‘Hello there.’
‘Hi.’ Kate pulled her hoodie down over her shorts. ‘You must be Alex,’ she stuttered. ‘I’m Kate. I’m Toby’s sister.’
‘Is that the same Toby with the sore feet?’ he replied, to which Kate could only gawp with incomprehension. ‘On account of all the earwig bites,’ he added.
‘Oh. Yes. I see what you mean.’
Kate laughed a bit too loudly and clasped the door with both hands.
‘I thought for a minute there you hadn’t recognised me,’ he added, brushing sawdust off his arms and standing up. ‘You know, what with my clothes on and all.’
‘I didn’t see anything,’ she stated shrilly. Then, noticing the same bemusement creep across his features as had in Jerolim, said hurriedly, ‘I was in bed. I mean, I was asleep. The banging – you woke me up.’
‘I did?’ Alex cocked his head, one hand raised to stroke his beard. ‘Sorry about that. Toby said his sister was here, like, but I assumed you’d be over the road.’
‘Did you?’ she said. ‘Only, I thought it was you who finished the bedroom upstairs for me?’
‘Right you are,’ he agreed with a nod.
‘I was just about to put the kettle on,’ Kate said faintly.
Why was she was still gripping the door as if she was Kate Winslet at the end of Titanic?
‘A tea would be magic,’ he said, pulling his visor back down over his face. ‘Milk, four sugars.’
‘Four?’
‘Afraid so.’ Alex revved his drill and smiled at her. ‘I’m not satisfied unless the spoon can stand straight up.’
‘OK . . . So, that’ll be one cup of syrup? Coming right up.’
If life had not been so immeasurably cruel to her lately, then Kate might have seen the funny side. Because it was absurd – that much could not be denied – but it was also absolutely bloody typical that it would happen to her, Kate Nimble. Why couldn’t she have simply had one embarrassing encounter and never had to have seen the person involved again? Or why couldn’t she have been spared the embarrassing encounter altogether? Toby may have sent her off to Jerolim, but she couldn’t blame him entirely – it was the universe that was at fault. Fate had long since decided that she was the person to whom all these mishaps must happen, and apparently it did not matter how many thousands of miles she put between herself and her normal life, this determined barrage of ridicule would still find her.
Hadn’t the failed proposal been enough? Hadn’t the video that followed been the cherry on top of a cake with layers of stupidity in place of jam? Now, she would have to endure who knew how many weeks of Alex, who she had humiliated herself in front of so entirely and would have to pretend that she was not only fine with it, but that she found the whole situation just as entertaining as she knew the three men undoubtedly would.
‘Hang on a minute – so you two have already met?’
Toby was predictably delighted.
The shock of finding out that the ‘man of mystery’ Alex was, in fact, the naked bloke Kate had met on the beach, had not dimmed since that morning. After making and delivering his tea without comment, a drained yet resolute Kate had showered and changed into a decorating ensemble of old leggings and T-shirt, before heading back down to the dorm. To his credit, Alex had accepted her offer of help without a trace of his earlier amusement and promptly directed her towards a tin of varnish and brush.
‘If you paint while I build, I reckon we’ll have these bunks done in no time.’
Despite Kate’s still-burning mortification, the two of them had settled quickly into an easy rhythm after that, and although there wasn’t much in the way of conversation happening on account of all the drilling and hammering, Kate found herself beginning to relax.
‘Oh, so you two bumped into each other in Jerolim?’ Toby went on now, his grin expanding as Alex confirmed that this was indeed the case.
‘And you were . . . ?’ he added, his eyes wide.
‘Let’s just say, there are no secrets between us,’ Alex said evenly. ‘At least, not where my naked arse is concerned.’
‘I told you,’ Kate interrupted firmly. ‘I didn’t see anything.’
Toby was looking at each of them in turn. He was enjoying himself far too much for Kate’s liking.
‘Shall I fire up the barbecue for breakfast?’ he suggested. ‘I don’t know about you two, but I’ve got a real craving for sausage.’
