Wish You Were Here by Victoria Connelly

to swim towards her, as beautiful and sleek as a sea lion.
    ‘I told you!’ he cried above the waves. ‘It’s the best place in the whole world!’
    ‘It is!’ Alice replied.
    ‘I come here whenever I can in the good weather but it’s never often enough,’ he said, inching towards her in the water. Alice remained where she was, bobbing about in the little spot that was fast feeling like a second home. She was aware of how diaphanous the water was and wondered just how much Milo was able to see but his eyes remained fixed on the land as he drank in his beloved island. Well, that wasn’t very flattering, was it? Here she was, naked in the water and supposedly ‘irresistible’ and he only had eyes for Kethos.
    Alice bit her lip and her hand seemed to take on a life of its own because it was suddenly flicking water over Milo’s head.
    Milo turned around, stunned by her action and that’s when the war of water began with great fat droplets flying through the air and mini waves cascading over them.
    They splashed each other, dunked each other, raced each other towards the shore and back and then – finally – floated happily together, catching their breaths.
    ‘Oh my God!’ Milo said, closing his eyes for a moment. ‘I surrender – you win!’
    ‘Good!’ Alice said with a laugh. She felt completely exhausted but wonderfully so.
    ‘Come on,’ he said a moment later, ‘let’s get out of here.’
    They were just about to make for the shore when they saw an old man with a walking stick shuffling along the beach.
    ‘Oh, no!’ Milo said.
    ‘Who is it?’ Alice said, squinting against the sun.
    ‘It’s Old Stamos – he walks here every day and he likes to – how do you say?
Talk
a lot.
’
    ‘But how on earth did he get down that steep track?’ Alice asked. ‘He looks about a hundred and ten.’
    ‘He’s fitter than I am,’ Milo said.
    ‘But how are we going to get out of the water now? We’ve got no clothes on!’ Alice pointed out quite unnecessarily.
    ‘Oh, Old Stamos won’t mind that,’ Milo said.
    ‘Well, he might not but
I’d
mind!’ Alice said.
    Milo seemed to be mulling things over for a moment and then he pointed over to the left.
    ‘We can hide behind those rocks until he leaves,’ he said and the two of them swam off together, reaching the rocks just as the old man reached their piles of clothes on the beach. They watched as he used his walking stick to poke around amongst the garments.
    ‘What
is
he doing?’ Alice asked.
    ‘Seeing what he can find,’ Milo said and it soon became obvious what he had found because, hoisted on the end of his stick was Alice’s bra which he proceeded to wave in the air like a flag.
    Milo laughed.
    ‘Oh my God!’ Alice cried in mortification but she couldn’t help laughing too as the old man looked out to sea and the two of them ducked their heads.
    ‘I bet he’s remembering his own past when he used to swim naked too!’ Milo said.
    ‘I wish he’d hurry up and leave. What’s he doing now?’ Alice asked.
    Milo peeped over the top of one of the rocks. ‘It’s all right – he’s going,’ he said.
    ‘Thank goodness,’ Alice said. ‘I’m getting cold.’
    They swam towards the shore together and Milo waded out as unashamedly as he’d waded in whilst Alice bobbed about in the shallows.
    ‘It’s okay – I won’t look!’ he said, sitting himself down on the blanket with his back to the sea as he pulled on his clothes.
    When she was quite sure Milo was thoroughly occupied in drying his hair, Alice walked out of the sea, the sun instantly warming her limbs. Milo’s arm extended out behind himself, a towel for her in his hand and she quickly dried herself before slipping her dress on again and sitting down on the blanket.
    ‘That was fun,’ he said, shaking the last few droplets of water out of his hair.
    ‘Yes,’ Alice said, squeezing her own hair.
    ‘Here – let me,’ he said, inching forwards on the blanket, towel in