we could down the beach, laughing hysterically as we went. Alex was in his underwear, which only made the whole thing funnier. This was not how I imagined a doctor behaving. Somehow you always thought of doctors as superhuman, people that were separate to us mere mortals. Not half-naked, drunk arsonists that ran away from the police.
“Stop!” the policeman shouted at us, and we picked up speed. The sand was soft and uneven, and this, coupled with my stiff knees and not-so-sober mood, meant that instead of running, I was swaying clumsily from side to side as I went. Alex grabbed me by the arm and increased his running speed. I could barely keep up.
“Where should we go?” I asked in between massive breaths.
“Hotel!” Alex made a sharp turn and left the beach, and then, without warning, he pulled me to the ground and crouched behind a bush.
“Shhh,” he said, trying not to laugh.
I nodded. We both covered our smiles and tried to push the laughter down as the confused-looking policeman ran past us. We watched him go and as soon as he was out of sight, we looked back at each other and burst out laughing again. Even in my current state I knew this was going to be one of those moments that only appears funny when under the influence of serious amounts of alcohol. This was the kind of moment that, when I woke up sober in the morning, I would seriously facepalm at.
Once our maniacal laughter had tapered off and our breathing returned to normal, we started walking back to our hotel together.
“Where’s your room?” he asked when we finally got there.
“Number five.”
We walked into the fancy reception area and Alex gave me a little shoulder nudge. “Act normal,” he whispered.
“You’re in your underwear,” I pointed out.
“I know.” We both smiled and waved as we walked past the receptionists. One looked up and gave us a strange look, but then looked back down quickly. As soon as we were clear of them, we glanced at each other again and laughed. We ran down the corridor together towards my room. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had this much fun,without Matt.
“This is me,” I said as we arrived at my room. I leaned against my door. My legs were a bit shaky, my kneecaps felt like they were sloshing around in their sockets and my feet felt like they were floating just above the floor. I wasthatdrunk! And I was sure it wasn’t pretty.
“Number five, hey,” he said slowly. He was swaying slightly and his cheeks were so flushed that it looked like he was sunburnt. He leaned forward, supporting himself with an elbow against the wall.
“That was fun.” His eyes drifted over me, as if he was unable to focus properly. I felt the same way.
“It was fun!” I repeated. “And I’m so hungry,” I suddenly said without thinking. “I wanna get into my room and raid the minibar and lie in a sea of chocolates and eat them all and not care that each one costs the same as a month’s salary. That’s what I want.”
Alex laughed again. “Such a rebel. You know what I want?” He leaned even further against the wall.
“What?”
“You know, when you go down on one knee you really expect the person to say yes, right?” He swung his arm about. “But no! My only memory of the whole event is this horrible NO!” He shook his head. “When a guy is down on one knee, can’t you at least say yes? I wish I could erase that part and have a different memory of the whole proposal.” He looked sad for a moment, but then looked up at me and forced a brave smile.
“I know,” I said, as something that seemed so brilliant and logical dawned on me. “Propose to me, and then I’ll say yes and then that will be the last memory of proposing that you have.”
“YES!” he half shouted. “That’s brilliant.”(We were that drunk!)And then, before I knew it, he was down on one knee. He opened the ring box and held it out in front of me. The massive rock glistened in the overhead lights and almost blinded me.
“Will you, Val . . . uh, what’s your full name?”