‘Toby,’ Kate warned.
‘What?’ he protested. ‘You don’t feel like bangers? How about an aubergine?’
‘You eat aubergines for breakfast now?’ Alex’s eyebrows knotted together. ‘Am I missing something?’
‘The aubergine emoji is the one everyone uses to represent – well, you know,’ Toby explained. ‘Don’t ask me why, though. I have never seen one that colour or that shape before, and I’ve seen lots of them.’
‘Oh my god.’ Kate went back to varnishing. ‘Please ignore my brother. He is sick – a sick, sick man.’
‘I’m afraid I don’t speak emoji,’ said Alex, reaching into the back pocket of his shorts and producing an ancient Nokia. ‘Never been big into gadgets really.’
‘Alex here is too much of a free spirit to need anything technological,’ Toby told Kate. ‘You don’t even have an email address, do you mate?’
Alex shook his head.
‘Don’t really see as how I would need one. I do all my business face-to-face most of the time, and if people such as yourselves want to get hold of me, they can call me on this thing. It still works,’ he added, with what Kate took to be a certain amount of pride.
‘Don’t you ever feel like getting an upgrade?’ put in Toby.
‘Not really, no.’ Alex considered for a moment. ‘I don’t see the sense in it, of throwing something away that works perfectly well, you know?’
‘Not even if you could get something better?’ prompted Toby.
‘Who says it would be any better?’ Alex said, lining up a screw. ‘You can’t miss something you’ve never had, and I have never yet had a need for one of those fancy phones.’
Kate, who had fallen silent as she listened to their exchange, turned to her brother.
‘I think Alex is right,’ she said quietly. ‘People throw things away that they shouldn’t all the time – even if they don’t have any reason to do so.’
It took Toby a beat or two to catch her meaning, and just for a moment, his face fell. ‘What did I tell you about this man, sis?’ he said, putting his arm around her shoulders. ‘Alex here is a good guy – one of the very best.’
Chapter 10
By late afternoon, Kate was beginning to droop.
Alex had constructed an impressive six bunks since that morning, and she had varnished every one of them. Her elbows throbbed, her back ached and she had a pain in her head that two paracetamols had done little more than wave a white flag at. Putting down her brush and stretching out her arms until her shoulders cracked, she set off in search of Toby. The last time she’d seen him was in one of the en suite bathrooms upstairs, laying tiles with Filippo, but when she pushed open the door, there was no sign of either of them.
‘Any idea where my brother is?’ she asked Alex, who was measuring up wood for another of his beautiful wardrobes in the next-door bedroom. There was a pink band across his forehead, a souvenir from the visor he’d been wearing most of the day, and the chewed end of a pencil poked out from behind his ear.
‘Yeah, he mentioned something about going to see a second-hand coffee machine – did he not tell you he was going?’
‘He did not.’ Kate sighed. ‘To be fair, he probably needed a break from me. I’ve not exactly been the best company this past week or so.’
‘Oh?’
Alex wiped the dust off his wristwatch and looked at her expectantly.
‘I’ve just had, you know, stuff going on. And no couple genuinely enjoys a third wheeler tagging along with them all the time, even if they pretend otherwise.’
‘Oh no,’ Kate hastened. ‘I wasn’t hinting or anything like that. I was actually going to head out myself soon. I haven’t been for a walk yet today and I’m about ready to start climbing the peeling wallpaper.’
‘Right you are.’ Alex folded his arms. ‘I guess it is about that time. I’ll walk down into town with you – if that’s all right with you, like?’
‘Er.’ Kate looked down at her varnish-stained leggings. ‘Sure. Great. I just need ten minutes or so to get changed.’
In the end, it was closer to an hour before she re-emerged, having washed and tamed her dark-red curls, scrubbed the grime off her hands and carefully applied the barest trace of make-up. Kate had yet to venture down into town after dark, having learned that it was hard to separate Filippo from his rooftop barbecue or encourage him to mingle with the tourists.
‘They may be my bread and butter,’ he had told her the previous evening, ‘but that does not mean I have to toast them.’
