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colors
coming from the randomly planted sun umbrellas the swimmers used to
protect themselves from the sun as soon as they came out of the
water. Among them, the rows of orderly straight lines of sun beds
and straw umbrellas in front of beach cafes. Children’s excited
voices filled the place up.
    Fortunately, Bill had been able
to reserve a couple of sun beds and umbrellas for us, as the sun
was burning hot. It was not my favorite time of day for a swim, but
I had decided to socialize more, following Kate’s advice. The water
felt soothingly fresh after the burning of the sunrays on my skin.
I’ve never been too much into swimming. I just prefer to relax in
the sea before lying for hours on my sun bed, reading my book and
sipping my cappuccino fredo. This of
course was something I could not enjoy on that day, as it would be
impossible to withdraw from the others and follow my
own little beach-routine. I did not want to make the impression
that I disdained their company.
    Mick and Bill were racing to the buoy as
Kate and Tony were enjoying diving, with Kate practising a rather awkward dive, head into
the water and legs from knees to toes, steady upon it. I, on the
other hand, was already bored and my mind was already on the
cappuccino.
    ‘Hey, check this out. Dude, I love this car.’
Mick was now next to me looking at the beach. I turned to look too.
My eyes fell on the silver Audi Q7 parking under the trees. My
heart leapt. I was not ready for this. Even more, I was not ready
for what was about to follow.
    Christopher got off the car, walked all the way
around and opened the passenger door. A tall, blonde woman in red
kaftans stepped out of the car. She immediately put on a large
straw hat and huge sunglasses. They both looked as if they were
enjoying each other’s company. They were smiling and chattering as
they were walking towards the beach.
    ‘Who’s she?’ I asked.
    ‘I have no idea. Probably his girlfriend. Sorry
Em.’ Kate said.
    Of course, I
thought . She’s the
kind of woman someone like him would date. I took a
longer look of him now that I was sure he was not aware of my
presence. He was wearing a white T-shirt and long light blue shorts
with white patterns. His body was gorgeous. In fact, gorgeous was
the only word that came to me every time I saw him. I could not
find anything about him that could make him less attractive or less
appealing to any woman.
    Suddenly, I realized that he was looking towards
me. He took off his glasses and waved. I looked around. The others
were back to racing and diving, so could he be waving only at me? I
waved back, bashfully. How could I be blushing in the water?
Thankfully, he was not close enough to notice that. He looked
around and took his time to take off his T-shirt and put on his
glasses again. His waving to me did not escape his friend’s
attention who had lowered her glasses to check me out. She was
wearing the tiniest bikini to reveal her statue-like body. I
decided it was time for the first dive of the day.
    Later, I saw Christopher laughing as he
was spreading sun tan oil on her shoulders. Obviously, his important appointment to Athens was about
her , I thought.
    ‘I have to go. I’m expecting an important e-mail
about the conference.’ I lied to Kate. She gave me a withering look
and just nodded.
    ‘Can’t you stay for the coffee? Please?’ Mick
pleaded. I knew he had a crush on me.
    ‘I’m sorry Mick. Rain check?’ I smiled as
charmingly as I could.
    ‘Sure.’ he compromised, without any effort to
hide his disappointment.
    I dressed in a hurry. I had my back turned to
Christopher as I did that, but it was as if I could feel his blue
eyes penetrating my back and I could almost hear his chuckle.
    On my way home, I had already regretted leaving
because I was not sure what had made me act in this silly way. Why
did that woman’s presence next to him bother me so much? He was
nothing to me.
    Back in my apartment, I took a long shower