Chapter 6
6
ABOVE KASSIOPI HARBOUR
The apartment they had secured was a bit more than Molly would have wanted to pay, but with cash in their bank from Aunt Maud, Janette said the extra Euro spent would be worth it for a few more square metres in the living area and the views. And she hadn’t been wrong about the views. While Siobhan was napping and Janette was in the shower, Molly was sitting in a patch of shade on their balcony that overlooked that beautiful harbour they had been sitting around earlier. A few terracotta tiled roofs sloping down beneath the space were the only things that separated Molly from the sea and those bobbing yachts. Then, across the water, directly opposite on the hill, were the ruins of a castle, a Greek flag flying. She should Instagram it, perhaps with one of her powders on the little bistro table she was sat at. She had brought a few samples with her to trial them in the heat. Except, all she really wanted to do was take a moment.
Why, if this place was so special to her mum, had she never mentioned it until now? Molly was suspicious. Her mum talking Greek, claiming to know the very boat she had spent time on… the more snippets she was hearing, the more Molly was thinking there was a bigger story here. She was itching to find out everything about Vaggelis Vlachos too, but she had also exercised caution with the waiter at the bar earlier. She didn’t know what she had inherited or why. It was not the time to start sharing their private business with strangers, despite this cosy village vibe Janette seemed to be revelling in like she’d been born here. The man was hot though… Dark hair, even darker eyes, and his mouth… A nice mouth was one of the things she looked for when it came to the attractiveness of a guy. That and beautiful hands. She could friend-zone very quickly if there were thin lips and stumpy fingers. Siobhan thought she was crazy to be so specific, but then the only requirement Siobhan had when it came to men was if they were breathing or not. And there had been one particular guy, when her friend was going through her older man stage, where his emphysema had made that debatable.
Molly sipped at the water in her glass and jumped as a large bug appeared on the edge of the table. What was that?! It looked like something that could grow up to be a man-eating critter from Stranger Things .
‘Relax. That is only a mantis.’
Now she jumped at the close proximity of a voice not belonging to either of her apartment mates. She looked across her balcony and there he was. The waiter from the bar. Shirtless. Why was he shirtless? Why did his abs look like they could be in the opening titles of Love Island ? He was two small balconies adjacent. Did he live there? Now she was definitely more distracted by him than the bug.
‘I… don’t know how you can see what it is from that far away,’ Molly answered.
Oh no! Why had she said that? Now he was moving closer to the edge of his balcony, and therefore closer to her. With no shirt on…
‘Ah, it is a brown one,’ Christos remarked, leaning to get a better look.
‘What does that mean?’ Molly asked. ‘It’s not poisonous, right?’
He made a noise that sounded somewhere between an affirmation and complete nonchalance. She slowly rose from her chair as the bug seemed to turn its head and make eye contact with her.
‘Do not move too quickly,’ he whispered.
‘What?!’ Molly exclaimed. ‘Are you serious?’
‘And lower your voice. They can pick up on the vibrations and, believe me, you do not want them picking up on your vibrations.’
This had to be a wind-up. But how could she be sure? She didn’t know anything about Greek wildlife. She slowly continued her trajectory upwards, out of her seat, her core twisting like she might be a snake trying to coil subtly away.
‘Good,’ Christos said. ‘But, you know, they can jump. Very quick and very far.’
OK, whether this was a joke or not, she was getting off this balcony. The sensible option would, of course, be to go back inside their Airbnb, but one glance told her she’d closed the door and shut herself out. She put one leg up on the balcony rail and judged the distance to the next one. Barely half a metre. She climbed up onto the railing and balanced.
‘What are you doing? Get down! Are you crazy?’ Christos called.
She leapt across onto the next balcony easily and took a few steps to the metalwork that separated her from Christos’s balcony. He was awake and not in a shower. She could exit via his apartment and use the keycode to get in through her front door.
‘Stop!’ he called. ‘This gap is further than the last one. Do not think of?—’
She was already up onto the railing, but she wobbled. OK, so this one wasn’t quite as stable underfoot. And, Christos was correct, the gap between the two balconies was a little wider. She looked down, rocks, greenery, a couple of parked mopeds…
‘You are out of your mind!’ he shouted.
As quick as a flash, Christos was up on the railing of his balcony, balancing a whole lot better than her.
‘What are you doing?’ she called. ‘Get down.’
‘ You get down.’
‘No,’ Molly answered. ‘I’m escaping something that could poison me with one strike of its very long legs apparently.’
‘I never said that.’
‘You didn’t not say it.’
‘Get down.’
