Chapter 17
17
VAGGELIS’S APARTMENT
‘As you see, the apartment isn’t very spacious, but it is not often something in this area becomes available, especially with the spectacular views.’
Christos wasn’t quite sure why Katerina was showing them around Vaggelis’s apartment and speaking like she was an estate agent with the property already on her books and desperate to sell. If she was taking this trajectory because she knew selling was his preferred path she was going a little over the top. He didn’t need its merits sold, he had seen this place so much during his youth he didn’t really need to pay as much attention as Molly, her mum and her best friend were doing. But, perhaps they thought similarly about his mother and sister.
‘What’s this?’ Siobhan asked, picking up the green snake dish.
‘It’s mine,’ Magdalena said quickly. ‘From the will.’
‘You should take it, Magdalena,’ Angeliki said. ‘Before it gets broken when all the other stuff is moved to the skip.’
‘The skip!’ Janette exclaimed. ‘What do you mean the skip? You’re not getting rid of everything just like that, are you?’
‘We have actually been clearing things out since Vaggelis sadly passed,’ Angeliki said. ‘He had many, many things.’
‘And creatures he probably did not know he had at all,’ Magdalena added. ‘The variety of bugs possibly could have formed their own exhibition.’
‘If they were not doing it already under that unit that was half-broken,’ Angeliki said, shaking her head.
‘Not the mahogany unit that used to sit…’ Janette turned around, eyes flicking over the space. ‘Against that wall, in the corner.’
‘You’ve been here before too?’
That had come from Molly and now everyone was looking at the woman with the pink hair who seemed to know a great deal about Vaggelis’s home.
‘It was covered in mildew and had wood beetles,’ Angeliki stated, folding her arms across her chest.
‘I’m sure it was an antique!’ Janette countered. ‘Fifty per cent of which should be Molly’s.’
O-K, Janette was definitely getting a little heated about ownership here. Just a concerned mother or a concerned mother of a daughter who part-belonged to Vaggelis?
‘If we could focus on the potential,’ Katerina continued. ‘And the fact it is in a very desirable location and?—’
‘How about we focus on the fact that people have already been here moving things out and intend to scrap other things when other people, who the things actually belong to, haven’t had a second to even see what’s here?’ Janette interrupted.
Christos’s brain was firing on all cylinders now. Janette’s reaction was definitely suggesting there might be an underlying situation not everyone was aware of. Should he say something?
‘Mum!’ Molly exclaimed, sounding horrified.
‘You insult me, Janetto! Here, in Vaggelis’s home!’ Angeliki bit back.
‘Mama, calm down,’ Magdalena said, putting a hand on their mother’s arm. ‘I am sure that Janette did not mean it to come across that way.’
‘Oh, I did,’ Janette answered.
With Molly looking just as shocked at her mum’s outburst as everyone else, he took her by the arm and, rapidly navigating the edge of the odd bed, the coffee table and a stack of magazines, pulled the key out of the balcony door, made sure Molly had stepped through with him, then shut the door and turned the key in the lock.
‘There!’ he answered, throwing his hands up like this was the end of a magnificent magic trick. ‘They have all gone!’
‘I really don’t know what they are all doing here,’ Molly admitted. ‘I didn’t invite them, I swear.’
‘I did not invite my mother and my sister either but, you know, here in Greece everywhere has an open invitation when it comes to family.’
‘They are all so…’
‘Annoying?’
‘I was going to say…’
‘Mad about things that don’t matter?’
‘Can I finish?’
‘Overbearing?’
‘Yes! Like you right now!’ Molly said. She heaved a sigh. ‘But I was going to say “loud”. There’s just a lot of noise and no real substance to anything.’
‘Some people say that about the nightclub in Roda. I do not agree, but…’
Molly leaned back against the wall of the apartment as if she was taking in the views down to the harbour. ‘I seem to have spent a large part of my time in Corfu so far in confined spaces. Balconies. Boats. That bathroom is going to need a remodel by the way.’
He joined her, back meeting brick. ‘You want to remodel the bathroom?’
‘It’s very rustic,’ Molly said. ‘There’s not even anywhere for the shower head to hang. How do you wash yourself? Do you put the hose between your legs while you get the shower gel on? It’s a mystery why anyone wouldn’t have a bracket to put it in.’
He laughed. ‘That is the Greek way.’
‘What do you mean? It makes no sense.’
‘It makes perfect sense. You wet yourself with the shower, you turn off the water, you put on the soap, then you turn on the water and rinse yourself off again.’
‘Madness.’
‘Not at all. Water is precious here, especially in summer. You should not waste it.’
There was hammering on the door and then his mother’s voice. ‘Christo! What are you doing? Come back in here!’
‘Don’t say anything,’ he whispered to Molly. ‘She will think we have climbed down and gone for ice cream.’
‘Is that something you did often when Vaggelis was alive?’
‘Sshh,’ he urged.
A few moments went by and there was nothing more from inside except the faint murmuring that suggested they were all still in there.
‘Maybe sometimes we used to climb down and go to get ice cream,’ he admitted. ‘Until Vaggelis fell and broke his moped.’
