It was awkward.

I could almost hear her thoughts. She was probably wondering if she should even let me into the room. I mean, she didn't know me. She'd caught me (accidentally) looking at her in a half-naked state, then I'd accidentally bumped her breast in the taxi (I was an accident- I swear) and now I was telling her she was hot.

I shook my head. I wondered what she thought of me, usually I don't give a shit what people think of me, but for some reason, I cared what she thought. I didn't want her to get the wrong impression about me, like most people did.

I put our bags down, noticing immediately that there was no separate lounge area. Everything was open plan and flowed from the bathroom, to the bedroom and into the living room. Awkward again, now she was probably desperately trying to find and excuse to get me out of here. Maybe I should just leave, tell her thanks but no thanks, save her the trouble of asking me to go or...

"Lilly, I..." I stopped when I saw her standing at the bath looking into it. I couldn't see what she was looking at, but I could see the effect it was having on her. She looked just like she had in the plane...the saddest girl in the world.

I walked over and looked. Flickering candles surrounded it. The warm steam was rising up from the water, the smell of oils and bubbles and the final touch, red petals floating on the surface.

Take about rubbing it in...

"Your fiance just left you at the altar, here, have a romantic bath for one on your honeymoon for one. Alone."

I glanced over at her and she didn't move. It was as if she was frozen, staring down at the bath. Her eyes unblinking. There was no way I was going to go now, and leave her like that. I wanted to comfort her in some way, but I wasn't sure how.

"I'll just chuck them outside," I reached down and started scooping the petals out the bath. There were fucking hundreds of them and they kept slipping through my fingers. I finally managed to bundle them into my shirt, which was now wet and headed for the door.

"I'll go and have a dip in the sea while you bath, I know you said you wanted one," I paused for a moment and looked at her. She was still frozen on the spot. "You're going to be fine, Lilly."

**

I threw the petals into the plants and walked out onto the beach. The sand was soft and still warm from the hot day. The water looked silver like molten metal. I turned and glanced back at the room- our room. I hoped she was ok, not that I was going to check, in case I walked in on her in the bath...

Mmmmm... I quickly pushed that thought out my head and pulled my phone out. It had been off since the start of the flight and I was sure Jess was probably trying to get hold of me. And sure enough, as soon as it turned on, her message lit up the screen.

I frowned. What was she talking about? I flipped back to my last message and read it. I smiled.

I started typing my message to Jess, my smile growing by the second. I knew when she read it she would phone me immediately.

I pressed send and waited, in 3, 2, 1...

The phone rang and I answered.

"Damien, what have you done? Please tell me you haven't run off and eloped with someone?"

I laughed. "Oh please, does that sound like me."

'Yeah. Kind of. I never know with you. You're always pulling some crazy shit."

"I'm not married... but I kind of am on honeymoon, well, someone's honeymoon... sort of." I said.

"Explain. Immediately."

"I met this girl on the plane, Lilly. Her fiance left her at the altar yesterday and she's come to Thailand on her honeymoon, alone."

"You're kidding. What a dick!" She tutted loudly. "I knew all men were assholes... except you of course."

"Of course."

"So what did you do, invited yourself on her honeymoon?" She asked.

"No, she invited me. And it's so beautiful here, I'm on the beach at the moment in front our suit–"

"Whoa! Back up there, did you say "our"? Are you being serious, this isn't a joke?"

"I'm not joking." I assured her.

"You're actually on her honeymoon? Staying with her? Damien, what the hell! Hang on, are you having sex with her? You can't, she's probably like all vulnerable right now and would sleep with anyone for company-"

"Gee, thanks."

"You know what I mean. It would be a seriously bad idea moving on on someone who just got left at the altar. She's probably all heart- broken and fucked-up and cray-cray."

"You have such a way with words, you know that? And why would you automatically assume I'm going to sleep with her?"

"Well, I don't know..." she let out a loud, sarcastic, tisking sound, "Maybe because she invited you on her romantic honeymoon, and you're together in a romantic place, sharing a romantic room, by the romantic sea."

"It's not like that, Jess."

"Really, then why do you sound so fucking happy to be there?"

Her question stumped me. I paused.

"She's just..." I started. "She's really interesting."

"Mmmm," Jess mumbled suspiciously. "Look, I'm not telling you where to put your... your man thing, but seriously, she just got left at the altar, don't you go and be a dick now and sleep with her and fuck off in the morning or something."

I sighed. "Ok mom. I'm going now."

"Running along to the wife?" She asked sarcastically.

"Speaking of the wife, how's yours?" I flipped the question straight back at her.

"You know. Still hot as hell."

"Not as hot as mine." I quipped. But it didn't seem to go down well.

"Damien!" Her voice scolded me.

"Ok, I'm going to swim now. See you soon. Love ya. You're still my main bitch, though."

"Love you too, but please don't call me if you're still speaking like Dr. Dre."

She hung up and I put the phone back into my pocket and thought about what she's said. She was right of course, not that I would ever tell her that. Nothing could happen between Lilly and I, it wouldn't be right. Not that she wanted anything to happen... or, she had invited me to come with her....

"Whatever." I kicked the sand and pulled my shirt off, tossing it onto the beach. I glanced around, no one was there so I pulled my shorts off too, underpants still on and dived into the water.

It was so warm. I swam out and it was totally flat and calm. The stars were all out in full force and the moon... as if I could reach out and fucking touch it. It was all so magical, like a dream. A strange, surreal dream.

And what do they say about dreams... anything can happen in them.

*Broken- Depeche Mode. I basically love everythign about this song. It's so haunting and beautiful and sad and awesome.