Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Sofia decided not to mention Thanassis and the smoochy dance straightaway at breakfast. Maddie had only just arrived.
She and Charlotte would let her have something to eat first. Her friend hated having her hand forced, and she’d tell them what had happened in her own time.
Obviously, they needed – and deserved – a full debrief, but the direct approach wasn’t the right one here.
A slightly jaded-looking Maddie joined them both by the cake of the day and moved a big slice onto her plate.
‘Morning.’
Sofia took a deep breath.
‘And a very good morning to you too. It’s another lovely sunny day.’
Maddie gave her a puzzled look.
‘Okaay. Have you been overdosing on HRT on something?’
‘Rude. I’m just thrilled that we’re all here on holiday together, enjoying ourselves and exploring the local attractions.’
Sofia tried very hard not to emphasise the words enjoying and exploring.
‘Sof, if you want to know something, just ask. Don’t give me the tour guide bullshit.’
She’d obviously blown it, so she might as well go for bust.
‘OK, did you enjoy dancing with Thanassis? Did you kiss him? And when are you seeing him again?’
Charlotte had stopped spooning yoghurt and fruit into her bowl to listen as well.
Maddie did a double take.
‘Woah. Calm down. Can I at least get a coffee first?’
Sofia stopped tapping her foot on the floor.
‘Suppose so.’
Caffeine-d up, Maddie was more willing to talk, and her audience of two were chomping at the bit to listen.
‘So, to answer your questions, yes, I did enjoy dancing with Thanassis. No, I didn’t kiss him. And yes, we are going out late afternoon for a thank-you drink.’
Sofia made with the big eyes.
‘Just the two of you?’
‘Yes, just the two of us. You’re not suggesting you come along to watch, are you?’
‘No! I’m not that desperate for “male attention”.’
Although if Adonis failed to ring tonight, she’d consider axing him for good.
Maddie took another sip of her coffee.
‘If you say so…’
Sofia went to put another spoonful of sugar in her coffee, most of which went on the table.
‘But if you’re going to be whisked away later…’
‘I didn’t say whisked away; those are your words… It’s just a drink between friends.’
‘Whatever. But it means we need to do something fun together this morning before you abandon us.’
Charlotte spoke before Maddie could fire back.
‘No one is abandoning anyone. It’s lovely that Mads and Thanassis are getting the chance for a quiet drink away from prying eyes. There’s a lot to process after the accident.’
‘Thank you, Char.’
‘Why don’t we head out to the town in the hills with the marble streets?
I wanted to see it before we left anyway.
There’s a circular route where you walk from a historic village with some ancient ruins to the town and back.
We can stop for lunch on the way and it’s only around six kilometres in total. ’
Sofia and Charlotte looked over at Maddie with raised eyebrows. Charlotte had noticed that Maddie kept up with them a lot more easily now. There was none of the panting, and not nearly as much of the moaning as there’d been on the first island.
‘Only six kilometres?’
‘It’s nothing, honestly. And she’—Charlotte pointed at Sofia—‘needs to use up some of that excess energy. What’s been wrong with you the last couple of days? You can barely keep still. Restless isn’t the word.’
‘You know it’s rude to point.’ Sofia threw down the last of her coffee. ‘There’s nothing wrong with me.’
‘Hmmm. Anyway, meet down here in an hour and bring—’
‘Sensible shoes, a hat and a bottle of water.’ Sofia’s eyes met Maddie’s.
‘Yes, we know, mum.’
‘Don’t call me that. It makes me sound old.’
Sofia reached over to stroke Charlotte’s arm.
‘As if. We love you looking out for us and our potentially wrinkly skin.’
Maddie looked down at her own hands.
‘Potentially wrinkly? I think I’m there, big time.’
Sofia leapt up from the table and started walking away.
‘No! Never! I won’t listen.’
Charlotte made a face behind her friend’s departing back and bent down to whisper to Maddie.
‘She’s in a right tizz. I’ll try and find out more later when you’re out.’
Maddie replied with a thumbs up, but her mind was elsewhere.
The beauty all around made it easy not to think about how far they still had to walk, and Maddie was grateful for the break it gave her from the thoughts buzzing around her head.
The constant butterflies in her stomach weren’t helping either.
She’d made out to her friends it was just a casual drink with Thanassis, but deep down she knew it was something more.
She wasn’t quite sure what exactly, but she’d find out in a few hours’ time.
