9. Lila
NINE
Lila
We sat side by side on a half-empty shuttle bus, our knees brushing with every jolt. Charlie had forwarded us the old Santorini itinerary from the travel agency, and when we landed, we’d expected a private ride to be there to take us to our accommodations. But after twenty minutes waiting at ground transportation, no one came. Harrison insisted that it seemed a little strange, but I had already researched the bus options and found us the quickest way into town. We were staying in the cliffside city of Fira, which was on the western edge of Santorini.
Our flight in had been quiet.
Harrison had finally, very begrudgingly, agreed to join me. You would have thought I was asking him to help clean farm stalls for the week or plan a family funeral, not jet-set off to a Greek island. I think it helped my case that boarding began almost immediately after I had insisted on going, giving him quite literally seconds to make a decision.
Now he sat next to me, all big and looming, with a permanent glower on his face.
Outside the window, a rocky landscape whizzed by, dotted with scrubby vegetation and whitewashed buildings with blue shutters. As the bus climbed higher, I caught a glimpse of the sparkling dark blue water in the distance.
I elbowed Harrison,
“Look, the water!”
He leaned over me to look for two seconds before saying, “Yep,” and setting his dark eyes straight ahead again. If this was going to be his attitude the entire time, I almost wished he hadn’t insisted on going with me.
I turned away from him to lean my head against the windowsill. My eyes drooped ever so slightly. Despite not wanting to miss a thing, the exceedingly long travel day and the whole trip switch dilemma had caught up with me. My whole body both ached with exhaustion and burned with anticipation simultaneously.
The thought of missing Charlie’s bachelorette trip did sting, but I’d already promised her we’d make up for it another time. It wasn’t like this was the only chance we’d ever get to travel together. The fact that Skylar and Ben were there did spark the tiniest, microscopic pang of jealousy. Irrational, I knew, but it was hard to watch your best friend grow this whole new community of people that didn’t include you. I mean sure, they were always great and welcoming toward me, but soon they’d be making plans for only the four of them, leaving me with empty weekends. A bitter, illogical part of me wondered if having a significant other would somehow turn those hypothetical plans into six instead of four.
And after this trip? They’d have all these core memories together—inside jokes I’d never be a part of, even though they’d try to tell me the story over dinner. They’d laugh and reminisce, all the while telling me, “You just had to be there.”
And what did I have? Harrison. The thought of us making any inside jokes on this trip was so ludicrous it was laughable.
“I can’t wait to see the caldera,” I said, my forehead now fully pressed against the glass.
“The what?” Harrison asked.
His bulking frame pressed against mine in our cramped seats was my only hint that this was reality and not some bizarre fever dream. Because Greece was a dream; a bucket list item of mine, in fact. And now I was finally here, but with a virtual stranger. Actually, worse than a stranger. An acquaintance who barely even tolerated me.
After this shocking change of events, who knew where our truce stood? He didn’t seem pleased about the new circumstances, but at least he wasn’t being openly hostile. Perhaps a little inadvertently hostile, but that seemed to just be his personality.
Regardless, Harrison Porter would not ruin a single second of this trip for me. If he thought I was too bubbly on a normal day, he was in for a treat. Vacation Lila was a whole different breed. I wasn’t about to dim any bit of my glimmer just so he could look cool—or whatever the hell his motive was for always being so salty and disagreeable.
“The caldera,” I repeated brightly. “It’s basically this giant circle depression that forms after a volcanic eruption. I read about it in a travel guide. Santorini is the only inhabited caldera in the world. That’s why some people call it Atlantis.”
He cocked his head, studying me, but didn’t say anything.
“And the food,” I said, practically moaning. “I can’t wait for the food.”
Harrison remained silent and resumed staring straight ahead, not even interested in the views rushing by. Unable to take his weird silence anymore, I elbowed him in the ribs.
“Aren’t you even the tiniest bit excited to be here?”
“Not really.” He said it so easily. Smacking me in the face would have stung less. My face must have looked all kinds of wounded, because Harrison’s brow knit together. He pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered, “Shit.”
