“Guys I’m hungry. What’s for lunch?” he said
“Yea, I’m hungry too” Zayn chimed in, “I heard someone brought over fried chicken,” his gaze was on me.
Ashton put both his hands on my shoulders behind me, “Sarah’s food is magic!”
“Oh, c’mon Ashton…” I groaned, embarrassed. He’d had some of my cooking before.
I didn’t think I was any special than an average home cook.
Eric nodded his head in agreement, “She’s good, wait till you guys try it”
Pelin made a face, “fried food is very un-healthy”
“Not when it’s this good, Pelin sweetheart,” Zayn tilted his head at her mockingly.
Emre looked at me, his eyes strange. There was a challenge in them.
“She does make good food,” he put in.
I couldn’t say anything.
I could just look at Emre&rsquo
We had all gathered in the galley to have lunch. Ashton and I were sitting on the counter behind the others who were sitting on stools; we had our plates in our hands.Emre hadn’t eaten with us at all; he’d gone to see to some business with his captain. I didn’t even know there was a captain.Eric had saved me a seat beside him but Pelin had insisted that she just couldn’t stand to sit on the counter and eat. She’d looked at me and asked me if it was okay if she took the seat.I’d nodded at her and put a hand on Eric’s shoulder assuring him it was okay.If I started fighting petty behavior with the same, we’d both be on the table pulling each other’s hair out. I was fine sitting behind with Ashton, I didn’t like to be in the spotlight and most of the time, I wasn’t even part of their conversation. I didn’t know them well enough to be a central part of their friendship so
“So where actually are we going?” I was sitting next to Eric. I’d finally gotten a seat next to him on the couch while we shared dessert.Eric had come over to me himself and I’d been unable to say no when he’d asked me if I felt like eating something sweet. He’d been strangely hesitant; his eyes apologetic as if he’d offended me somehow. He had gotten it all wrong.I was the guilty one here, not him.We were relaxing together on the couch and sharing a store brought mini chocolate cake. Eric was barely eating; I was the one stuffing my mouth trying to ease my conscience.“We’re heading towards some of the smaller islands off the coast, you’ll see.” Eric replied to my question.Things had become slow after lunch and everyone had wandered off.We were almost alone here if we didn’t count Ashton, who napped on the couch in front of us with a pillow over his head.&l
It was afternoon by the time we were near the islands. Pelin and Zerrin had locked themselves in one of the staterooms. Eric and Zayn had started on a game of cards in the saloon. Emre hadn’t moved his solitary station by the bow seat since after lunch. Ashton had taken me on a tour of the yacht and then we’d just relaxed on the sundeck where Mert had given us on Melisa’s request some renditions of popular songs. He was pretty great, certainly, Melisa had been impressed.I could see that something had changed, there was a new kind of intimacy between them now, it was endearing. It was relaxing being with people who were just happy without any undercurrents.Emre came up to the sundeck after a while and stood leaning at the railing, his arms folded. By that time, we’d moved on to each of us singing some of our favorite songs. Ashton asked Emre to join in but he just smiled and shook his head.I’d been more relaxed when he’d not
I wondered if I was making a mistake as I took my top and capris off. This wasn’t how I’d imagined the day to turn out.No I hadn’t been expecting to be undressing in front of Emre.His eyes were on me as I took everything off and revealed a plain black swimsuit that molded to my modest curves.I knew my body was nothing special and yet his eyes on me were making me feel as if I could have graced a magazine centerfold. Easily.His gaze started from the tip of my toes and burned upwards moving up and up, his eyes igniting my body wherever his eyes touched.“Let me go put on some sunscreen,” I said hurriedly, more to get away from him than anything else.I went to get my bag from the sundeck and sat down there. For a moment I could think clearly.What was I doing? Getting into the water and with Emre.I couldn’t think when he touched me. I couldn’t say no to the man.I squeezed out
“HAYAT YILDIZI” meant “Life Star”That wasn’t the strange thing about it; it was the shooting star that was painted beside it. I was struck by the picture thinking about asking Emre but feeling embarrassed about presuming something.Could it be? Or was I being ridiculous?Emre told me that we were going to swim towards the shore from the other side of the yacht because he wanted to show me something and I left the observation at the back of my mind.I went along with him and we swam towards shore. After a while, I started getting tired. My arms had gotten sore because I hadn’t done this in a long while and I was panting.Damn, I was out of shape.“Emre,” I panted, “He was a few paces in front of me.He turned back to me, evidently realizing that I was getting tired because he came back to me, put his arm around my waist and half hauled me as he swam supporting me the rest
