Page 58 of The Actor and His Secret

The bird gives a squawk and launches into the air.

‘What on earth was that?’ I ask, dusting sand and a few stray feathers off my bare chest. I’m covered in mosquito bites, but I feel happy to have last night marked on my skin.

‘I was acting,’ Oli says, lounging back beside me.

I draw him in close to me, planting a kiss upon his head. ‘How did I survive all this time without you?’

‘Luck,’ Oli says, planting his lips on the curve of my pec. ‘And a healthy dose of pretty-privilege.’

‘You think I’m pretty?’

Oli looks though his pale lashes at me. ‘Oh shut up, Adonis.’

His hair is lighter than it was before we came, likely a result of the sun-and-lemon combination he boasted about. Turns out, when he was younger and his family took him to the beach in summer, his mom would soak his pale hair in lemon juice as an attempt to get ‘natural highlights’. I mean, it works, I guess. It brightens the blue of his eyes, the colour so vibrant it gives the ocean a run for its money.

‘Last day today - ’ I start, but I’m silenced by the press of lips to my mouth.

‘I said, shut up.’ Oli hovers over me now, so much that I have to plant my hands on his thighs. With the sun over him, he’s haloed in light. I can barely think straight as the rays highlight every pore and mark across his beautiful face. I want to touch him, trace his body with my fingers like I’m moulding him from clay.

‘What would you do if I said ‘make me’?’

Oli lowers his mouth to mine, pressing his torso atop me until we’re practically fused together. ‘That.’ His lips move to my neck. ‘And this.’ He trails his kiss down my chest, my stomach all the way to my navel. ‘And also this.’

Before his fingers tug at the back of my shorts - stained with splatters of ice cream from last night - I stop him. ‘Ah, ah, ah. Who said you’ve earned that?’

Oli pouts, his pink lips shiny with spit. He’s ravenous for me, as I am for him. But today is important, enough that I wish to draw out the inevitable as much as I can.

‘Do you want me to beg for it?’

To prove that no begging is required, Oli palms the hardened length beneath my shorts. I have to snatch his wrist to stop him from making me come too quickly. ‘As much as I enjoy the idea of you on your knees, I have something planned for today. To make our last day special.’

‘Stop calling it that!’

‘But it is,’ I reply, huffing a laugh at Oli’s dramatic flop back onto the beach. ‘Is the idea of going back to work that painful?’

My attempt to make light of our shared depression doesn’t work. Even as I say those words, I regret them. But it’s too late - they’re out in the open. Now I find myself waiting to hear how Oli will reply.

‘I’ll manage,’ Oli says, and I feel something jolt in my chest. A pain that I wish to evict, but can’t. ‘You? Will you cope when reality hits us in the face?’

‘A pair of black eyes, some bruises and broken teeth - I’d take a lot in exchange for this time spent together. It’s worth it,’ I say, because what’s the point in sugar-coating it? ‘Thank you, Oli.’

‘For what?’

Existing. Being you. Helping me understand myself. ‘Just thank you.’

‘I was expecting some grand declaration of your love,’ he replies, his pout now unserious and mocking.

‘Well,’ I sit up, sand falling down my sun-kissed arms. ‘We have an entire day left. Maybe, just maybe, that declaration will come later.’

‘What do you have in mind?’ Oli asks as I stare out across the calm body of water before us.

‘It’s a surprise,’ I reply, enjoying the control for once.

‘If it doesn’t involve more donkeys, Nikos Adonis Ridge Drakos, I will punish you.’

I snap my attention towards him, letting the devious ideas fill my mind. ‘Careful, Honey. With a promise like that, I might need to change what I already have planned for us.’

He pounces on me, all feverish kisses and grappling hands. We tumble off the sheets, rolling around the sand until we crash, side first, into the gentle lapping waves. Turns out we will be a little late to my plans, because we don’t stop laughing for close to an hour.

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