Page 33 of Accidental Getaway

I need to get out of here. I need space to breathe. I make my way through the lobby in a blur. I don’t know where I’m going. I just know I need to be anywhere but here.

Once outside, I remember the complimentary bikes Niko mentioned on our tour.

I need a bike ride. Riding will help me think.

I find the rack and tap my room key to unlock a bike.

I don’t want Ana or Niko to come looking for me, so I text them I’m not feeling well, and I went back to my room.

Hopefully, they are too busy with the party to check their phones.

I take off cycling up the hill. I need to feel the burn in my calves and quads. I need physical sensations that match the emotional turmoil inside my body. Like that will somehow help get rid of it. Or at the very least, satisfy the part of me that hates myself for getting into this mess.

I know Malcolm’s offer isn’t real. I know I could never go back there even if it was.

But the conversation reminded me of how far away my dreams really are.

They feel so incredibly impossible. I’ll never convince the board to choose me over Malcolm.

I’ll let Amber down. I’ll never get the promotion or find a new job.

It all just feels so incredibly impossible and out of reach.

I should just give up now.

Once I pass resorts and restaurants, I find myself on a long stretch of road without much in sight other than industrial warehouses.

My breath is coming sharp and painful. I’m getting a side stitch right between my ribs, but I don’t want to stop.

Not here, where I don’t recognize anything, and it’s clearly not a touristy part of town. I force myself to keep going.

Finally, I see an air traffic control tower.

I’m by the airport. I pull over and lean my bike against a chain-link fence separating the road from the runway and try to orient myself.

If I can get to the front of the airport, I should be able to cycle back down toward the coast and end up somewhere in the old town, near the windmills. I think.

As I fully take in my surroundings, I realize I’m completely turned around. If I make the wrong choice, I could end up on the wrong side of the island with no idea where I am or how to get back.

I could turn my phone on and use the map app, but at this point, I’m sure Ana and Niko have noticed I never came back to the party, and I don’t want to see any messages or phone calls from them.

Or Piper and Amber, for that matter. I cannot talk to either of them right now.

Not when I’m on the brink of completely losing the deal. Amber will never forgive me.

Sweat drips down my forehead. The afternoon heat is making me wish I had some water or had thought to put sunscreen on for the party because my skin is feeling toasty.

The old part of town is west of the airport, which I’m pretty sure is to the left from this vantage point.

I’ll just have to keep heading that direction.

I can’t shake the feeling that if I continue to pursue this deal, only bad things are going to happen.

I thought I was finally getting myself back on the right path.

I really thought I was going to be able to do it.

That’s all gone now. It’s all been taken away.

I’ll never win this contract. I don’t have what it takes.

What hurts the most is that, despite all of the ups and downs I’ve experienced this week, it’s been amazing to be doing “the thing” again.

After all this time, I wasn’t sure I could do it anymore, like maybe I hadn’t been very good at marketing and Malcolm had been right to fire me.

But being here, working with Niko, lit that spark again.

And it was all for nothing. No matter what I do, I’ll end up back in Colorado in my same job, in my same bedroom, seeking out the same job interviews that won’t go anywhere.

Even if Amber doesn’t hate me for losing the client, she won’t have the budget to promote me without this revenue.

I might as well leave and save myself the humiliation of even trying.

After about twenty minutes have gone by since leaving the airport, I realize I haven’t seen anything resembling the old town yet.

Have I ventured too far north? Too far south?

I’m turned around thanks to the winding roads.

I stop my bike at what looks like some sort of school.

It’s a Sunday afternoon, so not many people are around, but I spot a few teenage boys hanging around out front.

“Excuse me, do you speak English?”

They look at each other before responding. “ Ti? Ti eípate? óchi angliká. ”

I guess not. How am I going to get through to them? “Sorry. Windmills? How can I get to the windmills?”

I wave my hands in a big circle in the air, trying to imitate a windmill. The boys point and laugh. Lovely. I start to walk my bike back to the road. This was no help. No help at all.

“ Stási! ” I turn to find one of the boys chasing me down. “ Eísai tourístas? Oi várkes eínai ekeí káto. ”

He points at the main road and gestures to the right. Did he say tourist? He understood me! I repeat his gestures. “Down the road and to the right?”

