Chapter 7 #2
It was their last full day on the island before leaving for their next destination on the ferry the following evening.
Maria had arranged for them to go on a tour of a goat farm up in the hills, run by some relative, which included ‘a simple lunch’ with wine.
Sofia had come to understand that no lunch in Greece could be described as simple.
It was best to be prepared. Maria wouldn’t tell them exactly what they’d be getting as she wanted it to be a surprise, but it wouldn’t be a just a sandwich and a bag of crisps, that was for sure.
A text from Adonis came into her phone.
Sorry about last night. Hope you found something nice to do.
Sofia looked down at the table. Probably best not to be honest about her evening. She had nothing to hide – they were both free and single – but in the end, it hadn’t been quite as nice as she’d hoped.
She looked up again just in time to see a secret smile pass between Charlotte and Maria’s son, Dimitris, who was walking through the breakfast room on his way to the terrace. He even gave her friend a little wave.
Surely not? She blinked to make sure her eyes weren’t deceiving her.
Charlotte’s relationship with her husband Doug had always made her a tiny bit envious.
The man had a wicked sense of humour as well as being more than passably good-looking.
He and her friend were often to be found giggling away in corners together at social events.
Sofia found it hard to believe you could retain that level of interest in someone over such a long period of time. They must have been married more than thirty years. Thirty years with the same person sounded like a prison sentence. Her usual cut-off point was around thirty days.
She’d managed to massage her ill-advised starter marriage to fellow lawyer, Rupert, into limping on for a year, but in reality, she’d checked out mentally after six months, the twenty-five-year age-gap proving too big to bridge on both sides.
No one blinked an eyelid when it was that way round, older men with young women.
He was a lovely guy, a bit like a more charming version of her father, which a psychologist would have had a field day with, but she’d been desperate to progress in her career and see as much of the world as she could, while he’d been happy to stay out late most nights drinking whiskey in gentlemen’s clubs with his cigar-smoking cronies, forcing her to seek other amusements.
She’d been the one to leave, but neither of their hearts was really in it.
The divorce had left her with a little mews house in Chelsea, where she still lived, plus an in-depth knowledge of the legal system, and some lovely jewellery.
At least she and Rupert had parted as friends.
Sofia crossed herself and blew a kiss to the sky to his dear departed memory, hoping Charlotte wouldn’t notice.
But her friend’s eyes were still firmly on Dimitris.
Of the three of them, Charlotte had always liked to keep things closest to her chest, and worried the most about what other people thought of her. Maddie couldn’t give a toss about other people’s opinions, particularly now Tony had gone. Sofia considered herself somewhere in the middle.
Dimitris grabbed a croissant from the display with one hand and stuffed it into his mouth. With the other, he picked up a banana to go. Sofia would have put money on Charlotte being the least likely person she knew to have a holiday fling with a guy young enough to be her son.
Still, her friend had seemed out of sorts at times over the past few days, and the thing about not being able to paint was plain weird.
Charlotte had painted for as long as she’d known her and had never mentioned the muse vanishing before.
Charlotte not painting was shocking, like Charlotte stopping breathing. It meant something was seriously wrong.
But she was probably putting two and two together and making seventy-five.
She was hardly in a position to make any negative comments about being attracted to younger guys.
But the big difference was that she was single.
She’d never had to worry about betraying anyone.
Perhaps it was just lack of sleep sending her mind off in crazy directions.
The flush that appeared on Charlotte’s cheeks when she realised Sofia had clocked the exchange was hardly proof of her innocence. Sofia raised her eyebrows towards a departing Dimitris.
Charlotte’s voice came out in a hiss.
‘You can’t be serious, Sof. We don’t all have our minds below the belt!’
‘Just saying…’
‘For goodness’s sake. He’s a nice young man that I happened to bump into early one morning when he was about to start his shift. He’s the same age as Rueben. And a guy young enough to be my son is absolutely not who I’d chose if I was going to be unfaithful to Doug.’
If? Since when had it become an if?
Charlotte was still in full flow and Sofia didn’t bother to interrupt.
‘Look, we had a little chat and watched the sun rise. That is it.’
Maddie returned to the table with a full plate of strapatsáda garnished with cucumber and olives.
‘What is it?’
Charlotte put her coffee cup in its saucer so violently that some of the brown liquid spilled over the side.
‘Oh nothing. Sof was just accusing me of copping off with Dimitris, the pool boy.’
Sofia looked around her.
‘Keep your voice down. Maria’s only over there. I wasn’t accusing you of anything.’
‘Sounded like it.’
Maddie forked up the first mouthful of her second course.
‘Mmmm, yummy. Now, you two. Play nicely. Calm down. Calm down.’
The calm down was a pretty good impression of Harry Enfield’s character in The Scousers and had all three of them smiling again, although Charlotte’s smile looked somewhat forced to Sofia.
She put her hand on Charlotte’s arm.
‘OK, I’m sorry if I implied you were up for jumping on Dimitris.’
Charlotte’s tight smile remained.
‘And I didn’t mean to give the impression you were a sex-crazed nymphomaniac only after young flesh.’
Maddie was making good headway with her plate of scrambled eggs.
‘That’s better, isn’t it?’
Sofia wasn’t entirely convinced, but there was no point pushing it now. Charlotte’s over-the-top reaction to her suggestion had been totally out of character. There was definitely something else lurking behind it.
Maria’s tut as she passed their table at Maddie’s food choice was more than loud enough for them all to hear.
‘Woah.’ Sofia wagged her finger at her friend.
‘You’re for it now.’
‘Lucky we’re leaving tomorrow then.’ Maddie pushed her empty plate into the middle of the table.
‘I rather like this idea of island hopping. I’d never done it before you suggested it, Sof, but leaving your mistakes …
or triumphs … behind you and moving on to pastures new is starting to really appeal to me. ’
Me too, thought Sofia. The thought of bumping into Giannis again was excruciating.
‘It’s like a blank slate.’
Maddie put a napkin on her head and twirled her hand in front of her face like a low rent fortune teller.
‘We can reinvent ourselves on each island if we like, change our names, our appearances, our very souls.’
A confused frown appeared on Charlotte’s face, which made Sofia smile. For an artist, her imagination was sometimes on the limited side.
‘I don’t think we need to go quite that far.’
Charlotte’s colour had at least returned to normal after her outburst, thought Sofia, as her friend stared at a map on her phone.
‘OK, let’s meet down here at eleven for our taxi. Don’t be late. Wear suitable shoes, and don’t forget suncream, hats and insect repellent.’
Sofia saluted.
That was more like the Charlotte she knew and loved.