That One Summer: A Collection of Steamy Contemporary Romance

Chapter 7

“I can’t believe you, Dad!” Olivia fumed down at the phone in her hands. “You sent me away without contact from the outside world, and now you call only to tell me about some stupid movie?”

“It’s not stupid, Olivia!” Xavier Clarke growled on the other end of the line. “It’s the next big thing, and your grandfather worked hard to secure you as the lead actress.”

“Worked hard” meant he probably intimidated someone into getting her the role. Olivia wasn’t new to her family dynamics, especially the way her father twisted words.

“I don’t care about the stupid movie!” she screamed in frustration.

Thankfully, the other patrons of the hotel seemed more interested in hanging on the beach than the swimming pool, where she was right now. She couldn’t take any more public embarrassment.

“Olivia!” her father shouted loud enough for her to momentarily remove the phone from her ear. “Stop being an entitled brat and be grateful for the chance to be chosen over that Ilyana woman!”

“Grateful?” she scoffed. “Yes, I should be grateful that I am a freaking twenty-three-year-old whose father still runs her life.”

“You better drop that tone when you’re speaking to me,” her father said. “And you will take on that movie role and give it your best. You will not disgrace this family.”

Of course, in typical Xavier Clarke fashion, he never forgot to remind his children of his expectations of them living up to the family name. God forbid that one of them had a dream that was anything other than being a Hollywood superstar.

“Dad—” she started, dropping the attitude as she hoped to reason with him, but he cut her off.

“I have to go. I’m still dealing with this mess you created.” And then she heard the beep of the phone as he hung up.

Olivia let out a frustrated scream, having nothing else to release all the pent-up anger and frustration a few seconds after speaking to her father built up inside her.

She started acting when she was exactly three weeks old. Her mother was in this one movie where, like her, her TV character had given birth. It caused quite a buzz when people found out that the child in the film was the beloved Gemma Clarke’s biological child. She was also the youngest starring actor in her family, as her brothers had started acting when they were at least ten, which meant even more buzz for the movie and the family.

While many people in their circle saw this as a blessing, Olivia looked at it as anything but. Life only grew harder the older she got, as she explored different interests in the limited time she was afforded. For as long as she could remember, there was always the unspoken expectation that she would become just as great of an actress as her mother and live up to the “greatness” of her family. Where her friends had daycare and kindergarten and were busy making friends and memories with children their age, she was on set, looking up at one adult and then another surrounded by cameras. Where they were teenagers making friends and living life as teenagers should, she was in etiquette training and acting classes, with the not-so-subtle reminder of never embarrassing her family thrown in her face every now and again.

She was doomed from the first time she made her movie appearance as a toddler, but even more so when her mother tragically passed away. She was always Gemma Clarke’s daughter. But after losing her mother, she became “the next Gemma Clarke” and life had never been the same.

Her father, the one person she thought would be her cheerleader, cared more about the family’s reputation and legacy than his own daughter’s feelings. So, of course, that did nothing to alleviate the pressure for her to be someone she knew she wasn’t. What’s worse is that he stopped caring about what his little girl wanted and, instead, started doing what he thought she should want for her.

They didn’t listen. Nobody did. And if only she could—

“Miss?” came a voice from behind her, reminding Olivia that she wasn’t alone. She whirled around and came face to face with the man who had come from God knows where, a phone in his hand and hunting her down like a man on a mission.

“Can I have my phone, then?” He held out his hand, looking down at the little device in hers that was being squeezed so tightly that her knuckles were turning white.

Olivia realized her fingers had been clutched tightly around it. She took in a deep breath, released it, and repeated the process until her fingers had relaxed enough for her to let go of the death grip on the phone. Then she passed it on to the man.

“Thank you,” she grumbled.

But she wasn’t thankful because this man had brought the phone that had disrupted her fairly peaceful day. How the hell did he even manage that? Last she checked, she couldn’t get any bars as long as she was on the hotel grounds. However, he had one of those old bulky phones with an antenna, so maybe it didn’t operate the same as her mobile device.

“Any time!” the man beamed before tipping his hat and leaving as suddenly as he came.

“You look like you are having a bad day,” a voice said behind Olivia much later, making her stop.

She had been pacing back and forth around the swimming pool area, trying to shake off the angry energy that had built inside her after speaking with her dad. It was a little hard to do since she usually did this by talking, except she didn’t have anyone to talk to. That had angered her even more, and she’d paced some more. If she knew where the gym was, she would have gone there to work off this excess energy.

