Chapter 37
37
KASSIOPI HARBOUR
Sometimes you needed to get very very close to doing something you wouldn’t normally do to really wise up and then refocus your energy. That was exactly how Molly felt when she woke up the next morning. Despite half a dozen mosquito bites on the side of her she’d left out from under the sheet, it wasn’t those that were stinging as much as the memory of her and Christos’s kisses last night. It had been a combination of the heat of the moment and the tumultuous build-up after the eyes-closed experience in the water at Astrakeri, but now, as sizzlingly sexy as it had been, it had to stop. She was here for business – taking care of Vaggelis’s property, and then she was going to go back to the UK and put everything she had into the make-up brand. It was time to take a chance, stop looking for reasons for it to fail and start thinking about success and creating the future she wanted. It shouldn’t be about what she didn’t have in her life or who she didn’t have, it should only be about moving forward and making good, solid choices. And that’s why she had started with a brisk 5k run up and around the headland of the harbour, through the castle ruins and then out towards Imerolia. She’d taken some great photos of the make-up against the cornflower-blue sky with the silvery-green olive branches and pops of orange from trumpet-shaped lilies in the foreground. She couldn’t wait to get Siobhan excited about the next phase because when her friend got the ball rolling it was like a masterclass with Phil Foden.
But what she hadn’t expected when she arrived back at the foot of the steps to their apartment was to find Christos waiting, two takeout coffee cups in his hands, three cats at his feet.
‘ Kalimera ,’ he greeted.
‘ Kalimera ,’ she answered.
He handed one coffee cup to her. It was ice-cold, exactly what she needed. She put the straw to her lips and sucked. Delicious . Like him. She swallowed. But what was he doing here?
‘You have been running?’
‘Yes.’
‘Very good.’ He nodded, seeming a bit awkward, like he didn’t know what to say.
‘Sorry,’ Molly began. ‘Last night ended pretty weirdly, but did we arrange to meet?’
‘No,’ he replied. ‘After the Greek dancing and your mother falling from the table and my mother arguing with Maria and your mother about how tall Vaggelis was and Siobhan being sick… there was little time to arrange anything, no?’
She smiled. ‘You forgot something.’
‘Old Theo coming into the garden and telling everyone he is only eighty-five?’
‘Yes, but that wasn’t what I meant.’
‘Maria doing spells with “magic” honey?’
‘No.’
‘There was something else?’
‘Your childhood photos,’ Molly said, smiling. ‘So cute, Christos. Especially the ones where you are dressed up in your marching band uniform.’
‘My aunt should not have so many photographs of me and Magdalena. I blame the fact that she did not have children of her own.’
‘So? Why did you bring me coffee? Not that it isn’t really nice.’ She took another sip.
‘Walk with me,’ he said, suggesting the way as the cats at his feet dispersed.
‘OK.’
They headed back out towards the harbour, the morning just beginning to get into full swing. Shops were opening, coffee was being served and menus put on tables, and tourists were arriving to hire boats for the day.
‘I could not sleep last night,’ Christos admitted.
‘Because of the photo of your mother in Athens?’
‘I do not know if it was that or everything about all the different ideas for Vaggelis’s service or, I don’t know what, but I find when I cannot control things around me I focus on the things I can control.’
‘That makes sense,’ she said.
‘Business,’ he said.
‘O-K.’
‘And I always thought I would not diversify. Gyms are what I did all my research in. They are what I know best, what I excel at.’
‘But?’
‘But I am also not someone to be narrow-minded when it comes to opportunity. And, in these times, perhaps it is good to spread interests widely.’
‘Tell me,’ Molly begged.
‘Oh, I was hoping to keep the intrigue going until we got to the boat. Maybe we should run.’ He broke into a jog.
‘Wait, hang on,’ she said, catching him up. ‘I’ve done a run already and it’s not easy running while you’re holding a frappé.’ He didn’t seem to be listening. ‘Christos!’
By the time she’d reached him, he was standing in front of The Greek Dynamo looking at the still-not-repaired deck, hands on his hips, perhaps observing with fresh eyes.
‘What do you see?’ he asked her when she was next to him.
‘Fenders,’ she said. ‘Now I know their name.’
‘Very amusing, but be serious.’
‘Maybe you should just tell me what you see,’ she suggested.
‘OK,’ he said and then he spread one arm wide like he was introducing a scene. ‘White banquette seating around the edges, the middle clear except for the steering wheel, lights all around, perhaps they change colour, perhaps they are just white. There are decks you can fit to the boat that extend out so we can have extra space out over the water, like a floating dance floor. Then below we have a bar and a DJ booth, another dance space and?—’
‘Christos!’ Molly exclaimed. ‘You’re describing the party boat idea I pitched to you !’
