by Mandy Baggot
‘I don’t understand what you’re saying,’ Sonya said, playing with the skin on her chest where her necklace should hang.
‘I’m saying this hotel might have a really cool wine bar or something and Joey is there – with other people too, not just Ceri – who aren’t his friends on Facebook so he couldn’t tag them. And it could be something perfectly innocent, like a truce between the two societies. Yes, a picking up of the gauntlet rather than a throwing down. And then he’s gone back home, or to his room, completely alone.’
Had that sounded plausible? She just felt she needed to nurse Sonya along. There wasn’t anything much either of them could do while they were in Greece unless Sonya made a direct effort to contact Joey and have it out with him. Despite what she’d said earlier, she wasn’t sure confrontation on the phone or via WhatsApp was the right course of action now, not when things were so up in the air and the baby factor was weighing on her friend’s mind.
‘Good morning.’
Sonya jumped in the chair, almost losing the sheets. ‘Oh my!’
And there was Andras in the gardens, just outside their terrace, dressed in the black trousers and white shirt that was his restaurant day ‘uniform’, dark hair perfectly tousled.
‘What are you doing here?’ Tess asked. ‘Don’t tell me you need your laptop back already.’
‘No.’ He shook his head.
‘We were going to meet this afternoon, weren’t we?’ Sonya added.
‘We were,’ he agreed. ‘But, if you would like, we can spend the whole day in Paleokastritsa.’
Tess observed his stance. He looked agitated, his hands by his sides but as if not knowing what to do with them. ‘I thought you had the restaurant to take care of.’
He nodded. ‘I decided to take a day off.’
‘A day off,’ Tess stated bluntly. ‘Just like that.’
‘Yes.’
‘But you don’t take days off,’ she said. ‘You told me you haven’t had a day off since—’
‘Tess,’ Andras interrupted. ‘I am offering my services as a guide man for the day to thank you for putting up with my family last night. If you do not want this then …’
‘Oh no!’ Sonya exclaimed, standing up and catching the sheets under her armpits. ‘Oh no, we do want it, don’t we, Tess?’
Tess turned in her seat to look at Sonya trying to stop herself revealing too much skin as she waddled towards the apartment doors. ‘Are you sure, Sonya? Because if you want to just hang out here and, you know, relax and think about things, then …’
‘No,’ Sonya said with a determined shake of her head. ‘I don’t want to think about things.’ She sighed. ‘I spent all night thinking about things. Today I want to do things. I want to see things. Lots of Greek things.’
‘OK then,’ Tess answered.
‘I’ll just get dressed. I’ll be two ticks,’ Sonya said, moving into the apartment and closing the shutters behind her.
Tess looked back to Andras, still behind the metal fence. ‘I think you’d better come over here and tell me what happened with your mother this morning.’
He shook his head. ‘It is that obvious?’
‘Mmm.’
‘Well, to talk about that will require more than the coffee you are drinking.’
‘Sonya drank all our wine.’
‘And I will be driving us.’ He reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a set of keys, shaking them at Tess.
‘Your car is working again?’
‘No,’ he answered. ‘I have Spiro’s.
‘It is a car, isn’t it? Not a moped,’ Tess checked.
He grinned. ‘Yes, it is a car.’ Putting two hands on the fence, he vaulted himself over and landed next to Tess’s chair like he was Louis Smith dismounting from a pommel horse. Snatching up her coffee mug he took a sip of it, then quickly put it down. ‘You have far too much sugar.’
‘I’m going to be needing much more if you and I are going to last until this wedding.’
He smiled, sitting down on the chair next to her. ‘It is a trial, isn’t it? All this being nice to one another, swimming from boats, visiting beaches and holding hands, dancing close.’
Was it her imagination or had he inched his body slightly closer to hers? Damn, he was hot. And he was making her hot. But Sonya was a couple of very flimsy shutters away …
‘And now my mother thinks you are someone trying to get your hands on my money.’
