The show had arranged a boat trip for Ben and Sammie to another island where another restaurant was having a barbeque. The crew was filming their every move, which made Sammie uncomfortable but as Ben was acting normally she knew she’d have to act normally too. He kept a firm hold on her hand and kept pointing around at all the islands they passed, pointing out different things. Sammie was making sure she laughed at his jokes and held his hand firmly back; otherwise the cameras would’ve made her far too uncomfortable. Ben on the other hand, had noticed something was wrong with her. He leaned over and started whispering in her ear, all too aware that the cameras would be zooming in at this action.

“Hey sweetie, loosen up a little, the cameras have a nasty habit of picking up on little things and magnifying them. I don’t want anyone to think I scared you or something, I want everyone to know how well we got on”

“I’m sorry, I’m just not as used to the cameras as you are”

“Ignore them, pretend they aren’t around. Be my Sammie” He gave her a small hug then pointed out a small dot on the horizon and spoke out loud.

“There’s dolphins over there” he took her hand again as he spoke.

“Wow, I love dolphins! How’d you know that anyway?”

“We swam with them last time we were here. It was so amazing, I mean, we’d done it before but it wasn’t for a video last time so we could play more”

“You’re so lucky, I’d love to swim with dolphins!”

Ben leaned over to whisper again.

“Well, if you don’t on this trip I’ll take you another time. Just you, me, and Lucy ‘coz she keeps bugging me about it” Sammie giggled and whispered back.

“I want to kiss you but-” Ben put his finger on her mouth, then pulled her closer and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She put her hands on his neck and the back of his head and kissed him back. They parted, smiling, and looked across the ocean, their arms still around each other, and stayed like that until the boat pulled into port.

Ben climbed onto the dock and held out his hand to help Sammie up. They walked away from the camera crew arm in arm, giggling as the crew yelled at them to wait. Instead, they ran off towards the barbeque, trying to escape the cameras. Sammie found a tree and pulled Ben behind it.

“They’re so not going to get enough footage if we keep doing that!” Ben laughed. He turned to Sammie, who remained straight faced. “What’s up?”

“You’re always going on about the cameras and the show”

“And you’re always acting weird about them”
“Well, of course I am, I didn’t do this thing for the show. I did it for Kaz and my parents”
“Sorry, I’m being rude, I’m just always having various pieces of metal shoved in my face. I’m used to it, I guess I forgot what it’s like the first time it happens”
“So my face must be a new experience for you, as apposed to all the metal?”
Ben laughed and pulled her close, kissing her again. They leant into the tree as they kissed. Sammie was holding his face as they did so, and Ben cheekily put both hands on her bum, squeezing occasionally. She giggled every time he did. After a while, they heard something move in a bush nearby.
“What was that?” Ben asked, slightly afraid. They looked around and saw nothing.
“We’d better get over to the barbeque” Sammie said quietly.
“Yeah . . . do you think it was an animal?”
“Yeah, probably” They gripped each other’s hands as they walked back to the party.

