‘Josh,’ I said more firmly. ‘Look at me.’ He did, sheepishly, and started to apologise again. I cut him off. ‘Hey, don’t worry – it’s cool. I probably would have done the same thing. It is a little awkward,’ I added, trying to make a joke. A wry smile appeared, and he nodded in agreement.

‘Should we talk about it?’ I asked.

‘No. Let’s just go.’ He logged out of his own email account, stood, pushed back his chair, and led the way out of the café.

‘Properly’ – the word repeated inside my head as I followed Josh into the sunlight.

It was going to be an interesting end to the trip.

*

When we arrived at the dock where we had left our boat, it wasn’t there. Josh and I stood looking at an empty berth. We looked at each other, our mouths agape and our eyes wide, and we both burst out laughing as if it was the funniest thing ever.

‘Oh my god!’ we both kept saying, over and over, in between bursts of laughter. I had no idea what to do – and neither, it seemed, did Josh. We didn’t have our phones with us, so we couldn’t call anyone – and we had no idea where the others were, or why they would have left without us. We were boatless. We were people without a boat.

I thanked my foresight to carry my passport with me whenever I left the boat – and a credit card. If I had to – if we actually had been abandoned – I could get myself back to London. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. There must have been a good explanation. Still, when our hysterical laughter died down, we were speechless.

After a while of looking at the water where our boat had been, I shook my head. ‘Josh?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Where the fuck is our fucking boat?’ And then that was then the funniest thing ever, because we were off again, laughing loudly. Tears filled my eyes, and I doubled over. ‘Oh, my god,’ I gasped through the tears. I sniffled and tried to get it together.

‘Right!’ I said, more decisively than I felt. I forced myself to stand upright. ‘This is not a huge island, and this is not a huge marina. We need to find our boat.’ I grabbed Josh’s arms, shook him a little, and said, ‘Josh, we need to find our people.’ He nodded solemnly in agreement.

‘And then we need to kill them for abandoning us.’ That brought his smile back again. And he had such a sexy smile.

I looked around us. ‘Well, we could sit on this bench and hope someone comes looking for us.’ I motioned to the bench, which served as the nearest bus stop.

‘Or get on the next bus to the airport,’ retorted Josh.

‘Does Syros even have an airport?’