Page 46 of The Little Greek Guesthouse

Her thoughts drifted on, returning to George and the moment of awkwardness when she’d mentioned his girlfriend. The shutting down of his face, the way he’d crossed his arms and turned his body away from her. Perhaps he just didn’t like her prying. But she had a sense that there was more to it than that; he’d talked about everything else openly enough. His silence on this particular subject only piqued her interest more, and she found herself imagining every possible scenario: he was married with five children; he’d been happily living with his boyfriend for years; he was a player who’d never settled down. Someone had broken his heart and he couldn’t bear to think about it.

Nina didn’t know why she cared, anyway.

Sighing, she pushed back the covers and got out of bed. Clearly, she wasn’t going to sleep.

In the kitchen she found Theo, bags under his eyes, making strong coffee and heating milk.

‘Baba . . .’ She shook her head. ‘What did I tell you about coffee?’

Theo looked sheepish. ‘Please, I have not had my coffee for many hours now.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Anyway, I thought you were sleeping?’ she said trying not to sound too accusatory.

He shrugged. ‘A bit but – ah, who can sleep in the daylight, eh?’ He handed her a hot cup of coffee.

She took it gratefully, breathing in the earthy aroma. ‘Not us, apparently.’

They carried the drinks to the courtyard, sitting under the shade of the tree. Nina sipped the creamy liquid, savouring the mellow flavour and closing her eyes as she felt the caffeine diffuse through her, gently bringing the world back into focus.

‘No work today,’ Theo said.

‘Day off won’t do any harm.’ Nina opened one eye and peeped at Theo; he was gazing out over the wall to the view of the sea below. ‘Baba, this hotel you’re going to sell to, is it a big chain? Only George said that it was, and he said that the lights from the bar or whatever will be bad for the turtles and that –’

Theo waved a hand, as though her words were an irritating mosquito that could be swatted away. ‘Oh George-this, George-that, why you so interested in this boy all suddenly? He talks nonsense.’

‘Well, he seemed pretty knowledgeable actually, and I wondered if there’s another way we can go – maybe a smaller hotel or something? This is important to me, Baba. We don’t want to damage the village, do we? We need to protect the wildlife; he said it could really harm the turtles on the beach.’

He sighed. ‘Okay. For you, I will check this out. I will talk to the hotel and see what they say about these turtles. Yes?’

Nina nodded. It was a start, and perhaps there was a way that the turtles could be protected, and Baba could still sell to who he wanted.

‘But I don’t think there will be any worries, Antheia. This is just George, getting all worked up about things, he is always this way. Now he’s getting you all worked up with him.’ He shook his head. ‘But this Vassilis, he is a nice boy. Good Greek boy.’

Nina snorted. ‘I’m not sure about that; he wasn’t so nice last night.’

‘Why? He been cheating on you?’

‘No, nothing like that. He was just – he was rude to the waitress and then he sulked because I was upset, and he was just . . .’ She couldn’t say the word to her dad that would properly describe what Vassilis was being last night.

He dipped his head in an acknowledgement that this wasn’t great. ‘Ah still. He is young and stupid boy but he did come say sorry. And I think he really was sorry. And you’ve been so happy lately, when you’ve been out with him. This deserves another chance, I think.’

Nina looked at her baba, his big brown eyes hopeful, his hands clutched together as he leaned towards her. She wasn’t sure that Vassilis, pushing forty, deserved the excuse of youth and stupidity.

‘I’ll think about it,’ she said, sitting back in her chair and closing her eyes again, though she honestly didn’t think it was worth the effort.

‘For your baba,’ he said, his voice warm with satisfaction.

‘For my baba,’ she replied. And when she felt his hand reach out to her, she took it in her own.

It wasn’t that she meant to surprise Vassilis. She was tired and she didn’t have the energy to arrange anything; he’d shown her where he lived, it wasn’t far away and, though she’d never been in his flat before, it seemed easy enough to walk there and see him.

He was clearly surprised to find her standing on his doorstep, his expression a mix of shock and joy at the sight of her.

‘Nina! Did you – I didn’t know you were coming.’

She was about to say that Theo had made her come, but realised it sounded somewhat ungracious. ‘I came on a whim.’

Eventually he recovered his senses enough to step aside and let her in, frantically gathering the shoes, clothes and tools that littered the floor of the hallway, his arms soon overflowing so that a dirty sock and a used takeaway cup fell to the floor.