Chapter Thirty-Four
The next few weeks passed in a blur. After she’d fled from George and Susan, George had made attempts to call her, but she’d not answered. How could he explain his way out of this one?
Was she destined only to fall for men who betrayed her?
That same night, Heather had picked up the pieces. They sat in her room, drinking pink wine and talking. She failed to locate any cheese puffs, but a huge pack of salt and vinegar Lay’s made an excellent substitute.
‘I can’t believe he’s married!’ Heather said for the hundredth time.
‘He never said a thing. I – I even asked once, I think, you know about girlfriends and stuff. He just changed the subject.’
Heather shook her head and shoved a handful of crisps into her mouth. ‘He seemed like such a nice guy. What a total shrimp.’
‘You know you can swear, there’s no kids here.’
Heather shrugged. ‘I just can’t.’
‘What about his Instagram, doesn’t he talk about his bloody wife? He’s probably got three adorable blue-eyed kids, too.’
Heather shook her head, looking bewildered. ‘No, he doesn’t – I’m sure I’d have noticed.’ She sighed. ‘I should have googled him, I suppose.’
She pulled up George’s Instagram, and Nina couldn’t help peeking, as picture after picture of him scrolled past. George, talking animatedly about an animal he’d saved, George talking earnestly about the danger to another breed, George cradling a snail, a baby bird, a mouse, a frog.
She tried to stop her heart from leaping at the sight of those blue eyes and long, sandy lashes. At the freckles on his cheeks and those full lips, that she knew all too well felt so good pressed to her own. Those gentle hands, that had held her.
Turning away, she swallowed. She had hated him once. She could do it again.
‘It just felt like we had a real connection. You know?’ She was horrified to find her voice wobbling. Heather glanced up from her phone, patting Nina’s arm sympathetically. ‘I can’t believe it was all a lie, it felt so –’
‘Wait.’
Heather was peering at her phone again, bringing it close to her face. Nina’s heart dropped. This was it – wedding photos, a pic of him holding his baby triplets, him and his wife smiling over champagne. She swallowed, and braced herself.
‘Look.’
Heather shoved the phone into her face, and she had to jerk backwards to avoid being hit with it. She tried to focus on the picture – George. No wife, no kids. Just George, with his hair shorter and skin less tanned, pointing to a giant tortoise.
She didn’t understand at first but, as Heather waited, she saw it: the wedding ring.
Nina felt sick.
‘He – do you think he took it off just to trick me?’ Was George one of those men that took his ring off when he was away from his wife? She could hardly believe it. He had seemed so genuine, so caring and honest. How could she have let herself trust another man that was lying to her?
Heather shrugged. ‘I don’t know, I mean, this post is from . . .’ She inspected her phone intently. ‘Way back, like two years ago. I’m pretty sure there’s no ring in the more recent ones, so maybe he’s divorced or something?’ Her voice rose, hopeful that this was all a misunderstanding.
Nina snorted. ‘They seem pretty close to me, they were holding hands. And she said his wife. His wife, Heth, not his ex.’ She shook her head. ‘No. Whatever it is, it’s not over between them. No wonder he wouldn’t talk about it.’
Heather threw the phone onto the bed and then threw her arms around Nina. ‘What an absolute little shrimp,’ she said.
Heather went home a week later.
Nina, still smarting, threw herself into plans for the guesthouse.
At least this was something good she could work on.
She and Theo had put together a seemingly endless list of jobs, allocating roles for each of them.
Theo was looking into the paperwork, insurance and building regulations.
He spoke to the villagers, especially Yiannis, to ensure that they were happy; the village wasn’t about to be overrun with tourists.
Yiannis was pleased to hear that they would have no more than three rooms available and would only be offering breakfasts at the guesthouse.
Enough to bring in a bit of extra custom for Yiannis, but not so many tourists as to overwhelm the services in the village, or ruin it with litter and loud noise. So far so good.
Yiannis helped Theo put together a potential breakfast menu, and they spent many nights having ‘planning meetings’, which Nina strongly suspected consisted of drinking Mythos and reminiscing.