That was a passion-killer. ‘What?’
He smiled. ‘I will tell you all about it when we get to the other side of the island.’
‘I can’t wait.’
Thirty-eight
Paleokastritsa
‘It says in my guidebook that the monastery is called Theotokos.’
Sonya’s words were almost whipped away by the breeze as Andras motored around tight turns up the side of another mountain en route to their destination. The open-top Jeep had been fine when they had left Kalami and taken a slow, steady saunter along bamboo-lined roads, staggering views from every vantage point, but now the almost hairpin bends were back and Andras had ramped up the pace.
‘And apparently there are six beaches,’ Sonya continued. ‘I thought it was a little place. It looks little on the map.’
‘Yes,’ Andras called over the engine and the wind. ‘It is small but it has many beautiful coves and beaches.’
‘Which one did we meet on?’ Tess teased, looking across at him.
‘Maybe we can decide today,’ he suggested. ‘So we are prepared should there be any more questions.’
‘Ooo, we could make up your whole story!’ Sonya announced. ‘And take photos, like evidence.’
Tess now wished she hadn’t mentioned the backstory Andras had created on that first night. And Sonya was becoming way to obsessed with the word ‘evidence’ since Joey’s hotel check-in on Facebook.
‘We are here,’ Andras said, pulling the Jeep to a stop.
‘This is the monastery already?’ Sonya asked, already opening the car, eyes ahead of them as if she was taking it all in.
‘Yes,’ Andras answered.
‘So do monks actually really live here or is it just some kind of museum?’ Tess inquired.
‘There are real monks,’ Andras answered, getting out of the car and putting on his sunglasses. ‘And I should have thought …’
‘Thought what?’ She got out of the car and shut the door behind her.
‘You will not be able to go in dressed like that.’
Tess looked down at the cream cotton sundress she was wearing. It was a bargain ASOS purchase with a plaited belt with gold bits on the end, simple but stylish. What was wrong with it?
‘You cannot show too much … skin … in front of the monks,’ Andras stated.
Sonya let out a giggle. ‘Will I be OK?’ She twerked her Capri-pants clad bottom.
‘I’m wearing a perfectly acceptable dress,’ Tess said, following Andras towards the entrance.
‘It is too short,’ Andras said.
‘Says who?’
‘Says the monks,’ Andras replied. ‘I don’t make the rules.’
‘Well,’ Tess said. ‘Should I take it off then?’
‘No,’ he answered quickly. ‘They will give you something.’
‘Oh, Tess, look at these views. Take a photo of me. The trees are so green and the sea is so …’
‘Blue?’ Tess offered.
‘Well, I know it’s cheesy but yes it really is. It’s so special.’ Sonya swallowed.
Sonya was melting, on the inside, churning over the things she had previously said she didn’t want to think about. Tess put an arm around her friend’s shoulders. ‘Andras can take a photo of us.’
‘Of course,’ he answered readily.
Andras couldn’t help but smile at Tess. She was wearing a grey and neon-green, elephant-patterned pleated skirt that touched her ankles and a bright orange cardigan. The monks had taken exception to her dress and made a good job of
finding her the most ill-fitting cover-ups they had. He had watched her looking at the gatekeepers, clearly wondering whether to object or not. She had chosen not and had pulled on the skirt with as much grace as she could manage.
‘You’re looking at my skirt, aren’t you?’ Tess hissed as they walked across the beautifully paved terrace, small manicured trees growing at the bases of triangular-turreted white walls, beneath the sand-coloured brickwork of the ornate bell tower.
‘It is very nice,’ he said with a smirk.
‘It’s the ugliest thing I have ever had to wear.’
Andras smiled. ‘It is not about fashion here. It is about respect.’
‘I know,’ Tess answered. ‘And that’s why I put it on.’ She sighed. ‘Not that it isn’t crazy itchy. No one should have to wear something this long in this heat.’
‘I’m just going over there to take some more photos!’ Sonya called back to them, waving a hand and heading further away.