“ Naí! Yes!” He nods enthusiastically.

“Thank you, thank you!”

He’s already turning back to his friends, who are still pointing and laughing. Apparently, a lost hot mess of a tourist is comedic gold.

I follow his directions, but when I reach the coast, there are no windmills or Little Venice in sight.

I’m at a commercial port. Two ferries sit at the closest dock, waiting to carry cars and people to other islands or the mainland.

And in the distance, a giant cruise ship looms over the port.

Tourists . The boys must have thought I was from a cruise ship.

I have no idea where the port is in relation to the Omorfiá Hotel.

Everywhere I look there are security gates, busy roads, and dusty parking lots. I pull over in the parking lot of a rental car company and sit on the wheel stop in an empty space. I peel off my sandals, bloody blisters covering the back of my heels.

I’m lost, bleeding, exhausted, sunburnt, and filthy. And I’m no closer to figuring out what I’m going to do.

I give up and turn on my phone, hoping I have enough service to pull up the map and find my way back. My phone pings the second it lights up, filling the screen with messages and missed calls. Piper. Ana. Niko. An unknown number. I swipe away all the notifications just as a car pulls up.

I jump up and drag the bike out of the way, but the basket gets caught on the wheel stop.

I yank the bike again, but it screeches.

I look up, flustered, to wave an apology that I’m taking so long.

But’s not a random car. Sophia smiles back at me from the driver’s seat, her eyes sympathetic.

What is she doing here? I drop the bike and stand, confused.

The car door opens and Niko steps out. I don’t know whether I’m relieved he’s here to save me, yet again, or terrified he’ll figure out why I was running.

“Jenni,” he cries, rushing over to me. “Are you okay?”

He grabs my elbows and looks me up and down. Worry lines on his forehead quickly morph into a look of relief when he sees I’m not physically harmed.

“What are you doing here? How did you find me?” I literally just turned my phone on. I hadn’t even called anyone for help yet.

“Ana told me you weren’t feeling well, so I came to check on you.

When you weren’t in your room, we got worried.

We tried calling you and searched the hotel, but we couldn’t find you anywhere.

Then I noticed a bike was gone and the key log showed you had checked it out.

The bikes all have GPS devices on them in case guests leave them somewhere around the island. ”

“Oh … that makes sense.” I shake my head. I should have suspected something like that. Guilt tears at me. My leaving disrupted the party. Niko should be there, enjoying himself. I really screwed up. “I’m fine. Are you okay?”

He looks so worried—scared, even. His hair is a mess, and his clothes are askew in a haphazard way I’ve never seen on him before.

“Ana saw that guy Malcolm lurking around the lobby, and I don’t know, I just got this really terrible feeling that he had said or done something. I just can’t stand that guy.”

Niko squeezes his hand into a fist, probably without even realizing it. How did he know? How did this amazing man know who he needed to protect me from? I want to cry. I want to lean into him and let him make everything better.

But letting Niko take care of me won’t fix anything. It won’t fix the fact that I’m losing this client. It won’t fix that my life is still in pieces.

“We talked … He wanted to catch up, but?— ”

“Wait.” Niko reaches a hand out, stopping before I can say anything else about what happened. “If you’re not sick, then why did you leave the party? What happened?”

He swallows, his eyes pleading with me to open up to him.

I don’t have an answer for him. What can I say? “I … I don’t know. I just needed a ride.”

He looks confused and hurt, as if he knows I’m not telling him everything.

I really didn’t think leaving would be a big deal. I thought they would just forget about me and have fun. But the look in his eyes stings like a thousand paper cuts to my heart.

“I didn’t think it would matter to you,” I admit, before dropping my gaze to my bare feet.

“Of course you matter to me, Jenni! How can you say that? What have I done since the moment we met that gave you the impression I don’t care?

Since the day you arrived and swept me off my feet, I have wanted nothing but to make you smile.

You have no idea what your smile does to me.

And when you asked for space, I gave it to you—even if it killed me to let you go. That’s how much I care.”