She turned around to find Nikos standing behind the chair she had sat on a while ago, back when her day was still peaceful. On it was a book she had been pretending to read forever, a wide-brimmed hat that was more to cover her face than to shield her from the sun, and a towel that she’d grabbed from her room.

“I am,” she responded. For a brief moment, she had thought about denying it, but what was the point in doing so?

But then she noticed Nikos looked a little haggard himself, for lack of a better word. He had looked so put together and clean when he left this morning, but now, his hair stuck out in different places like he’d run his hands through it repeatedly. His clothes were in disarray, like he’d buttoned and unbuttoned his shirt so many times that the top buttons were barely secured, and his shirt was tucked in weirdly.

“You look like you are having a bad day,” she threw his words back at him.

“I am.” Nikos let out a tired laugh, surprising her that he didn’t deny it. Was he... starting to open up to her?

“Do you want to talk about it?” she felt compelled to ask as she moved closer to him.

He took a seat where she had been, so she took the next seat, bringing them closer once again. “Do you want to talk about it?” Nikos challenged her as he lay down.

“Not really,” Olivia smiled as she lay down, too.

“Same.” He let out a short laugh that ended with a deep sigh.

The sky was a seamless expanse of clear blue, streaked with white clouds here and there. The sea in front of them stretched out in a beautiful cerulean haze, meeting the sky at a distant point on the horizon. And the sun was just perfect to enjoy a day at the beautiful beach in front of them. Many people were out and about from what she could see as they enjoyed the day in beautiful Santorini. Overall, it was a beautiful day. Or, at least, it should have been a beautiful day, but she couldn’t enjoy it.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, before Nikos suddenly said, “Do you want to go out?”

“Oh?” Olivia asked, her heart suddenly skipping a beat.

“Not like that,” Nikos rushed out as he sat back up, compelling Olivia to do the same. “I just meant, like, out of the hotel. I just... I need a distraction, and I think you could use one too.”

“Sure,” she said without hesitation, ignoring the sinking of her heart that Nikos didn’t mean it like that.

Did she even want him to mean it like that?That’s not something she wanted to dwell on.

It seemed like Nikos was more in a rush to get out of the hotel than she was because, within thirty minutes, they were dressed and out into the vibrant Santorini island—thanks to him asking if she was ready every two minutes.

“What do you want to do?” Nikos asked Olivia as soon as they hit the road and started walking in a random direction.

“I don’t know,” she said as she looked around, feeling equally elated that they were out of the suffocatingly quiet hotel premises and also very anxious that, at any time, people would see her and start pointing as they had randomly fallen right into a flurry of activity.

All around them were vendors and tourists, everyone speaking in different languages as they tried to sell and buy from each other. The scent of street food wafted through the air, mixed with the salty smell of the ocean and multiple body odors. It wasn’t as unpleasant as it should be, Olivia thought.

“Let’s take a walk then,” he smiled down at her as they continued walking. “Maybe go to a less touristic area.”

They’d taken a few steps before Nikos grabbed her around the waist and then maneuvered them so he was standing on the side of the road where vehicles milled about while she walked comfortably on his other side. Olivia looked up at him, taken aback by the gesture, but Nikos just smiled and started pointing out different places to her.

And then, he chose that moment to take her hand in his, so whatever he said was lost on her, since all she could focus on was the warmth that enveloped her at his touch. His hand was warm and comforting. He also held it tight enough for her to feel the strength in his muscles.

Would it be the same in his chest and shoulders?She wondered. She was a sucker for a man who was muscular, but not overpoweringly so. Nikos seemed to fit the bill.

They must have walked for a while, but for all Olivia knew, they walked only walked a few minutes. By the time she got out of her head long enough to truly take in her surroundings, the night was descending upon them and they were stopping by some benches on a public beach.

“...but then I wouldn’t recommend it. As soon as people find out you are not a local, they hike up the prices and you can’t tell any difference,” Nikos said as he looked down at her, a small smile on his handsome face. Of course, he first helped her sit down before he followed suit, which only increased his charm tenfold in Olivia’s mind.

“Yeah,” Olivia laughed awkwardly, her face flaming as she was deadly aware of the fact that she did not hear not one thing Nikos had said because her mind was focused on the warm and fuzzy feeling his touch had brought her.

But, then again, she wondered, what would it be like if he touched more than just my hand?

“Feeling better?” Nikos asked as he sat on the opposite side of her.

