Athens

'I've got some bad news,' Ross said, after they'd greeted each other. They had been kissing for quite some time, and it was only now that they had started talking.

'What's that?'

'The honeymoon hotel? Half the guests went down with food poisoning.'

'Oh no! Are you all right?' Emily studied his face. Because of all the kissing, they hadn't really been looking closely at one another. In fact they had been so close that someone in the arrivals lounge had told them to get a room.

'Yes, I'm fine, I didn't catch it.'

'Oh that's good,' Emily said. 'It would be so awful if you got ill. Have they fixed the problem?'

'No, people have only just started to get sick, so I thought maybe we shouldn't go back there.'

'No, certainly not,' Emily said. 'A honeymoon should be spent in bed, but not because you're sick.'

'Yeah, exactly.'

'So we could just go to another hotel on the island.'

'Er no, they're all full up.' Well, that was the truth.

'That's a pity. What about another island?'

'They're full up too,' Ross said. He'd tried and he'd tried, but he'd had no luck anywhere. 'Everyone wants to be on the islands. I thought, since we were in Athens anyway, that we'd stay here. We could do some sight seeing.'

'Have we got a hotel.'

'Er yes.' Ross pulled out a piece of paper with an address. 'I haven't seen it, I did it over the phone.'

They found that it was a hotel in the Red Light district. As they walked down the street, a man leered at Emily and made a remark, making her shrink against Ross.

'I think he wants to share,' she said in horror.

'He can have a busted nose, that's the only think I'm letting him have,' Ross said. 'We're leaving.' He started to lead her out of the street.

'What?'

'We'll go. We can't stay here.'

'It's getting late,' Emily pointed out. 'What if we can't find somewhere else? What if this room disappears while we're looking for somewhere else?' Ross stopped walking. That was a good point. Being without a room in a place where neither of them could speak a word of the local language was no joke. Sure there was the occasional sign in translation but that didn't help much. His eyes found such a sign, beneath Greek lettering was. 'Rachel's beauties will make you make you happy.' Ross shuddered, turning away. No they wouldn't. Emily had seen the sign too, but made no comment on it, instead saying,

'Let's at least look at the room. If it's clean, we'll use it and then we can look for another room. Or go home, if we can get a flight. I don't mind, I just want to be with you.' He gave her shoulders a squeeze.

'Okay. It can't hurt to look.'

The room was clean. There was no view from the window worth looking at. There was no ensuite, bar fridge or TV. Just a bed with plain covers.

'I'm sorry sweetie,' Ross said, sitting on the bed. He suddenly felt very weary. He'd tried and he'd tried but this was all he could come up with. He was a failure. If he'd waited for Emily then although he'd would still have given the ticket away to Rachel, he and Emily could at least have gone to a decent hotel in London. Not that this place wasn't decent, exactly but it was so ordinary.

'Don't be sorry. We could be in a gorgeous hotel feeling like death. Instead we're in a very primitive hotel, safe and well.

'But the stuff going on out there' Ross said in disgust. They'd never be able to tell anyone about their honeymoon. A red light district!

'What about the stuff going on in here? It will be pure, beautiful, and perfect.' She got onto the bed beside him. 'What does the rest of the world matter to us?' She touched his face, and he remembered that his brand new wife was very close to him.

'I wanted better for you. This room is so, plain and and.'

'We'll make it special,' she said, 'You and me.' He looked at her and thought, who the hell talks about their honeymoon to other people anyway?