‘No,’ she replied, hitting him with a defiant look that she really wasn’t feeling as her legs began to shake and her feet began to ache. She started to wonder how it would feel to have her fall broken by the back of a Honda.
Suddenly she slipped, was falling backwards. She flailed, waited for death, or severe pain at least. Instead, in milliseconds, she was lying in the middle of the tiled floor of the balcony, cradled… by a man with no shirt on. And how had he caught her?
‘Are you OK?’ he asked, arms up under her somehow.
‘I was!’ she replied. ‘Until someone made me fall off a balcony.’
‘This way,’ he answered, as finally he began to untuck himself from whatever Olympic gymnastic position he had put them in, ‘is a much better option than falling the other way. Which was where you would be if I had not rescued you.’ He got to his feet.
‘Rescued me?’
‘ Ne . Yes.’
‘Wait a second,’ Molly said, getting up too. ‘You did not rescue me. I was perfectly fine.’ She dusted off her shorts.
‘Perfectly fine jumping across balconies to escape a mantis that is more scared of you than you should be of it.’
He was gesticulating hard, arms out in the air, hands making shapes. How European. How attractive… No, she was cross! Because she had tile dust now clinging to her legs!
‘You told me it was poisonous! What was I supposed to do?’ She mimicked his hand gestures, got a bit over the top with it.
‘Perhaps realise you are in Greece not Africa! The only thing deadly around here is the tsipouro .’
She shuddered at the Greek word. ‘What is that? A spider?’
He laughed then, and it was like the Mona Lisa had cracked and her enigmatic smile had turned into the facial expression that accompanied a full-on belly laugh. She hadn’t realised she was some kind of comedy genius.
He finally stopped laughing. ‘ Tsipouro , it is a drink. A spirit. Very strong and very disgusting. Stay away.’
‘Well, thank you, for the warning, but I make my own choices,’ she said, brushing her hands together. ‘Maybe I will try it next time I am in the bar you work in.’
He shrugged. ‘ Poli kala . Very good.’
And now it was time to leave. The bug wasn’t dangerous. She’d just have to wake up her sleeping friend or holler to her showering mother. Except doing that, not asking to exit through his apartment, meant more balcony-jumping again. Despite all her gung-ho bravado it had been quite scary and a bit insane. She knew he was watching her putting that thought process together and she hated that because she didn’t have an immediate solution.
‘Come, Molly. The mantis is gone. Your host will have left you wine or ouzo as a welcome gift, not tsipouro . Everything is safe. I will help you onto your balcony.’
‘As previously discussed, I do not need help.’
‘Spoken like someone who definitely does need help but treats my kindness as an insult.’ He folded his arms across his chest and there was no smile now. Perhaps she had been a bit brusque. She wasn’t used to people offering to help her. She’d been brought up with her mum telling her they didn’t need anyone else, that their own hard work, drive and determination could get them anywhere they wanted to go.
‘OK, look, just, hold my feet while I get balance,’ Molly said, climbing onto the balcony rail again, this time using the wall to steady herself.
‘Are you sure?’ he asked, tone loaded with sarcasm. ‘I wouldn’t want to take the blame if I do not hold you correctly and you tumble down onto Mrs Mixahalou’s flower pots. Believe me, your injuries would be nothing compared to the heat from the fire of her tongue if anything happens to those plants.’
‘Just… shut up and let’s get this done,’ Molly replied, wobbling a touch.
She felt him grip her ankles while she calculated the gap and the required velocity and then, ‘OK, let go.’
She felt his hands release her and she took a second before making the leap, over the other balcony rail, landing neatly on the tiles of her own space.
‘Bravo!’ Christos called.
She could hear him clapping as she righted one of the chairs she had caught with her knee on her dismount.
‘Thank you,’ she answered. ‘I am sure it was your help that made all the difference. If you had not held my feet then I would have been at the mercy of Mrs Mix… whatever the rest of her name is. So, is there anything I can do to help you get back over to your balcony?’
She turned around only to find herself completely alone. It was almost like she had imagined the whole scene, fallen asleep and had a vivid dream like Alice in Wonderland . And then she was struck with another thought. He had said her name, called her Molly, remembered it. She shivered. Why that was important to her she didn’t know, because she was in Corfu to claim inheritance, nothing more. There wasn’t time for a distraction, no matter how attractive and well-honed.
‘Molly! Come quick!’ The patio door was open again. ‘There’s some HUGE grasshopper in here and I think it’s shat on the wall!’
Siobhan’s shouting told her that nap time was over and she now knew exactly where the mantis had gone.