Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Sofia turned and shut the bedroom door quietly behind her, in case anyone else on their corridor was still having a snooze.
Between three and five in the afternoon were the golden hours in Greece, when many of the shops shut and nearly everyone took a break, either at home, dozing, meeting friends in a café, or having a long leisurely lunch.
Even the workmen were supposed to down tools.
She’d agreed to meet the others downstairs in the pool bar bang on five, for their trip into town.
The door to her left opened too, and Charlotte stepped out into the corridor.
Sofia held her finger to her lips. Like her, Charlotte was in a flowing floral maxi dress, pale green to her pale pink, and they walked silently past Maddie’s door and down the stairs to the covered bar area.
Charlotte popped up onto a white-painted high stool with ease and nodded her head at the neighbouring one.
‘Do you need a hand up?’
‘Bloody cheek. Just because you’re a giant. I’m petite, not a dwarf.’ Sofia looked around her. ‘Not that I have a problem with dwarves of course, but I can manage to get onto a bar stool myself, thanks.’
Charlotte put her hands in the air in a gesture of surrender and failed to stifle a grin at Sofia’s ungainly ascent.
‘Fair enough. This giant’s just asking.’
She indicated at Sofia’s dress.
‘I’m pleased you listened to what I was saying about the dress code in the monastery.
It’s no bare legs and covered arms. I know we’re both wearing elbow-length sleeves, but I’m taking a scarf as well just to be on the safe side.
It would be terrible to climb all the way up there and be turned away, wouldn’t it? ’
Sofia rolled her eyes.
‘Yeah, terrible. Not sure how I’d cope.’
‘OK, no need to be sarky. We agreed there should be something for everyone on this holiday, didn’t we? And this is very definitely something for me.’
Dimitris the pool guy moved in their direction from the other end of the bar.
‘Oh look, here’s something for you…’
Sofia smiled a tight smile. Her love life had long been a hot topic of conversation.
Going for younger guys who didn’t expect any commitment had worked out well for her over the years.
If you didn’t get close to people, they couldn’t leave you.
Just the thought of her mother’s anguished face, hoping against hope that her husband would leave his mistress and come back to her someday, was enough to put her off anything more serious.
Her friends got a vicarious thrill out of her dates too, loathe though they’d be to admit it.
‘You’re hilarious.’
Dimitris was indeed a sight to behold, one made up of a tanned, ripped, body with a full head of dark curls and eyes the colour of the sea on a cloudless day, and normally she’d waste no time going into flirt mode.
But she was on a very special holiday with her friends.
Not on the lookout for men. Not this early on, anyway. It was only day one.
‘What can I do for you, ladies?’
Sofia hated being called a lady and it was even worse to be lumped in with a group of them. That was unnecessarily ageing in her opinion. Being called girls was way preferable.
‘A coffee for me please, dipló cappuccino skéto zestó, parakaló.’
‘Ooh flash.’ Charlotte turned to her. ‘What exactly is that?’
‘A hot double cappuccino, without sugar. They often whack loads in unless you ask them not to. The Greeks are sweet-toothed by nature. Also, once the sun comes out, they assume everyone wants their coffee cold with ice, which is a freddo espresso or a freddo cappuccino. You’re considered strange if you still want it hot. ’
‘I’m strange too then. And don’t say it! How do I ask for the same?’
‘To ídio, parakaló.’
Charlotte tried out the strange words, rolling them round her mouth.
Dimitris smiled, showing brilliant white teeth, and went behind the bar.
Sofia turned to Charlotte.
‘OK, a quick lesson. Parakaló is please and efcharistó is thank you. And you might as well take in kaliméra, good morning, kalispéra, good afternoon or evening, and kalinychta, goodnight.’
Charlotte repeated the words while they waited for their coffees.
‘Oh yes, I’m going to use these later. Teach me some more.’
‘Hey, you’re pushing me to my limits already. I only know a few words and phrases that Grace taught me.’
‘Ah yes, will we get to catch up with Grace again when we arrive at our final island, her island, the one that’s only a short plane hop to Athens? I haven’t seen her for years.’
‘It’s not “her island”, but yes, you certainly will, Grace and her partner, Will. See what I did there?’
‘You talk about her a lot.’
Sofia stroked Charlotte’s leg.
‘Ah, how cute, you’re not jealous are you? I’ve known you and Maddie a whole six years longer than Grace. You get first dibs.’