“It’s fine,” I said woodenly. If that’s where he stood, that’s where he stood. I could still have the time of my life while he wasted away in whatever five-star accommodation Charlie and Nathan had originally planned for us.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I guess I’m just...” His voice trailed off and he shot me a pained look. “I’m stressed, okay? I hate feeling out of control. The surprise trip was bad enough, but now all this?” He waved around, too exasperated to continue the thought.
The cardboard wall I’d crafted to protect myself from Harrison bent easily. I was never very good at having a guard up. Just ask my ex how he was able to manipulate me so easily for all those years. Perhaps I should have learned my lesson. I was sure Harrison’s hard demeanor would be back any minute, but he looked so genuinely anxious, it just made me want to help him.
“Anxiety is worrying about a future outcome that you can’t control. It doesn’t actually serve you at all. Live in the present, be prepared, and deal with things as they come.”
A particularly violent bump in the road sent me flying toward the aisle. Harrison caught me easily around the arms and steadied me. “I don’t have anxiety.”
If that was what he chose to believe, then it wasn’t worth arguing over.
The shuttle made an abrupt turn into a parking lot and came to a sputtering stop. I jumped up with enthusiasm that someone else might describe as incomprehensible, considering I’d just had a twenty-hour travel day. But it was only seven p.m. local time, and the sunset had just started to brush the evening sky.
“Go. Go. Go.” I grabbed Harrison’s arm and hoisted him up and out of the seat.
“For someone so tiny, you’ve got a good grip,” he said, rubbing his arm where I’d just let go.
“And for someone who looks so fit, you move at a glacial pace,” I countered.
He looked back at me, the corner of his lip quirked upward. “You think I look fit?”
Flames burned behind my cheeks. “You know what I meant,” I said as we moved down the aisle.
“I think I need you to clarify,” Harrison continued, snatching my suitcase from my hands and lugging it behind him. “Did you mean that I’m strong? Attractive, maybe?”
Stepping off the bus felt like the first real stretch I’d taken since leaving my house in Denver.
“Don’t let it go to your head,” I huffed as I turned around, only to see a playful gleam in Harrison’s dark eyes.
Was he...was he flirting with me? The thought nearly made me pass out. While I was sure Harrison had no issues attracting women—though I really didn’t want to dwell on that—I had always assumed the word ‘flirting’ wasn’t in his vocabulary.
I had pictured him disarming a woman with a withering glare, leaving her weak-kneed as the two of them disappeared into the night for some hate-fueled, intense sexual encounter that in no way resembled real intimacy. No, Harrison definitely didn’t flirt. And I was grateful for that, because that meant I’d never have to put my weak resolve to any sort of test.
I had a pulse, after all.
As if mocking my internal dialogue, Harrison’s bicep bulged as he lifted both of our bags and carried them over the rough cobblestones.
“This has to be the most impractical luggage for this terrain.” He struggled with my pink rolling suitcase before setting it down again and dragging it along. The wheels didn’t glide smoothly over the uneven surface, and it made a loud rattling noise with each step.
“It’s not like I knew our destination,” I snapped back. “And I can carry it if you’re going to be a jerk about it.” But when I reached for my suitcase, he snatched it away.
This man was truly insufferable.
“Let’s just get to our hotel,” I said, pulling up the maps app on my phone. I had downloaded the entire island so I could use it offline. I punched in the saved address Charlie gave us, and turned directly left. “It’s only a few hundred feet this way.”
“Only a few hundred feet this way” wasn’t exactly a short trip when you were with me and I was in a new place. The bus had dropped us at the edge of town, and our first obstacle was a bustling square filled with people waiting in lines for dinner. The aromas wafting through the air were utterly mouthwatering. In one stall, a vendor spun a spigot of savory meat, expertly shaving it off and sliding it into pitas for eager customers. I rarely ate meat, but I would definitely be trying that.
Much to Harrison’s dismay, I had to stop and gape at every stall we passed. Every few steps, I paused to check out a menu, or admire a cute trinket in a gift shop. Harrison, on the other hand, kept moving ahead until he eventually looked back, stopped and dropped his head back in frustration. His patience was already worn so thin you could see right through it, but I didn’t care.
Instead of rushing to meet up with him, I stepped into the line for the gyros, looking at Harrison and blinking innocently. His exhale was laughably loud as he trudged back the few feet to stand next to me.
“Are you serious? Can’t we just get to the hotel first?”
