Page 46 of The Greek Café

‘Do you fancy a nightcap?’ I offer. It might be good to get to know Phoebe a little more, especially as she previously worked at Ireta’s café.

‘I would love a drink,’ she tells me. ‘Today, we never stopped.’

‘I should have asked you the name of the café; I could have eaten there,’ I say, but she shakes her head.

‘It is not very relaxing. Busy-busy, and no sea view,’ she informs me. ‘It is off the main road. Good for a coffee if you have been sightseeing.’

I gesture to an empty table outside a bar just off the main drag.

‘Is this okay?’

‘Sure.’

We each order a cold beer, alcohol free for Phoebe as she drove down in her car, and the waiter brings us a small bowl of olives.

‘I get the feeling you aren’t keen on your job,’ I say to Phoebe as we sip our drinks.

‘Not really,’ she admits. ‘My shift goes quickly, but as I told you the other day, I don’t have time to stop and chat. I miss the community of the kafenion in the lemon grove. Here it is mainly tourists.’

‘I can understand you missing that sense of community.’

‘So how is it going?’ Phoebe asks as she pops an olive into her mouth. ‘With the buying of the café, I mean.’

‘Well, the renovation has started, as you know but there is still some legal stuff to sort out. Luckily Zeta is helping me with that. Hopefully it will not take too long.’

‘Remember I can help you too,’ she offers. ‘If you ever wanted to go home to the UK I could look after the café.’

‘But you have your work here?’

‘True,’ she sighs. ‘But I would take the time off. I am owed some holidays.’

‘Thank you, Phoebe. That is very good to know, and of course in that event I would pay you. So, have you always lived in the village?’

‘All my life. I lived with my aunt in Lindos for a while, after my break-up with my boyfriend just over a year ago,’ she reveals.

‘Sorry to hear that.’

‘It’s okay. The kafenion closed, around that time too, so I needed a change of scenery, and to clear my head.’

‘I can understand that.’

‘I worked at a ticket office for boat trips for a while. It was good to get away but I think I was a fool.’ She sighs before taking a sip of her beer. ‘To have broken up with Nicos, I mean.’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘Nicos proposed to me,’ she says. ‘He bought me a ring. I had dated him for three years, but I told him I did not want to get married.’

‘And you regret it now?’

‘Yes.’ She nods. ‘At twenty-one years old I thought I was too young to settle down.’ Phoebe sips her drink. ‘I imagined doing something exciting. Seeing something of the world. And I end up staying with my aunt, then working in a café in Rhodes town.’ She raises an eyebrow. ‘Not exactly what I had in mind.’

I think of my own story, moving to another country.

‘Do you still see Nicos?’ I ask. ‘I imagine it must be hard if he lives in the same village.’

‘I see him around. But we do not speak. I hurt him a lot, I know I did.’ She sighs. ‘He saw our future mapped out. I was not ready to marry, but I do miss him. Marriage was important to him. Less so for me.’

‘Does he have another girlfriend?’ I ask.