Emre turned over my hand lying on the sand beside him and held it in his.I couldn’t pull away from him anymore.That was my problem, I’d never been able to pull away from him, not before..And not now.I sighed and looked at his face in profile, looking out to sea.There had been so many times when I’d yearned to look at him, feel him beside me.I’d wanted him so badly I still had dreams where I sometimes fell into the past again and got up again to an empty bed.There had been days when I hadn’t thought of him, nights when I’d fallen asleep peacefully but then suddenly out of the blue something would remind me of him again, a food, a song, a thought and I’d be back to square one, crying in my bedroom muffling the sounds with a pillow and masking my forlorn face with makeup in the morning.I looked away, unable to face the present and the past melding into one.“Emre&helli
“Let’s go in,” Emre pulled on my hand.“We can go in?” I was surprised.“Who’s here to stop us?” he teased, making me smile again, “C’mon”I laughed and holding hands, we ran towards the sparkling water.The water was wonderful, it was so clear you could see underneath to the rocky bed beneath.The water was pretty shallow and so I was unafraid but I knew that even if the water had been deep, I wouldn’t have been scared. Not with Emre near.I looked back at Emre in the water and said, “Race you to the waterfall”I was laughing as I glanced back at his dumbstruck face.He hadn’t known I would become the carefree Sarah again but that was how I felt.On top of the world, like I had anything and everything in the palm of my hand.Love was like that, made kings out of paupers and paupers out of kings.I was tryi
It had somehow gotten dark while we weren’t looking and the trees around us had started giving off a decidedly nightmarish feeling. Were we going to be stuck on this remote island?Without any necessities? Without food, without a phone, how would we survive?I was thinking this as I followed Emre along a path that was barely a path, in the dark of the trees, I couldn’t even see the moon.Did he know where we were?Did he know how we’d get to the boat?Maybe he had brought me out here on purpose…Oh God I was going to go mad. I was hungry, frustrated and tired. All I wanted was to go back to the yacht and rest on a nice normal bed. I’d been up earlier than usual to prepare for the day and now, I had no energy left. I was running on fumes.“Emre, do you know where we’re going or are we lost?”“For the last time Sarah, stop panicking. Just follow me”“To the
I couldn’t believe the extent of my disappointment, sadness and disbelief. It was as if a dam had burst and I was suddenly remembering everything and crying my heart out to the ocean.Great ugly sobs tore out of me while the wind whipped my face around my face, like the wind and the sea were angry with me. Everything hurt, my heart, my soul, everything was in tatters. Who would have thought that a fun trip would end up so tragic as I slowly slid down and leaned on the upstairs deck.Heartbroken again, how did I let one person break my heart again and again? It was pathetic, I thought as I closed my eyes and thought of everything that had happened to me since Emre had come into my life.And now both brothers were in my life again, wrecking it.I felt someone come and sit next to me and I looked sideways at Emre. He looked tired and almost as empty as me.I couldn’t believe the extent to which those people had gone to
I came back to the present realizing both Emre and Ashton were staring at me.“Okay, explain,” I told him, “How are you to blame in Emre firing me?”“I didn’t fire you,” Emre retorted, “You resigned!”“You didn’t trust me!” I replied, “You didn’t believe that I was not involved in the funds that ad disappeared from the company account.”“I believed you!”“You didn’t, you had one doubt and that’s why you told me to take a few weeks’ vacation. Do you think you do that to someone? You don’t even do that to just an employee and I was more than that.. or that’s just it.. I wasn’t..I wasn’t anything to you” I ran out of words.“I wanted to investigate what had happened without you in all of it” He ran his hands through his hair.“So, you took me out of it, out of my off
“Hey Melisa?” I was sitting on the bed with Melisa in our room and we were both rubbing the hand cream that had been on the dressing table. It smelled so good, Emre never disappointed, “Thanks for opting to share a room with me. You saved me from Eric.” “It was my pleasure, he creeped me out today,” She said touching her lips. “Me too,” I replied, “I hope he’s gotten the message that I’m not interested in him.” Melisa’s phone rang and she picked it up on the first ring. I deduced from her side of the conversation and the blush creeping up the side of her face that it was Mert. I smiled and went into the ensuite bathroom to give her some privacy. I made a bun on top my head while I waited for her to finish and tried not to listen in on her conversation. When I came out, she was waiting for me. “I want to ask you a favor,” she said and bit her lip. “Anything,” I encouraged her. “Um it was Mert,” She pointed to her phone,
