Chapter 31
31
KASSIOPI HARBOUR
Molly was smiling as much on the inside as she was on the outside as their boat sailed back into the harbour at Kassiopi. The sunlight was on her face, the warm breeze was buffeting her hair and, for once, she was content just being here in this moment. She wiggled her fingers as they held the front of the boat, half expecting them to look different. Christos had held her hand . And, although she knew that Siobhan was going to laugh hysterically at this information because it was so PG in her world, in Molly’s universe, and because of what she had learned from Christos, it felt more significant than anything. It hadn’t been a quick polite squeeze of reassurance about her trauma-dumping either, it had been sustained, for as long as the dolphins had performed their dance for them and then after as he had explained about sea bass and sea bream and a little about the work of the fish farm. But then he had let go and they had set sail back here, and who knew what, if anything, happened next.
‘Molly, could you put the fenders down? There are more boats now, we do not want to hit them,’ Christos called.
She had no idea what a fender was. ‘What are they?’
‘The white shapes like balloons. They are each side of the boat and at the front. Just throw them over the side.’
She had been wondering what they were. They were on ropes and she began moving position, pushing them over to the outside of the vessel as they drew closer to the water’s edge.
‘I see what you mean about more boats,’ Molly said, having finished her job and joining him at the wheel.
‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘Very expensive boats. We do not want to make a mark on them. We would have to sell this boat ten times over to pay for it.’
Molly swallowed. Yes, she couldn’t forget, amid the breathing on Astrakeri beach and the hand-holding with dolphins as witnesses, that they were co-owners of all this stuff that had to be sorted out.
‘I will drop the anchor,’ Christos said. ‘Take the wheel for a second and when I come back, you get ready to jump off and tie the boat up.’
‘OK,’ Molly said, moving to the wheel. ‘Are you sure I can dock this next to the expensive boats we’re worried about hitting?’ Why had she said OK? It wasn’t OK. It was terrifying.
‘Remember the saying we have in Greece. Sigá sigá . Slowly slowly. That is how you should approach docking a boat.’
Slowly slowly . She let the boat guide itself really, the throttle idling, gently sailing to the wall between two very luxurious-looking yachts. And then Christos was back and she headed to the front, rope in hand as he edged the boat closer to its final resting spot. One leap and Molly was on the paving and then a sharp, very loud hiss had her leaping in the opposite direction.
‘What is it?! Is it a snake? I can’t look!’
She had her eyes shut tight but her legs were jogging on the spot for fear of treading on something that was going to attack her.
‘Molly! Please, tie the boat!’ Christos called.
‘Argh! The boat!’
More hissing, worse now and very aggressive. Where was it coming from? Holding her breath, she put the rope through the large metal loop at the water’s edge and tied it off in a knot she knew was not going to be boating acceptable in any way. Next, she stepped back quickly and that’s when something stabbed at her leg.
‘Ow! What the hell! Get off! Get off me! Christos!’ It was a cat and it was currently clinging to her shin, claws dug in hard like her leg was the trunk of a tree.
‘Christos! It’s killing me!’ Molly started shaking her leg but still the cat wouldn’t let go.
‘She play fights,’ he answered, jumping from the boat.
‘You know this cat?’
‘Actually, it is our cat. And partly my mother’s and my sister’s. This is Armeena.’
‘Can we be introduced when she has her claws out of my leg? Ow!’
‘Armeena! Ochi ! Stási !’
‘She’s not moving,’ Molly said.
She watched Christos fondly rub the cat behind the ears. ‘Good girl, Armeena.’
‘Why are you praising her?!’
Finally, the animal relinquished and got down, rubbing her face against Christos’s trainers. ‘I was not praising her. I needed to make her retract her claws from your skin. She likes her ears rubbed, what can I say?’
