‘Guys?’
We both turn to find Pen standing behind us.
‘What’s up?’ I ask her.
‘Do you mind going to the bakery without me? They’ve got a café upstairs with comfy chairs and I just want to curl up with a good book and a frap.’
‘Of course,’ I assure her. ‘No worries. Half an hour enough?’
She nods, then skips off towards the staircase.
‘Are you okay, Nella?’ Mark asks. ‘You’re frowning.’
‘Pen seems off.’
‘I hadn’t noticed.’
I tilt my head to one side. ‘Her behaviour doesn’t seem strange?’
‘You think it’s strange she wants to stay here and sit on a sofa in an air-conditioned shop drinking iced coffee while the two of us slog up the street in thirty-five degree heat to go and listen to an old lady berate us for our life choices?’
I smile. ‘I thought youlikedthis cake shop.’
‘I do, but when you meet Mrs Evi, you’ll see what I mean.’
He’s not wrong. As soon as we enter the bakery, a tiny old lady sitting by a fan throws down her embroidery and leaps on him.
‘Marko,mou.How long has it been since you last came to see me? I could have been dead by now!’ She stops when she noticesme and gives us a wide smile. ‘But I forgive you because you’ve brought me your bride.Na sou zisi.At last!’
‘Hello,KyriaEvi,’ he replies, bending down ninety degrees to hug her. ‘This is Nella and we’re just friends.’
‘Yie mou, son, what are you doing being friends with her? Look at her,en koukla, she’s pretty as a doll.’
I can’t help smiling. ‘Thanks,KyriaEvi.’
‘Kypraia?And she’s Cypriot? You’re an idiot, Marko.’ If she could reach, I get the impression she’d smack him upside the head.
‘So, how are you, how’s the family?’ he asks, ignoring her jab.
She starts giving him a run-down of what I’m assuming is her whole family’s aches and pains, so I take the opportunity to examine all the goods on offer.
A whole glass counter is filled with delicious syrupy pastries:baklava,kateifi,galatoboureko.How are we going to choose?
I’m about to tell her how amazing everything looks when Mark glances at me, and I take it as a sign he needs rescuing.
She seems to be having an angry reaction to Mark’s news that he’s moving to Latin America.
‘Kyrie eleison,’ she says, rolling her eyes. ‘What are you doing going to America? You’ve passed thirty now, you haven’t got time to waste onbelares. You need to settle down and get married. Don’t wait until your hair is white and your teeth have fallen out and you’re no longer aleventis.’ She points at me. ‘Do you think she’s going to sit at home waiting for you?’
‘No one’s asking her to wait. She has her own life as a very successful psychologist. And like I said, we’re just friends.’
She doesn’t seem to hear him. ‘If you’re not careful, someone smarter than you will steal her. It won’t take long, not with that figure.’ She looks me up and down, and I feel like a cow at market. ‘Although she could do with being taller.’
I blink. Did the pot just call the kettle a titch? I mean,really.
‘I don’t understand why girls these days don’t wear heels,’ she mutters.
‘She does wear heels,’ Mark replies offhandedly.