It seemed like everyone was holding their breaths to see what Eric would do. The tension crackled in the air. A part of me was curious too. Eric had been essentially been called out on his shit.However embarrassing it seemed for Pelin, it really was a pretty clever thing she’d done, called out Eric like that.Eric really seemed to be in a bind. He kept throwing me looks as if he expected encouragement from me which was insane. Did he really think he still had any control on me?Did he still want both me and Pelin in his hands all at once? Wow, what an asshole?Pelin had apparently realized the same thing because she looked like she was about to cry.Zayn spoke up, “Hurry the fuck up man! Make up your mind,” his tone was harsh, unlike what he usually sounded like.Looks like Eric was stepping on a lot of toes with his behavior.Pelin put her hand on Eric’s shoulder and he suddenly stood up.He looked at
This game sure seemed like more trouble than it was worth, I thought as Ashton asked me if I wanted to go next.“Sure,” I said. I had a few ideas I wanted to try out myself.“So who are you choosing Sarah?” Eric asked me and although the question was simple, his words made me wonder if he was asking me something else.“Mert,” I tilted my head at him and gave him a smile reminding him he still needed to pay for that position he’d put me in earlier.He nodded, accepting responsibility.I wasn’t going to be subtle, I wasn’t going to hold back, he’d assumed too much about me and less at the same time.“Alright, truth or dare?” I asked him.I had a plan… he’d been planning to out my feelings but now I wanted to turn the tables on him.Let us see what Mert was made of.“Truth,” he replied, a little cautiously…“
“Thanks for nothing Ash,” I mocked him as I returned back to the bonfire. Ashton was unconcerned and just stuck out his tongue at me. Did he think I didn’t notice him setting me up with his brother all the time? He just took advantage of the fact that I never said anything to him. “So where did you learn to climb trees?” Pelin asked me. I looked up from where I was looking at my hands as Emre came and sat down next to me with a sigh. “Oh, my dad taught me when I was little,” I replied “Pity he didn’t teach you how to swim too,” Zerrin put in with a sneer, “Emre lost all that time teaching you when he could’ve enjoyed himself instead. Oh the knives were out…and they hurt. I gave a tight smile, “You’re right, it is a pity. Unfortunately my dad died before he could.” There was silence then, Zerrin’s face was pale. “I..I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” She stammered, clearly she’d been taking her lead from
“Okay, it’s your turn now, Mert! Who will you choose? Please don’t say Melisa though.” Zerrin complained.“Why can’t I choose Melisa?” Mert looked confused.“Because, you’ll probably just give her something easy and then we would have no fun at all”Mert frowned as if that had been his plan all along. He then looked around at all of us and his gaze settled on me, his gaze challenging. What did that mean?“I want to ask Sarah, Truth or dare?”“Sarah?” Eric looked surprised, everyone looked surprised.Heck, I was surprised, what did he want to know? Or what did he want me to do?“Truth,” I replied a little hesitatingly and got more anxious as Mert smiled.“That tattoo on your foot, what does it mean?” He asked me.I knew Mert was observant and quiet but I didn’t know he had figured out this much, because
Pelin had taken it upon herself to entertain us tonight; I wasn’t concerned so much as long as she kept away from me.Ashton had gotten me a jacket and I was sitting cozy now, leaning into him while Emre was sitting on my other side, the faraway look in his eyes suggesting that his thoughts were elsewhere.Pelin had finally made her way over to her final destination, Eric, and was regaling with apparently funny stories from what I could see.Before I could ask Ashton if we could go back now, Zerrin who had been sitting alone stood up with an excited expression and I knew whatever it was, it couldn’t be anything good.“Guys, guys,” she said, “Let’s play Truth or Dare!”Of course she would come up with this, I should’ve known, then I would’ve pretended to be asleep.“That’s a great idea, lets,” Pelin spoke up; I could see her mind already working on how she could further d
I sat near the bonfire to dry my clothes, my plate of full of food and my mind full of Emre. He sat across from me, the bonfire between us. This was how I always felt. He seemed to be so close but always out of my reach. The length of the flames between us making us seem close but they created an insurmountable barrier that I knew I wouldn’t ever be able to cross. My thoughts turned bleak and I hastily focused on something less devastating, like Mert and Melisa. Those two gave me a good feeling, looking at them made me feel as if there were still some good and miraculous things in life. I was glad for them, I loved happy endings and it seemed like Mert was going to do everything in his power to make her happy. It was so adorable how they were both sitting a little apart from everyone, in their own bubble, even eating from the same plate. We were all sitting in a loose circle, me near Ashton, currently the only person I could tolerate. Eric and Zayn sa