‘So have you been here loads of times before?’ Tess asked him.
He nodded. ‘Yes, but not for a long time.’
‘Did you come here with your wife?’
He hesitated, Tess’s question jarring for a moment. No one really brought Elissa up, apart from his mother when she wanted to prove that he was incapable of managing his life.
He shook his head. ‘No.’
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry, I just …’ She fanned her hand in front of her face. ‘Can we find some shade?’
‘Sure,’ he answered, leading the way forward.
He stepped into the whitewashed brick tunnel, bright red-and-pink plants in pots, gnarly vines criss-crossing overhead and creating a perfect canopy to escape the intense heat. He stopped at a wooden bench. ‘You would like to sit?’
‘Yes,’ Tess said. ‘I think I would.’
He dropped down on to the seat with a sigh, bringing his hands up through his hair.
‘So your mother came to see you this morning,’ she guessed.
‘Yes, she was at the restaurant early, when I was setting up.’
‘And was that why you left? To spend the day here?’
‘I just got so mad and I don’t like to be mad.’ He sighed. ‘But … she does this to me. I feel like I can’t even breathe.’ He turned to her. ‘Do you understand that?’
She moved her head half in a nod and half in a shake. ‘I don’t, not really, because … I don’t have any sort of relationship with my family.’
‘You are lucky. You are free,’ Andras stated.
Tess shook her head with determination. ‘No, I don’t think so.’ She sighed. ‘I used to think that, but lately … I don’t know, maybe it’s what Sonya’s going through or work being so incredibly frustrating or … I don’t know … being here with your Greek time and your boats.’ She smiled and he knew she was about to tighten up. ‘Cut to the bit about her thinking I’m a gold-digger.’
‘She thinks you have found me on the Internet, because of course a restaurant owner from Kalami is very high profile, and you are going to get me to marry you and then you will take the restaurant and my house that she doesn’t even like and my life will be over.’
‘I did love your house,’ Tess reminded him with a small smile.
‘And I don’t even own the whole restaurant,’ he admitted sadly.
‘No? Well, I may as well pack my bags and get on the first plane home.’ She brushed her hair off her face, then scrunched up the skirt in both fists, playing with the nylon material.
‘The restaurant was left to Spiro and me in equal shares when my father died. My mother got the house and everything else, which wasn’t much. Now Spiro needs the money for his new life with Kira.’ He sighed. ‘I cannot blame him for that. And he has given me plenty of time, I just cannot find anyone to come into the business with me.’ He adjusted his sunglasses on his face as a few tourists sauntered by, eyes on their guidebooks. ‘I have so many plans for the restaurant. I want to update things. I want to think about doing more events, like with Spiro’s wedding. I want to market to a wider audience. I get great business from rich people in their super-yachts. But if I expand, and there is room to expand, I can book more large groups, offer party nights, something a little different.’
‘You would have to be careful, though,’ Tess stated.
‘Careful?’
‘Part of what makes your restaurant so popular is its charm and it’s Greekness.’ She looked at him. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great idea to think about expansion and something different, but you need to make sure you don’t alienate your current clientele.’
‘I’m not afraid of change,’ Andras said. ‘That is what holds back my family.’
‘I know, but take it from someone who has managed the branding and marketing for a lot of businesses: don’t ever lose the core of what’s working.’
He nodded. It was good advice. ‘It does not matter. I have not been able to find anyone, so my mother will be my new business partner.’
‘Have you approached the bank?’ Tess asked.
He shook his head. ‘The way things are in Greece at the moment, the bank will not lend me the money.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because—’
‘You have a thriving business. You have a house that must be worth a fortune just for its location, and this is not the money-grabbing girlfriend speaking. Why would they not lend you the money?’
He had thought about the bank but he had dismissed it almost instantly. Perhaps he had done that too quickly. If he got a loan from the bank, gave Spiros the money for his share of the restaurant, he wouldn’t have to have any business partner. He could run things his way. As long as he could manage the loan repayments. Finding out had to be worth it, didn’t it?