“Let’s just get a snack. It’s right here.”
“This line is going to take forever.”
But just as he said it, two people paid and received their food, bringing us only a few people away from the front.
“It’s moving fast. Besides,” I poked his belly. “Maybe you’re hungry too, and that’s where all this anger is coming from.”
“I’m not angry.” He let go of my suitcase and folded his arms. “I’m just exhausted.”
“All the more reason to get this now while we’re still standing. First rule of avoiding jet lag, don’t crash until you have to.”
“I feel like you’re just making that up on the spot.” But he didn’t move out of line, and he didn’t protest further once he eyed someone walking away with a stuffed pita in hand.
“So what if I am? Doesn’t make it a bad rule.”
“Sorry I’m not built with more energy than a wind-up toy.”
“If you think I’m not going to be insufferably enthusiastic the entire time we’re here, you are sorely mistaken.”
“You’ve got the insufferable part right,” he muttered.
My cheeks reddened as I whipped around to glare at him. “Was it my imagination or did we forge a little truce on the flight over here?” I demanded.
Harrison’s eyes widened, clearly not expecting me to turn on a dime like that.
“We’re good,” he said gruffly. It took everything in me not to reach out and strangle him. If this was good, I would hate to see what his bad side looked like.
“You insisted on following me here,” I continued. Maybe it was the long travel day talking, or perhaps the emptiness in my stomach, but either way, I couldn’t just brush off his negative attitude and grating comments anymore.
“No, you insisted on going and I wasn’t going to leave you by yourself,” he argued.
“Like I said. You insisted on following me here,” I said again.
He blew out a breath like I was the most exhausting person on the planet. Me ! He truly had zero idea how unpalatable he was. Actually, he likely did, he just didn’t give a flying shit about it.
“You are not ruining this trip for me, okay? We can either go about each day and do our separate things, or you can put on a fake smile and be civil for four goddamn days of your life. We are on vacation, on a trip some can only dream about. Buck up and stop acting like you’re being dragged to a prison sentence, or something. You’re coming across like an entitled ass.”
He regarded me with raised eyebrows, the only thing that gave away his surprise. But instead of saying something snarky in response, he simply nodded and said, “You got it, boss.”
I snapped my fingers. “Boss. That’s the perfect way to look at me on this trip. Think of me as your champion of fun. Your leader of good times. You, Harrison Porter, are about to have more fun than you could even imagine. All you have to do is follow me and be just the teeniest bit open-minded, got it?”
“Whatever you say.”
Ten minutes later, we were each clutching our own pitas. Harrison wasted zero time sinking his teeth into his for a huge bite.
“Wait, let’s take a picture.” With my free hand, I struggled with the zipper on my bag for a second before prying it open and carefully pulling out my phone.
“Are you serious?” He asked, still chewing.
“For the memories,” I insisted. “It’s our first meal in Greece.”
“And you want a picture of this?” He eyed himself before looking down at me. “What are you even going to do with a picture of the two of us?”
My eyes fought not to roll into the back of my head. Why did he insist on making everything so difficult? But I decided not to push him any further tonight.
I lifted my phone and smiled, snapping a quick selfie that didn’t include Harrison before dropping my phone back into my bag and diving into my sandwich. We devoured them in silence, clearly a lot more ravenous than we originally thought.
Harrison’s eyes were practically red from exhaustion and I felt a little guilty for dragging him around. But we were in Santorini, for crying out loud! How could I not savor every second we were here, even if we were basically dead on our feet?
“Alright, onward,” I instructed.
“No more pitstops.” Harrison fell into step next to me, still lugging around our suitcases.
We walked down a narrow alley. After some steps up, I caught a glimpse of the shimmering blue sea just beyond. Despite the allure of the winding alleyways that we passed, filled with incredible shops and charming restaurants, I quickened my pace, eager to reach the view that waited for us, just out of sight.
Then, we were there. I laid my hands on the protective stone wall that separated me from the cliffside.
“Holy crap,” I whispered, letting the scene wash over me.
Stark white and blue buildings clung to the edge of the cliff, cascading into the mesmerizing depths of the sea below. It was even more breathtaking than any picture I had seen. Glancing to my right, I marveled at the island curling gracefully around us. I felt immediately overwhelmed, in the best way possible—like there were so many amazing things to see and do and explore, and I couldn’t wait to just dive into all of them.
