What I didn’t expect—and didn’t want at the time—was to meet someone.

When I left for Greece, I was still in the “all men can bugger off and die” stage of post-break-up blues. But it turned out that fate did not get the memo and I had returned from the trip with two “suitors”. It’s an awful word, really, but I’d got it from Gerry, one of my new friends from the trip, and it was actually the perfect way to describe Josh and James—the cute American and the silver fox—because I was romantically entangled with them both.

Josh was on the sailing trip with me, along with five other people, our floating family. We first met on the pier in Santorini, each a little lost and on the lookout for the right sailboat. On board, we became fast friends, his quick wit and thought-provoking discourse winning me over immediately. And then there was the attraction. Even though I’d doused myself in man-repellent, and Josh was single and celibate by choice, our attraction had taken hold.

We were the Ross and Rachel of the Greek Isles, the “will they, won’t they” of our ten-day friendship-cum-romance, driving me, him, and everyone else on our trip a little batty. So, how had we left things? Consummated and confusing. He was back home in Chicago, I was in London (and soon to be Sydney), and all we had were tentative plans to meet up in Hawaii for New Year’s—four months away.

And then there was James, the silver fox.

I first met James in Santorini, too, though I had no idea then that I’d see him again. I was on my own, sightseeing just before joining the sailing trip, and he engaged me in conversation. We chatted for a few minutes, then he told me I was beautiful and invited me to lunch. Yes, really. That may sound somewhat sleazy of him, but he wasn’t like that at all—he was charming and polite. And I was tempted too. James was gorgeous—in the same way that those fifty-something Ralph Lauren models are gorgeous.

In the end, I didn’t show up to lunch—all men could bugger off and die, remember? I didn’t think I’d ever see him again, but guess who was an old friend of our skipper, Duncan? And guess who was in Naxos at the same time as us and wanted to meet up with Duncan and the gang? If you’re terrible at guessing, it was James.

When we encountered each other the second time, surrounded by my floating family, he was amused, and I was gobsmacked. This time, though, I accepted his invitation for a date. We left the others to their after-dinner plans and he took me to meet a friend of his. It was a fun evening, and I discovered that James was an art dealer who travelled a lot, and he was single, with room in his life for “someone special”. I won’t lie—I totally let myself fantasise about being that someone.