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

“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

 “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

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

“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