The Honey Hunters by Jacquelynn Luben

Description:

Fiona, a novice journalist, is offered her first major story in an exotic location. To get the assignment, she must first hide and then conquer her worst fear. Fiona finds herself transformed by the warmth and sunshine of Crete, and realizes she just might be ready to fling herself boldly into other aspects of her life. A short story.

Excerpt:

It was the opportunity of a lifetime for Fiona. No young journalist would turn down a chance like this—travelling the rugged mountain countryside of Crete in pursuit of a story about honey bees. So she had not told her editor about her phobia.

When she came out of the tent that morning, in her beekeeper’s suit, Sedakim was waiting. When he saw her, he started laughing.

“What are you afraid of?” he said. “Are you going on the moon? Is it radiated dust that you fear?”

His English was just a little stilted, just enough to remind Fiona that he was not a Home Counties Englishman, though his brown body gave that away too. In fact he’d told her on the phone that he was half Arabic, half Norwegian, half Greek—too many halves—she’d lost track of the equation. But in any case, when she’d seen him, she’d known he was different from any other man she’d met. Very different.

He was wearing white jeans, which looked as if they’d hardly been worn before, and the upper half of his body was bare.

“Are you going to the hive like that?” she asked.

“I am a little overdressed,” he said.

Fiona thought he was joking. Surely he would put on a protective suit somewhere nearer the hive.

“The clothing is a hindrance. If a bee gets trapped, then it panics. That is when it will sting. That is why you must tuck your trousers into your socks, and the gloves into the wrist bands too. You don’t want the bee to get under the clothing.”

“So what do you wear then?”

“Normally, nothing. The sun is warm. The clothes just get in the way.”