It had taken about two hours for them to walk from the boat hire place back to the hotel, but neither Sammie nor Ben was particularly bothered by the length of time it had taken, in fact, they had made it take so long, stopping every few moments to hug or kiss.
As they reached the long boulevard that the hotel was on, it started to rain. Sammie tried to get out of the downpour, but Ben held her back, causing her to get soaking wet. She looked at him, and saw him standing still, eyes closed, his face tilted up. She watched as the rain dripped down his face, and softened the spikes in his hair. His t-shirt began to cling to his chest, and Sammie had to bite her lip.
“Isn’t this great?” he asked quietly, squeezing her hand.
“If you say so” he brought his head down to its normal level and opened his eyes. He considered her for a while.
“Come here” he said, and pulled her closer. He made her close her eyes, and tilted her head back. He then lifted her arms until she was holding them parallel to the ground. He stepped back to watch her. As the rain dripped off her face, Ben felt an overwhelming emotion and turned.
“Okay, it’s not so bad” she admitted. Ben didn’t respond. She opened her eyes and saw that he had his back to her. “Ben, are you alright?”
Ben looked over his shoulder at her.
“Yeah, I’m okay” His voice was strained, and he was doing something at waist level with his hands. Sammie let her arms drop, and slid them around his waist from behind.
“Ben?”
“Maybe this was a bad idea”
“No, it’s not. You’re right, the rain feels really nice if you stand like that under it”
“It’s not that”
“What’s up?”
There was a pause.
“Promise not to laugh?”
“Of course”
Ben turned to face her finally.
“Well, you looked so good like that . . . and the rain . . . I got a little excited” he gave her an odd look, and then glanced down at his trousers. Sammie got the hint.
“Oh. Um. Well, I guess I should take that as a compliment”
Ben smiled and made proper eye contact.
“Thanks for not laughing”
“It’s okay”
They stared at each other for a while, watching as the rain continued to splash each others faces. Finally they pulled each other closer and kissed slowly. Sammie broke off first and started kissing his cheek until she reached his ear, which she bit gently. Ben kissed the nape of her neck gently, and started moving up her neck slowly, making each kiss firmer as he went up. He put his hands underneath her soaking top and started to kiss down her body slightly faster. She put her hands in his wet hair and gripped his head closer to her body as he went further down. When he reached her waist, he started moving up again, pushing the top up and kissing bare skin, his kisses growing firmer and faster. He finally reached her mouth again and completely removed her top, flinging it to the ground. After a short while she started shivering. He stopped kissing her.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just a little cold”
He pulled her hair back from her face gently.
“Want me to stop?”
“No, but maybe it’s for the best if we do. We’re pushing it a little, and I know you want it to be special, at least for the first time” Ben nodded, then took his black leather jacket off and wrapped it around her shoulders, picked up her top and led her the rest of the way to the hotel. He walked with her to her hotel room, and handed her her top.
“I’ll be back, okay?”
“Okay. Oh, here’s your phone” she handed him his mobile. He smiled and kissed her goodbye, then walked to his room, calling Paul.
“Hello, this is Paul’s kettle, doing the Oven’s job while it’s on holiday, which was filling in while the TV’s sick. The vacuum can’t get to the phone right now, what do you want?”
“Very funny Paul”
“Thanks. So she gave you your phone back then?”
“Yeah . . . you talked to her?”
“Yeah, she seemed nice”
“She’s more than nice”
“Uh-oh”
“What do you mean?”
“Ben loves Sammie! Ben loves Sammie!”
“. . . Yeah . . .”
“You mean you really do?”
“Yeah”
“You told her?”
“Yeah”
“Idiot. What did she say when you told her?”
“She loves me back”
“Typical woman”
“Paul!”
“Sorry. Congrats man”
“Thank you. Last day tomorrow”
“Are you okay?”
“Not really. I’m not going to see her this much ever again”
“Awwww. You will if you want to”
“I can’t ask her to give up her life just for me”
Ben’s being all cute!!!”
“Shut up. Hey, if I call you on the plane, would you come over”
“What, pick you up?”
“Yeah”
“Sure I will man . . . Ben?”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve gotta tell you something, but it’s so bad”
“What have you done this time?”
“Um, split Chris and Kaz up”
“WHAT?”
“I just went over to see them, and I don’t quite know how it happened but Kaz and I ended up, you know, ‘together’, and Chris saw. She told him she’d prefer to be with me, and he won’t talk to either of us now. She’s still over there. What am I gonna do?”
Ben let out a long breath.
“What do you want to do?”
“Go out with her and be friends with Chris again”
“Then work out how to get that. They’ve been together for what? Four days? They weren’t serious. Chris’ll get over it, and she’s probably talking to him right now, telling him all the good points about being with you”
“I wish. Hey, if Chris and Kaz aren’t that serious, how can you and Sammie be that serious?”
“It’s different. Sammie and I really only have each other to talk to out here, and certain things have made us closer. Chris and Kaz have probably been out and about or with Mark all week or something”
“Yeah, I guess. I’ll try and talk to Chris, if he even wants to speak to me ever again”
“I’ll try talking to him too if you want”
“Cheers man. Bye”
“Bye”
Ben hung up, thinking. He wanted to be serious with Sammie, but Paul might have a point. He thought a little while longer and realised he was wrong about what he told Paul. Even if Christian and Kaz weren’t that serious, Christian would still think that they had shared something special. He sighed and searched through the names on his mobiles for Christian.
“Hello?” A thoroughly depressed Christian sighed into the phone.
“Chris, are you okay? I just got off the phone with Paul-”
“Paul who?”
“Don’t be like that. He’s so upset Chris, he can’t believe he hurt you”
“Oh, he’s upset. What about me Ben?”
“He’s upset for you. Don’t be mad at him anymore, she’s just a girl, you’re best mates”
“If he really was my ‘best mate’ he wouldn’t” Christian dropped his voice to a whisper “he wouldn’t have stolen my girl”
“Why are you whispering?”
“Shesinon room”
“What?”
“Wait . . . she was in the room, but she’s gone now”
“Please give Paul another chance”
“NO! And when he comes to pick her up, I’m not even going to look at him”
“Chris . . . wait, I thought she was staying with you still, until Sammie and I came back”
“Was being the . . . the . . .”
“Operative?”
“Yeah, was being the operative word. She is staying with him for the rest of the week, and I hope another guy comes along and does it to him”
“Oh, Christian, you don’t mean that. How could you want your best mate hurt?”
“How could he?”
“He didn’t mean it. At least hear him out, yeah?”
Christian sighed, and Ben knew he’d finally cracked him.
“It’s times like this I’m glad he left” Christian spat, and hung up. So much for cracking him. Ben fiddled with his mobile, and sent a message to Mark.

