Found by Drew, page 9
Drew nodded and sighed. “I had a feeling it was a guy. Some of us make girls ugly cry - not that I’m saying you’re ugly when you cry. Or normally. Shit. Put my foot in it there, didn’t I?” He panicked, his face going as red as mine.
I smiled and punched him playfully on the arm. “Yeah, well, you were right. It’s a guy. I thought I loved him and he loved me. So wrong on that front. I got carried away, and then it turned out he was only dating me to make his ex jealous. Then, being the stupid, lovesick fool I am, I forgave him and tried again, only to catch him at it with the same skanky little tramp as before.” I garbled out the whole sorry saga, barely pausing for breath, dropping my gaze to fixate on the tiny grains of sand at my feet. I hazarded a quick glance from under my wet eyelashes, trying to gauge his reaction.
Drew sighed, brushed the remaining pastry off his hands, set my croissant on the boat, and looked at me. It was more than just taking in appearances or body language, the way most people looked at each other - it felt like he was looking straight into my very soul. He placed his hands on my shoulders, moving one gently to my chin, and brought it up so my eyes were level with his. Looking at me the whole time, not even breaking eye contact to blink, he moved closer towards me. My breathing sped up as I panicked. He wasn’t going to try and make a move after what I’d just told him, was he? Drew sensed my concern, smiled and then, ever so gently, he kissed my forehead, smoothing a thumb over the spot and tucked some stray hair behind my ear. It was romantic, yet comforting at the same time.
“Lia, I’m so sorry to hear that. He… damn, it’s making me angry just thinking about it, but he didn’t deserve you. You need to remember that. Even in just the short time I’ve known you, I can tell what an awesome woman you are. You deserve better. Promise me you will never, ever go near this… fuck, I can’t even think of what to call him.”
“Prick? Bell end? Cockwomble? Twatwaffle?” I offered, trying to be serious, but a smirk appeared each time he pulled a face to consider my suggestions.
“Call him whatever you want, beaut, just promise me you’ll stay away from him, please?” Genuine concern showed in his eyes as he watched my reactions.
“I can honestly say I will never, ever, go near that manwhore again. Who knows what he might’ve caught off the trollops he’s slept with since?” I twisted my face into a comic expression of extreme disgust, similar to what kids do when you shove green veg in their mouths. “Besides, Annie’s already beaten you to it. She made me promise me when we were in A&E after my fist said hello to his face.”
Drew snorted. “You punched him? Fair play, Lia! You don’t need me to uphold your honour then. Remind me to be careful around you when you’re angry.” He meant it in jest, but I still coloured. I wasn’t proud of smacking Alex, even less so of the hassle my broken hand had caused me - not least because it had delayed our holiday plans. But even so, I could see the humour.
“Yeah, there’s a funny story to that actually, and it’s what made us delay our holiday to this week.” I laughed, and for the second time since meeting Drew, it actually felt real, not as if I was just putting it on to keep up appearances. I had no idea who this man was, or what he’d done to me, but in just a few short days, he had begun to stitch my heart back together. For that, I’d always be grateful. Who’d have thought the events of that night would have such a far-reaching impact?
“Care to share? I reckon we have about twenty minutes before the others rouse themselves, don their sunglasses, and come moaning at us like extras from a zombie movie.” He winked, sending a shiver down my spine, despite the warmth. Someone else used to wink at me, but his was predatory, aimed to control. Drew’s was only meant in the most positive of ways – to tease and excite, and boy, it did both.
“I caught him with his skank outside a local dive. Annie and I had been playing spies. I saw red, I swung a punch, and there was a loud crack. It was much noisier than I had expected, if I’m honest. But it wasn’t until we were on the way home that we realised the crunch was actually my hand, not his face.” I smiled.
Drew snorted again, shaking his head at me. “Did no one ever teach you how to throw a punch properly?” he asked, genuinely concerned I was missing a serious life skill.
“Nope. Never thought I’d need it.”