‘I thought you were going to say he fell and broke a bone or something.’
‘I think he would have been less upset if that had happened. He loved the moped as much as he loved his red truck.’
‘I haven’t seen that yet either,’ Molly remarked, brushing a fly away from her face. ‘A bit like that alleged antique cabinet my mum says has been stolen from the living area.’
He put his hand to his chest. ‘Can I be real for a second?’
‘Please be real,’ she answered.
‘I did not even notice it. I swear to God, if there was a cabinet there it was hidden under blue shirts or underwear or wine-making equipment or religious icons.’
‘Hmm,’ Molly said. ‘It’s sounding like it was quite a large antique cabinet now.’
He looked at her, unsure from her tone if she was serious. And then her expression broke and she laughed. He enjoyed it when she laughed. Most of the time she seemed to never let her feelings be exposed in her look. Like a blank canvas… or perhaps a good poker face. He needed to remember that people could lure people in softly and quietly as well as harshly and directly…
‘Unless the cabinet has been sent to an auction house and not to the bins I’m not worried about it,’ Molly stated.
‘No?’
‘No. But I am worried about that bathroom,’ she admitted, coming off the wall and turning to face him. ‘Whatever our plans for the flat, it needs to be re-done. No one is going to pay great money for an apartment they need to do work on straight away and it’s just off-putting, isn’t it? Like Katerina said, this place has spectacular views and yes, people will focus on that, but if they are in two minds or if they are considering another property that has better bathroom facilities, which one are they going to choose?’
All he was hearing was she was on board to sell this place for the best price, exactly his plan!
‘So, you agree that we should arrange for a little work to be done and then we should put it with a real estate agent?’
‘I don’t know yet,’ Molly replied. ‘I’d like to check out how much we could get renting it out.’
He shook his head. ‘Oh, Molly, renting it is hard work no matter what anyone says. You have to manage the bookings, you have to prepare the place after guests have stayed, you have to answer all their annoying emails about Wi-Fi codes and why they cannot put toilet paper down the toilet, then they actually put toilet paper down the toilet and you are stuck with a blocked toilet and a bill from the plumber and?—’
‘You’ve looked into it already!’ she said. ‘Haven’t you?’
She was astute, didn’t miss a thing, and he had given himself away with all that detail. An oversight he needed to keep a check on…
‘I know people who rent out places here. I ask them.’
‘And?’ she asked. ‘Because they are still renting their places out, I’m guessing, not being overawed by all the potential pitfalls and problems.’
He smiled. She definitely had a business way of thinking and that fact intrigued him. ‘What do you do, Molly?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘For busin—’ He stopped himself before he could complete the word. ‘For work.’
‘I work at a pharmacy,’ she answered. ‘A very complicated role, dealing with desperate patients who can never get their medication on time no matter how hard I try, and regularly verbally abuse me.’
OK, that wasn’t what he had been expecting. And it sounded terrible.
‘And that’s another reason why I’m not just considering renting the apartment out. I was serious when I said I might want to live in it.’
‘ Alithia ?! Really? What about your job at the pharmacy?’
She shrugged. ‘Did you hear the words “verbal abuse”? Maybe I need a change of direction.’
She really, truthfully, wasn’t serious, was she? But, then again, why was he worried? She would have to pay him out of his share. Cash for his business exactly like he wanted. It was no different to them selling to a third party and splitting the proceeds except… he was imagining her here, in his godfather’s space, the place he had spent much of his childhood, and it was playing with his mind…
‘But, you know, I don’t know if anyone will be able to lend me enough money to buy you out of your share so it’s probably a crazy idea.’
‘Some of the very best ideas are the ones people said were crazy at the outset,’ he told her.
Why had he said that? It sounded like he was championing her cause. And he had to remember, he didn’t really know what her motives were…
‘Christo! If you are there, come back in now! Katerina has some very interesting ideas about how to make a second bathroom,’ Angeliki bellowed.
‘Ooo,’ Molly said. ‘I think I’d like to hear those ideas.’
She put a hand to the door like she was about to unlock it and go back inside. He put his hand out and, before he could consider the finger logistics, his hand was on top of hers. And then his eyes found hers, and the touch and the glance was… a lot. He took his hand away.
‘Don’t go back in there,’ he said. ‘Please.’
‘You sound desperate,’ she replied. ‘Like there might be gold ingots and a couple of Picassos under the kitchen sink.’
‘All that is in there,’ he began, ‘are five women who will be fighting each other to talk the loudest. You will not be able to think, never mind search for hidden treasure.’
‘Then what do you suggest?’ Molly asked.
‘An escape,’ he said. ‘We get down from this balcony and we… take Vaggelis’s truck and we go and see our olive tree.’
And why he had made that the plan he didn’t know. But, in his opinion, it was preferable to going back into the apartment and having to listen to so many conflicting opinions.
‘OK,’ she agreed.
‘OK?’
‘You sold it well, and my mum and Siobhan can be loud,’ she said. ‘So, how do we get down?’
He smiled. ‘Follow me.’