Our Holidays

We were on the boat to Paros. My wife Eva and I, after a very exhausting winter, decided to give ourselves a little relaxation. We left every worry behind and set off for a 10-day period of relaxation and fun. The ship was stiflingly full. Luckily we had booked a cabin and so after quite some time wandering around the deck, we decided to go relax a bit.

Partly the good mood, partly the not-so-familiar environment, it didn't take much for us to end up making love. It was very beautiful… We didn't do anything different or special, but we both felt our connection much more intensely. When we finished, she hugged me and in a tone almost as if she were begging me, she asked that we have 10 unforgettable days. I promised her… Both she and I needed it… After a while she took a bath and told me she would go for coffee. I stayed in the cabin to sleep for an hour and to relax. When I woke up, Eva hadn't returned yet. I also took a shower and went up to the ship's cafe to find her. She was sitting at a table drinking her frappe but not alone. She was with three other people. Two men and one woman. I don't know what made me not go over to where she was, but I chose a seat at the bar, from which I had a visual connection to my wife's table. I saw them talking, laughing many times, and I even discerned a …strange familiarity with one of the two men. He was a quite pleasant-looking man, 45 to 50 years old.

At some point my wife looked towards the bar and saw me, but I gestured with my hand for her to stay there. She looked at me puzzled but did what I told her. Hour by hour the familiarity became more and more intense. It was clear that Eva was under the suffocating pressure of, let's call him, the bachelor of the group. She was throwing me furtive, awkward glances, but I always reassured her with my own gaze. I sat there and watched a stranger flirt with my wife and I didn't react. On the contrary, I felt quite proud that someone was trying to win over my woman. Without waiting to see the continuation, I got up and went to the cabin to prepare our things.

Our vacation had just begun… A few minutes after I went to the cabin, Eva came too… Why didn't you come to the table I was sitting at, she asked me… And I answered her vaguely, that I didn't go because supposedly I wasn't in the mood for conversation and various other bullshit. She then told me that the three people she was sitting with belonged to a group of sales promoters who were also going to Paros combining work and vacation. Manos, the man I wrote about above, was the head, while Vaso and Michalis were a couple and had been working in this job for 12 years, always with Manos, who was the manager and had even become their best man at their wedding. Manos was 52 years old, Michalis 37 and Vaso 32. Full biography for everyone. From her words it was clear she had taken a liking to them, something confirmed by the fact that she and Vaso exchanged phone numbers to meet up sometime on the island. She had told them she was married and traveling with her husband. Here perhaps I should write you a few things about us. I am George, 42 years old, …decent-looking, a businessman. My wife is 10 years younger, 32 that is, very beautiful with a few extra kilos, but in the …right places, something that emphasizes her femininity. Until then, we were a very measured and perhaps a bit conservative couple, to which if you add the 13 years of marriage, then you conclude that you are dealing with a classic married couple living in routine which creates distance between them but also the desire for something new. But I return to our story. In Paros, a car from the hotel was waiting for us… Our first two days on the island passed without anything special. On the third evening, sitting in a restaurant, the conversation came to the people she met on the ship. I told her to call them and for all of us to go out together some evening. Immediately Eva opened her phone and got Vaso's number.. after talking for a few minutes she said goodbye, saying,