Page 63 of The One That Got Away

‘Yeah,’ he nodded before dropping his gaze to his empty plate.

I fiddled with the thick white serviette resting on the table as the silence stretched between us.

The waiter knocked at the door then came in to deliver the first course.

‘Yay! Dinner!’ I squeaked, grateful for the interruption. ‘I’m starving!’

Breakfast with Max wasn’t as awkward as I feared. Having photos to go through was a good distraction.

Originally when Jasmine mentioned the whole memory book thing, I thought it’d be a nightmare. But now, I was starting to enjoy the ritual of looking over photos from the day before over breakfast with Max. The pictures always came out much better than I thought. Jasmine was great at snapping candid photos and we never seemed to notice her taking them.

In the most recent selection, there was a cute pic of us on the boat staring out to sea that I’d picked as my favourite. And Max had selected a shot of us laughing at something together. Neither of us could remember what that could’ve been because after he’d told me the heartbreaking story about his mum, we’d lightened the mood and laughed multiple times.

Well, up until our almost kiss and the dinner in the cabin. For the rest of the night, we kept the conversation firmly on the food and how amazing the yacht and the views were, which helped relieve the tension a little.

We hadn’t spoken about what happened, just like we’d agreed. I reckon Max was also relieved we’d avoided making a big mistake.

On the coach back, I fell asleep. Max had woken me up when we pulled up outside the hotel and he offered to walk me to my room, but I said I’d be fine. Partly because I wanted to avoidanother awkward moment where we’d wonder whether or not we should do the goodnight kiss thing.

And also because although I knew that I shouldn’t be having illicit thoughts about Max, I couldn’t get him out of my head and I didn’t trust myself not to do something stupid like invite him into my room.

So we’d kind of waved at each other awkwardly and said that we’d catch up at breakfast. And now here we were.

‘Shit!’ I looked at my watch. ‘The briefing starts in five minutes.’

I downed the rest of my coffee and Max shoved the last piece of egg-white omelette in his mouth before we both got up.

As we walked to the pool area, we chatted easily, both agreeing to finish our playlist selections and upload them once we got back to our rooms. I already had a shortlist in my head.

See. This was good.

We did the right thing not kissing last night.

It was much better this way. As long as I didn’t look into Max’s eyes and avoided any accidental brushing of hands, legs or skin in general, I could get through this.

This was our seventh day here and although initially we’d said that a week was all we’d commit to, now it was clear that we were going to stay for the full fortnight.

From tomorrow we’d get to choose our own activities, so I’d make sure that I selected daytime trips that weren’t too romantic. Then once we’d finished whatever excursion we’d been on, we could just do our own thing by the pool or chill separately in our rooms. That way, all potential temptation would be avoided.

Simple.

‘Hi, everyone!’ Jasmine shouted, causing the chatter around the pool to die down. ‘Happy Friday and congratulations! You’vecompleted your first seven days at The Love Hotel. Everyone still enjoying themselves?’

‘Yes!’ all the guests cheered.

‘Great! So as we’re entering our second week, we’re going to switch things up. As you already know, now you’ll be choosing the activities, with some support from us. But that won’t be the only change.’

‘Oooh!’ Heidi, our new friend from last night, called out enthusiastically. ‘Do tell!’

My pulse quickened. Jasmine really loved springing surprises on us. I started to think about whether or not I’d like it. Then I reminded myself that now Max and I were friends, there was no need to worry.

‘At the moment you’ve been staying in separate rooms and mainly just meeting your partner for the daily activities. But part of a successful, long-lasting relationship is getting to know each other:properly. Usually people wait months, sometimes years to move in together, but we like to do things differently. So for the rest of your holiday, we’re accelerating the process. We want to help you get to know each other better. Warts and all.’

Why did something tell me I wouldn’t like the sound of where this conversation was going?

‘How?’ someone shouted from the front.

‘You and your partner are going to move into a villa.Together. Isn’t that wonderful?’

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