Chapter Twenty-Five
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Oscar
“What do you want to do now?” I asked as I brushed a stray strand of hair out of Ilias’s face.
We were lying side by side in bed, under the covers this time, having crawled in after cleaning up and dumping the remaining excess cushions on the floor. I didn’t actually feel like doing much except lying there until it was time to go down for dinner.
“I don’t mind,” Ilias said. He looked so relaxed. He wasn’t the put-together person everyone usually saw, and it made me so grateful I got to see him that way. “We could stay here, just veg for a bit? Or we could go down to the beach? Walk along the sea? I don’t think it’s far. Depends how energetic you feel.”
“I kinda like the idea of staying here,” I said. “But the sea does sound nice.”
“We could get fish and chips. I haven’t had fish and chips for ages.”
“Didn’t you have some in Devon last week?” I grinned, and Ilias scoffed.
“That was posh hotel fish and chips. I mean, like, proper chip shop fish and chips.”
I thought for a second. We were supposed to be having dinner in the hotel’s restaurant because one of the requirements for the article was that we test out the food. We couldn’t recommend somewhere with shit food to our readers, no matter how beautiful the rooms were. But fish and chips by the sea did sound good.
“How about we have dinner here tonight because I have to eat here at least once, and I know we have a table reserved, but tomorrow, we can have a poke around the town and get fish and chips before we head off?”
Ilias screwed up his face for a second like he was thinking hard before breaking out into a grin. “As long as I get fish and chips, I’ll be happy.” He kissed me again. “Come on, let’s go for a walk now.”
“But I thought we were staying in bed?”
“Nope, I want to go and scout out chip shops. And I’d like to actually leave the hotel once today. I’ve spent most of the day either in a car, a house, or a hotel. I need some fresh air.”
Ilias made a fair point. I had to give him that. “Fine. Let’s go.”
I hauled myself out of bed and collected my clothes, pulling them on while trying to watch Ilias. He really was gorgeous, and I wanted to while away hours in bed with him—not necessarily making love but just being together.
When he was dressed, he shoved the room key into his jacket pocket along with his phone, then reached for my hand. I smiled and slipped my fingers into his. Ilias grinned, and my heart flooded with emotion.
It was good to see him smile again after our earlier conversation. The fear and guilt in his voice and expression had almost broken me, and I’d just wanted to scoop him up in my arms and take his pain away. I’d never be able to truly understand what he’d been through, but I hoped what I could offer would be enough.
I could see now why he’d gravitated to hook-ups and flings—relationships that required no emotional connection, despite how obvious it was that he craved them. The more time we spent together, the more I realised how much Ilias loved to be near me.
It wasn’t just his barnacle approach to sleep but the way he wanted to hold my hand when we walked together, the way he would rest his hand on my thigh when we were in the car, and the way he would press a soft kiss to my face just because.
I’d told Ilias I wasn’t going anywhere, and I’d meant it. I just needed to make my feelings clear.
Because wherever he was in the world, that was where I wanted to be.
“By the way,” Ilias said as we headed down the stairs, “did you hear back from Marcus yet about the rest of the destinations you pitched?”
“Not yet. I think they’re still deciding.”
“Any way you can get him to hurry up? I need another holiday.”
“Doesn’t this count as one?”
Ilias shrugged. “Sort of, but it’s been very intense with all the travelling. I just want somewhere I can lie on a beach for a week.”
I snorted. “How much lying on a beach did you actually do in Hawaii?”
“Fine, I want somewhere I can lie on a beach if I want to. I want the option to be there.”
We walked through reception and out into the evening sunlight. The sun hung low in the sky, bathing the sea in a spectacular riot of colour. The hotel was at one end of a horseshoe bay, and from outside the hotel we could see the pretty, seaside town of Heather Bay spread out in front of us. High on the hills on the opposite side of the bay stood what looked like a castle, and I made a mental note to see if Ilias was up for exploring it tomorrow.
“You could lie on the beach here,” I said, gesturing at the wide strip of dark sand and the row of colourful beach huts that lined the beach. “Might be a little chilly though.”
“I am definitely not wearing skimpy swimwear in this weather,” Ilias said with a dramatic shudder. “It’s May in Yorkshire. It’s hardly Santorini. And there aren’t any cute beach boys to bring me drinks and snacks.”
“That reminds me, I pitched Santorini as one of the European locations. It’s picturesque, warm, and it’s somewhere my sister desperately wants to visit.”
“So you want to go there first to piss her off?” Ilias asked. “I’ve met your sister. She’s not one to be messed with.”
“No! I’m going there to test it out.” I laughed at Ilias’s expression. I didn’t think he believed me. “It’s the truth. I want to find somewhere nice that I can recommend to her and Chantelle.”
“You better make sure it’s child friendly, then,” Ilias said. “Not just with some shitty, half-assed kids club either.”
“Oh, please. You think The Traveller is going to recommend somewhere with crap childcare? How else will we appeal to the yummy mummies who want the feel of a family holiday without actually having to spend time with their children.”
“One day,” Ilias said with a wry smile, “I’m going to take you to one of my family events and turn you loose. You’d go down a storm.”
“You just want to watch me cause chaos.”
“Yes, because it’ll be spectacular. I’m going to introduce you to my auntie Tonia. You’ll hate her. I’m going to bring popcorn.”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes fondly. The idea of attending one of Ilias’s family functions both fascinated and horrified me. Based on the stories I’d heard, they sounded like a soap opera playing out in miniature in the span of two or three hours.
I’d always thought my family was intense, but Ilias’s took it to a whole new level.
We’d reached the steps to go down to the beach. In the light of the setting sun, the beach huts in front of us were bathed in a fiery glow. There were quite a few people pottering along the sand with children and dogs, and to our left, the line of shops and restaurants that made up the front was still busy with people.