* * *

Sammie and Ben had gotten onto the dance floor in the middle of a slow song, but now a new, faster track had started, and a girl had cut between them at the start of it, and a guy was trying to bump and grind with Sammie. She pushed him away.
“BEN!” she yelled out, but the music was too loud for even Sammie to hear the shout. Another guy grabbed her.
“Is your dad a thief?” he asked.
“No, but you are for trying to take me from my boyfriend” she replied, and moved slowly towards the grill. Ben was nowhere around it, and from where she was standing she couldn’t spot him anywhere. She pushed her way over to the bar. Still no Ben. She walked away from the barbeque, further along the beach, in the opposite direction to the bonfire that was being set up. She settled herself down in the sand and searched the horizon for their island. She found it and stared at the hotel as the sun set, wishing she could be back in her hotel room with Ben.
She had been sitting and staring for twenty minutes when she felt someone sit next to her and touch her shoulder. She turned to face . . . Ben. As soon as she had turned he started hugging her. He pulled away eventually, looking extremely concerned.
“I wondered where you were babe, I tried looking for you at the barbeque but all these foreign girls were coming up to me saying ‘you Ben a1, we dance’ and grabbing me, and the people at the grill can’t speak English, but the guy at the bar said he’d seen you come out here looking sad . . . are you okay?”
“I am now you’re here. Someone was trying to get me to dirty dance with them, I called out for you but even I couldn’t hear me, then this guy tried a line on me. I did look for you but I was getting nowhere so I came out here to escape those jerks”
Ben hugged her again, and gave her a small kiss on her cheek.
“Well, the guy at the bar said there’s half an hour left until the bonfire thing, do you wanna stay here?”
Sammie nodded. Ben pulled her up and they started to dance with each other, their bodies incredibly close together. It felt like no time at all had passed when the music stopped. Ben wound his arms around Sammie again, and they walked closely together to the bonfire, where the cameras were once again rolling. Ben leaned closer and whispered.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight again, so I’m going to keep hold of you so you don’t get away from me”
“Good, I don’t want to get away from you. You’d better hold tight, and let me hold you back, just to be sure we stay close together”
Ben smiled and kissed her cheek again.
“Yeah, I think that’s the only safe way to do it” He moved his arms further around her, and she wrapped her arms around him as they sat down, Sammie on Ben’s lap. After a few moments, she felt a tap on her arm and turned.
“You never DID answer my question. Is you’re dad a thief?”

“If you’re gonna tell my girlfriend some rubbish about her dad stealing stars and putting them in her eyes then we have a problem, and I will sort you, I mean, it, out”
The guy looked at Sammie.
“So this pretty boy is your boyfriend?”
Sammie looked down at the mess of hands around herself and Ben.
“Obviously”
“Wanna go out wiv me then?”
”You’re still hitting on her even if she’s my girlfriend?” Ben asked, shocked, as he tightened his grip on Sammie.
“Yeah, looks like it” The guy retorted in his hard Essex accent “I mean, she’s fit, I can’t imagine why she’d be wiv a pretty boy like you, not while I’m around”
Ben was starting to squeeze too tightly.
“Look” Sammie’s voice was strained by Ben’s grip “I don’t like you, and I’m crazy about my ‘pretty boy’, you don’t know him so you can’t imagine how great he is, and how much he respects me which I know is a foreign concept to you but any real man would understand it”
The guys mouth dropped open. He turned to Ben.
“Good luck wiv ‘er mate. She’s got great looks but that mouth is too much” he snapped, then moved away. Sammie faced Ben herself.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help-”
Ben kissed her more passionately than ever before. He pulled away, leaving her shocked.
“That was the guy you were talking about before?” She nodded. “Well, you sorted him out, but I reckon from now on you should stick close to me, you never know how psychotic those sorts of people can get”
Sammie nodded, and buried herself into the nape of Ben’s neck, as he pulled her even closer.

* * *

The bonfire had been long and boring, so much so that Sammie had fallen asleep on Ben’s lap. He woke her up and took her back to the boat, then lay her down on the seat, sitting himself under her head.
“Sammie?” he asked as he played with her hair absent-mindedly.
“Yeah?”
“Are you going to be too tired to walk around the hotel?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, my room’s closer to the hotel entrance, so do you want to sleep in my room tonight?”
“Where would you sleep?”
“My room”
“What would I sleep in?”
“I’ll find you something to wear”
“What, so I’ll sleep in your clothes?”
Ben nodded, looking hopeful.
“Okay, thanks, I’d love to sleep with you tonight, keep me safe from that idiot”
Ben leaned over and kissed the top of her head.
“I’ll keep you safe from every idiot”
He sat back to look at her and saw that she had fallen asleep again. Smiling, he took off his jacket and covered her, then kissed her head again. He looked up from her and saw the camera crew.
They’d been filming every moment.

* * *

Ben half carried Sammie into his hotel room, and pulled off her shoes and top, then helped her into one of his t-shirts, quickly sneaking a look at her chest. He then laid her down on the bed with a kiss and changed himself before crawling into the bed beside her, wrapping her up in his arms. He watched her for a while.
“Goodnight gorgeous” he whispered. She carried on sleeping. “I love you” She didn’t stir. He kissed her forehead, and snuggled up closer to her before drifting off to sleep himself.