Page 51 of One Hot Summer

“Are you all right?” Zack asked her.

“Yeah. Excuse me for a moment, will you? I’ll be right back.” She walked over to her villa and quietly slipped inside through the back door.

I turned to Zack. “That dinner took a mighty turn very quickly.”

“Beverley can get like that. I think my mum hoped having you here would mean she would watch her mouth and her behaviour. She’ll be absolutely mortified that all happened in front of you. Beverley is pretty great when she’s sober, but once she’s had a drink, you can bet money she will pick on Chloe one way or another. The thing is, she doesn’t even know what’s going on.”

“What do you mean?”

“Chloe did go back to uni, but not to study law.” He was whispering now. He leaned closer so I could hear. “She’s been doing a journalism degree remotely. She does travel around a lot with friends, spends a lot of time here too, but she’s been able to study at the same time and do her assignments in private. A lot of the tutorials are online now, so she can log in anywhere. You can book Zoom meetings with tutors if you need to speak to them. I know she comes across as quite immature, but she has a good head on her shoulders. Her dad knows that she’s doing journalism and sends her money every now and then when she needs it. She graduates next month, but she’s only invited her dad. She’s adamant that her mum will not be there.”

“So, her mum has no idea that she’s about to graduate? That’s awful. I thought my mum was bad, but she’s a fairy godmother in comparison. Saying that, I don’t think I’d choose to spend my summer holidays with her in such close quarters.” Even if the villas were the size of a small cruise ship. “Why would she want to come with them?”

“Because–”

“Anyone up for some of this?” Chloe reappeared at the table, with a bottle of raspberry-flavoured gin and three clean glasses, so Zack stopped mid-sentence.

I really wasn’t up for any more drinking. I had wanted an early night with Zack, but I didn’t want to be the boring old one.

“Maybe a couple,” Zack said. “But then bed, I’m shattered. And I can book us those tickets for Spinalonga tomorrow, if you like?” he said, turning to me.

“Yeah, definitely, what is it?” I asked.

“You’ll find out tomorrow, but everyone needs to visit when they come here.”

I yawned. We’d had quite a long day. Zack took me on a walk down to the beach after breakfast. We’d paddled, cooling our feet in the sea, before enjoying a light lunch in a small, family-run café. The beach was filled with loved-up couples, not a child in sight. One of the major benefits of going on holiday during term time.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” I said. “I just want to top up on after-sun. My shoulders are tingling a bit.”

“Do you want a hand?” Zack tugged on my arm playfully, pulling me down for a kiss.

“I’ll be fine, you two get started.”

I had left the after-sun in our bathroom after my shower earlier. Zack had smothered me in the stuff, hoping for some afternoon attention, I think, but my skin had felt too hot for bodily contact at that moment.

Up in the bathroom, I found the after-sun bottle and carefully rubbed some into my shoulders, which were feeling tender. Borrowing Chloe’s factor ten had been a mistake. I would be back on the fifty tomorrow like a sensible millennial.

I could hear music playing outside, so I had a little peek out of the bathroom window. Zack and Chloe had relocated from the dining table to the sun loungers and were sitting very close together. He was whispering something in her ear. A big smile appeared on her face before she shrieked, flinging out her arms and hugging him, pushing him so hard they ended up lying back on the seat, with her on top of him.

I felt sick. I was actually going to throw up.

What had he said to her to make her so giddy? Why did she feel the need to throw herself at him and lie on top of him? Were they both insane? Or were my feelings just completely irrelevant?

I had to do it. It was either now or never.

“Hello?” It took a while for her to speak when she answered the phone, and Sarah’s voice sounded uncertain.

“Hi.” Unable to hide my emotion, I cried down the phone. “Are you busy? I know things have been weird with us at the moment, but I needed to talk to you.”

“What’s happened? Are you all right? We’ll talk about that another time, it’s paused for now. Talk to me. What’s going on?”

“It’s Zack. I don’t know what’s going on. One minute we’re all loved up and it’s great…” I stopped to take a breath. “I’m seriously having the best time with him. It’s so beautiful here, you won’t believe it. But there’s this girl here. This family friend, a twenty-something, super hot girl he’s known forever and she’s all over him. I thought it was just one-sided, but he doesn’t do anything to stop it. And just now, from the upstairs window, I watched them all over each other in a private conversation, then she ended up jumping on top of him.”

“She what?! How could he do that to you? Did he push her away?” I could hear by her voice that she was furious.

“I don’t know. I figured she was just an attention-seeker seeing as she’s younger, but he’s clearly loving it. And she is always there. We went for a nice lunch in town, she was there. We had some naughty pool antics, she was watching. We had the villa all to ourselves for the day, so relaxed by the pool, she was there. And now, after she’s practically been my best friend all night, she’s all over my boyfriend once my back is turned. I don’t know what to do.”

“Have you spoke to him? Found out what’s going on? You need to tell Zack that you’re upset.” I had missed her voice. “It could be absolutely nothing to worry about. You could just ask him to be better with boundaries, without hurting her feelings. He needs to know this is bothering you.”

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