They spent the rest of that day and the next sunning themselves, swimming, eating, and making love.

"Even though it's only been two days, I feel like we've been here forever," Clem declared from the fluffy bed the night before they were to return to Los Angeles. "It's like I'm returning to another life."

"I know," John answered, flopping down on the bed next to her. "Like I said, next time we'll go to the Mediterranean for a couple of weeks, do it up right, really splash out, yeah?"

Clementine sat up and looked at him, hair in disarray, looking unspeakably beautiful to John. "It goes without saying that I can't pay for any of that, right? I mean, you understand that?"

"I don't care about the money, silly girl," John responded, shaking his head. "I'm just so fucking happy to have found someone who makes me so fucking happy."

Clementine laughed. "What kind of sentence is that?"

"The kind that makes perfect sense," John said loftily. "Now come here and let's shag some more before we have to pack to leave."

Clementine obliged, and it was sometime later that they reluctantly took themselves from the bed and pulled out their suitcases.

"You don't think it'll be a problem that we're flying back together?" Clementine asked as she folded a shirt and put it in her pull case.

"I don't think so, no. I mean, no one can see us on the plane, and we're going to go our separate ways right from the airport; who'll even know we're there?"

Clementine nodded and turned back to the dresser.

They fell into bed late and slept in each other's arms until they woke up the next morning, just in time to eat on board before the boat arrived back at the dock.

"Good bye, boat, it was magical," Clem called as they walked toward the waiting car.

Then they sped off to the tiny airport down a one lane road where the jungle seemed to press down on them from both sides.

"I can't even show my pictures to anyone except Kimmy and Alan," Clem lamented, scrolling through her phone.

"And be very careful of that, or the next thing you know they'll be all over the internet," Johnny warned her.

They boarded the small plane and once again Clementine was offered champagne before she had a chance to buckle her seat belt.

"What a funny life you live, Johnny," she mused as she sipped it. "Do you even remember what it's like to fly on a commercial airplane, like with people you don't know? Or take the bus?"

"What makes you think I did those things before?" John asked teasingly. "I mean, we're close to being royalty in Nigeria, and my parents are both very successful at what they do."

Clem just stared at him, her champagne forgotten.

"For all you know I could've grown up with nannies and governesses and chauffeurs, the whole lot."

"Did you?"

He laughed and shook his head as the plane took off. "We were very comfortable, don't get me wrong, but yeah, I used to take the bus to get to school and all that." He sat back, putting his arm around Clem as the plane gained altitude. "The last really normal thing I remember doing is taking the tube to the contest audition. After that things got mad quickly, and we were on tourbuses and private planes and all that."

"Just imagine," Clementine said, her voice filled with wonder. "If none of this crazy stuff with the band had happened, we never would've met. You'd probably still be back in England—doing what? What did you want to be before The Jacks happened and you became all famous and everything?"

"I probably would've become a doctor, like my mum and dad," he responded. "I'd be heading into my third year of training about now, barely sleeping, no life to speak of."

"But instead, you're here with me, just because you decided to audition for a TV show," Clem marveled. "What a serendipitous world we live in."

"God, I love that you use words like 'serendipitous,'" John told her, leaning in to kiss her cheek as the plane leveled off.

"In your own way, you're just as easy to please as I am," Clementine quipped.

The next time John looked over at her, she was sleeping, head against the window. He pulled her against himself and she settled into him without really waking up, throwing an arm across his stomach.

They remained that way until they began their descent into LAX, at which point Clementine woke up and groused about being left to sleep for the entire trip. "Johnny, you let me sleep?"

"What would you rather have done?"

Clementine shrugged. "I don't know, we could've talked or something."

"Clem, we just spent the entire weekend talking, aren't you all talked out?" John teased gently.

Clementine shook her head determinedly. "You're the best company I've ever had, I love talking to you."

Suddenly, John's phone, which had of course been silent for the duration of the flight, pinged. That was followed by another, and other, and in her pocket, Clementine's phone began to go off as well.

"Welcome back to civilization, I suppose," John said with a laugh, reaching to check his phone.

The pilot's voice came over the intercom. "It will be about ten minutes before you can disembark, sorry for the delay."

Clem, too, pulled out her phone to see who'd been trying to reach her for the last five hours.

"Oh no." John's voice was terrible.

Clem turned to John, whose face had gone ashen.

"Oh no."

