“They knew?”
“Apparently we weren’t acting as well as we thought we were.” I smiled sheepishly, drawing a smirk from him, too.
“No Oscars for us, then.”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “You put in quite a few good performances along the way.”
Henry huffed out a small laugh. “Want to take a walk with me?”
“Where to?”
“I don’t care. I just want to be able to put my arm around you and hold you in public for a while before this whole thing is over.”
Over.
That one word had my stomach plummeting again. It wasn’t like I didn’t know the end drew closer and closer with every breath each of us took, but that didn’t mean I had to like it, because I didn’t. The thought of never seeing him again crippled me to the point of rendering me speechless.
“Don’t think about it,” he whispered, as though reading my mind. “Let’s just enjoy what we have left.”
I nodded in his grip once more and swallowed down any emotion that threatened to ruin this moment. “Let me change quickly.”
He glanced down at my denim shorts and strappy vest. “You’re fine as you are. I don’t want to waste a second with you.”
“You can’t glue yourself to me for the next two days, Henry.”
“Wanna bet?” That smirk of his returned, igniting a giddiness within me that wanted to agree to any request he made while I still could.
“Then, lead the way, I suppose.”
With one last, lingering kiss, he did, taking my hand as though it was the most natural thing in the world for either of us to do, and we walked out into the apartment grounds together, not hiding anything from anyone for the very first time.
It took me a while to stop glancing over my shoulder to make sure none of the others could see us, until Henry went from holding my hand to wrapping his arm over my shoulderand pulling my body into his side—my new favourite place on earth to be, where all I could smell, see, taste and feel was him. I wrapped an arm around his waist and held onto his hand that dangled by my shoulder, and the two of us walked around the streets of Mykonos like a couple with nothing left to hide.
No one else to care about but us.
That old friend of mine, guilt, tried to claw its way into my mind and ruin the moment every now and again, but it became easier and easier to push it away once I realised Henry was the most relaxed he’d ever been. As though something had clicked into place for him, and he didn’t care about anything or anyone but us. As though the dark demon I’d first met full of anger and resentment had melted away to reveal someone who didn’t want to let me go.
We walked the streets together, taking in everything around us with brand-new eyes. He bought me late-night, Sicilian lemon ice cream from a vendor, then fed it to me spoonful after spoonful, never looking away from my mouth every time I wrapped my lips around the little utensil, a small breath of appreciation falling from him with every moan of satisfaction I gave.
We ventured inside a trinket store, and the ageing woman behind the counter called us over to her and handed Henry a necklace with a single blue-eyed jewel on the end of it. She began to tell us of the power of the piece, and how in Greek culture, evil eye jewellery is believed to be a talisman against bad luck and negative energy, particularly envy and malevolent gazes, acting as a protective charm.
He bought it for me there and then, even though I tried to protest, and handed over his credit card for the woman to scan without a thought while he wrapped the delicate, gold piece around my neck and locked it in place. When he spun me aroundin his arms, he ran his thumb over the eye that sat just above the valley of my breasts.
“Something to keep you safe when I’m not around,” he said quietly. “An evil eye to guard my angel eyes.”
“RTM,” I whispered.
“Young love,” the woman called out in her heavy accent, waving Henry’s credit card his way for him to take. “You can’t put a price on it.”
Henry gave me a subtle side-eye and a smirk that said she’d just put a price on it anyway, but he didn’t seem to care or even ask what the necklace had cost before he took the card back, thanked her for her help, then wrapped his arm around my shoulder again.
Eventually, we came to the beach at midnight, and the moonlight on the horizon watched over us both as we removed our shoes and stepped down onto the cool sand together. My heart pounded in my chest with a nervous energy I struggled to hide. Something about this night felt heavy yet heavenly as we made our way down to the shoreline.
“I have something I need to say, and it’ll sound corny as hell, but I need you to hear it, okay?” Henry said as he took in the inky, lazy waves that met his feet.
“Okay.”
“Thank you, Phoebe. For making this holiday everything it’s turned out to be. You were everything I never knew I needed.”