‘Mark, call Chris. Paul sngd his gf & I can’t get Chris 2 talk 2 Paul. Please HELP!’

He sent it, then packed all his things up. Mark texted him straight back.

‘I know he did. Bn trying since I heard. Going round 2 Chris’ 2 try again. Hows the d8 going?’

Ben clicked on reply.

‘D8s gr8. Good luck with Chris. Miss u. C u soon’

As soon as the message sent, Ben lifted his bag and made his way to Sammie’s room.

*****

Sammie had changed into some dry clothes and curled up on her bed in Ben’s jacket. She took a deep breath in and was met by the smell of soft, worn leather mixed with Ben’s aftershave. She smiled and snuggled into it further. She wanted to keep it but knew Ben would never part with it. Besides, she had his t-shirt, and she planned to sleep in it every night they were apart. He had promised to come back but she hadn’t heard him yet. Her mobile rang after ten minutes of smelling Ben’s jacket.
“Hello?” Sammie picked up dreamily.
“FINALLY! Sammie, HELP! I screwed up so badly this time!”
“Yeah?”
“I snogged Paul”
“That’s great, you always fancied him”
“Sammie, I’m kinda going out with Chris”
Sammie snapped back into reality.
“Sorry, I forgot.”
“No need to ask why with Ben around”
“So what, you still with Chris or with Paul or are they both ignoring you or what?”
“Chris is ignoring me and decided I can’t stay here anymore, so Paul said I could stay at his until you came back. I don’t know if the kiss meant something to him though”
“Oh, Kaz! It’s just tomorrow, then I’ll be back for you, and we can all sort it out”
There was a knock at the door.
“Ben’s here, I have to go. Calm down, okay?”
“Okay”
“And keep me updated”
“Okay. Bye”
“Bye”
Sammie let Ben in and noticed his bag.
“Is it alright if we share a room tonight? It’s the last night so what’s the point in me leaving my stuff there” He looked and sounded hopeful, but knew Sammie would let him in.