Page 6 of Sun, Sea and Spotted Squid

Of course, she wouldn’t waste a shot of herself. Sam held his phone out for her to do the necessary.

“You’re very trusting,” Maria said. “I wouldn’t give my phone to anyone.”

Sam winked at Paul. “Sounds like someone has something to hide.”

The barman deposited five bottles of beer on the bar and took Paul’s card. Sam raised his drink.

“Here’s to a summer of fun. Five musketeers ready to take on Valencia.”

“Six,” they all chorused.

Sam smacked his head. What was it about this person who kept slipping Sam’s mind. Astrid had said he would be arriving in the early evening. Sam glanced at his watch. It had gone seven.

“Perhaps we should go back soon so we can welcome him,” Sam said.

Astrid cackled. “Oh yes? You just want to get first dibs on him.”

“Hardly.”

Unlike her, Sam wasn’t laser focused on getting naked. In fact, he had no intention of bringing a guy to those revolting rooms and trying to have his wicked way with him. He hadn’t even done that in the halls of residence. Well, not much anyway.

His idea to form a welcome party failed spectacularly due to a group inability to walk past the door of any bar without calling in. By the time they staggered up the little shopping street, Sam was feeling no pain.

Astrid held court as they wandered, relaying a recent experience with a ski instructor and a cowbell. This woman had certainly lived a life.

By the time they got to the top of the stairs, Sam had to hold Maria up. Those last shots had probably been a bad idea.

“I need some water,” she said with a groan.

Sam propelled her toward the kitchen and stopped dead. There were dirty plates in the sink. Then he saw a bag of groceries on the table.

“He must be here,” Maria slurred.

“What time is it?” Paul whispered very loudly.

“It’s ten,” Sam replied.

He carefully lowered Maria onto one of the chairs.

“Perhaps he’s in bed,” Genevieve suggested. Clearly one to state the obvious. “Which is where we should be.”

After exchanging highly unsubtle winks with each other, they staggered off to their room with guttural laughter.

“Couples, eh?” Sam said.

“We should hit the hay too,” Astrid added. “We want to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow.”

Sam grabbed some bottles of water from the refrigerator and handed one to each of the others.

“Drink it all,” he said. “Night, loves. Fab evening.”

Astrid winked. “First of many.”

Sam left them to it and negotiated the criminally steep winding staircase. By the time he got to the top, he was out of breath and had no idea which door was his. His stupid bloody brain had gone a total blank. He tried listening at each one. Everything lay quiet.

He had to make a choice and go for it.

Shrugging, he pushed open a door at random. Even in the almost total darkness he was fairly sure this was his room.