‘If you like, I could help you put together all the details the bank might need,’ Tess said.
‘I can’t ask you to do that, Trix,’ he replied. ‘You are already doing so much for me and—’
‘See that girl over there?’ Tess said, indicating through the tunnel to where Sonya was half-leaning over the rustic wall trying to get the best photo opportunity. ‘You bringing us to all these places, telling her the history of things, it’s really helping to make this holiday special. I’m sure I can manage to put together some documents in between holding your hand and …’ She swallowed. ‘Dancing close.’
He felt the need to take his sunglasses off then, and pushed them up on to his head. Looking at her, soft blonde hair resting on that bright cardigan, it was all he could do to stop himself from reaching out and touching it. He slipped his hand across the space between them and placed it on top of hers, heart picking up in pace. What was he doing? There was no one here to watch them. No one making notes about their relationship. No family. But he wanted to reach out to her.
His hand was on hers, his fingers gently caressing the skin and her stomach was revolving like the London Eye but several times quicker. What was happening? Why was he holding her hand? And why was it making her feel like she was being turned inside out? It felt sexy and comforting all at the same time and she didn’t know what to do! Apart from break the moment. Quickly.
She withdrew her hand and pointed a finger at him. ‘Plus, I have your laptop.’
‘You do,’ he agreed with a smile, pulling his hand away. ‘And how is that going?’
‘It works,’ Tess answered. ‘Nothing wrong with the machine. Just my ability to put anything together at the moment.’
‘You are working on a branding project?’
‘Yes,’ she said, smiling. ‘Have you got any ideas for a chain of boutique wine bars called Blackberry Boudoir?’
‘Perhaps a change of name?’ he suggested.
‘Oh, I think that’s pretty much set in stone,’ she answered.
‘Really? Just because it has always been that way?’ he asked. ‘If I make changes to my restaurant I was considering a different name. Georgiou’s does not really say “relax”, “escape�
�� or “unwind”.’
She sat up a little straighter on the bench, a wave of excitement running through her. She had thought earlier she’d like to rip things up and start again, she just assumed she had to stick to the name of the company. But this was a rebrand. Just because the clients hadn’t asked for a name change didn’t mean they wouldn’t be open to the suggestion if she came up with a great one and presented it well.
‘You are OK?’ Andras asked.
‘Yes,’ Tess said, leaping up from the bench. ‘Yes, I’m fine.’ She looked over at Sonya, still snapping photos, then back to Andras. ‘I need to find some paper and a pencil.’
Thirty-nine
‘This place is so beautiful,’ Sonya exclaimed with a loaded sigh.
They were sitting outside on the balcony of a taverna-cum-tea room that overlooked the whole bay of Paleokastritsa. Craggy, green-speckled stone surrounded coves of turquoise water that shimmered in the sunlight. They could see everything from their high vantage point: the beaches, the boats bobbing close to shore, others further out sailing into the distance, and the imposing Angelokastro – Castle of Angels – that Andras had told them about while they waited for the lemon drizzle cake to arrive.
‘It is beautiful,’ Tess agreed, sipping at her Coke with three sugars.
‘So’s he,’ Sonya stated, her eyes moving to Andras, who was leant against the balcony railing.
Despite what he had said about leaving his mother in charge for the day, he had felt the need to check in with the restaurant. After all his comments when they had first met about her being addicted to her iPhone and business, now he was the one making a call.
‘I mean, he is gorgeous, anyone can see that, and you’re getting on so well,’ Sonya continued.
‘What?’ Tess stated, coming to the conversation.
‘Andras and you. You’re getting on so well,’ Sonya repeated.
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Tess answered. ‘Firstly, if you remember, I’m his made-up girlfriend. Don’t start believing the fiction we invented. Our eyes didn’t really meet on the glass-bottomed boat earlier in the season.’
