“Happy to do it. Take your time getting up. The ride to the boat doesn’t come ’til nine. We have time for breakfast, too, when you’re ready.” I nodded and drank more tea. This was a very different Josh from the day before, the guy who’d called us a “vacationship”. I took it as a sign that we had a good day ahead of us.

*

Siobhan and I leant against the railing at the front of the boat and watched a pod of dolphins swimming alongside us, darting in and out of the boat’s slipstream. “Oh, my god, look!” she repeated, each time pointing to a different dolphin.

Josh was on the port side of the boat taking photos with his fancy new phone—it had a better camera than an actual camera, apparently. “Josh,” I called, “Mykonos!”

“I know! I was just thinking that.” He grinned at me.

On our trip in Greece, we’d sailed into Mykonos accompanied by a pod of dolphins. It was an incredible moment, just like this one. There’s something quite magical about dolphins—they seem both cheeky and joyful. It is practically impossible not to grin and giggle like a fool when they’re so close by.

I caught Josh taking a photo of me with Siobhan and he lifted his eyes to me, then pursed his lips to blow me a kiss. Vacationship, my ass.

During my restless night, I’d briefly considered trying to get Siobhan’s take on the situation, but it didn’t take me long to decide against it. Her marriage had broken up before it had even started. It would have been selfish of me to burden her with my paltry worries. I’d have to work it out on my own.

So, when the dolphins eventually veered off, I couldn’t have been more surprised, or more grateful, when she quietly asked me, “So, what is going on with you and Josh?”

I glanced over at Josh and he seemed ensconced in his phone, probably looking at the photos he’d just taken. I didn’t think he could hear us from there, but even so, I lowered my voice. “Well, he told me that he told you that we’re just friends.”

“Yes, which doesn’t seem right at all considering what I saw of you two in the pool yesterday.” I was embarrassed. At the time, I hadn’t cared about strangers seeing our slightly-too-lascivious-for-public behaviour, but Siobhan had, and now she was our friend.

“Uh, sorry about that. We were probably a little, um, risqué.”

She waved my apology away. “No need. I’ve got to get my thrills vicariously at this stage. But why is he saying you’re just friends, when clearly you’re not?”

“I honestly don’t know,” I replied.

“And I’m not just talking about the physical stuff, but you seem like a couple. Even when you told me about how you met on the boat, you shared little looks and jokes and the like. You’re just gorgeous together.”

“So, it’s not just me, then? You think that Josh acts like we’re a couple.”