“Which way do you want to go?” I asked as we came to a stop. “Want to walk along the front and then come back via the beach? Or beach first?”
“Let’s go beach first.” Ilias squeezed my hand tighter and began to steer me towards the stone steps. The tide was quite far out, leaving a wide stretch of sand that curved around the bay. We’d tried to get out and explore all the towns and beaches we’d stayed near, even if the weather had been shit, but there was something about this beach that felt different.
Maybe it was because Ilias and I had gotten everything out in the open. There was no longer a shadow hanging over our relationship, just the acceptance that things weren’t always going to be simple.
We both knew things weren’t going to be magically fixed with a single conversation. Ilias’s fears wouldn’t suddenly disappear with a click of my fingers, even if I wished they would. It was going to take time, and I was going to be there every step of the way.
“What are you thinking about?” Ilias asked as we walked. There was a breeze coming off the sea that ruffled his hair and made him look gorgeously rumpled.
“Not much,” I said. “Just about you and me. And how pretty it is here.”
“It is lovely.” Ilias paused for a second to watch a large, soggy-looking golden retriever chase a ball into the water. The air was filled with the cawing of seabirds, the barking of dogs, and the shrieking of happy children mixed with the sound of the waves. “It must get busy in the summer though.”
I nodded. “I reckon so. It’s very picturesque.” I looked up at the rows of houses I could see winding their way up into the hills above the bay. “I wonder how many of those are Airbnbs or holiday homes.”
Ilias frowned. “Honestly, I hope not many of them. You hear all these stories about locals getting priced out of places when they get popular with holidaymakers—like how landlords prioritise making quick cash off tourists rather than letting to local tenants. And forget even trying to buy.”
“Sometimes I wonder whether my job is a bad thing,” I said as we started to walk again. “I love travelling, and I love being able to show different places to people, but sometimes I wonder whether the cost is too high.”
“It’s tricky because so many places rely on tourism. A bad season can make or break a local economy. But you’re right that it can also exploit people and make things harder for locals. If half the houses in a place are holiday lets, it just creates ghost towns out of season. There’s no community and no care. If people can’t afford to live there, then the things that tourists want or rely on aren’t going to be available because there’s nobody around to run them. Places get drained of life and beauty, the things that attracted people in the first place. It’s a vicious circle.”
Ilias squeezed my hand and continued. “I don’t think it makes you a bad person though or your job an inherently bad one. People are always going to want to travel, and if you weren’t writing these articles then someone else would be. You’re aware of the issues, or you try to be, and I think that’s a good first step.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Besides, it’s not as if you’re jetting off to Dubai every week on a private jet and posting from some luxury hotel.”
“I mean, I probably wouldn’t be allowed in.”
“Me either, but that wasn’t my point.” He nudged me, and I grinned. “My point was, you’re not trying to be some shitty travel influencer or something. You want people to explore the world, but you want the same opportunities for everyone, and you want people to be aware of their impact.”
He pulled me to a stop and twisted me around so he could kiss me.
“We’re having some very serious conversations today,” he added, and I felt him smiling against my mouth. “We should talk about something fun instead!”
“Any suggestions?”
“No. All I can think about is fish and chips.”
I laughed, and we continued walking. “I do have one thing to say though.”
“What?”
“Don’t you have a travel Instagram? Doesn’t that make you some sort of travel influencer?”
Ilias gasped playfully. “Oh no, you’ve discovered my secret.”
“You’ve never hidden it,” I said. I’d never gone looking for his account, but he’d mentioned it a couple of times offhandedly in Hawaii, so I’d assumed it was something he ran with care.
“At least you didn’t call me a shitty travel influencer. And for the record, I’m not. I’m a delight!”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Wait, you don’t follow me?” Ilias asked, and it was all I could do not to laugh at the extreme level of faux outrage in his tone. “That is a heinous crime and must be rectified right now. Come on, get your phone out.”
He reached for my back pocket and tried to extract my phone, except he seemed more interested in grabbing my butt than actually retrieving the device.
“Fine, fine. Stop pawing at me.”
“I wasn’t. I was getting your phone.”
“Really?” I hummed suspiciously as I pulled up Instagram. “What’s your account name?”
I followed Ilias’s instructions and pulled up his account. I knew his grid was going to be beautiful, so seeing the stunning array of photographs didn’t surprise me. What did catch me off guard was the number of followers he had.
“You have half a million followers?”
“Yes,” Ilias said gleefully. “Didn’t you know?”
“Er, no.”
“So you’ve never casually stalked me on the internet?”
“Mostly just on Twitter,” I said. “It felt weird to do more.”
“It wouldn’t have been weird. It’s not like you’d have told me.”
I turned to look at him, and I saw his smile getting bigger. There was a devious edge to it that I hadn’t seen before, and I got the feeling I was missing something.
“Also,” Ilias continued, “I can’t believe you didn’t follow me when we started dating. How rude! I feel like I should throw some sort of diva strop about it.”
I laughed. “You can if you want.”
“Nah, that’ll just prove your point about me being a shitty travel influencer.”
“I never said shitty!” I exclaimed, and now Ilias was laughing too. “You’re putting words in my mouth.”
“I can put something else in your mouth if you want.”
“Thanks, you’ve just ruined it,” I said with a snort.
“Hey, I never said what I’d put in your mouth. You were the one who immediately thought of my dick. I could have been suggesting candy floss for all you know.”
“Were you going to suggest that?” I raised my eyebrow, and Ilias shrugged.
“Maybe. Now you’ll never know.” He leant in to give me a teasing kiss, then pulled me towards the steps at the other end of the beach.
“Come on,” he said as I let my feet follow him. “I’m getting hungry, and if we don’t go back now, I’m going to raid all these fish and chip shops.”