“Much better, thanks,” she breathed, well aware that she had not thought about her problems once since they decided to leave. And it had to have been gone for a while since the evening sun was almost completely gone from the horizon. “You?”

“Same,” Nikos said, giving her the full might of his dimpled smile.

Be still my heart, Olivia thought as she turned away from him, confused by the way her heart skipped a beat at the smallest things this man did. Is this...? Am I...?

“I’m hungry though,” Nikos said as he looked around like he expected someone at this very busy beach to come rushing to them and offer them food.

Except that is exactly what happened. A man came rushing to them, speaking Greek so rapidly that she could barely understand a word. But he focused entirely on Nikos, leaving Olivia free to look around them.

They were surrounded by a flurry of people, everyone focused on doing their own things, laughing, and some were even dancing to music from a band nearby. There were a lot of vendors here too, so Olivia suspected that they were in a tourist area. Her anxiety about being recognized ratcheted up, her stomach sinking whenever she made eye contact with anyone. Except, the pitchforks and angry mob never actually came, as it looked like everyone was content minding their business.

Maybe it wasn’t as bad as her overactive imagination thought.

“And who is this beautiful lady?” she heard the man who had joined them ask, bringing her attention back to the table. He had a very thick accent, which made some of his words hard to hear.

“You!” Olivia hissed as she glared up at the man she now recognized. It was the same person who had come hunting her down with that ugly phone back at the hotel.

“Ahh... Miss Olivia,” he smiled down at her like they were long-lost friends. “I am Iossif Lagoulis. Nice to meet you.” He went as far as taking his hat off and tipping his head at her. It would have been very charming, except this was the man who thought it okay to bring a stupid phone in a place designed to keep people away from technology.

And, okay, he was conventionally handsome, and dare she say, almost as handsome as Nikos with his warm dark eyes and polite smile, but she refused to acknowledge that.

It’s not nice to meet you, she wanted to say, but bit her words back. Nikos was looking at her with a wide smile, like he was delighted the two of them got to meet.

“Nice to meet you too,” she let out, albeit with much difficulty. She might have gritted her teeth at some point.

“You are mad at me,” he blatantly stated. “That’s okay. I’ll change that with some free food.” And then he was gone as quickly as he had come.

“You’ve met Iossif?” Nikos asked, not even hiding his smile.

“Unfortunately,” Olivia rolled her eyes. Meeting was a stretch though.

“Let me guess, he brought a phone so someone could talk to you because they couldn’t reach you?”

“How do you know?” she asked, genuinely surprised. Did they keep tabs on hotel guests like that?

“That’s kind of what he’s known for at the Atlantis. Many long-term guests at the hotel are not a big fan of him.”

“I can see why.” Based on how the Atlantis was designed, people came there to get away from technology, so someone bringing them something that forces them back to technology didn’t seem like something people would readily welcome.

“But he’s a good man, I promise.”

Before she could react, Iossif was back, and in his hands was a large tray. One by one, he put the items in front of them as he proudly announced them.

“Hamburgers, french fries, coleslaw, and some root beer. Only the best for my American friends,” he beamed at them.

Olivia opened her mouth to ask for something a lot less greasy, but Nikos spoke up before she could. “Thank you, Iossif. This looks lovely.”

Iossif turned expectantly at Olivia. One look at Nikos told her she should mirror his sentiments. “Yes, this looks lovely,” she said with a pained smile.

Iossif looked satisfied with himself. “Now you have to forgive me,” he beamed. Thankfully, another group of people captured his attention, and he walked away.

“Seriously?” Olivia muttered as she looked at their food.

“Don’t take it personally,” Nikos said as he picked up a hamburger. “He means well. His whole thing is about making tourists feel at home, so he runs multiple businesses around that idea. Plus, his food is superb. Here, try it.” Nikos handed her the hamburger he had unwrapped.

Olivia took a bite, mainly because she was hungry and this was the only food they had now. Her tongue burst with flavors as spices mixed with something sweet and salty assaulted her senses. She might have let out a tiny moan as she took another bite, completely ignoring Nikos’ smug smile.

Olivia was a fine-dining kind of girl. Only the best for a Clarke. She couldn’t remember the last time she had indulged in junk food and wasn’t sure when she’d be able to, so she attacked her food with gusto. They sat in comfortable silence as they devoured their food, down to the last drop of root beer.

“So, tell me about yourself, Miss Olivia Clarke,” Nikos said as they both relaxed in their seats.