Page 72 of The Greek Café

‘It does, doesn’t it? I can’t wait to open the doors to my first customers,’ I tell him proudly.

‘Will you be having a launch party?’ he asks.

‘I will be, yes. Athena and Ireta have offered to help with some nibbles.’

‘I would like to be there,’ he says. ‘Unless it is invitation only, of course.’

‘It isn’t, but even if it were, I would have invited you.’

He fiddles with the car keys in his hands. ‘You would?’

‘Yes. I like to think we are friends.’

I wish I could take the words back at once. Takis has only ever chatted to me in polite conversation, and the day he took me out on the boat was just business, I remind myself. We are hardly friends.

‘Friends. I like the sound of that,’ he says, holding my gaze. ‘I will definitely be there if I can. And I am hoping you will join me and Zeta for dinner.’

‘Only if I am paying. Zeta has been very good to me. I am not paying for you though,’ I joke and Takis throws his head back and laughs.

‘There you go again, always a comedian.’

‘I am being serious.’

‘I know, I am teasing you this time. Of course, I would not dream of letting you pay for my dinner.’ He smiles. ‘So, do you want to head back now?’ Takis fiddles with his car keys again and, drops them on the floor.

We both bend down to retrieve them and when our hands briefly collide, I feel the fine hairs on my arm stand on end and my stomach do a little flip. Did he feel the crackle of electricity too? I wonder.

‘Actually, I think I will walk,’ I tell him. ‘Stretch my legs a little before I start work.’

As well as give my head a wobble. What is going on here?

‘Whatever you like. Speak to you soon.’

Walking back towards the hotel, I curse the fact that Takis seems to have such an effect on me. I go over Zeta’s comments about his long-suffering girlfriend, yet he has never once mentioned her. I suppose I could ask him outright if he has a girlfriend and I am not sure what is stopping me.

Could she have got it wrong? Or does he flirt with every woman he encounters? I wonder. Try as I might, I cannot shake the images of our day out on the boat. I recall swimming in the glorious blue-green water, with the sun beating down on us, and the delicious picnic on the boat. It was like a dream.

Sometimes I feel that Takis is about to say something to me, then stops himself. And his glances at me are always just a fraction too long. I guess the hard part is knowing whether he feels the same way. He has an easy way with everyone; I have witnessed that much myself. I feel annoyed with myself that I seem to be having my head turned by a handsome but still unreadable Greek.

The sun is already warm as I walk, and it is barely nine in the morning. I try to clear my mind as I listen to the gentle birdsong. By the time I reach the hotel I have peeled off my thin cardigan.

‘It’s going to be a hot one today,’ says Kai as we stroll out to the pool areas a short while later.

‘I heard it is the start of a heatwave,’ I tell him. ‘I imagine that is quite unusual in early September.’

‘Not especially, according to Zeta. She tells me that the thunderstorms can be quite something after a heatwave,’ he informs me.

‘Great, can’t wait for that.’

‘Are you frightened of thunderstorms?’

‘The lightning mainly,’ I respond.

‘Shocking.’ He grins.

‘I once read of a park ranger in a national park who was struck by lightning seven times. And as I will soon be living in a forest, well…’ I pull a face.

‘Seven times, surely that can’t be true?’