“This is incredible. Isn’t this incredible?” I turned to Harrison, who, despite always having to be the most unimpressed person in every room, looked just as mesmerized by the view as I was.
“It’s alright,” he said, that playfulness back in his tone.
When I shoved his chest, his lip curved up into an actual smile for a moment before he corrected it back to neutral. He could try to play it cool all he wanted, but I could tell he was captivated too.
“I can’t believe we get to stay somewhere down there.” I peeked over the edge.
“Come on. Let’s go find it,” he said.
But I made no move to leave. Instead, I kept my eyes glued to the horizon.
“Let’s stay a few more minutes.”
Although the sun had already dipped below the water, colors still blotted the night sky. The first stars began to emerge, barely visible against the deepening backdrop.
“I’m sure the view is good from the hotel,” Harrison pointed out, but he joined me, leaning against the wall without any real protest.
“I know. I just want to take it in for a second.”
The air felt so good here, not like the dryness in Colorado. It wrapped around me, breathing life back into my body. It was the perfect temperature. I could wear either a sweatshirt or a tank top and still be comfortable. I pulled my hoodie off, desperate to feel more of the air directly on my skin.
Standing there, shoulder to shoulder with Harrison, wasn’t as strange as I’d expected it to be. Traveling somewhere so completely different than what you’re used to almost makes you feel like you’re in an alternate universe, and with each passing minute, our old reality seemed to drift further away. In this universe, maybe Harrison didn’t hate me. Maybe here, we could be friends. A girl could dream, right?
“Let’s go find our hotel.” I clapped my hands.
“Finally.”
The address in our itinerary wasn’t far at all from where we lingered. Just a few turns, and a staircase that descended the cliffside.
The boutique hotel was jaw-droppingly beautiful, and screamed ‘quiet luxury.’ Every surface was spotless, and the furniture was crisp and leather. The lobby was lined with dim ceiling lights that gave off the perfect relaxing ambiance. The back wall of the lobby was floor to ceiling glass windows, overlooking a stunning deck with views of the water. I nearly gasped when I saw the infinity pool. It took everything in me not to rush right out to it and jump in, fully clothed.
I turned to Harrison, and gave him a look of disbelief. He just shrugged as if he had arrived at a roadside motel instead of a five-star luxury resort.
The front desk attendant, who was just as striking as the rest of the hotel, waved us over with a warm smile.
“Hello,” she said with a subtle accent. “Welcome to Hotel Caldera. Do you have a reservation?”
“Yes. It should be under Shaw,” I said as I stepped up to the counter and gave Nathan’s last name.
“Of course. One moment while I look that up.” Her red manicured fingers typed away at the keyboard in front of her while her expression grew confused.
“Shaw, you said?”
“Yes,” I answered, growing wary. Charlie had been adamant that, since the travel agent hadn’t rebooked our flights, the rest of our itinerary should have remained the same too. “S. H. A. W.” I spelled it out while Harrison shifted next to me, stroking his jaw.
“I see a reservation for five rooms, but it was canceled last week,” she said apologetically.
“Shit,” Harrison said next to me. “I told you it was weird that no one came to pick us up.”
My smile remained frozen in place as I ignored him. “Is there any way to get two of the rooms back? You see, there was a bit of a mix up with the plans. We need a place to stay until Sunday.”
She frowned and clicked around. “I’m sorry, but we’re almost completely booked. We can’t do two rooms.”
My face fell before she continued. “We do, however, have one of our king suites available. It has a private plunge pool.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, I turned to Harrison with a look that said, see? Everything works out.
“Perfect. We’ll take that one.”
“One bed?” Harrison raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that the beginning of every bad romance novel?”
“I think you mean beginning of every beloved romance novel,” I said, as the clerk typed away. “You read a few pages of my book on the plane and suddenly you’re an expert?”
He shrugged but didn’t look sheepish. “I’m just saying. I’m not sleeping on the floor.”
“We’re adults. We can build a pillow wall if we need to.”
“Alright, I just need a credit card for the room,” the hotel agent continued.
I fished around for mine. “What’s the price?”
When she told me the figure, my heart nearly sprang straight out of my chest.