‘Hi, sweetie,’ said Natalia as she approached her hut. ‘I am sorry I didn’t make yoga, but I am having a bad day.’ She bent over to kiss his cheek in the hammock, then sat down on the sand with her long arms wrapped around her long legs, gazing out at the ocean.

‘Do you want to tell me about it?’ asked Juho, and Natalia’s eyes filled with tears. She turned to face him, and soon the tears were falling silently down her face as she just looked at him, filling him with both sympathy and fear.

He jumped out of the hammock. ‘Oh, my God, what is it, what has happened?’

Natalia continued to stare at him mutely, shaking her head. Juho proffered his hand to her, and she got up, following him, barefoot through the white powdery sand, to the relative privacy of her hut.

‘Better in here, huh?’ Juho smiled at her, which opened the floodgates. Natalia started sobbing and sobbing, her whole body shaking with the violence of her grief, as she sat on the edge of the ethnic throw that covered her thin mattress, her hands clasping the bed’s frame until her knuckles were white. Tentatively, Juho sat down next to her and put his arms around her.

Eventually, Natalia’s sobs subsided.

‘I thank you, Juho. You are a good man.’ She looked at him with gratitude and, spontaneously, kissed him on the cheek again.

‘Can I trust you with a secret?’ she said suddenly, as though just having come to a decision. ‘Of course I can.’ She answered her own question. ‘You are my best friend, the brother I never had …’

Juho’s heart sank slightly at this, but he smiled reassuringly and squeezed her hand.

‘Of course you can tell me. You can tell me anything.’

Natalia took a deep breath. ‘I am in love with a wonderful man, but he is famous actor, and Georgiou was threatening to expose him, for being with me. That was the final straw, the one that forced me to come here.’

‘I see.’ Juho looked at her sadly, wincing at the word ‘forced’.

‘I ran away from my Ben. I left him a note. I was weak, but I knew I could not do it if I saw his beautiful face. I guess I panicked …’ Juho squeezed her hand again. ‘Sometimes the pain of knowing I will never see him again is unbearable. That’s why I was so sad this morning. I am sorry. I feel a little better now, just to have told somebody.’

‘Would a drink make you feel better?’ asked Juho gently. ‘And then you can tell me all about him.’

‘A drink? Like a beer?’

‘No, a proper, strong drink. Vodka, or Sang Som.’ Juho was smiling now. If he was ready to break his vow of celibacy, he could surely allow himself to get smashed for one day, if it would cheer Natalia up. Actually, he was hoping it might make him feel better too. The news that she was in love with another man was a crushing blow.