Remember Our Song (2 page)

To the left, along the coast a little bit and behind a small hill was a huge beautiful church.  I had to wonder if it could fit the entire population of the island all at once, it was the most imposing structure I’d spotted since landing.  It blazed a pristine white in the bright sunshine, topped with sky-blue domes, one over the bell tower and a larger one over what I assumed was the main hall.

Jeremy walked past doors until he arri
ved at number nine and unlocked it.  Pushing the door open he then stood aside and made a dramatic gesture.

“Ladies first,” he said.

“Thank you, kind sir.”

Upon entering the room, I saw that there was a combined shower and toilet room immediately to the right, the entire floor tiled and subtly sloping towards a drain.  Directly ahead after about ten feet were three steps down into the bedroom, with a sliding glass door on the wall furthest from the front door opening on to a small private balcony. The balcony overlooked precisely nothing but a chain link fence and some scraggly trees, which were themselves set on the rear boundary of some set of stores that fronted on to a different street.

I dumped my backpack on the ground unceremoniously and rubbed at my shoulders, hoping that the heaviest thing I had to carry for the next seven days was a ludicrously girly fruity drink with a small umbrella in it.  Jeremy leaned his pack carefully against the wall, he had a few gadgets in there that would probably not withstand being slammed on the unforgiving tiles as well as my bikinis would.

Stepping up behind me I felt his strong hands push mine away and take over the shoulder-rubbing duties.  I let my arms drop to my sides and closed my eyes, leaning back against him as the weariness of all the travelling it took to get this far seemed to finally catch up with me.

Jeremy’s hands slid from my shoulders, down the length of my arms, the very tips of his fingers just brushing the sides of my breasts, bringing a playful smile to my face.  Lower they roamed until he wrapped his arms around my midriff, partially supporting my weight, and gave me a loving kiss on the neck.

I turned in his arms to face him and pulled my top off over my head suggestively, leaving just my simple bra to cover the nakedness of my upper body.

“Do you know what I’m thinking?” I asked.

Jeremy smiled and leaned in to kiss me on the lips, but stopped an inch or two short and pulled back, a suspicious look on his face.

“It’s swimming, isn’t it?  You’re thinking about swimming?”

“That’s right, J-man, but maybe later on you can have your way with this damsel in distress.”

“You
sure
?”

My God I wanted him right there and then, my heart and body argued relentlessly with my mind… but I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather and the location too. I was going to be with him my whole life, but probably would never come back to this tiny island as long as I lived.

“Yeah…”

“OK then.”

With one last squeeze, he let me go and went to his back pack to find his swimming trunks.  I knew I’d be paying later, in the best possible way, for making him wait.  The thought of it almost made me pull him towards the bed, but instead I searched through my backpack to find a bikini to wear.  My heart was fluttering with excitement, I loved how even after being with him for six years he could still make me feel like I had butterflies in my stomach.

“Love you, babe,” I said.

Jeremy stood with his swimming trunks in his hand and began to get changed.

“Love you too, Bea.  Thanks
again for talking me into this holiday, I never really considered the possibility of just going to a nice place where nobody knew me.  It’s quite a relief, actually.”

I finally tracked down a matching top and bottom and changed into them while Jeremy retrieved some beach towels from the bathroom.  When he came back he was also carrying two set of
snorkeling masks and flippers.

“Hey, we haven’t been
snorkeling in a while, want to?”

“Yeah!”

Jeremy handed me my mask and fins as we walked out the door, then locked it and tucked the keys away inside a Velcro-sealed pocket on the inside of his swimming trunks.  We passed the pool again and I saw three of the women sitting in the shade at various tables in the Oasis bar glance over and then do a double take at the sight of my husband.

Even without the expensive suits and Italian sports cars, he was quite eye-catching.  Wearing nothing but his swimming trunks, his perfect six-pack abs were on full display.  I turned my head and had to admit he looked like a Greek God making a triumphant return to the modern world.  Without the huge bushy beard, though.

I skipped across the road, the tar seal nigh-on incinerating my feet, finally getting out of the fire and into the frying pan when I stepped into the almost-as-hot sand.  I took a few more paces before throwing my towel down and hopping on to it, so as to give myself a safe platform to put the mask and fins on from.

