Landing in Istanbul, I found a city more foreign than any place I had travelled to before. Awash with colour, noise and atmosphere, I was intoxicated and couldn’t wait for wild new experiences.
Checking into the hotel, I bumped into a very sexy guy with blonde hair and the widest grin I had ever seen. I was dumbstruck and prayed to the gods that he was on my tour.
Later that night, on a rooftop bar overlooking the city below, we met as a group for the first time. Typically running late, my best friend and I arrived last and, heads down, we quietly took a seat. The tour manager was already speaking and as he interrupted himself to welcome us, I stopped dead in my tracks.
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It was the hot AF man from downstairs.
As my cheeks began to turn pink, my heart – or in this case, vagina – sank. James was our team leader, and while I most definitely wanted the full drunken-antics-and-wild-hook-ups experience the tour promised, I just couldn’t. It felt crass, not to mention inappropriate.
But there’s nothing wrong with a harmless little flirt.
By this point, James had the undivided attention of every girl in the room – and women made up over 81 per cent of the group. While I tried to stem the blood flow south and readjust my expectations, James rattled off the information for our trip to Gallipoli. Thank God he handed out notes because I could barely concentrate.