Page 76 of The Little Greek Guesthouse

The next few weeks passed in a blur. After she’d fled from George and Susan, George had made attempts to call her, but she’d not answered. How could he explain his way out of this one?

Was she destined only to fall for men who betrayed her?

That same night, Heather had picked up the pieces. They sat in her room, drinking pink wine and talking. She failed to locate any cheese puffs, but a huge pack of salt and vinegar Lay’s made an excellent substitute.

‘I can’t believe he’s married!’ Heather said for the hundredth time.

‘He never said a thing. I – I even asked once, I think, you know about girlfriends and stuff. He just changed the subject.’

Heather shook her head and shoved a handful of crisps into her mouth. ‘He seemed like such a nice guy. What a total shrimp.’

‘You know you can swear, there’s no kids here.’

Heather shrugged. ‘I just can’t.’

‘What about his Instagram, doesn’t he talk about his bloody wife? He’s probably got three adorable blue-eyed kids, too.’

Heather shook her head, looking bewildered. ‘No, he doesn’t – I’m sure I’d have noticed.’ She sighed. ‘I should have googled him, I suppose.’

She pulled up George’s Instagram, and Nina couldn’t help peeking, as picture after picture of him scrolled past. George, talking animatedly about an animal he’d saved, George talking earnestly about the danger to another breed, George cradling a snail, a baby bird, a mouse, a frog.

She tried to stop her heart from leaping at the sight of those blue eyes and long, sandy lashes. At the freckles on his cheeks and those full lips, that she knew all too well felt so good pressed to her own. Those gentle hands, that had held her.

Turning away, she swallowed. She had hated him once. She could do it again.

‘It just felt like we had a real connection. You know?’ She was horrified to find her voice wobbling. Heather glanced up from her phone, patting Nina’s arm sympathetically. ‘I can’t believe it was all a lie, it felt so –’

‘Wait.’

Heather was peering at her phone again, bringing it close to her face. Nina’s heart dropped. This was it – wedding photos, a pic of him holding his baby triplets, him and his wife smiling over champagne. She swallowed, and braced herself.

‘Look.’

Heather shoved the phone into her face, and she had to jerk backwards to avoid being hit with it. She tried to focus on the picture – George. No wife, no kids. Just George, with his hair shorter and skin less tanned, pointing to a giant tortoise.

She didn’t understand at first but, as Heather waited, she saw it: the wedding ring.

Nina felt sick.

‘He – do you think he took it off just to trick me?’ Was George one of those men that took his ring off when he was away from his wife? She could hardly believe it. He had seemed so genuine, so caring and honest. How could she have let herself trust another man that was lying to her?

Heather shrugged. ‘I don’t know, I mean, this post is from . . .’ She inspected her phone intently. ‘Way back, like two years ago. I’m pretty sure there’s no ring in the more recent ones, so maybe he’s divorced or something?’ Her voice rose, hopeful that this was all a misunderstanding.

Nina snorted. ‘They seem pretty close to me, they were holding hands. And she said his wife. His wife, Heth, not his ex.’ She shook her head. ‘No. Whatever it is, it’s not over between them. No wonder he wouldn’t talk about it.’

Heather threw the phone onto the bed and then threw her arms around Nina. ‘What an absolute little shrimp,’ she said.

Heather went home a week later.

Nina, still smarting, threw herself into plans for the guesthouse. At least this was something good she could work on. She and Theo had put together a seemingly endless list of jobs, allocating roles for each of them. Theo was looking into the paperwork, insurance and building regulations. He spoke to the villagers, especially Yiannis, to ensure that they were happy; the village wasn’t about to be overrun with tourists. Yiannis was pleased to hear that they would have no more than three rooms available and would only be offering breakfasts at the guesthouse. Enough to bring in a bit of extra custom for Yiannis, but not so many tourists as to overwhelm the services in the village, or ruin it with litter and loud noise. So far so good.

Yiannis helped Theo put together a potential breakfast menu, and they spent many nights having ‘planning meetings’, which Nina strongly suspected consisted of drinking Mythos and reminiscing. He suggested more than once that she ask Maria for advice. She refused. Maria had kept quiet about George’s wife, knowing that Nina was falling for him. Nina felt almost as betrayed by her as by George – how could Maria have kept her in the dark about something so huge? Perhaps she was so blinded when it came to George that she really did think he could do no wrong, even when he was hiding a wife back home.

Once again she’d been betrayed by both the man she was seeing and a friend she trusted. Nina felt sick when she thought about it, so she spent most of her time keeping busy with the guesthouse, desperately trying to distract herself.

It was her job to plan the décor, and she found hours disappeared this way, stopping her from getting into a mind spin about George, going over every conversation they’d had, trying to find hints of the existence of a wife. Instead, her mind was occupied, and soothed, by the planning of colour schemes, the sourcing of locally made furniture and rugs, paintings and bedding, crockery and kitchen implements. She and Theo had pooled their resources and set a budget, and she was determined to stick to it. She would show Theo that this wasn’t a mistake, and they could make a comfortable living by creating this welcoming guesthouse.

Soon, the rooms would all be painted white, the window frames and shutters blue. A different rug in each room, with the same blue and complimentary terracotta tones to add warmth. She’d found a local artist who painted pictures of the sea view, the soft warm colours of the sand and sunset bleeding into the vibrant blues of the sea, and one who made gorgeous ceramic lamps and vases.