“Did you see those women checking you out?” Jeremy asked, standing on his own towel.

“Shut up.”

With my mask and fins securely attached I proceeded walking backwards in the direction of the ocean, as I had been taught how to do back when I first
snorkeled.  Jeremy walked forwards, taking big comical waddling steps to avoid the fins catching on the ground and tripping him up.

The water first lapped around my ankles and then splashed around my legs until I let myself collapse backwards and rolled over to face the bottom, blowing any water out of the breathing tube that had managed to get in and kicking to propel myself into even deeper waters.  I had been expecting it to be cold, but the water was lukewarm, like a bath that had been poured an hour ago and forgotten about.

The water was as clear as any ocean I had ever swam in and as the ocean washed away the sweat and dust of our travels, I felt invigorated.  A few fish, though less than I had expected, swam lazily here and there, seeming to give us a cursory glance before determining that there was no possible way we could swim fast enough to catch them and just carrying on their fishy business.

At last, the ho
liday had really begun, just Jeremy, me, and the fish!

Chapter 2

Although the restaurant we had spotted earlier had looked Ital-ian, it actually turned out to be a Little-Bit-Of-Everything-ian, with a pretty good selection of dishes rarely found together on a menu.  We went there at dusk, when the sizzling hot day turned into a pleasantly warm evening, and chose a table outside so we could see the lovely colors of the twilight sky slowly turning into a beautifully starry night.

I chose a salmon ravioli dish, Jeremy ordered a
steak and we were left with a basket of bread and oils for dipping while we waited for our drinks and a garlicky flat-bread entrée to arrive.

The golf-cart-road-train rolled by again with the same ‘beep beep’ and most of the passengers waved to the people in front of the restaurant, we all waved back.  The waitress brought us our drinks, a
bourbon and coke for Jeremy and a white wine for me.  Jeremy held his glass up and flashed me a smile.

“To the unexpected,” he toasted.

“That’s a strange one,” I clinked my glass with his anyway.

“That’s us, though, isn’t it?  I never would have thought that severe burns from coffee would bring you into my life, but they did and that’s the unexpected.  And here we are all these years later on a quiet Greek island, still in love.”

I thought back to ‘the bad old days’ with a one-sided smile.  I could still remember all the old pain academically, but I couldn’t touch it anymore, it couldn’t consume me like it used to.  Raising my glass to my lips, I felt the bubbly liquid dancing in my mouth and then down my throat as I looked at Jeremy over the rim.

My husband returned
the gaze as he sipped his own drink and I felt a happy fizzy sensation in my stomach, which I was sure wasn’t the wine.

“I sure made you work for it, didn’t I?”

“Oh God, Bea, the number of times I thought you were going to punch me in the face…”

“I was done, baby, so close to losing it completely.  It felt like I’d been hurting forever.”

Jeremy’s hand reached out and held mine as I reminisced.

“I do sometimes wonder where she is, what she’s doing,” I said.

“You know, all you need to do is say the word and we can find your Mom within a day.  I promise you that.”

“No.  She doesn’t want to be found.  It doesn’t matter anymore, anyway.  You changed the future from a scary, lonely, unknown to something really worth looking forward to.  So here’s to the future,” I held up my glass and we clinked again.

The dinner was simple, but tasty and generous.  I was feeling pretty stuffed by the time we were done and the nearly-full moon had risen in the sky.  We finished our drinks and Jeremy paid the bill, leaving a tip that was conspicuously generous.

“Let’s go for a walk, shall we?”  he asked.

“Deal.”

I took off my shoes to feel still-warm sand beneath my feet as we walked up and down the beach, past our accommodation in one direction, before turning back and walking past it again to see what was at the other end.  All the waterfront bars seemed to have attracted many more people than had been evident on the island earlier in the day and most appeared to be doing moderately good business, including the Oasis bar at our own hotel.

Several other couples of all ages had the same idea. We paused our conversation and nodded with smiles if we passed any of them walking in the other direction but there were seemingly no thoughts from anybody of taking it any further than that, to delve into the realm of small talk.  It was a night, and a beach, for two and anything more than the bare essentials of good manners would shatter that illusion.