Not that she was looking for any sort of relationship with the man, but there was a connection there that couldn’t be denied.
It made her feel she’d agreed to something naughty, which although exciting, was tinged with all sorts of guilt.
‘Look at that!’
Sofia pointed skywards.
A brightly coloured bird flew over their heads and settled in one of the trees at the side of the path.
There were trees as far as she could see, all the way down to the water far below, a splash of blue in a forest of green interrupted only by the oleander shrubs dotting the hillside with pink and white splodges.
The wild nature of this place was much more her cup of tea than the barren hills and stark landscapes of the previous island, beautiful though it had been in its own way.
Charlotte pointed ahead.
‘We’re nearly there.’
Someone really needed to give the woman a little flag to hold aloft.
A few houses with whitewashed walls and pots of red and pink geraniums on their steps appeared in front of them, but the properties were still very spaced out.
Their gardens boasted rows of vegetables and the odd fruit tree, along with plenty of old machinery and even the odd car now and again, rusted right through and used as a chicken coup or a mini greenhouse.
While she was admiring the flowers growing in a particularly wrecked model, a feeble cry stopped her in her tracks.
A tiny ginger kitten was stuck under the bottom of a blue painted gate, trapped by its bigger, stronger grey sibling who was holding it down with both paws.
‘Get off her, you bully.’
Maddie wasn’t sure why she was convinced the little ginger kitten was a girl, but she would have happily put a bet on it.
The grey kitten skittered off into the undergrowth, but his sister stayed where she was on her back, mewling.
‘Hey, sweetie, are you OK?’
Her advance towards the kitten was halted by a big tabby that shot out of a bush the other side of the gate and licked the ginger kitten on the head while staring straight at Maddie.
‘OK, I’ve got it, mum. It’s easy to do. You take your eye off them for a minute, and they start fighting.’
And if you get it wrong, so wrong there’s no way back, one day they might turn on you too.
Slowly, the grey kitten padded towards his sister again, intent on renewing his attack, but this time he received a boff on the nose from his mum for his trouble.
Two other kittens, one black and one ginger, crept out from under a bush and attempted to suckle from their mother.
After an irritated flick of the tail, the mother accepted her fate, lay down and let the first two have their fill.
They were joined straightaway by the warring siblings who took up their positions side by side, agreed on something at last.
Moments later, a sleek ginger cat strolled up to the gate and stood guard over his brood, eyeballing Maddie, who moved back a couple of paces.
The picture of family unity brought tears to her eyes.
Her little family had no dad to diffuse arguments or watch over her babies.
Not that they were babies anymore, but they had been, once.
What was the matter with her? Crying over a few stray cats?
The dance with Thanassis at the panigyri had forced her to think about what was missing from her life.
Something she avoided doing wherever possible.
‘Mads?’
Sofia had turned back to see what was up.
Maddie put her finger to her lips.
‘Shhhh. Come and see.’
Her friends were as taken with the kittens as she was, and they all watched them feed, fight and play for a good twenty minutes before moving on.
Maddie was just relieved no one had noticed her red eyes.
Charlotte had her phone out again in the name of research.
‘There’s supposed to be a fantastic ice cream shop just along here. It even has halva as a flavour.’
‘What’s halva when it’s at home?’
Maddie looked at Sofia.
‘No, me neither.’
‘But I’m up for trying anything that has the words ice cream in it.’
‘Agreed. Let’s go, or páme as they say in Greece!’
A shower and a swift lie down after the walk brought five o’clock ever closer.
Dressed in a pink linen shirt and denim shorts, with her hair up in a ponytail, Maddie went down to reception with five minutes to spare.
She didn’t want it to look like she’d tried too hard.
The others were already sitting in the reception area, ostensibly reading magazines.
‘Hello? What are you two doing here?’
Sofia made a good show of reluctantly tearing herself away from an article in the magazine.
‘Oh, hi. Just relaxing down here rather than in our rooms.’
‘Really?’
Maddie snatched up Sofia’s reading matter and turned the page, smiling all the way.
‘And you’re fluent in Greek now, are you? That was quick. You ought to apply to the Guiness Book of Records. Or are you just keen on pictures of celebrities no one in England’s ever heard of?’
Sofia attempted to grab back the magazine, but Maddie was too quick for her.
‘How long were you planning to keep up this farce?’
Charlotte put down her own magazine and sighed.
‘OK, we were worried about you. We just wanted to make sure you were going to be safe on your date.’