Magaluf. What was he trying to say? That I was some sort of chav? I knew he had loved it when Cassandra had said that. He was always trying to get in digs about it. And now he'd topped it all off by taking me to the chav centre of the universe!
I'd never said I hated Scotland. It had just taken me a minute to get used to the idea. But as usual, he'd over-reacted in such a typically male way and taken offence at my hesitancy. And brought us here. Quite what he expected me to do here, I had no idea. He'd never seemed much of one for beach holidays, drinking sangria and going clubbing. To be honest, I wasn't sure I was really one for this kind of holiday; I liked a good time as much as the next person but I'd never really envied anyone the chance to go one of these holidays. And I didn't even really know why he was suddenly so keen on going on holiday at all. I was perfectly content doing our usual wander-around-until-something-goes-wrong thing.
But the look on his face… he was trying so hard to please me. I really didn't want to disappoint him again by throwing it back in his face. Maybe I should just make the best of it all. And ignore the nagging voice in my head that kept saying, Your Doctor wouldn't have done this. He'd have known where you wanted to go. And he'd have taken you there.
We spent the day lazing on the beach. Well, I did. For much of it, the Doctor was preoccupied with fiddling with the TARDIS.
"You'll have more fun on your own," he insisted. "Go on, go and sunbathe and do whatever you want. I'll catch up with you later."
Yes, and great fun it was too. Lying by myself on a crowded beach, with no one to help rub the suncream into my back. Burying my head in a book because I had no one to talk to. Great fun.
I'd noticed a group of guys messing around earlier, throwing sand at each other. Now most of them had run off down to the beach. Except one. As subtly as I knew how, I checked him out. Tanned. Tall. Dark hair. Nice wonky smile.
His shadow fell over me. I looked up from my book (still on page 234, really struggling now).
"Hi," he said, smiling.
"Hi."
"All on your own?"
I nodded. "Yeah, sort of. The… My friend's around somewhere."
"I'm Gary."
"Rose."