She found Alex waiting for her on the steps outside, simultaneously reading a battered paperback and tossing a coin up in the air, which he caught without so much as a sideways glance. When he heard Kate approaching, he stood, and she realised he was still wearing the same tattered vest and shorts that he had been all day. His dreadlocked hair, which he had now released from its elastic band, was coated in the same sawdust that she had just spent the past three-quarters of an hour washing off.
‘Sorry I took so long,’ she said, as Alex slid his book into his back pocket. ‘I’m glad you had a something to keep you occupied – is it a good read?’
‘Pretty good,’ he said, not elaborating. Then, almost as an afterthought, ‘You smell nice.’
Kate smiled. ‘Much as I like eau de garden fence,’ she joked, ‘I thought eau de actual perfume might be kinder on the inhabitants of Hvar.’
The sun had long ago vanished and the evening sky above them was a rich navy blue. It was so quiet now that the crickets had fallen silent, and the air that drifted around them carried a faint scent of lavender. Kate led the way and Alex fell into step beside her, apparently content to let her choose the route, even though he must know these backstreets far better than she did.
‘So, you’re staying for the summer, are you?’ he asked, standing to one side to let a thickset Croatian man pass by them.
‘I’m not sure . . .’ Kate trailed off, unsure for a moment how to continue. ‘How much did the guys tell you about why I’m here?’
Alex scratched at his beard. ‘Well, let’s see. Filippo mentioned that things at home had gone a bit south. Something about you needing a break from it all. Is that about right?’
‘I lost my job,’ Kate told him. They had reached the point of the journey where she had met the little black cat, but there was no sign of it now. She hoped it had a house to go to.
‘And I lost my home,’ she went on.
‘Right. That doesn’t sound ideal.’
‘That’s not the worst of it.’ Kate sighed, debating whether or not to tell him the next part. She didn’t want to overshare, but she also desperately wanted an excuse to talk about it – to talk about James in particular.
‘I lost my boyfriend, too. I mean, he’s not dead or anything,’ she said quickly, punctuating her words with a strangled sort of laugh. ‘We split up; he dumped me.’
‘Right.’
Kate waited for him to say the thing that people always said. The platitudes varied, but in the end they were just empty words, meaningless phrases. But Alex did not express sympathy, or tell her she was ‘better off’, he merely asked if they had been together long.
‘Ages,’ she said glumly, punctuating the word with a sigh.
As they started down the long, sloping road that would lead them to the water’s edge, Kate filled him in loosely on how she and James had got together, but left out the part about her disastrous proposal. The last thing she wanted was another person watching that bloody video.
‘I didn’t see it coming,’ she said morosely. ‘I was blindsided, and I think – no, I hope he’s going to change his mind; that he’s just freaking out about things. Everyone does that, right? We’re all supposed to be settling down in our thirties, buying houses and picking out wedding dresses. It is a lot of pressure. I can understand why he’s scared,’ she rattled on. ‘I’m not exactly the best wife material.’
She trailed off yet again, her words mingling now with tears that she was adamant would not fall. Alex had not commented at all, merely listened, the hand that was nearest her buried deep in his pocket. Now that they were approaching the hub of Hvar Town, there were more signs of life – strings of yellow bulbs and notes of music. Kate could hear mumbled chatter coming from the restaurants they passed, the clink of cutlery and the soft pop of a cork being eased from a bottle. The sun’s warmth had lingered and the stars were out in its place. She lifted her face to stare upwards, drawing resolve from the world’s very own light show.
‘Sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘Sorry to drone on about myself.’
‘Don’t be.’
She could feel the weight of Alex’s gaze and dropped her chin towards her chest before braving a look at him. The pale-blue eyes had been turned dark green by the night, but the intensity behind them was the same. It was as if he was trying to tell her something without saying anything at all. Kate did not know him well enough to guess what, but she sensed it would be kind. There was an inherent compassion to Alex; a quality about him that made her feel able to open up as she just had. Or perhaps she was kidding herself and it was purely that she wanted so much to discuss her own life.