‘Hmm, I believe you wanted to go “retro”.’ He made the quote marks in the air.
‘This was my idea! And you dismissed it!’
‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘It is your idea. I am not taking ownership of it, just the refinements I came up with around 4a.m.’
Molly shook her head. ‘You said it wasn’t viable. That the boat was too old.’
‘Am I allowed to change my mind?’ He jumped up onto the boat and offered her his hand. ‘Come on.’
‘Why? So I can close my eyes and imagine a deck without a dumbbell indent and David Guetta thumping from below?’
‘Molly, you make it sound like something you would not like to be part of.’
He offered his hand again and this time she took it, jumping on too. The first thing she did was almost slip on a rubber seal that was coming away from the side of the boat.
‘It would take a bit of time. It would take some money. But I think, for the beginning of next summer season we could have it done. And there is nothing like that here in Kassiopi,’ he continued.
‘Christos, are you serious? You want to make this a party boat business?’
‘No,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I want us to make this a party boat business. You own half of it, remember?’
‘I know but, I don’t know, it’s a big commitment and I don’t have any money I can put into the project to renovate the boat and buy banquette seating or hire?—’
‘David Guetta.’
‘Exactly.’
He sighed, putting his hands behind his head. ‘OK, well, say that I put up the money to renovate the boat and we work towards equalising everything after the first year?’
What? That was not business savvy at all. ‘Christos, why would you do that? That makes no sense.’
‘Because… maybe I’ve got a little nostalgic. I prefer that to “weak”, and perhaps I want to do something in honour of my godfather and maybe your idea is a great one and I shouldn’t have dismissed it so quickly.’
‘Then you will have to buy me out,’ Molly told him with a sigh. ‘I can’t afford to do it.’
‘And I can’t afford to do it without you,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to do it without you.’ He paused before adding. ‘It’s not a one-person job. And I have my gyms and you have your business too, but I thought, maybe, we could make this work. And it was your idea, after all.’
What was he saying exactly? And did this need to do business with her have anything to do with the fact they had almost done more than business together last night in the basement? And why now? When she had woken up pumped to put all her attention firmly back in the make-up arena?
‘What do you say?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Molly said. It sounded weak and non-committal but it was all she had at this moment. Because this was completely unexpected in every way.
‘Well,’ he said, shielding his eyes from the sun as he looked out across the harbour. ‘What about making the apartment into a holiday let? Again, it would take some work but?—’
‘Christos,’ Molly said, putting her frappé down. ‘Where is this all coming from?’
‘They are good business ideas!’
‘But ones we have no experience in when we have full schedules as it is. Not to mention that I don’t live in Greece and I also have a job at a pharmacy.’
‘We can fix this,’ he said with determination. ‘When I moved to Athens I had nowhere to live. You have an apartment you can stay in while we renovate.’
‘ Half an apartment,’ she clarified. ‘Half a truck that something metal and rusty fell off of again last night by the way. A portion of a cat that your mother said is currently bullying the stray cats at the food stations and a share of an olive tree I still haven’t seen.’
He nodded but it wasn’t a nod of soft acceptance, it was more a nod of irritation at everything she was saying. Because what she was saying was sensible, wasn’t it? Yes, the business ideas had merit but she wasn’t really in any kind of place to start jacking in her job at the chemist to begin chasing a party boat vision.
‘Maybe we should call Katerina,’ Christos suggested, folding his arms across his chest.
‘To find out if the paperwork is ready?’ Molly asked.
‘To tell her we have made a decision about the estate,’ Christos said, picking up his drink and walking around the other side of the boat on his way to the rear.
‘What?’ Molly said. ‘But we haven’t made a decision yet.’
‘You do not want to go into business with me. So we will sell the boat as it is. If anyone will take it. And we will put the apartment for sale too. The olive tree Katerina can take you to see and you can decide what you want to do with that. Do you want the cat in England?’
‘Christos, why are you being like this?’ she asked.
It was like when the shutters or the blinds on the shops came down for siesta time. He was so closed, so cold, so not like last night.
‘Listen,’ he said, looking at his watch. ‘I have a meeting online in twenty minutes so I need to go.’
‘Christos—’
‘Perhaps let Katerina know about the cat when you have decided. Ta leme .’
And, with those words imparted, he jumped from the boat and started making his way around the harbour.