"John? Johnny? What's wrong?"

John turned to Clem, heartbreak in his eyes. "Clementine, I'm so sorry. I should've listened to you when you wanted to go inside, Jesus, I'm so sorry, darling, so sorry—"

"What are you talking about?" Clementine was confused, but couldn't help respond to the tone of John's voice.

"Some pap got photographs of us." John swallowed.

"What, while we were on the boat?"

"On the boat, in the water, at the airport, all over." John swallowed again. "He got photographs of us together, you know, when we were—we were—" He stopped, unable to continue.

"When we were what?" Clementine was having a hard time wrapping her brain around what he was saying, it was too huge, too terrible to contemplate.

"When we were shagging, when I was going down on you, all of it," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "They're all over the internet."

Oh my god.

Clem pulled out her phone.

"God, Clem, don't look," John begged her.

"What am I supposed to do, Johnny, pretend they're not out there? Just—what? Close my eyes?" Grimly, Clem searched her name, and immediately saw them, a little blurry and grainy, as though taken from a great distance, but so obviously her and John. In many of the pictures, the sides of the boat were in the shot, blocking some of what they were doing, but there were many that were very clear, of John with his head between her legs, palming her breasts as he kissed her. There were some very clear ones of them in the water, as well, their arms wrapped around each other, smiling into each other's eyes, very intimate.

Clementine felt sick.

Johnny, seeing the expression on her face, spoke up, his voice urgent. "No! Clem, no, don't let this poison what was a beautiful, magical time."

Clem turned to him, eyes already streaming. "I feel—I feel—" she couldn't continue.

"Violated, I know, " John finished for her. "And I feel terrible that I've done this to you."

"What do you mean? You didn't do this." Clementine sounded mystified. "Unless you're talking about not going inside when I wanted to—"

"No no, don't you see?" John's voice held self-hatred and bitterness. "None of this would've happened if I weren't who I am. No one cares who Clementine O'Dell shags. It's because you were with me, Johnny Darling, that any of this matters. I'm so sorry."

He held her and let her cry for a few minutes, ignoring the pretty much nonstop pinging of their phones.

The pilot informed them that they were free to disembark.

"We need a few minutes, yeah?" Johnny told the flight attendant, who nodded understandingly.

Clem heard her phone make a sound like musical chimes.

"Oh my god, that's Hy, that's a text from Hy," Clem told Johnny, pushing herself off his chest.

She pulled out her phone, dreading what she might find.

Have a nice trip?

Clementine's shoulders slumped. "She knows, oh god, she knows," she said, her words ending in a sob.

"I'm so sorry," John repeated. "Words can't express how sorry I am."

His phone started ringing with an actual incoming call from someone.

"It's my manager, I have to take this," he said.

Clem nodded, turning toward the window, continuing to cry.

"Hullo? Yeah, yeah, we just saw. "Yes. Yes. It's her sister, Clementine, you remember, you met her on the set. Yes. Yes. Yes. She's with me now, we just landed. No, her car's here, she was just going to drive home. Really?" He looked over at Clem, who looked back questioningly. "No, we didn't see anyone. Yeah, she's pretty upset. Look, I can't really talk right now, can I call you back? Yeah, after I get her sorted and get home. What? No, of course not! No. No! Yes, it's serious, we're serious. I'm in love with her. Okay, I really have to go, I'll call you back." 

He ended the call and turned back to Clementine. "Apparently there are some paps at the airport, we're going to need security, or at least you are, to get to your car. Would you rather I just call a car service for you? You can return for your car later?"

Clem considered, then shook her head. "I'd rather just get my car and not have to come back," she said. She wiped her eyes and sniffed. "Let's just get this over with," she said determinedly. "How do I look?"

"You look magnificent," John told her. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. You're going to get in my car with me, and we'll drive you to your car, yeah? That would be the best way to minimize the—the—situation."

Clementine nodded. "Okay. Okay." She looked at John with trepidation. "Did she say how many paps were out there?"

John shook his head. "Just hold my hand and don't make eye contact with any of them, okay? Just look down or at me, I'll get us where we need to go."

Clementine took a deep, shuddering breath. "Okay. I'm ready."

John leaned in and kissed her. "I love you, Clem, just remember that."

She nodded and smiled tremulously. "I know. I love you, too, Johnny."

He rose and reached for her hand. "Ready? Here we go."