Chapter 4
Fox
Had my colleague Emma been here? She would have sighed in unison with all my friends, the way they usually did. Laughed at my predicament and suggested ways how I could escape out the front door without the man on the patio realising I’d gone.
Which wouldn’t work because every time I moved, I winced and made stupid sounds.
I’d had a sunburn before. It wasn’t recommended, and apart from the searing pain, I knew full well it would be followed by more discomfort, then sail into the itch of the devil before I would shed my skin and look like some kind of fantasy reptile…
Yes, they would have laughed at me too. Called me names and mocked me. Silly boy.
I was lucky. Bloody lucky.
Also? Freaking unlucky. In love, in my attempts at making myself feel better and even worse so? In my stupidity.
He’d been right, though. In my state of disarray?
The shower, the cool sheets against my bare skin and his painkillers had done exactly what he’d promised.
A nap had helped, my head was a little less cloudy, my foot throbbing gently instead of me wanting to chop it off with the hotel pen next to me, and the way the curtains were drawn?
Protective of my eyes, but I could see the top of his shoulder, the way he was sitting in the shade out there.
I needed the loo again, and I was gasping for a cup of tea. Still, I managed to sit myself up, my bladder protesting as I moved. And stood up.
Fuck. Painful.
Hobble, hobble, hobble. I probably looked like a pensioner, trying to steady myself against the walls, and the relief of finally reaching the toilet? I had to sit down so I could take my weight off my foot.
I was fucked. So, so fucked.
“You okay?”
Yes, I couldn’t even take a piss without someone checking in on me; I might as well be at the office with a line of people wanting my attention. At least he was speaking to me from behind the door, not even attempting to sneak a peek at my naked self.
“Good,” I muttered.
“Want a cup of tea?”
Did I want a cup of tea? What was this? A farm holiday? A day out with the grandparents? My jokes weren’t even funny, but I hobbled back out…
Naked. Yup.
Because I was an idiot.
“Wanna borrow some pants?” he asked, standing there with a cup in his hand. Teabag in the other.
“You brought a kettle?” My mouth needed a warning. Several of them, actually. I was behaving like a twat, and I wasn’t sure at all what he was up to.
“I like a hot drink. Didn’t want to have to traipse all the way up to the buffet every time. I have oat milk, that okay?”
“Acceptable,” I deadpanned, trying to turn my back to him as I hobbled back to the bed. Only so I could cover myself up.
Talk about the most embarrassing incident of my life.
I’d be dining out on this one for years.
So would my mates, listening to how I’d ended up in a stranger’s room with a messed-up foot and no pants.
The hotel room? It looked very similar to mine, at least what I remembered of it.
Bright. Airy. A fan moving gently on the ceiling, front door to the right, patio door to the left.
In my case, a balcony, here we were right on the beach.
The sound of the waves crashing was almost too loud for my fragile hearing.
“Pants would be good,” I had to admit, wondering where my clothes were.
“I hung your stuff up outside in the sun. Room key is next to you. Couldn’t find a phone, was going to put it on charge for you.”
“Thoughtful.”
Rude, but I was still very weary here.
“Look,” he said, placing a cup of …hot liquid next to me. I shuffled over as per instinct, and he sat himself down. On the bed.
Too close.
No sense of personal space. Or maybe he had because he looked mortified.
“I’m not a creep, I promise you. I’m just…
a doctor, who found a drunkard with sunburn outside his room.
Just doing my duty here. And I apologise again for my mum, she gets carried away with all these…
ideas of holiday matchmaking, and she is desperate for grandchildren and wants me to get a dog and buy a house and all that… ”
“You still live at home?” I think I was probably just as…delusional here.
“No.” He shook his head. “I practice a few hours away from where Mum and Dad live. I have my own house. A car. Normal stuff, I promise.”
“Normal.” I smirked. “I’m normal. I don’t usually end up drunk and injured on other people’s deckchairs.”
“See? We’re good then. I’ll lend you some pants.”
“What’s wrong with my pants?” I asked.
Oh.
“I wouldn’t recommend wearing those again.” He grimaced. “Wet and full of sand. You must have been crawling around in the surf out there.”
“I’ll gratefully borrow whatever you can offer.” I think my face was flaming. Of all things good and almighty?
“I’ll bring you some clothes, and then I’ll help you get back to your room.”
“You want rid of me already?”
