Love Island

28. The Last Recoupling

Day 47 continued

"Vee, can I borrow you for a chat?" Charlie asks, breaking up my conversation with Jodie, Kyle, Dougie, and James.

"Yeah, of course." I respond, then give James a little peck on the lips before following Charlie into the villa. "Where are you taking me?" I ask with a laugh.

"To the balcony." He replies, as we make our way up the stairs. When we get to the balcony, we both take a seat, and I'm confused about why he's brought me up here. "So I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" I ask, feeling like something sketchy is going on.

"Well after the lie detector today I just thought I'd see how you were feeling." He replies, but I can tell that he's just making things up on the spot. James didn't lie about anything, so why would I be feeling anything but happy after hearing his answers?

"What's going on?" I question him, but he just plays dumb. "Come on Charlie, you're acting weird. What's happening?"

"Okay, the truth is," He starts, but pauses before continuing. "James asked me to find out how you felt about his answer to the last question on his lie detector test."

I furrow my brow when he says this, I've already told James that I was over the moon about how he answered that question. Charlie is definitely up to something, and I'm desperate to know what it is but I know he'll never tell me. So I shift in my seat and sit in my heels so that I can see over the edge of the balcony. "Well obviously I was really happy about it." I reply, sneaking a look at what's happening at the fire pit. But what I see isn't sketchy at all, it's just James talking to Ricky. I don't see why Charlie had to pull me aside in order for them to have a chat.

"I got a text!" I hear, them Charlie and I both stand up to peer over the balcony as Alex reads the rest of the message. "Islanders, please gather at the fire pit for the final recoupling."

We both make our way downstairs and out into the garden, and I sit through all the other girls' speeches about how much they love the boys they're coupled up with. And obviously they all stayed with the people they were already in a couple with. Then I'm the last girl to go, with just James to chose from, not that I needed a lot of boys in front of me, I'd always only pick James. "I want to couple up with this boy because I'm so utterly in love with every single thing about him. The way his eyes light up when he talks about something he loves, the way he can never go to bed without a cup of tea, and even his croaky morning voice. I was terrified to come into the villa on the first day, but he's made me feel comfortable every second of every day. I'm a whole new person because of him, he's brought me out of my shell; he knocked down the walls I'd spent years building around my heart, and he made me realise that it's okay to be vulnerable from time to time. Because love is giving someone the power to hurt you, but trusting that they won't. And I hate to break it to him, but he's going to be stuck with me for a long time, because there's no way that I could ever leave him." My eyes have been on James this whole time, so for the first time since I started my little monologue, I look around at the other islanders sat round the fire pit in their couples. And I'm shocked to see that all of them have tears in their eyes, even the boys. I look back at James and finally finish my sentence. "So the boy is like to couple up with is...James."

He walks up to me and scoops me up in his big, tree trunk arms; he kisses me passionately, my feet not touching the floor. And it's safe to say that this is the most amazing kiss we've ever had, and I've never felt so in love. When our kiss finally comes to an end, I see Ricky out of the corner of my eye give a nod to James. And it makes me wonder what's going on this evening, I swear I'm in the dark about something.

"Everyone," James starts, "Can I just have your attention quickly, I just want to say something." At this point, James is the only person standing up, and everyone else is sat down around the fire pit. "I just want to say how lucky I am to have found someone I can genuinely see a future with. And I think I'm right in saying that all of us here tonight share that feeling." His eyes fall on me, and he takes a deep breath before continuing. "Ti amo più di quanto le parole possano dire. Così come sei." (I love you more than words could possibly say. Just the way you are).

I'm amazed by what I've just heard. James has learnt Italian for me, I thought I couldn't possibly love him more than I already did but he's just proven me wrong. This is why Charlie took me away, so Ricky could talk to James; they wanted it to be a surprise. I turn to Ricky and say, "gli hai insegnato?" (You taught him?)

"Sì." He nods with a smile, then I turn my attention back to James.

"What did I do to deserve you?" I ask, then give him a kiss. "I can't believe you did that."

At this point people start to branch off, leaving us alone. "Anything to impress you."

"Well I'm definitely impressed." I tell him, smiling like a lunatic. "I knew something was going on, I was so confused."

"You liked it then?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"I loved it." I reassure him, then lean in close so that our lips are centimetres apart. "I love you." Then our lips come together, and I melt into his kiss.