Chapter 30 #2
Noah filled me in on his afternoon. Like me, he’d spent most of it sleeping, but he’d also gone to the restaurant where he’d bumped into Sammie.
When he mentioned her name, my eyes instantly popped.
‘Don’t worry. I didn’t say anything to Sammie about Mykonos.’
See. I didn’t even have to say anything for him to guess what I was thinking.
‘Phew. What happens in Mykonos, stays in Mykonos, right?’ I said.
‘So I just imagined us kissing in the car on the way here to Oia?’ He cocked an eyebrow. ‘Oia, which by the way is in Santorini and not in Mykonos.’
‘You know what I mean!’ I laughed. ‘I don’t know whether I should tell Sammie anything. Once she’s finished gloating about how she’d predicted this would happen for decades, she’ll get carried away. And we haven’t even discussed this yet, so we need to at least do that before telling anyone else.’
‘Well, in case it’s not already obvious—’ Noah stroked my cheek ‘—I want to be with you. Properly.’
My stomach twisted.
Shit. He was thinking long-term. I thought it was just sex. A fling thing.
‘I’d love that too,’ I said, thinking that in an ideal world, that’d be amazing. It wasn’t realistic though. ‘But—’
‘But what?’ Noah frowned.
‘It’s risky. You mean so much. Our friendship is everything to me and I don’t want to lose it.’
‘You won’t. We’ll be great together.’
‘I really want to believe that,’ I said. ‘But maybe we should take things slow? Not put pressure on ourselves with labels or expectations yet. We could see how things are whilst we’re here, then check in again with each other once we’re back in the real world.’
That was the safest option.
Right now we were in a happy bubble. We weren’t in the right frame of mind to make serious, long-term decisions.
If we kept things light whilst we were on holiday, it’d make it easier to go back to being friends once we returned to London.
Noah paused.
‘I won’t say anything to Sammie. I’ll leave that up to you. And I understand why you want to take things slow. If I’m being honest, I’m not sure if I can, but I’ll do my best.’
‘Okay.’ I nodded, thinking that I couldn’t ask for more than that.
Now that the common sense and logic that had evaporated last night had returned, I was still trying to get my head around the fact that we’d crossed the line and work out how best to safeguard our friendship.
So it was natural for Noah to need time to process everything too. ‘Will you tell Colin?’
‘Haven’t decided yet. If he asks me though, I won’t lie to him.’
‘Fair enough. At least you know he won’t broadcast it to the universe like my sister will!
’ I laughed. ‘We should take some photos.’ I pulled out my phone and started snapping some pics of Noah with the stunning background behind him.
Then we took some selfies and chatted about a million other things.
At one point we were debating whether puff or filo pastry was better (obviously puff).
No idea how we got onto that. Oh yeah! It was because we were chatting about Noah’s obsession with spanakopita – the spinach, feta cheese and herbs filo pastry Noah had been devouring for breakfast ever since he’d arrived.
Then we’d started discussing apples. Green versus red (obviously red won hands down).
After that we spoke about veg, which reminded Noah about an article he’d read on the craziest sex-related incidents and injuries A&E doctors had seen, which included removing ‘lost’ objects like cucumbers and carrots from inside the body.
And having to conduct surgery to take out a full-sized LED light bulb someone had inserted up their bum. Ouch.
Going from discussing pastry, to fruit and light bulbs getting trapped up someone’s arsehole was so random.
But that was the thing. Noah and I were so relaxed in each other’s company that it didn’t matter.
We didn’t have to worry about stuff sounding stupid or weird.
We just talked. One conversation topic just flowed seamlessly into another.
‘Looks like it’s starting to happen!’ Noah pointed to the horizon.
‘Yes!’
He stood behind me, wrapped his arms around my waist, then kissed the top of my head.
First the sky went from gold to an orange-apricot hue before turning a beautiful shade of rose. Even the whitewashed buildings had a pretty pink glow. The crowd watched in silence. We were clearly all in awe of the stunning sight in front of us.
Noah and I quickly took some photos, then as the sun slipped under the horizon and the sea darkened to an inky blue, he cupped my face, lifted my chin then kissed me.
The kiss was different to the frenzied, desperate snogs we’d enjoyed last night and in the car on the way here.
This was soft and slow, like he wanted to savour every second.
It was the equivalent of leisurely, indulgent sex on a Sunday morning instead of frantic, first-time Friday-night shagging where you couldn’t wait to rip each other’s clothes off.
I didn’t know how long we’d kissed for, but even if it was hours, it wouldn’t have been long enough.
Eventually we tore ourselves apart.
‘So? What do you want to do now? Go out to dinner? Eat at the hotel’s restaurant or order room service and relax?’
‘Room service,’ I said without hesitation. ‘But I have to warn you, I’m still pretty tired so I don’t know if I’ll be able to—’
‘When I said relax, that was exactly what I meant.’ He kissed me softly. ‘It wasn’t a euphemism for Netflix and chill. We can just eat, then sleep.’
‘I know this makes me sound like a pensioner, but that sounds perfect.’
‘Agreed,’ he said taking my hand. ‘Let’s go back to the hotel, then I can get you a nice hot cup of cocoa and a blanket. Then after I put on my pyjamas, we can do a crossword together,’ he teased.
‘And I’ll get your pipe and slippers.’ I chuckled.
‘That’s my girl.’ Noah smiled and led me to the car.
As he did, I realised that I was glad that my match caused me to miss the sunset the first time around. Because if he hadn’t have acted like such a muppet, I wouldn’t have ended up with Noah. Or got to enjoy this gorgeous sunset with him.
Seeing it with Noah was a billion times better.
It was the perfect moment.
And one I knew I’d remember forever.