Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Venturing down the hill into town late the next morning took a hell of a lot longer than Maddie would have liked.
There were hundreds of steps to negotiate, and just as she thought they’d reached the bottom, there was another flight to conquer.
Sofia and Charlotte were skipping down them like baby goats.
Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but they certainly seemed to be doing better than her.
She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like going back up.
Still, she’d said out loud that she loved being at the hotel up the hill, so she could hardly moan about it now. At last, they seemed to have reached some sort of high street, if you could call a few shops and cafés a high street.
Charlotte pointed at one of the cafés, up yet another flight of stairs.
‘OK, it’s this one.’
‘Right. It bloody well would be, wouldn’t it?’
Charlotte ignored her and marched off, closely followed by Sofia.
The best café in town couldn’t possibly be at street level, thought Maddie, oh no, it had to be on top of a shop.
Dragging herself up the last few steps, Maddie joined her friends at a table at the open window overlooking the town beach.
The checked floor blurred before her eyes as she grabbed a glass of water from the carafe on the table.
They hadn’t come to Grandma’s Café for the décor, but for the promise of the best ice cream on the island.
Not everything or everywhere could be the best, but she agreed that claims about ice cream needed thorough investigation. Charlotte pointed up at the picture of a goat on the brightly painted board and the list of ice cream flavours underneath.
Sofia spoke for both of them once the penny dropped.
‘Are you telling me it’s goat’s milk ice cream we’ve come here to try?’
‘Yep.’
‘Won’t that taste all … goaty?’
Sofia’s voice held more than a trace of disgust.
Charlotte studied the menu on the table closely.
‘I don’t know. Like you, I’ve never tried it before. But let’s give it a go.’
‘Or a go-oat.’
The other two groaned at Maddie’s attempt at humour.
‘Feeble.’ Charlotte hovered the translation app over the menu.
‘OK, pagotó is Greek for ice cream, and some of the flavours are … fráoula, strawberry, kerási, cherry, achládi, pear, and fistíki, pistachio…
Maddie giggled at the same time as Sofia.
‘What is wrong with you two today? Fistíki is a perfectly normal word in Greek, I’m sure.’
Maddie coughed to cover another giggle and couldn’t meet Sofia’s eye.
‘Yesterday you were at each other’s throats, and now we’re back in primary school.’
Sofia’s attempt at a straight face set Maddie off again.
‘I’ll have a large fistíki please.’
‘Me too. A very large fistíki.’
The waiter’s arrival at the table quietened things down for a moment. But as soon as Charlotte uttered the words, ‘Three cappuccinos, one pagotó fráoula and two large fistíkis please’, Maddie caught Sofia’s eye and they both collapsed onto the bistro style table, unable to breathe for laughing.
‘I wish I found everything quite so hilarious.’ Charlotte’s plaintive voice brought Maddie up short.
‘It’s not that usual for me, honestly, Char, I can assure you. It’s all her fault.’
Maddie pointed at Sofia, who put up her middle finger.
‘Children, please.’
While Charlotte poured herself a glass of water, Maddie gave Sofia the signal they’d agreed on earlier to kickstart the conversation they all needed to have.
‘So, how are your boys, Char?’
‘They’re hardly boys now, are they? Although they’re still our boys, aren’t they, Mads, however old they are.’
‘True.’ Maddie wasn’t keen to get too involved in that one. Talking about her son was for another day. It was Charlotte’s turn to spill.
‘But everything’s OK there?’
Charlotte frowned.
‘Yes, why wouldn’t it be? Luke’s still happy working in the City and living in his rented flat in Clapham with Ella, paying some extortionate rent, while Rueben and George have bought a little house together up the road in Berkshire and are working in IT.’
Sofia took over the baton.
‘OK, good that things are good. But it must feel a bit lonely now they’ve both moved out?’
‘It’s a lot quieter, certainly, but I’m pleased they’re both independent.
You hear all these stories of kids still living at home in their thirties.
As I’m sure you’ll both remember, I’d well and truly left home by the time I was twenty-one.
My parents were pretty old fashioned, and I was keen to live by my rules, not theirs. ’
Maddie nodded.
‘I’d gone at eighteen. Which seems incredibly young these days, but it didn’t feel like it at the time. I think we grew up quicker then.’
She couldn’t let herself go back to those early days, sharing with a group of workmates. Whenever Tony could get away from uni, the house had been full of laughter and long lazy mornings in bed.
Sofia’s voice was less upbeat.
