Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Tony was nowhere to be seen, was Maddie’s first thought, as she stepped out onto the terrace.
She’d saved him some bacon from yesterday’s breakfast, and she’d got used to the little bird greeting her each morning, and to watching him while he ate.
They were leaving today, so it was her last chance to have a chat with him.
Was he angry with her for sleeping with Thanassis?
Had he flown away in disgust? She was powerless to stop her eyes filling with tears.
This was ridiculous. Maybe it was time to give the social media reincarnation posts a rest. She left the bacon on the table in case Tony had overslept too and walked back into her room.
There would be no regrets about her wonderful night.
Charlotte looked none the worse for wear, Maddie was pleased to see when she went down for her own breakfast. Either it was real, or she was making a supreme effort to act normal.
Hopefully the act of telling them about Doug had lightened her load just a tiny bit.
Her friend still had some major decisions to make, but maybe they could be a sounding board now it was all out in the open.
It looked like the others had almost finished their meals, but she’d not even started, after coming down an hour later than usual.
She’d slept like a log. It was certainly true that exercise helped you drift off, maybe not the sort of exercise they prescribed in gyms, but it had worked.
It was the best night’s sleep she’d had for months.
She allowed herself a secret smile as she reran some of the memories from the previous night through her head. Thanassis’s soft mouth gently kissing hers, sharing a cigarette naked on the beach, and Thanassis poised above her, locking eyes.
Sofia appeared silently beside her, breaking her concentration.
‘Thinking about which cereal to try, are you?
‘Mmmm.’
‘Are you, my arse. You know we’ll get it out of you somehow, don’t you?’
‘Very probably. But for now, we’re focussing on Char.’
Maddie helped herself to some yoghurt and fresh fruit. It was time to turn the tables a little.
‘And what about you? Are you excited about seeing lover boy later today?’
‘Lover boy? That sounds like something out of a cheesy romance from the seventies.’
‘Well, are you?’
‘Not that he’ll ever have any time to spend with me, but yeah, I suppose so.’
Theo was heading their way to take the coffee orders.
‘Rubbish. You’re vibrating with excitement, like an overexcited debutante on heat.’
‘Charming.’
Theo had reached Maddie’s side.
‘And we’ll leave it there for both of us for the time being.’
Sofia smiled a tight smile.
A lazy morning on the terrace, sipping coffees and keeping off any tricky subjects suited everyone, although Sofia’s fidgeting was starting to annoy Maddie.
They’d packed and vacated their rooms after breakfast and Theo was all set to drive them to the ferry for the three o’clock sailing.
The weather had got significantly warmer even since they’d arrived two weeks ago and the sun was beating down, forcing them to sit in the shade under the crocheted parasols that Thea had made herself.
Maddie had swapped notes on technique with her, not that she’d get much use out of a fancy parasol back home, but it would be fun to try and make one.
It was better than sitting doing nothing in the evening.
She might even think about joining a knitting club, now that it was apparently cool to knit and crochet.
Sofia’s glance at her phone for the umpteenth time prompted Maddie to speak.
‘Looking at it’s not going to get us there any faster.’
‘Just don’t want to miss the ferry.’
‘Mmmm, sure.’ Maddie stretched out her legs in front of her, so they were in the sun.
‘Wow, it’s hot today, isn’t it?’
Weather talk was always acceptable to fellow Brits, and she might as well try and distract Sofia.
‘Do you both remember the summer of ‘seventy-six’?
Charlotte sighed.
‘I sure do. It was baking hot in those classrooms. It was the end of our first year at the school, wasn’t it, and we’d already become fast friends?’
‘That’s right. I remember.’ Sofia smiled. ‘On the hottest day of the year, most schools in the country had sent their pupils home, but ours insisted on staying open for some bizarre reason.’
‘Yes, and the older kids decided to go on strike, and one by one the classrooms emptied onto the school field, and everyone just sat down and waited in protest at being kept in the heat like cattle,’ Maddie added.
‘I can remember being a bit frightened of leaving the classroom, as we were the youngest. I was terrified about what my parents would say,’ Charlotte replied.
Maddie shot her fist into the air.
‘But we did it, didn’t we? The whole school was out there on that field. It was a real example of pupil power.’
Sofia laughed.
‘The teachers really didn’t know what to do, did they? I remember our teacher, Miss…’
‘Grange,’ Charlotte added.
