Greece was just as magical as you had imagined it to be. It was something straight out of mamma mia with clear blue seas surrounding the small island you were staying on.
You couldn't not go for long swims around the place, your arms and legs burning as you pushed yourself to swim around the island.
There were lots of rocks to rest on near the shoreline. Sometimes you just laid back and floated, sun warming your face.
After only a week here you'd developed a routine; taking a long swim out from the beach by where you were staying at all the way until the rocky out cropping, the docks jutting out into the sea. It was fun the watch tourists and locals alike jump off from the end of the dock.
And it wasn't too long of a swim. It was welcome after being landlocked for the past year.
After you go get fresh orange juice and some bread as you make your way back to where you're calling home for now. It was a nice change of pace, these lazy days.
Your route often took you by one of those houses on the island with its own private beach, the kind that were probably worth millions even on this lesser known island.
You swam further up just in case it was occupied. It wasn't summer so there shouldn't be many tourists.
But just in case-
A voice calls out, startling you out of the zone you'd been in, feeling perfectly at home in the cool waters. "Are you okay out there!"
You can make out a man on the beach, waving an arm over to you, but you're too far out to make out much more than that.
"I'm fine," you call back, unsure of what else to say to the stranger. So, you do as the seals do, and take a deep breath before diving under, moving your arms and legs in synch.
Your lungs burn and you push past it, eyes open in the stinging salt water. You eventually have to come back up air, pulling up by a rock outcropping that hides you from view.
It takes you a few seconds to catch your breath, embarrassed to be caught out and embarrassed by your reaction. Your cheeks burn and it has nothing to do with the sun making its way through the sky.
Other than the dark thick hair, and his Romanesque nose, Alexander looked nothing like his cousin, one of your best friends and the reason you were getting to stay here at all.
"Another crazy long swim," he asks, already laughing. All of them made fun of how often and how long you swam for. You couldn't help it. You were a beach bum at heart.
"Yeah," you offer, abashedly pushing already drying strands of hair behind an ear, "i think the house around the bend is rented. I saw one of the renters." A one piece came in handy when you had to trek back to your current home through on of the small towns on the island, the main town really.
Shoeless and burning your toes.
"I think my mom said something about that," he responds with a shrug, following at your heels as you enter your small room and tug on some shorts. "She heard something from Elena at the market."
"What did you do," he asks, a hint of amusement in the smile lines around his eyes.
"Swam away," you answer, feeling embarrassed all over again, "I dove for it."
He laughs. "Do you want to help me make lunch for our handful of guests?"
You nod, "only because I'm going to steal some food for myself."
Alexander shakes as you both head to the kitchen. His mother had taken over the small hotel after his grandparents had grown much to old to keep up with it, not that anyone had told them that as Kristos still woke up every morning before the sun had risen to start on breakfast and still insisted on checking the papers every saturday.