None of the things coming out of his mouth make sense. In what world did he think anything would ever work between us? He’s ripping me apart with false hope, throwing reality out to sea.

“What did you think was going to happen, Niko? That I was going to pick up and move and we would live happily ever after in Greece? That could never happen for a hundred different reasons. I don’t understand what you want from me.”

His shoulders crumple with the weight of my words. Hurting him is the last thing I want to do, but maybe it’s better this way. Maybe he shouldn’t want me. He could move on and forget this week ever happened. He’ll be better off for it.

“I don’t want anything, Jenni. I understand all of that.

I don’t expect you to drop your life for me.

I don’t know how any of it would work. We can’t date like normal people, and I know working together might be weird, but I just …

I feel something different with you, and when I think about not having you in my life, it feels cold and empty.

” He grabs my hands. “I want to do whatever I can to have you in my life, no matter how that looks.”

He sucks in a breath, waiting for me to say something.

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t.” I don’t deserve it. If he even knew half of the truth about me—if he knew this person he finds to be so confident and excited about life is really a fake—he would never have said what he did.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Niko looks sick, like I’ve punched him straight in the gut.

“We barely just met. You don’t know anything about me.

You shouldn’t be risking your business, your relationship with your father, your heart, or anything else on me.

What if I have no idea what I’m doing? What if Prewitt Luxury could triple your revenue and expand the hotel—give you everything you’ve ever wanted?

They are great at what they do, but you don’t even want to hear them out because of me?

You shouldn’t do that, Niko. This was just a fling. Nothing more.”

The words feel like acid coming out of my mouth. But I’ve said them, and I can’t take them back. It would be foolish not to consider what Malcolm has to offer him. I’m not worth it.

“Everything I’ve ever wanted? According to who?

I told you I don’t want any of that. I don’t want my father’s life, where business is more important than the people around me.

I thought you understood that.” He takes a step back.

“It’s starting to sound like you don’t want anything to do with me or the hotel. ”

I stand still, waiting for tears to run down my face because nothing rips my heart out more than him thinking that. Nothing feels worse than him thinking I don’t care.

My body betrays my heart, and the tears don’t come. The moment for fixing all this passes, and I’m too frozen to reach out and seize it.

“Well?” Niko asks. “Do you?”

“I …” This is all moving too quickly. Why can’t I just tell Niko that I feel the same way and we’ll figure it out? Something broke in me last year and, as much as I want to let him fix me, I can’t. I can’t make the words come out of my mouth even as my heart shatters.

“Well, I think that’s my answer.” Niko turns and looks up at the sky, his face buried in his hands. His heart is breaking too. Another casualty of my messed-up life.

“That’s not what I meant,” I say, desperate for a pause button to make time stop moving so damn quickly. “There’s just …”

My voice catches in my throat. I still can’t tell him about Malcolm. I can’t bear to open that trauma to him, to expose myself and lay everything out there.

“No, it’s fine,” Niko protests, turning back to me but refusing to make eye contact.

“I understand. Look, Sophia can take you back to the hotel. Your feet look like they hurt. I’ll take the bike.

The hotel room is yours as long as you need it.

If you want to bow out of the meeting tomorrow, I won’t stop you. ”

I can’t think of anything to say to undo this. I’m not even sure I should. So I walk past Niko toward the car, dangerously close to breaking into tears.

When I’ve opened the door, he calls to me, his voice damp with emotion. “Jenni? I just want to say I’m sorry. I don’t regret anything, but I’m sorry for the mess I caused.”

“I’m sorry, too.” My voice is weak and pathetic. I know if I say anything else, it will only hurt him more. I climb into the backseat of Sophia’s car. Niko sits on the ground next to the bike, his face in his hands.

Sophia pulls away. “I won’t pretend to know what any of that was about, but I’m sorry,” Sophia says when I pull my gaze from the window. “He’ll be okay. You both will. Life is very long, and everything works out in the end.”

She gives me a gentle smile, and I wish I could respond. But I’m empty and my eyes are still dry, though I ache for a release of the grief coursing through me.

“Sophia, would you be able to take me to the airport after I grab my bags?”

“Of course, dear.”