‘Yes, that’s it, Miss Grange, she was quite young, probably not much older than our kids are now…’ Maddie turned to Charlotte. ‘Poor thing. She was pleading with us to stay inside, but we weren’t having any of it.’
‘And the headmaster came out onto the field and gave a speech, sweat dripping off his brow, not sure if it was heat or stress.’
‘Probably a bit of both.’
‘I just remember a lot of flirting, the boys taking off their ties and everyone lying around on the grass chatting.’ Sofia had her eyes closed.
‘Yes, you would.’ Maddie tapped her friend on the leg and smiled as she opened her eyes.
‘It went on for hours, but what happened in the end?’
‘Eventually they forced us back inside,’ said Maddie. ‘There was a big assembly where we got a massive telling off. But at least no one had to do any work that day.’
A phone alarm sounded in Sofia’s bag.
‘At last. That’s us. We need to go and say goodbye to our hosts.’
Many hugs later and armed with huge doggy bags of the cake of the day, a tangy lemonópita, which Thea thrust at them for the boat journey, they were finally loaded into the hotel van.
‘She does know the boat ride’s only an hour and a half?’ whispered Charlotte, looking down at the huge portion. ‘We’ve not long had breakfast.’
‘But this time, it’s a much smaller boat, and there’ll be no flash restaurant, so you might be glad of it,’ piped up Sofia.
The van pulled out round their black hire car, still parked in front of reception.
‘Not delivering it back to Konstantinos personally?’ Maddie tried to make her face into the picture of innocence. Charlotte had filled her in on Sofia’s mysterious disappearance the previous night, which had become a tiny footnote after what had been revealed next.
‘No, he’s perfectly capable of picking it up himself.’
‘I see.’
‘You don’t. You really don’t. But I don’t want to talk about it.’
‘Fine.’
The drive to the port was completed in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
Maddie was leaving behind the island that had made her feel alive again, if only for a night; Charlotte the place where she’d been honest for the first time about her problems; and Sofia was just grateful for her near miss with car hire guy.
She’d probably have had to scrub herself with bleach.
It was indeed a much smaller boat that greeted them. Maddie was pleased that they weren’t sailing from the tiny port round the corner as she had no desire to relive the memories of the rescue all over again or even bump into Thanassis.
‘OK?’
Sofia gave her a quizzical look as they boarded. Her face must have been showing something of how she felt about one of the strangest weeks of her life.
‘Yes, good, thanks.’
She’d replied on autopilot, but it was true she felt lighter. There were still some major hurdles to get over, plus the great big elephant in the room – the estrangement from her son and his family – but at least she’d made a start.
Once they’d climbed two sets of stairs to the main salon, Charlotte led them towards a door.
‘It’s a lovely day. Let’s go and sit outside. We can pretend we’re on a mini cruise.’
More coffees and some of Thea’s delicious cake later, they all rushed to the front of the boat as they approached the harbour of the next island, cameras at the ready.
It was all new for Maddie and Charlotte, and the turquoise domed churches which dominated the town were interspersed with more white cubed houses going up the hill and plenty of grander buildings in an Italianate style.
It was on a much bigger scale than the previous island, but there was still plenty of green on the tops of the hills.
The water churned beneath them as the boat edged into position, and the call came for passengers to disembark.
Sofia had been scanning the dockside for several minutes and let out a yelp when she spotted something or someone in the distance.
‘Yes! I wanted to keep it a secret until now, but we’re staying at Adonis’s ultra posh hotel for one night before we move on to ours for the rest of the week, my treat. And he’s here to pick us up.’
Sofia moved faster than either of them had ever seen her move before. She was off the boat and onto the dock before they’d got to the edge of the platform, and straight into a man’s arms.
She’d taken a flying jump and wrapped her legs around the man’s waist, and he was hugging her back for all he was worth.
‘If I did that, I’d probably kill someone.’ Charlotte smiled at Maddie. ‘Or at least have them flat on their backs on the concrete.’
‘She’s certainly keen to see him.’
‘You can say that again.’
They reached the happy couple, tongue deep in a very involved kiss.
Maddie feigned a cough.
‘Er… Hello?’
Sofia broke away from the man, eyes shining.
‘Oh hi. This is Adonis, and Adonis, these are my friends Maddie and Charlotte.’
‘Hello.’ He put out a hand and shook theirs in turn. ‘Pleased to meet you.’