“Finish that croissant; it’s time for a self-defence 101 with yours truly.” He grinned, cracking his knuckles like the bad guys do in movies before a fight. Stuffing the last few mouthfuls in record time, I turned to face him, listening carefully as he explained the logistics of thumb location and which part of the hand to hit with.
“If only I’d known that, I’d have never needed that A&E visit, but then we’d have been out here a month earlier. I’d have missed meeting you,” I mused aloud as we play fought on the beach, each of us ducking before the other could get a true hit.
“Then my life would have been a little bit darker for not having met you,” replied Drew. A corny line, one that was definitely overused in films and the like, but he said it sincerely, smiling like a shy boy asking his first girlfriend out on a date.
“Mine too,” I said, staring into his eyes again.
Oh, those eyes. They pulled me deeper as I tried to fathom their secrets. Their colour, the depth. It was true what they said; the eyes really were the window to the soul, and it felt like I could see straight into his.
Lost in each other, I barely noticed as his head moved closer to mine, his hands returning to my cheeks. A thumb brushed my hair away again, and this time, as his lips neared mine, I didn’t panic. Instead, I closed my eyes, leaned in a touch further, and let myself enjoy the moment.
His lips were cautious and slow, but skilled. I moved my hands from my sides and placed one on his shoulder, the other against his cheek. Smoothing his stubble, I noticed it was much softer than I had imagined it to be. The tiniest part of my brain was telling me not to rush, that he was a rebound from Alex. But my gut, the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when something is totally right, was singing like a canary. I switched off my mind and enjoyed the moment.
We became braver, our lips parting and allowing our tongues to find a rhythm that takes most couples weeks to figure out. It was awkward at first, but enjoyable. He tasted vaguely of mint and mouthwash; the slightest hint of the blackcurrant jam he had smothered his croissant with tinged the kiss with a sweetness that was not unwelcome.
A wolf whistle from the promenade shook us out of our moment. He reluctantly opened his eyes and I mine, both of us holding on to the moment of happy perfection we had just experienced. We turned, ready to show the finger to who had interrupted us, only to laugh when we saw my girls and his guys perched on the wall. Each of them had something from the breakfast buffet, and all were watching us with a peculiar intensity.
“That’s it, guys and gals. Show’s over. We’ve been rumbled! Lads, pay up. I believe you owe me and my girls some euros.” Annie laughed, making a ‘give it here’ kind of motion with her free hand. “Told you they’d kiss before the week was out.” She waved at me, and although I was embarrassed by the situation, annoyed by the interruption, and a little pissed they’d been taking bets on how easily I’d give out, my happiness at finally starting to heal from Alex far outweighed them all.
“Sorry,” I said sheepishly, toeing the sand.
“No probs, beaut. We’ll just have to get up earlier next time,” Drew whispered in my ear.
My heart skipped a beat – next time. I smiled like a lovesick teenager.
“I can’t wait.”
ELEVEN
It turned out there had, in fact, been quite a large sum of money riding on whether or not Drew and I would ‘get together’ after we had left the beach yesterday. Of course, no matter how many times we protested, either together or separately, to our respective groups of friends, no one paid us the slightest bit of mind. We knew we hadn’t done anything like that. Until that morning, we hadn’t even kissed, but to our friends, it had been love’s young dream last night. I’d grown fed up with arguing and stormed off, growling curses under my breath over a chorus of ‘ooohs’. Drew had run after me and hadn’t that just flamed the fire. To think this was only the start of the holiday.
“What’s the matter with you, grumpy guts?” he teased, poking delicately around my burnt bits to make me smile.
“I’ve just had enough of their shit. It’s hard enough figuring out what’s going on without all their caterwauling,” I huffed, acting like a petulant toddler who’d been told no too many times.
“So, go back there and tell them, or at least let’s figure out some sort of code word so we can make our escape a bit more planned next time.” He winked, and my frustrations started to ebb. By the frazzled look and the amount of times he’d ruffled his short hair, it seemed he had had enough of their childish behaviour too.