Not far past the other end of the beach was a path beside a sea wall made of rocks, on the other side of which was a kind of marina with a few berths and  boats of various sizes.  Beyond that, the moon shone over a calm and mostly quiet sea with just the faintest hint of waves lapping at the wall we stood by.

We looked out over the water without speaking for a while, my head resting on his shoulder and his arm around me, before Jeremy started patting down his pockets.

“Missing something?”

“I thought I brought my camera.  Ah, here it is.  Turn around I’ll see if I can get the moon in the photo with us, I want to remember this.”

Jeremy held the camera out at arms-length and, with a glance over his shoulder, angled the camera to hopefully get Earth’s natural satellite in the shot.  We leaned in close and smiled as the flash went off, then Jeremy turned his head to mine and I closed my eyes as our lips touched.  Through my eyelids I saw the flash of another picture being taken.

“Let me see.”

Turning back to the sea, we leaned on the wall as Jeremy pressed a few buttons to bring up the pictures he’d just taken on the little screen on the
rear of the camera.  The moon was in the shot but while our faces were in focus, the moon was a blur.

“Oh well, we’ll just say that’s what the moon looks like over here if anybody ever asks,” I said.

“The same side of the moon always faces the Earth, though.”

“What?  Wouldn’t that mean it has to spin exactly once per… uh… orbit.”

“Yep.”

“What are the odds of that?”

“Happening randomly?  Nigh-on impossible, I guess.  But it’s because of a process called ‘tidal lock’ if I recall correctly.  It used to spin at a different rate, still wobbles a bit actually, but basically the same side is always facing us. The man in the moon is always there.”

“Oh Casanova, tell me more about the moon,” I fake-swooned and laced my fingers together behind his back, resting my head on his chest and smelling the scent of the cologne I had bought for his last birthday, Clive Christian 1872.

“Well, on the moon they drive on the
left
side of the road, like in the UK.”

“Do they have black cabs like over there too?”

“Of course.”

“What else?”

“All they listen to is the latest album from Beatrice Holt.  She’s been on the lunar billboard top two hundred list since it was established four years ago.”

“It sounds like a nice place, we should go there for our next holiday.”

“No problem, I’ll get the paperwork sorted for the visas,” Jeremy kissed the top of my head before continuing.  “Hey, would you sing me our song?”

“But somebody might hear,” I looked around at the few people walking the beach.

“Isn’t that the point of music?  A lot more people are going to hear you when you win that contest.”

The thought of performing in front of a crowd again was a nerve-wracking one.  I hadn’t do
ne it since high school, but Jeremy was my number one fan and his support and encouragement had sparked the idea that I could have a shot at the fantasy job that I’d daydreamed about as a little girl.  I’d even filled out an application form to try out for the next season of ‘The Right Stuff’, a popular reality TV music audition type show.

“Just close your eyes, Bea.  It’s just you and me here, and you’re a star.”

My eyelids dropped and I took a few breaths to settle my nerves.  Listening to the steady lapping of the waves, feeling the ‘beat’ of the island, I licked my lips.  The first few words were off-key and sounded slightly strangled, as they so often did.  Singing always reminded me of my Dad, my first number one fan, and I couldn’t help but get choked up.

Soon though, I concentrated on the song, what it meant, and felt my throat relax, letting the words come out clear and strong.  It was a song of unexpected hope, of
self-realization, of us.  It was our love put to music and it was the only song I’d ever written.  For now it belonged only to the two of us, I wouldn’t sing this at my audition.

The last notes finished and I opened my eyes to look up at Jeremy, who still had his closed.  He was holding my hands between us and playing with my wedding ring, his smile widening when he opened his eyes.  From the beach I heard clapping and turned my head to see another young couple had paused their romantic walk to listen to me.  I buried my face on Jeremy’s chest to hide for a moment but peeked out and waved from the safety of his embrace until they stopped their applause and the man spread out a blanket for them to sit on and look out over the water.

“Let’s give them the website address so they can buy some music,” Jeremy said.

“Let’s not.”

“Hmmph.  I think you need a new marketing manager.  You know… not you.”

“Well, have some resumes on my desk in the morning.  Until then, shall we go have a few drinks back at the Oasis?”

“Deal.”

