‘Alone in the be—’ I was about to ask why that would be the case, when it dawned on me. He thought that Andrew and I would be sharing a bed tonight! I hadn’t expected this. I hadn’t thought about it, planned for it; it hadn’t even crossed my mind that we would actually be sharing the same bed. I tried not to let my dad see the strange mix of panic and excitement I was experiencing. My dad stopped outside my bedroom door.
‘Well, goodnight, honey. So glad you’re here. And I suggest getting an early night. Your mother has planned a full day for us.’
I walked into the familiar room, opened the windows that looked on to the patio outside and lay down on one of the loungers. The house was right on the beachfront. It had been my grandparents’ house, and I’d come here for holidays as a child. I’d played on the beach for hours, hunted for shells in the rock pools for days on end and drawn patterns in the sand with a piece of driftwood. I loved it here. I loved the sound of the waves. Soft, and repetitive. I closed my eyes and settled into my new environment happily: the smell of cool, salty air, the sounds of the waves and a breeze rustling the giant palm leaves. I was so relaxed that I drifted off to sleep.
‘Hey.’ A soft caress on my cheek made me open my eyes. ‘Wakey, wakey,’ Andrew said. He was lying on the lounger next to me, propped up on an elbow.
‘I thought that would never end,’ he said, rolling onto his back. ‘And by the way, that crockery is obscene! Your mother said it depicted images of the early Olympic games. Men’s wrestling and athletics. That wasnotwrestling! And they werenotholding javelins either.’
I chuckled and sat up. ‘She brought it out at a family function once. My dad and I had to quickly whisk it away. She refuses to believe it depicts a giant orgy.’
‘Well, what Poseidon at the entrance lacks, those wrestlers definitely make up for.’
I stretched my arms above my head. ‘I’m exhausted.’
‘It’s very comfortable on this lounger. I could sleep outside.’
I pointed at the sky. ‘You can’t sleep outside. Wind at twenty-one knots with a forecast of rain on the way.’
‘Then where should I sleep?’ He looked into the room.
‘I didn’t know we would be sharing a room, by the way,’ I said quickly.
‘Well, we are boyfriend and girlfriend.’
‘I know, but for some reason, bed sharing didn’t even cross my mind.’
‘That’s usually what boyfriends and girlfriends do, or so I’m told,’ he teased.
‘I could pull those two wingback chairs together and sleep there. If I curled my legs up, I think I’ll fit,’ I offered.
‘My mothers and sisters would kill me if they found out I’d made you sleep on some chairs while I slept in a big bed.’
‘Your mothers and sisters would never find out unless you told them.’
‘ButIwould know,’ he said.
‘So then it has nothing to do with your mothers and sisters, does it?’
‘No. It’s got nothing to do with what they would think, and everything to do with what I would think.’
‘What would you think?’
‘That I wasn’t being very gentlemanly.’
‘Mmm.’ I considered this for a while. ‘I guess you could sleep in another room.’
‘And what would your parents think?’
‘We could tell them you came down with a sudden case of snoring and I kicked you out in the middle of the night.’
‘Or . . .’ He paused. Raised his eyebrows and let the ‘or’ ruminate in the air around us.
‘Or?’ I asked, wanting the ‘or’ to stop ruminating.
‘We could . . .’ He paused again and then looked at the bed. This time it was the ‘we could’ that hung in the air.
‘Okay, you’re making no sense. We could what?’
