I nodded as though it made perfect sense – even though I’d been willing to have a one-night thing with James up until a few minutes before.

‘And there’s one last thing.’

Oh god! He was going to tell me he was married – or dying – or both!

‘The young man on the yacht …’

‘Josh?’ I said, a little too loudly.

‘Josh, yes. I got the sense something is going on between you, and I don’t want to be that man.’

‘What man?’

‘I don’t want to insert myself somewhere I’m not welcome.’ Did he really just say that? I thought. I couldn’t let it slide.

‘Did you hear what you just said?’

‘Yes – actually, I did – as soon as I said it, and it was quite awful, and if you could forget I said it, that would be excellent.’

‘Totally forgotten.’

‘Good. Now back to Josh …’ But what about Josh? What could I say?

‘Josh and I only met a few days ago …’ Sarah, no matter how tipsy you are, you absolutely must not pretend that nothing is happening with Josh. That isn’t fair to him – or James – or you. Sometimes the voice in my head can be so damned reasonable.

‘… but we’ve become really close in a short time.’ That was good – and true. ‘Somehow, despite living on opposite sides of the world, and that I didn’t even know him a week ago, I feel like he’s going to be important to me.’

‘Oh.’

‘Now you’re saying “Oh”.’

‘Yes.’

‘But the thing is, I don’t know what will happen with him. He doesn’t want a relationship. He has been adamant about that – in fact, before he discovered you and I had already met, he wanted to pick your brain about the incredible bachelor life you lead.’

‘It’s probably not like he thinks it is.’

‘I’m sure that parts of it are,’ I said, smiling.

‘Just not the “bachelor” part. Unlike your friend, I do want to be in a relationship.’

‘And therein lies my dilemma.’

‘I see that now. Look, we don’t need to decide the rest of our lives tonight. How about I get in contact with you when I get back to London? Let’s keep in touch, then see how it all pans out?’

‘You’re letting me off the hook.’ I started walking again. We were close to the marina.

‘Perhaps. Do you remember you said that to me on Santorini when I asked you to lunch, “perhaps”?’

‘I do remember. I was trying to be way cooler than I felt. You kind of took my breath away too, you know.’

‘So, I can contact you?’