Charlotte let out the breath she’d been holding.
Doug’s cheating had affected her in ways she’d not expected.
Obviously, she was beyond furious with him, but the past month had made her question everything and everyone she thought she knew.
Her world had been tilted on its axis, and she wasn’t sure if it could be righted again.
She’d needed that reassurance that she still held top spot in Sofia’s list of friends, albeit shared with Maddie.
‘Good.’
Charlotte put her finger to her chin and pulled a face. It was time to lighten things up.
‘And is there any other reason why we’re all being dragged back to that particular island?
I seem to remember a guy you mentioned meeting there last year, “a real Greek god”, you said.
Apollo, was it? No, not Apollo, Adonis. That’s it!
Adonis. You said he was amazing in bed. And you’ve been back there since, I know you have, from your Insta pics. ’
Sofia grabbed the coffees that Dimitris had put on the counter and nodded her thanks. She handed one to Charlotte.
‘You’re right.’
‘I knew it!’
‘About the stools. I’m not keen on the stools. Let’s move to that table over there underneath the umbrella.’
She wasn’t keen on the topic of conversation either.
The men in her life weren’t meant to be anything other than transient.
She’d already broken her own rules by spending time with Adonis over the last twelve months; a couple of weekends on the island and one in Athens.
She’d persuaded herself that she was missing Grace and had to see her, but she needed to shut down this idea that Adonis was something special, to herself as much as the others.
He was just one guy in a long line. They had fun, but she couldn’t let it become anything more.
Before losing her job, the possibility of spending any more time with him hadn’t been on the table, and that’s the way it had to stay.
Seated at a sea-themed mosaic-topped table, Charlotte took a large gulp of her coffee.
‘OK, I’ve got the message on Adonis. We’ll park that for a while. But before sleepyhead gets here, would you like to explain why she thinks this hotel’s some sort of cut-price break? One step up from Butlin’s?’
Sofia’s face was that of a naughty child.
‘I knew you’d clocked it. I was planning to tell you as soon as I got you on your own, honest. I was so keen for us all to be here together, that I might have discounted the price a bit.’
‘A lot…’
‘OK, a lot. But I didn’t want to embarrass her into saying she couldn’t afford it. She obviously needs a holiday more than any of us.’
‘It’s a bit sneaky, but I agree with you on this one. She looks completely knackered. Obviously, I won’t mention it.’
Charlotte finished her coffee in record time and checked her phone again.
‘She’s fifteen minutes late already. Do you think one of us ought to go up there?’
Sofia leaned back in the chair and crossed her legs.
‘No, leave her a bit longer. The amount of alcohol she’s knocked back today already, she’s probably slept through any alarm. Let’s just enjoy the view.’
Sofia focussed on the cloudless sapphire sky and the dark shapes of islands crouching in the distance, trying to work out which one it was they’d be taking the ferry to next.
Charlotte leaned in closer.
‘Yeah, I was going to mention that to you too.’
‘What, the view?’
Charlotte had her ‘we’ve got to talk about this, and I won’t take no for an answer’ voice on. Sofia knew it was useless to resist, but the few moments of peace had been welcome.
‘No, Maddie’s drinking. She’s hitting the booze pretty hard, isn’t she? Should we be worried?’
Sofia shrugged her shoulders.
‘It’s only the first day, so maybe it’s just the novelty.’
Charlotte frowned at her old friend. Maddie seemed even more unhappy than the last time she’d seen her.
She was snappy and ready to take offence at the slightest remark.
It was no surprise she was missing Tony like mad, but Charlotte had a gut feeling there was something else going on as well.
It was frankly a relief to be worrying about someone else’s problems for a while.
‘Really? You’re not bothered?’
‘Look, I agree we should keep an eye on it. I don’t like to judge, but it does seem a bit over the top.’
Charlotte leaned in so close Sofia could smell her floral perfume.
‘Also, I’m not being a bitch, honestly, and I’m in no position to talk, but don’t you think she’s put on quite a bit of weight since we last saw her? I’m not sure she’s coping that well.’
Sofia pinching her arm put an immediate stop to the conversation.
‘Mads! We’re over here.’
A figure in a white kaftan which almost touched her ankles, complete with a wide brimmed straw hat, made her way towards them.
Sofia threw down the last dregs of her coffee.
‘I don’t think she’s going to offend or inflame any monks in that gear, is she?’
‘Miaow.’