“All right, all right. But I swear to God, if Meg says ooh in that little high-pitched voice of hers again, I’m not being held responsible for my actions!”
We walked together back to where the guys and girls were sipping cocktails and faced the reproving looks together.
“I’ll say it one last time and then it’s case closed, all right, you nosy fuckers? We. Did. Not. Shag. Last. Night.” I punctuated each word with a clap and looked at each of them in turn, my eyes trying to convey the intensity of the anger behind the words.
“Oh, Lia, you’re hilarious when you try to be forceful. Sit your little ass down and stop being such a drama queen. We’re just teasing. Unless, of course, something did happen and then we’d all like to know the deets,” joked Annie, but it was the final straw.
I growled and balled my hands into tight fists. My eyes were squeezed tight as I counted to ten and tried to calm myself down. I sensed Drew’s hand on mine, feeling the familiar callouses from the night before. His touch calmed me, bringing my racing heart under control and my breathing back to a more normal pace.
“I’m with Lia, guys. This shit stops now. We’re not having our holiday ruined by you lot acting like pain in the arse kids on a school playground. You either pack it in, or Lia and I will go to town and spend the rest of the day just us.” Drew’s voice rang with authority. It was low-pitched, and when I opened my eyes, I saw a fire in them.
My heart began to race again, feeling that attraction from that morning returning as I stared at him in wonder. He sat down, pulling my hand to sit with him, and passing me my drink. The others were all stunned into silence. Their jaws dropped, mouths agape.
“So, Lia, what is it you were hoping to see whilst you’re over here? There’s a fantastic set of ruins up the other side of the beach, or there’s an excellent riding school I know of up in the mountains. They take you through the most beautiful olive groves. The sights are really something else,” said Drew, his eyes only on me. They seemed to question if I was okay. Trying to signal my thanks to him with just a look, I took a long sip of my drink to steady my nerves.
“You mean horseback riding? I’ve not done that since I was a kid. But you’d recommend it?” I replied, casting a glance at the others. They were still sitting in stunned silence, watching us make small talk. Rich was the first one to come to his senses.
“Ah, hell yeah. It’s absolutely stunning up there. Kath, who runs it, is a Brit. She moved over here years ago when her fella was stationed out here and never went back. She’s lovely, and her horses are really well-mannered.” The guys murmured in agreement and the girls started some small talk about which bikini gave them the worst tan lines.
“Sounds like a dream. You free tomorrow?” I asked, mouthing ‘thank you’ at him.
Even after just two short days, I was already beginning to dread the end of the holiday. Not just because I’d be going back to the boredom of daily life, but because I’d miss him. It was crazy considering I’d only have known him for two weeks by the time I got home. The added problem was, as we’d both found out later that day, we lived miles from each other. Literally opposite ends of the country, so the end of the holiday felt like it would be the end for us. It went unspoken, but the feeling lingered. So, rather than letting ourselves dwell on the end, we concentrated on enjoying each other and the time we had. Unspoken it may have been, but it was powerful, and it freed some of my anxiety.
From that moment on, the teasing stopped, and I would forever be grateful to him for that, but it also marked a change in our relationship. Drew became my protector, constantly checking in on me, asking if I was okay, putting extra sun cream on my back, and keeping my drinks topped up. It was strange, and a complete reversal from the role I usually played in relationships, but I liked it. It felt comforting. It was healing.
By the end of the first week, we had spent almost every waking minute in each other’s company, and the more time I spent with Drew, the more I realised how completely different and unique he was compared to all the other guys there’d been before. Sheesh, that made me sound like a tramp, but I’d had enough experience of the male species to know there were some absolute shits amongst them. But Drew wasn’t like that.