Jeremy had another
bourbon and coke, while I asked for the girliest drink they had.  It turned out to be some slushy pink number with an umbrella in it and the strong taste of white rum and strawberry with an underlying hint of coconut.  There were no tables left so we drank at the bar and talked while we listened to the music and general hubbub of the revelers around us.

The music was good and played at an enthusiastic volume until ten o’clock, when it turned down as the girl at the front desk had said it would
be.  With that change, a few tables cleared and we took the opportunity to get off our feet for a couple of hours to enjoy some more drinks with the music that now hummed more easily in the background.

“You’re looking mighty cute, Mr. Holt,” I purred over the table.

“Have you been drinking, Mrs. Holt?” he replied.

“Only a little… don’t
you want to take advantage of me?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, but maybe we
should
go back to our room, you need to change your clothes.”

My brow furrowed and I looked down, “Huh?  Why?”

“They’re all wet.”

“No they’re not, what are you talking about?”

Jeremy stood and took one of my hands, pulling me to my feet and then before I knew what was going on, he had slung me over his shoulder in a fireman-carry and was stepping over the low rope barrier between the bar and the perimeter of the swimming pool.  I realized what his game was and began beating on his butt furiously with my fists, protesting to no avail.

Ass-first I fell into the swimming pool, and before I’d even surfaced I both felt and heard the splash as my husband jumped in after me.  I broke the surface and wiped my hair out of my eyes an instant before Jeremy reappeared above the water only to be dunked again by me.

When he came up for a second time I deemed that payback had been administered and submitted myself to his hugs and kisses as we floated in the swimming pool.  The few remaining people in the bar clapped good-naturedly and I smiled at Jeremy, almost laughing at the thought of acquiring two separate sets of fans on the same night.

Well, just as Jeremy said, my clothes were wet and needed to be changed so we picked up our stuff from the table and waved to the barman before heading back to our room.  With the door safely closed behind us, I dropped my handbag on the floor and laced my hands behind Jeremy’s neck, pulling him down into a passionate kiss.

I felt his hands on my back, searching for the zip of my dress, and finally finding it, slowly pulling it downwards.  I ran my hands over his shoulders and then brought them to the buttons on his shirt, revealing his body one small bit at a time like I was unwrapping a present for myself and savoring every moment.

When the shirt was undone I pushed it off his shoulders, the wet material falling to the floor with a slopping sound.  My fingers traced the lines of his muscled
body briefly before Jeremy slid the straps of my dress off my shoulders and it too collapsed to the ground, leaving me wearing nothing but my bra and panties.

“My God,  you’re beautiful,” Jeremy bent to kiss me again and our mouths worked in unison as I undid the belt, button and zip of his pants by feel, before hooking a finger into the waistband of his boxers and slowly walking backwards.  Jeremy pushed his pants downwards as he followed me, managing to get out of them on the move as I carefully walked down the three steps, my eyes never leaving his.

When the back of my knees hit the bed, Jeremy reached behind me and unclasped my bra.  I let it fall off my arms before holding my body against him, feeling his arousal prodding me in the stomach.  Jeremy broke off the kiss to see my soft chest squashed against his hard torso before bringing his hand between us to cup one mound, gently squeezing my nipple between finger and thumb, and kissing me again. Our tongues gently touching in the privacy of our mouths.

Bending at the knees, Jeremy wrapped his arms around me just below my rear and gently lifted me off the ground.  I wrapped my legs around him as he climbed us both on to the bed, now feeling his hardness rubbing against my most private area where every shift in position sen
t a jolt of pleasure into my body, making my heart beat ever faster.

Laid flat on the bed, Jeremy moved downwards, kissing my body as he went.  My neck, my breasts, my belly, all quivered in anticipation as he moved closer to my sex before pulling my panties off and taking me to incredible heights of pleasure.  I had no idea how thin the walls were in that hotel, but by the time we were finished I suspected we would have tested their limits of sound-proofing.

It was the perfect end to a perfect day.  For four more days we were in heaven, cut off from the normal stresses of life with nothing but sun, sand, sea, sex and each other to fill the days with.  Then Jeremy had to check in with his assistant to make sure everything was going alright back home.  It wasn’t.