Molly looked down at her lower leg, expecting to see blood like she’d been gored by a bull. There were a few light scratches, some definite sharp incisions, but, thankfully, nothing worse. And now she had established that, she looked at the cat being near-on worshipped by Christos. She was tabby, with narrow stripes in blackish-brownish grey and her tail was a spirally mix of all those shades too. She had large bulbous eyes and her mouth hung open, a thick fang protruding.
‘Your leg is OK,’ Christos stated. ‘As I said, she plays more than she really wants to fight.’
Molly bent over, stretching out a hand to pet Armeena, and there was more hissing, then a swipe of her front leg towards Molly’s open palm. Molly retreated. ‘I don’t think she likes me.’
‘Maybe that front leg is the one that belongs to me,’ Christos suggested.
‘Maybe she is the first thing we sell,’ Molly said, feeling dissed.
‘What?!’ Christos exclaimed. ‘The way my godfather loved this cat I am surprised his whole estate has not been left to her.’
‘Well, where has she been? It was said that no one has seen her for so long.’
‘Cats do what they like. Intelligent creatures. They crave solitude the majority of the time. They have a small close circle and are wary of strangers.’ He grinned at her. ‘You need to earn her respect.’
‘Earn her respect? She mauled me!’
‘You must have been in her space.’
‘I have been in your space all morning and you haven’t mauled me.’
‘Not yet,’ he answered, one eyebrow raising.
She shivered. Why had she said that? Look at the cat not at Christos’s beautiful irises . Armeena was now rolling around on the dockside, belly in the air, looking like the cutest, softest, feline that ever existed.
‘Well, what do we do with her? Do we catch her? Take her back to Vaggelis’s apartment?’ Molly asked.
‘Catch her?’
‘Well, obviously you would have to catch her as she hates me but?—’
‘She knows where she lives,’ Christos said, bending a little and rubbing the cat on her stomach. ‘When she is ready she will come back.’
‘Is that Armeena?! Quickly, Magdalena, wrap her up!’
Before Molly could even compute what was going on, Angeliki and Magdalena were on the dockside and the younger woman had somehow stepped forward and, at lightning speed, thrown a towel over the cat and wrapped her until she looked like a baby burrito.
‘Mama, what are you doing?’ Christos asked.
‘Coming to look for you, as you do not answer your phone. Finding that cat is a bonus. She needs to go to the vets. She has been with those cats who come from the bins at Roda.’
‘Mama is overreacting as always,’ Magdalena said, holding Armeena close like a newborn.
‘You need me for what? To do something about the cats from Roda?’ Christos asked her.
‘No, I need you to go back to the apartment and see my sister. Because, Christo, she is in our home and, as you know, I am still not speaking to her! And I should not be speaking to you!’
And, with those words imparted, Angeliki and Magdalena, together with Armeena, left the harbourside.
‘Well,’ Molly said. ‘That was unexpected.’
‘Yes,’ Christos agreed. ‘And now I am wishing that we never got off the boat.’
She looked at him, hand to his head, expression a mix of exasperation and frustration. She often felt the same way when her mum had done something annoying.
‘Do you… want me to come with you to see Maria?’
‘No,’ he said straight off. ‘But… thank you. I will not inflict that family difficulty on you.’ He smiled, his easy-going persona back in place. ‘You have no need to inherit 50 per cent of that too.’
She knew it was a joke but it felt like a stepping back from their earlier conversations on the boat and him holding her hand.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘Well, good luck and I will see you?—’
‘Tonight?’ he asked. ‘We still have not seen the olive tree.’
The idea that they were going to go trekking down that ravine again only having just recovered from the last time filled her with nothing but dread, but it was an invitation to spend more time with him. However, she also hadn’t spent much time with her mum and Siobhan and they had both come here to support her. Plus, perhaps stepping back just a little would help her clarify her feelings…
‘I can’t tonight,’ she answered. ‘I need to spend some time with my mum and Siobhan and there are business emails I haven’t answered and?—’
‘ Ne . Fisika . Of course. I have the same things for my business,’ he answered quickly. ‘ Ta leme . See you.’
And before she could say anything else, he had headed away from the boat, the conversation and her.