We’d taken a trip to the horse riding stable and spent a day there, just the two of us. Without the fear of the others’ judgement and watchful eyes on us, we’d both relaxed and let a little more of the real us show. He was attentive, but he had a wicked sense of humour, teasing me about my jumpiness each time an insect buzzed by. I’d let him in to my own unique brand of crazy, letting my nerdiness and passion for all things arty roam free. I’d expected him to yawn and try to change the subject, but he’d listened. Heck, he’d even asked for suggestions on how to get into it himself.
“You’re an odd little thing, aren’t you, Lia?” he said one evening, as we sat on the beach watching the sun do its nightly dance with the moon. It made me feel sad each time we watched it, reminding me that one day soon we’d be doing that same dance - wanting to be close to each other but chasing time and miles to be able to do so.
“Why, whatever do you mean?” I smiled, batting my eyelashes at him.
“I feel like I’ve kinda got the measure of you now. Don’t shoot me down here. I know it’s only been a few days…”
“Four to be precise, but continue,” I said.
“Well, yeah, four days, but you’re all feisty and independent woman on the outside, but deep down, underneath all that bravado, you just want to be special to someone. You want someone to care for you, protect you. Why do you put up such a front?” he asked, and I could tell from his shuffling how nervous he was.
“You know why, Drew. I told you that first night.”
“No, you told me why you didn’t like men. This is different. It’s like you don’t let yourself be the real you.”
I paused, a lump in my throat. In all the years I’d been friends with the girls, all the relationships I’d been part of, all the times I’d shied away from these kinds of conversations – I’d have to confront it. I felt able to confront it, able to share those deepest parts of myself with this virtual stranger.
“I hide because it’s easier. No one wants to be friends with the loner. They want the feisty one. No one wants to be friends with the damsel in distress, the one always finding life hard, who prefers to be nose deep in a book than in a conversation. I learned pretty early on in life it was just easier to be what people expect you to be, not who you want to be.”
We sat there in silence for a while, Drew running his thumb over the back of my hand. I ran my thumb over his palm. I grew nervous. Why wasn’t he replying? Had I finally done something to scare him off?
“Lia,” he said quietly, moving so we were facing each other. “Promise me you will always, and I mean always, be yourself from now on. If people don’t like it then screw them, but you’re too beautiful, inside and out, to keep hiding away like this.”
I nodded, eyes full of unspent tears, and hugged him hard. My face crashed against his hard torso and my arms wrapped tightly around his waist. Inhaling his scent, musky with a hint of tropical coconut from his sun lotion, I made a promise to myself. Drew was different. He made me a better person. He let me be myself. I couldn’t let this go. Sat on that beach, listening to the tide lapping at the shore, the distant sound of revellers in the sea front bars, there was one sound I could hear clearer than any other. Drew’s heart, beating slow and steady in his chest; a grounding, comforting sound. This was what I wanted. I was done with the pretty boys, the partiers, the one-night stands. I wanted to be protected, to be wanted for more than just superficial things. I wanted to be me.
I had no idea if Drew realised what he had started that evening, but I knew I wanted more than just a holiday romance. Knew we had more than a fleeting spark. But the worry that gnawed at me for the remaining days of our holiday was a simple one - what if he didn’t feel the same?
TWELVE
I decided to spend one night towards the end of the holiday sharing my feelings with Annie. She told me how she’d noticed the glow returning to my cheeks, the happiness, the smiles which were now reaching my eyes rather than being empty shells.
“Am I rushing into this, Annie?” I asked, exposing my insecurities to the girl who had saved my sanity and given me my life back by booking this holiday.
“Lia, honey, no one can tell you the right answer to that, but I think you know as well as I do there’s something about him. He brings out the best in you.” She held her hand up to stop my interruption whilst she took a swig of her drink. “You’re back to the witty, intelligent girl I remember from school. The one who would fight her corner instead of just meekly accepting everything. You’re back to that amazing girl who catches everyone’s eye, because she’s beautiful, she’s smart, and whilst she hates the attention, she thrives on it. You’re back to the Lia I’ve always been proud to be friends with. The one that makes me wanna say, ‘she’s mine and I’m not sharing her.’”
