She was so busy soaking up the atmosphere, she quite forgot what they were here for.
‘Come on. This way,’ Ralph said, taking her firmly by the hand. ‘We don’t want to miss the cocktails.’
He led her a short distance up the road before stopping outside a gorgeous-looking restaurant. Tables and chairs under white parasols spilled out onto the pavement, and the open doors and windows were surrounded with pink bougainvillea.
‘Oh my!’ Edie said excitedly. ‘We ate here, didn’t we? I said it was the nicest restaurant I’d ever been to.’
Ralph nodded. ‘And I had sea urchins, which made me feel slightly peculiar. I think I was showing off, pretending to be macho. I won’t make the same mistake again.’
He gave his name to a waiter in a white shirt and black trousers, who ushered them upstairs. Edie had expected to be seated at one of the ground-floor tables, but Ralph had specifically asked for the terrace, overlooking the harbour, which was where they’d sat all those years before.
Beneath palm trees and a slowly darkening sky, they drank champagne and ate tuna carpaccio with lime, chives and sesame oil and grilled squid with tomato, onion, lemon, peppery rocket and olive oil. This was followed by seafood linguine for Edie and a juicy steak for Ralph.
For pudding they shared a deliciously light, fresh panna cotta with hazelnuts, pomegranate and a sweet wine sauce, and a slice of sponge cake, made with tangy oranges.
When they’d finished, Edie sat back with a satisfied sigh.
‘Thank you so much for planning this. It’s been such a treat,’ she said. ‘And this isstillthe best restaurant I’ve ever been to.’
Ralph agreed. ‘It really can’t be beaten.’
They watched in silent awe as the golden sun dipped below the horizon, casting a warm glow over everything and painting the water orange, pink and purple.
Edie realised she felt serene and contented in a way she hadn’t been for ages, perhaps not since before Ralph’s devastating fling. She wished she could capture the feeling in a bottle and wear it like scent whenever she chose.
When it was finally time to leave, they walked hand in hand to their waiting taxi.
‘What a perfect evening!’ Edie said, climbing into the car while Ralph held the door open for her. ‘We must make sure we come back one day.’
‘We will,’ he promised.
They both dozed off on the drive home, but were wide awake when it was time to board the boat and trudge back up the hill to their villa. It was pitch-black, but luckily Ralph had brought a torch.
When they climbed, exhausted, into bed at last at around 2a.m. Edie assumed lovemaking would be off the agenda, but Ralph rolled onto his side to face her. They were so close, she could feel his warm breath on her cheek.
He kissed her lightly on her forehead, the tip of her nose, her lips. Meanwhile, his fingers crept down the length of her spine and back again, making her shiver.
‘I do love you, you know,’ he murmured.
‘Me too.’
‘Did you lock the door?’
She nodded.
‘Good.’
‘Lights on or off?’
‘Ooh, off, I think.’
He reached round and flicked off the switch.
At that moment, they might have been plunged into complete darkness, but a small gap in the shutters allowed a sliver of moonlight to creep, unnoticed, into the room.
Slowly, silently, it spread its silvery limbs across the wooden floor, before tiptoeing up the bed towards them.
Right up until morning, the poor moon tried its best to find a chink of dark space between them into which its light could slip, but they were nestled so tightly together, like spoons in a drawer, there was none.
