The Gap Year

Chapter 17

'You told me it was just exhaustion!' I could hear Dave the Head Rep shouting, but I was unclear who at, 'I got off her back like you told me to, yet here I am still having to deal with this.' I assumed by the way he was pointing at me in an accusatory manner, like I was a dog which had just defecated on the pavement, that I was the subject of his conversation, his anger likely resulting from the fact that I have spent the past hour of the return journey from Kalami with my head dangling pathetically over the side of the boat, swinging about like a poor worm hooked to the end of a fishing rod, which was no doubt causing him to panic that such unprofessional behaviour might mean we receive anything less than 5 star feedback for the trip; not that he should worry since Princess bloody Ariel and her synchronised swimming probably scored us enough commission to keep us in ouzo for at least a month.

'Here he is, the great quack doctor,' Dave the Head Rep was clapping facetiously as we anchored down in the harbour. So it was Liam who he'd been chastising. Poor Liam, I can't believe he's called him and summoned him to meet us. 'She's been sick AGAIN! Sea sickness my bum. Well I've had enough, so you can fix her, give her some proper tablets this time, and for her head I mean!'

'Emma has just had a bit too much sun,' Rebecca politely intercepted, 'and she's not got sea legs.'

'Sea legs, ha!' Dave the Head Rep laughed, 'she's not got air legs either, since the same thing happens every time she so much as looks at an aeroplane. So I'm not quite sure what legs she has got exactly?'

'Are you okay, Emma?' Liam, clearly trained in how to deal with irrational hangers-on and focus on solely on the needs of his patients, was ignoring Dave the Head Rep, and having boarded the boat was crouching down next to where I was sprawled across the deck, 'can you hear me?'

'Uh-hu.' I whimpered, 'it's just sun stroke and sea sickness, but he keeps insisting that I'm mental.' I lifted my arm, pointing feebly at Dave the Head Rep.

'I think you and Dave have probably seen enough of each other for the day.' For my entire life, you mean? 'So let's get you off the boat and we'll get you seated at Zorb's. You just need some paracetamol and a fizzy drink to re-hydrate you before I take you home.'

'Do you need a hand helping her off the boat?' Ugh, Barbie was loitering and still smiling too.

'Thanks, that would be great.' He was holding his hand out to her, grinning as much as she was, 'I don't think we've met before; I'm Liam, a student doctor.'

'It's so lovely to meet you Liam,' she was shaking his hand desperately, 'I'm Rebecca; I've just started working for Select.' God, can they just get the schmoozing intro's over with and tend to their priorities; like my failing health. Although this is just typical, plonking me right in the firing line of the one person I don't want to see, in this state too, and if Adonis starts spewing his Euro-trash erotica then I'll be the one spewing all over his stupid black 'stallion of the night' t-shirt.

'Oh great, Harry's here.' Rebecca, diverting her smile from Liam, waved over. Noooooo!!!! Why God would you do this to me, to serve me up a plate of sick matted hair and sweat stained aertex, and hand delivered by the Goddess of Tourism, who, by the way, is quite obviously his girlfriend, not that I care and not that this has stopped her from spending the entire day flirting with Dave the Head Rep and now Liam too. The hussy.

'Emma, what happened?' I stared at him, astounded that he actually knows my name.

'Sea sickness,' Liam answered for me, 'and dehydration too. We just need a cola please and then I'll take her home.'

'I don't mind taking her home,' Harry offered, 'I know where she lives.'

'You do?' Both Liam and Rebecca's voices mirrored the confusion on their faces. Not that I know why either of them care why some random person happens to know my address, although he better not say he only knows where I live because I (drunkenly and mistakenly) tried to jump him from the bushes.

'Yeah, I fixed her power cut a few days back.' He glared at me, returning own stare, clearly acknowledging that he understood that if he mentioned what actually happened then the drink he was about to get me would end up all over him.

'Well that's a very kind offer,' Liam was quick to thank him, 'but I'm sure I can find her apartment, and I am her doctor after all; I want to make sure that she gets to bed safely.'

'Never mind who takes me home.' I interrupted their squabbles, 'I'm absolutely gasping so can I have that cola please barman?' As Harry left, closely followed by an eager Rebecca, I slumped my head on to the table and groaned.

'It will all be okay in the morning,' Liam stroked at my hair, which was covering the table, tenderly.

'Will it?'