Page 79 of Never Too Late to Date

‘I come in peace.’

At least he wasn’t scowling.

‘I just wanted to see where you’ve been hanging out all these years.’

Suzie put the tray of glasses down before she dropped them, and grabbed two beers from the fridge.

‘Not here. Follow me.’

‘Intriguing…’

Suzie looked round for the barman.

‘Manoli, can you finish up here, please? We’re going through to the other side. I’ll clear up in there and lock up later, just leave when you’re done.’

‘Sure, boss.’

Manolis appeared to do a double take when he saw the man sitting at the bar, but she could have imagined it. Anyway, she might well have to get used to it, unless Christian left again virtually straightaway, but there was faint hope of that.

His footsteps were loud behind her.

‘“Boss” has a certain ring to it.’

Suzie ignored his comment and showed him through into the now deserted open-air section. There were empty bottles and glasses everywhere on the tables, as well as full ashtrays and a few half-eaten snacks. Clearing them up was the last and least pleasant task of the night before she locked up. At least there was no one else in there.

But Christian didn’t seem to have noticed the debris all around him. He stood in the middle of the roofless space, bound by ancient stone walls, looking up at the twinkling night sky.

‘Ah, I get it now. That’s why it’s called the Star Bar.’

‘Well done.’

He looked down at her.

‘No need to be sarky. It’s beautiful.’

Suzie put down the bottles of beer she was carrying on the nearest table and stopped a minute to look up herself. It was something she rarely did these days. There were stars everywhere she looked, thousands of them bright in the pollution-free sky. Her bar was a pretty special place, and sometimes she needed to be reminded.

Christian walked over to the raised level with the dais where minutes earlier Charlie had been entertaining the crowd.

‘This is a great performance space too.’

He climbed the steps to the stage and bounced up and down a few times on the wooden floor before pacing all around it and inspecting the equipment at the back.

‘Do you ever have bands on in here?’

Was he imagining she could just magic up Eighties giants like Duran Duran or The Cure on a whim?

‘Not really. We’re a bar on a tiny Greek island with a limited budget. But we do a lot of DJ nights, like the Eighties’ night tonight, and karaoke evenings are really popular. They bring in the punters and fill the tills.’

Christian turned to face her, posing on stage with a mock microphone.

‘I think you’d get bands agreeing to come and perform here for free; it’s such a cool venue.’

They were getting way off topic.

‘Unlikely. Can you come down here, please, so we can talk.’

An extravagant bow and he jumped down to be by her side.