They've been friends for years. Strictly platonic. She's his wing woman on night out. Hell, she's got him laid more times than she can remember. The only problem with that is, she never thought any of his one night stands would amount to much.
Unti...
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"So, wait a second," my sister says, putting her glass of wine down and turning to her boyfriend to see if he was understanding this like she was before she snapped her head back at me. "You and Stefan are an item now?"
Francis Aubert, Romy's boyfriend, frowned. "You went to the Bahamas as best friends and you've come back as boyfriend and girlfriend?"
I honestly didn't see what the confusion was but since neither was understanding the situation, I had to find a way to break it down into the simplest explanation possible. Yes, we were best friends when we left London. While we were away, we admitted that we were both in love with each other. And now we are back in London, we're more than friends. We're dating. I don't think we've quite put a label on it.
"Yes, she is now my girlfriend," Stefan pipes up, confirming Francis' interpretation. Reaching under the table, Stefan squeezes my hand as he smiles over at me. He's been like a schoolboy ever since we took our relationship to the next level, walking around with that shit-eating grin on his face and not letting anyone rain on his parade. Not even the awkward early flight home dampened his mood. "It's long overdue really. This should have happened years ago."
Romy's eyes widened at Stefan's declaration and while she opened her mouth to speak, no words came out. Instead, she turned her focus on asking the usual post-trip types of questions. What were the Bahamas like? Was it worth a visit? Are there any giant spiders there? When is hurricane season? Does island hopping mean hours spent on a boat? Because Romy does not do spiders, hurricanes and boats.
Stefan dutifully answered each of her questions while I sat and listened. He made a great storyteller for all the places we've been and strongly encourages people to travel to the places we've seen. For as long as I can remember, he's been going on and on at Romy about needing to spread her wings but since her radio appearance, Stefan's been acting as her personal travel agent, coming up with a list of Top Ten places she should go. There wasn't anywhere adventurous to note; it wasn't as if he was telling her to go hiking through the Grand Canyon or anything but simply getting on a plane and going to Florence, a place she's never been to. Turku in Finland was another place that came highly recommended, as well as the likes of Girona, Brno, Bergen, even, and those are just the European cities.
Essaouira in Morocco. Dhaka in Bangladesh. Skopje, Macedonia. Isfahan in Iran. Stefan loved each and every one of those places. He also loved Bolivia, the Philipines, Turkmenistan. Sierra Leone. Bhutan. Guyana. Madagascar and Belize. Basically, anywhere we've been, Stefan thinks you should go.
"What about going to see the Great Barrier Reef?" Francis asked. "I've heard it's nice there."
Stefan almost spits out his drink over Francis. "Yes, but why go there? There are better options, like Ningaloo Reef, if you want to stick with Australia. Mesoamerican Reef, Central America is great if you want to see turtles."
"Not a fan of turtles, to be honest," Romy said, making me look at my sister like she's sprouted two extra heads. Noticing the way I stare at her, she shrugs her shoulders, sips on her drink and asks, "What?"