‘I don’t even know where I’m going,’ she said, and although she had meant it more figuratively than literally, Alex took it as the latter.
‘Are you hungry?’ he asked.
‘Starving,’ she admitted, giving in to a smile as her stomach emitted a serendipitous growl.
‘Do you like pizza?’
‘Yes!’
‘In that case,’ he said. ‘Follow me.’
Instead of going along the Riva, which Alex told her would be packed with tourists, they turned off the main street and made their way through a complicated jungle of narrow lanes, some of which went up, while others took them down. Within a few minutes, Kate had completely lost her bearings and was trotting to keep up.
‘Will this bring us out near the water?’ she asked hopefully, as they nipped around some outside tables and descended another flight of wide stone steps. Kate had swapped her heels for flats just before leaving the hostel and was grateful that she had.
‘Not the harbour, no,’ he called back. ‘The restaurants down there are nice, you see, but none of the pizzas you’d get there would be as good as from Lovro’s.’
‘Is Lovro the name of a place or a person?’ Kate queried.
‘Both,’ he replied. ‘Best pizza in Hvar – you can trust me on that.’
Lunch felt like it had been ages ago and Kate’s headache, which had retreated temporarily after her shower, was back banging cymbals together in her brain. She needed food. Or sugar. Or preferably both at once.
‘Here we are.’ Alex had stopped so abruptly that Kate almost walked straight into the back of him. They were on a cobbled lane thrown into shadow by the tall buildings on either side, each one with crumbling wooden shutters behind narrow balconies. Glancing up, Kate saw a red, white and green triangular sign with the word ‘Lovro’s’ scrawled across it in black letters and below it a propped-open doorway from which oozed the most delicious smell of warm cheese. Like many of the eateries in Hvar, it was tiny inside – a single room with space for little more than a tall fridge and a serving counter, behind which were large wheels of pizza cut into gargantuan slices.
As they approached the till, a man bustled out through a door set into the back wall. He was grey-
haired, red-cheeked, crinkle-eyed and wearing an apron that bore large smears of tomato sauce. When he saw the two of them standing there, he beamed.
‘Zdravo. Alex, my friend, how are you? I have not seen you in a very long time.’
As he spoke, he extended both hands over the counter towards them.
‘Hello,’ muttered Kate, unsure what to do next; whether it was customary to shake Lovro’s hand or go in for a kiss on each cheek. She opted for a smile instead.
Alex started chatting away in Croatian, only breaking off when he turned back to find Kate staring at him with incomprehension.
‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘Rude of me. I was just asking Lovro which pizza he recommends.’
For some reason, Lovro seemed to find this comment hilarious and bellowed with laughter, his rotund middle bobbing up and down underneath his apron.
‘Am I missing something?’ Kate asked, worried suddenly that this Croatian stranger had somehow viewed the #WannabeWife video and recognised her as its star.
‘Lovro thinks we are on a date,’ Alex explained, as the older man readied two paper bags. ‘He was teasing me for bringing such a pretty woman to such a nondescript restaurant.’
‘But it’s his restaurant,’ exclaimed Kate, to which Lovro laughed again. ‘We’re definitely not on a date,’ she told him, reddening as both men turned to her. ‘I mean, not because I wouldn’t be, just because I have a boyfriend. Or I did. I have someone,’ she said with finality. ‘Someone I love. A man.’
For a split second, she was sure she saw Lovro’s face fall with disappointment, but he quickly recovered, nodding at her and smiling as she followed Alex’s lead and selected a slice of the seafood pizza, as well as two bottles of Coke from the fridge.
‘I’ll get this,’ she insisted, scrabbling for her purse before Alex could argue. ‘May as well put the redundancy money to good use.’
Alex let her go through the open door ahead of him as Lovro waved them off from behind the counter, and Kate, wishing she knew how to thank him in his own language, asked Alex to teach her the right word.
The Getaway: A holiday romance for 2021 - perfect summer escapism! Page 6
