Page 29 of Enemies to Lovers

Jamie chuckles. ‘This is the most food-obsessed family I have ever known,’ he says, and we make brief eye-contact before he looks away quickly. Does he regret confiding in me this morning? I’m getting ‘let’s not repeat that’ vibes. I try to smile, but he’s already looking away, his hands on Alex’s shoulders, jostling him out of the door. I swear to god, it’s one step forward, two steps back with him.

‘We going out drinking after dinner?’ I hear him asking Alex. ‘See what trouble we can get into?’

‘I’m bloody starving,’ says Dad, further proving Jamie’s point about us being food-obsessed.

Kate links arms with me as we follow the path to the main town, with instructions to turn off halfway to get to the part of the beach where the party is.

‘And honestly,’ she’s saying, ‘I could have spent a hundred euros, easy, couldn’t I, Laurie?’

Laurie isn’t listening. He’s explaining somethingabout his job to Dad, who is doing his level best to look like he: a) understands and b) is interested. That’s love.

‘Anyway,’ Kate presses on, ‘I justhaveto go with you. You’ll love it. Most souvenirs can be tacky, and something you end up throwing in the back of a cupboard at home, but it’s almost like there’s a buyer or something for this market – like somebody in charge of curating it all? Honestly, I was blown away. Maybe we could go the day before we leave? You have room in your suitcase, don’t you?’ I can’t get a word in edgeways, which suits me fine. A couple of times I feel Jamie watching me, but when I look up, his glance has changed direction.

The beach is set back from the road, and it has been transformed from what it looked like the other night, when we could see it from the mom-and-pop restaurant. There are strings of lights and a big makeshift dance floor with a live band, and a DJ station next to them. Fish is being grilled, and there are a few high tables festooned with ice buckets of beer and wine. There are kids and grown-ups of all ages, locals and tourists alike.

‘Hey! Hi! Hello, friends,’ Adonis says when he spots us, opening his arms wide in greeting, all man-bun and arms. He kisses everyone hello and then reaches me. ‘Pretty lady,’ he says, kissing each cheek. I flush with something familiar from yesterday – happiness, I suppose, at his openness and positivity. This is going to befine.I shouldn’t have let myself worry. I deserve to have a little fun, especially after everything I’ve been through. Who knows what adventure I might have, if only I let myself. And so I resolve, right here and now, to eat with this kind man and drink with this kind man, and later, if he asks for a dance, I shall do exactly that with this kind man, too.

‘Can I take her?’ Adonis asks my dad, with a weird sort of respect.

And Dad gestures with a hand and says, ‘By all means. Have a nice time, you two!’

Laurie says something that the rest of the family giggle at, but I can’t hear, so I just shoot him a look. Jamie has turned away and doesn’t watch Adonis lead me off, like the others do.

‘This dress,’ says Adonis, as he orders us drinks at the bar. ‘You look so beautiful, Flo.’

‘You keep calling me pretty lady,’ I tease him. ‘I was beginning to think you couldn’t remember my actual name.’

Adonis’s wide, happy face crinkles in dissatisfaction. ‘You think I wouldn’t be so respectful as to remember your name?’ he says, and I feel bad for ribbing him. I only half meant it.

‘I’m nervous,’ I explain. ‘I’m making stupid jokes because I’m intimidated by how hot you are.’ There. I’ve said it. That’s something else my therapist taught me: if in doubt, tell the truth – plainly, and without fear.

Adonis looks at me. ‘Hmmm,’ he muses. ‘I think, if Imay …’ He pauses for permission. I nod, gently. ‘Okay, so I think you maybe have what many of the tourists who come here have,’ he says. ‘You are too much here …’ And with that he touches my temple with two fingers. ‘And not so much here.’ He lowers his hand to my heart.

I nod again, harder this time, noting how his touch is an inch lower than it needs to be – but I like it.

‘Ding, ding, ding,’ I trill. ‘Correct. I don’t suppose you have the cure, do you?’

I am given that smile again.

‘Dancing,’ he tells me, offering a hand. ‘Come. We can drink later.’

And that is that. I don’t know how long we’re up there for, but to begin with there is only us, and after six or seven or eight songs everybody else is up dancing, too – including, I can’t help but noticing, Jamie with some brunette girl.

Adonis does some silly moves to make me laugh, which I mirror and add to. And as we both get bolder he comes closer, taking a hand and putting the other on my waist so that we dance together, occasionally twirling me or dipping me, all of which serves to make me focus entirely on the here and now, which is spectacularly welcome.

‘You really are pretty, lady,’ Adonis says to me over the music, and I believe him when he says it. Ifeelpretty, dancing this way, being in the moment like this. I put my arms round his neck and sway to the rhythm withhim, and he breaks away again to spin me – out away from him and then back towards him. It’s like a movie or something. I think of what Hope said, in her texts. If she was here, at the party with us, she’d be waving her arms from the side of the dance floor with a cheer, a signal to go for it, to really let go and have fun.

‘God,’ Kate intones in my ear, from where she’s dancing beside us. ‘He’ssofit. I’m jealous.’

Laurie pulls a face but laughs, too. ‘I heard that!’ he warns her, playfully.

I spin and spin on the dance floor, enjoying the cool air rippling off the water and onto my sweaty body, the feel of Adonis’s hand on my bare lower back. Round and round I go, splaying my arms out, tipping my head back, laughing until I’m so dizzy I have to excuse myself to get some water.

‘I’ll be right back,’ I say to Adonis, my fingertips lingering on his forearm, and relishing his hand on my hip before he nods and says, ‘Okay, pretty lady.’ I’m starting to enjoy the way he says that.

I head off to the makeshift bar and lean on the counter as I wait for my turn. The guy is changing a barrel, I think, and motions that he won’t be long. I smile and mouthOkay, curious as to how I’d say that in Greek. I’ll ask Adonis. I turn so that I can see everyone on the dance floor – Mum and Dad have got up there now, dancing cheek-to-cheek, like they do, and both of them grinning inanely and happily. I like seeing it. I like this night.

‘I could almost be jealous of your dancing partner.’

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