He suggested more than once that she ask Maria for advice.
She refused. Maria had kept quiet about George’s wife, knowing that Nina was falling for him.
Nina felt almost as betrayed by her as by George – how could Maria have kept her in the dark about something so huge?
Perhaps she was so blinded when it came to George that she really did think he could do no wrong, even when he was hiding a wife back home.
Once again she’d been betrayed by both the man she was seeing and a friend she trusted. Nina felt sick when she thought about it, so she spent most of her time keeping busy with the guesthouse, desperately trying to distract herself.
It was her job to plan the décor, and she found hours disappeared this way, stopping her from getting into a mind spin about George, going over every conversation they’d had, trying to find hints of the existence of a wife.
Instead, her mind was occupied, and soothed, by the planning of colour schemes, the sourcing of locally made furniture and rugs, paintings and bedding, crockery and kitchen implements.
She and Theo had pooled their resources and set a budget, and she was determined to stick to it.
She would show Theo that this wasn’t a mistake, and they could make a comfortable living by creating this welcoming guesthouse.
Soon, the rooms would all be painted white, the window frames and shutters blue.
A different rug in each room, with the same blue and complimentary terracotta tones to add warmth.
She’d found a local artist who painted pictures of the sea view, the soft warm colours of the sand and sunset bleeding into the vibrant blues of the sea, and one who made gorgeous ceramic lamps and vases.
Her heart stuttered for a moment when, as she was happily searching for quirky handles for the wooden chests of drawers she’d earmarked for the bedrooms, she found little iron ones shaped like turtles.
All her broken dreams came flooding back as she remembered George joking about turtle-themed décor when she’d confessed to him her dream of running the guesthouse. She hadn’t thought, then, that she’d be living her dream with Theo in Metalios while George was back home with his wife.
She hovered over the image of the turtle handles, finding herself adding them to her basket, her heart breaking a little. But the turtles were the reason she and Theo had decided to stay; they deserved a place in the guesthouse.
Nina sighed, staring glumly out of the window at the sun-baked patio.
How could she be so miserable living in paradise?
Theo was out with Yiannis, ‘sourcing food’, which was apparently another name for having a long lunch at a good restaurant in the nearby town.
Nina had been avoiding all her favourite spots, for fear of running into Maria.
She’d heard on the grapevine that George had gone back home, so at least there would be no awkward encounters with him.
Still, she couldn’t hide away forever. And she was sorely in need of some good food and a delicious cool drink, as well as some good company. If Yiannis was out, there was a good chance Eirini and Alex were running the café. If she bumped into Maria, she would give her a piece of her mind.
Stepping out into the courtyard, her mind full of ideas for trailing plants, blue ceramic flowerpots and mosaic artwork on the walls, she shook her head free of the constant noise and breathed in the herb-scented air.
Over the little white-painted brick wall, the view of the sea far below was mesmerising, the blue-green waters and slab of pale sand.
Nina stopped to admire it, resting her hands on the rough wall, the bracelet clinking against stone.
She still couldn’t believe that this was her home now.
This was her life, the one she had chosen, and a small spark of anticipation ignited in her belly.
George or no George, she was here, Theo was here, and they were making a life in the beautiful Kefalonian village of Metalios. The future looked good.
Feeling lighter than she had for a while, she walked to the café.
Eirini was there, in her apron, chatting to some customers as she leaned against their table, one hand on her hip and another balancing a couple of dirty plates.
She waved when she saw Nina, dumped the plates on another table, and started untying her apron.
Milo, who had been lying under the table, immediately trotted out and began nibbling on a crust of bread on one of the plates.
‘I haven’t seen you for so long!’ she said, kissing Nina’s cheek and walking with her to the table in the corner.
‘Aren’t you working?’ Nina asked, laughing, as Eirini sat with her.
‘Coffee break,’ she said with a grin. She waved at Alex and he nodded, smiling, arriving a short while later with two coffees, Nina’s in a larger cup for her milk.