‘I didn’t even have a choice. After uni, I didn’t have a family home to go back to anyway… My dad had seen to that.’
Maddie shot Sofia a ‘we’re getting off track here’ look.
Charlotte looked from one to the other with a puzzled expression. Where was this going? It was obvious it was some sort of pre-planned move.
‘So, in answer to your question, yes, the kids are fine.’
Maddie looked over to Sofia for some moral support. Charlotte was stonewalling big time.
‘How’s it going with Doug these days?’ Sofia smiled. ‘Is it lovely and romantic now it’s just the two of you alone in the house?’
They couldn’t possibly have got anywhere near the truth, but she needed to answer carefully. Charlotte pulled a serviette out for each of them from the holder.
‘We’ve done my kids, and now we’re on to my husband?’
Maddie put her hands on top of her friend’s when she placed the serviette in front of her, and Sofia added hers too. It was a silly thing they’d started at school, calling themselves The Three Musketeers and pledging their support for each other in times of trouble.
Charlotte looked down at the stack of hands and up at her friends.
They only wanted to help, but the sudden physical contact undid her plan to lock down her emotions.
She couldn’t bear Doug to come anywhere near her, but she’d never realised how much she’d miss his hugs and hand-holding, until they were gone.
He’d made it very clear they were still on offer, but she needed distance until she’d made up her mind what to do.
Against her wishes, her eyes filled with tears.
Maddie spoke first.
‘Look, we know there’s something wrong. You’re not painting, you never mention Doug and you’re a bit … snappy. It’s just not you. Please talk to us.’
Charlotte left her hands where they were at the bottom of the pile but let a couple of tears fall onto the back of one of Sofia’s hands on the top.
It was useless to pretend everything was hunky dory. These were her best friends, and they were far from stupid.
‘You’re right. There is something going on, but … I’m just not ready to talk about it yet. I promise you that when I am, you’ll be the first to know. You’re just going to have to be satisfied with that for the time being. Please, can we talk about anything other than my husband?’
The arrival of the waiter with the ice creams and coffees prompted a quick unravelling of hands.
Maddie sighed. They’d pushed Charlotte as far as they could for now. She knew how it felt when people tried to force her to talk about Tony and how she was coping without him.
‘Just as long as you know we’re here for you, anytime. All for one…’
‘And one for all’ her friends chorused back, although Charlotte’s voice was barely above a whisper.
‘Now let’s tuck into these fabulous-looking ice creams. The waiter already thinks we’re insane.’
It wasn’t a stretch for Maddie to get on board with the best ice creams on the island slogan. The goat’s milk gave the ice cream a slightly savoury tang which complemented the pistachio flavour well.
‘Mmmmm, these really are gorgeous.’
Charlotte’s smile didn’t convince either of them.
‘Yes, the strawberry is lovely too.’
Sofia cast around for something to lighten the mood.
‘Oh God, I never told you, did I?’
‘Told us what?’ Maddie was up for some double-headed role play, anything to cheer Charlotte up.
‘I managed to flash Dimitris the pool boy at the last hotel! I gave him the Full Monty.’
Maddie grimaced.
‘Poor guy. When? And how?’
‘He was out there, cleaning the plunge pool early one morning. But he was so quiet, I had no idea he was outside. I hadn’t bothered with the shutters, so I pulled back the thin curtain, naked as a baby, and we just stared at each other for a moment before I yanked it shut again and waited until he’d gone.
I was worried that he’d think I’d done it on purpose. ’
‘How embarrassing.’ Maddie would have been completely mortified if it had happened to her. The thought of any man other than Tony seeing her naked was a no-no. And that was never going to happen with her husband again in this lifetime.
‘Even if it was deliberate, he wouldn’t have been interested anyway.’ Charlotte’s dead pan delivery gave nothing away.
‘What do you mean?’ Sofia’s look of confusion was comical. ‘Are you saying I’ve lost whatever it was I had?’
Charlotte smile was real this time.
‘No, silly. You’re still gorgeous. But Dimitris is gay.
That’s what we were talking about that morning in the garden.
I was telling him about my son’s experience, and he was explaining that things weren’t quite so simple in Greece, particularly on the islands.
Plus, he was terrified of his mother finding out. She’s very religious.’
Maddie winced.
‘Yes, I can see Maria might be a bit tricky.’
‘But now we’ve left the island, and we’re probably never going to see them again … I do have some stunning gossip.’
The twinkle in Charlotte’s eye was unmistakeable.
Sofia grabbed her friend’s wrist.
‘You? Gossip?’
‘Yes, me.’