I was trying to make a dumb joke. One that clearly wasn’t landing, as he rolled his eyes.
“I mean, if I found a hot dude on my deckchair I would at least…you know.”
“You’re not that hot, Riley.”
“I think you’re hot. I’d do you, Fairweather.”
“Don’t call me that. Sounds like we’re back at school.”
“Well.” I had to laugh out loud. “I’m the current headmaster at Kilmartin School. You can google me too.”
“It sounds like we’re trying to outdo each other on the normal, decent-human-being scale.” He was at least smiling. “You’re really a headmaster?”
“Absolutely.”
More small smiles.
“I know I don’t look it, lying naked and hungover in your bed.”
“Drink your tea, Fox Riley.”
“I never told you my full name.”
“Fox,” he said softly. I liked it. “Mum had all the gossip this morning. Sorry. And for heaven’s sake, just call me Noah.”
“Shall I tell you something, Noah?” I sat up properly in the bed and grabbed my cup. Took a sip. “Not bad. Not bad.”
“Travel kettle. Oat milk.” He tapped his nose. “And a secret stash of low opioids on prescription just in case some nutter burns his foot to a crisp.”
“Grateful.” I nodded. Another sip. “Look. I may be normal and all that, but let me tell you a little story. About five years ago, I took my new boyfriend on holiday. A bunch of my friends and I go every year, and this particular time? I was head over heels in love, so I brought him along. Paid for him and everything. You following me?”
“Yes?” He didn’t look convinced, sat there in his shorts and plain navy T-shirt.
He was handsome. Stubbly in a smart way. Broad shoulders. The kind of guy who would pick me up and carry me all across this godforsaken sandpit and deposit me back in my room, where I would sit and be depressed and hobble around and wish someone would make me a cup of tea.
“He…decided last year, I think it was last year. I honestly don’t know how long he’s been fucking other people behind my back, but when I booked to go on this holiday, I had no idea that the dickhead who had left me for a…
a bloody child, I didn’t in my wildest dreams think that he was planning to come along and bring his little boyfriend with him just so he could ruin my life properly for the one week, the one week, Noah, when I was supposed to get myself together and relax.
I was going to get drunk and eat nice food and maybe, maybe even get laid.
Have a rebound and start to feel good about myself again.
And here I am. Miserable as fuck, falling asleep on deckchairs and losing my shoes. ”
“Mum went looking for your shoes. Didn’t find them.”
“She knows I’m here?”
“Of course she does. Do you think anything slips under her radar? The minute I sat out here with some other dude’s clothes flapping in the wind on my washing line? She was right here snooping through the curtain.”
“For heaven’s sake.”
“Yeah, wasn’t my plan for a holiday either.
I have three books that I really want to read, and enough unread mandatory training emails to keep me busy for weeks.
I have… My mother can be intense, okay? But she means well, and she’s taken a shine to you, and you have no idea how thrilled she is that, after not even forty-eight hours here, you’re in my bed. ”
I had to laugh because he was. And it was…in a way. Nice. He was nice. He was really, really…nice. He sounded honest. I wasn’t used to that, and I was definitely not used to men being honest with me. I’d learned that the hard way. Bitter and jaded, me.
“I was going to suggest that the two of us embark on a sordid affair,” I suggested, flaunting that honesty right back in his face.
“Let’s spend the rest of this week shagging.
I can lie here, and you can bring me food and tea, and my foot should be fine by the time I get to fly home. Do you think your mum would agree?”
His laughter was my new favourite thing in the world.
I wasn’t quite sure why. Maybe because he was as far from Thomas-the-wanker as I could possibly find.
That he was, maybe a little softer around the edges than my usual type.
His hair a mess of brown. Twinkly eyes and that constant blush on his cheeks.
“And just how sordid?” he asked quietly, glancing at the open patio doors.
“Very.” I grinned. “I mean. Who doesn’t like sex?”
“People who are crap at it?”
Okay. Not only was he cute, but he was also able to stun me into silence. I wasn’t sure if he was being honest or just…messing with me.
“Noah, you know, sex is not a thing you’re good at or bad at. It’s just…a thing. The whole world has sex. It’s not a big deal.”
“Maybe not. But…”
Oh God. Here we were. Talking. Him and me were…fucking talking.
“The whole gay community, the dating apps, the clubs… It’s all about looks. If you look like…like you?”