Eirini took a sip, her gaze resting on Nina. ‘How’ve you been?’ she asked gently. She picked at some sugar grains on the table, sweeping them into a pile and brushing them onto the ground. ‘I heard about George.’
Nina shrugged, pouring the warm milk into her coffee. ‘Did you know he’s married?’
Eirini shook her head vigorously. ‘Of course not! I wouldn’t have encouraged you if I had any idea . . . He used to come with a woman, a few years ago, but he was on his own this time and he’d been here so long, I assumed he must be single.’
‘So did I,’ Nina said dryly.
Eirini reached out and clasped her hand. ‘I am sorry.’
Nina sighed. ‘I’m okay. It’s just – it’s just kind of humiliating, you know?
I feel like an idiot. And we kissed and I – I feel so bad, but I honestly didn’t know.
I’d never do that to another woman if I knew.
’ She remembered all too well the pain of discovering Sam was cheating; she’d never knowingly inflict that on someone else and couldn’t bear the thought of being the person he’d cheated on his wife with.
Eirini leaned forward in her seat. ‘Of course you wouldn’t.
Why should you feel bad? He is the one pretending and not telling the truth!
No. You did nothing wrong. And we’re all very happy to have you as a new neighbour.
’ She grinned. ‘You and Theo. Although if he keeps playing hooky with Yiannis so that Alex and I are left to run the place, I might be not so pleased!’
Nina laughed. ‘Yes, I can see you’re run off your feet. You must be exhausted!’
Eirini grinned. ‘Exactly, so I think it’s time we had a lunch break, no? Let’s order.’
She waved at Alex, who walked over. Nina didn’t mention that Eirini’s coffee break seemed to be running straight into her lunch break.
‘Did you give the necklace back to your friend?’ she asked.
Eirini nodded. ‘She was very happy to have it back. It had been a gift, so . . .’ She shrugged. ‘Did you hear about Vassilis?’
‘No, what’s he done now?’ Nina turned the bangle on her wrist, leaning forward in her seat.
Eirini cocked her head, a glint in her eye.
‘It’s more what’s been done to him – this family he worked for, they’ve told everyone that he stole from them, they’ve left reviews of the business, you know, and it’s Vassilis’s father that owns it, and he was –’ She mimicked an explosion with her hands. ‘Boom.’
Nina couldn’t help feeling a stab of satisfaction. ‘So what happened?’
Eirini leaned forward, lowering her voice in a conspiratorial manner. ‘They have kicked him out.’
‘What?’
‘Yes.’ Eirini nodded, looking gleeful. ‘He is out of the business and out of the flat, you know his baba owned it, so he had to move away. Gone!’
Nina sat back, a smile tugging at her lips, a small feeling of peace settling over her. She had bigger, more recent problems than Vassilis, but still, the knowledge that he’d paid in some way for what he did to her and Theo pleased her enormously.
‘So, this is good news,’ Eirini said. ‘In case you have been thinking about all that he did.’
‘Yes. I mean – I’ve got other things on my mind, now. But this is good to know, I won’t lie.’
Eirini nodded. ‘You are busy with this guesthouse.’
‘Exactly,’ Nina said, trying to banish the image of George’s geeky grin from her mind.
They ate calamari and Greek salad, and Nina told Eirini all about her plans for the guesthouse, the décor she was planning, the meals they would cook, the outings they would offer the guests.
Eirini approved of it all. She talked about her work and the children.
She told Nina the story of how she and Alex had kept meeting at the market, buying fresh fish and locally grown vegetables, until eventually he had plucked up the courage to offer to cook her a meal with those fish and veggies. They had never looked back.
Nina and Eirini talked on. Afternoon became evening, coffees became a bottle of wine. And by the time Nina walked back, tottering just a little, she was feeling perfectly content.
George was home with his wife; not how she’d hoped things between them would work out, to say the least. But she had her girlfriends – Heather always just a FaceTime away, and now a blossoming friendship with Eirini. She had Baba. And they had the house in Metalios. What could be better?