‘You know what—’ she opened the phone’s photo album again ‘—why don’t we park those photos for a while and start with something easy. Yesterday’s wedding. It’s always easier to curate a collection of photos from something very recent because you haven’t yet become ridiculously nostalgic.’
‘Oh yes. I totally get that.’ Felix was cheering up fast. ‘Let’s do it.’
And, oh no, Matt was in quite a lot of the photos, because he and Alfredo and a few other men had been hanging out together at the bar quite a lot of the evening. Lily didn’t want to delete photos of Matt, she wanted to send them to her own phone and keep them. Clearly, she really shouldn’t be preaching to other people about an excess of nostalgia.
Utterly, utterly ridiculous. She was a professional and she needed to remember that.
Half an hour later, after she’d watched and winced as Felix deleted several photos that included agorgeous-looking Matt and had to restrain herself frompeeringat the photos to check out everything he’d been doing last night – God, it was like she was astalker– she looked at her watch and said, ‘I’m so sorry, I need to leave for my ferry over to Paros. I’m on a flight to Athens this evening and then straight to London tonight.’
‘Same. Let’s go together,’ Felix said. ‘I think we’re the only ones travelling this evening. Most people either booked a holiday for the coming week or went back early this morning.’
There were a surprisingly large number of people at the little ferry terminal when the three of them pitched up with all their cases in tow. And no ferry. That would be why there were so many people. The ferry was obviously late.
‘I hope the ferry arrives soon.’ Lily really didn’t want to miss her flight. She looked around. ‘It’s amazing how many people can fit in one smallish ferry. Like, you’d never think all these people could squeeze inside one of those boats we came on, would you?’
‘I actually don’t think theycould.’ Alfredo was looking around too, and frowning. ‘I’m getting a bad feeling. About the ferry. Look at everyone’s body language. There’s way too much gesturing and surprise going on.’
‘I think you’re right.’ Lily pointed to where a sunburned man in a tight t-shirt and Hawaiian shorts had his face right up close to an official-looking man and was yelling. ‘The ferry must have been cancelled. I wonder what time the next one is and whether we’ll be able to get on it.’
‘Why don’t you wait here with the bags while I go and ask someone.’ Alfredo set off towards the crowd and Lily and Felix pulled all the bags into the shade.
‘We should check whether our flights are flexible and whether we’re insured for things like this.’ Felix pulled out his phone as Lily sank onto her suitcase, blinking back tears.
She shouldn’t cry; people’s travel plans got disrupted all the time. This would befine. It was the lack of sleep and the all-pervasive sadness about Matt that were making her react like this.
She shook her head, sniffed and said, ‘Right, so I’m going to check the time of the next ferry and then I’m thinking we should maybe see if we can check back into our hotels, fast, in case we can’t get off the island tonight and there’s a rush on rooms.’
‘Good point.’ Felix was swiping. ‘I think we should be okay ticket-wise. Have you found yours?’
‘Just trawling through my emails now.’ Lily found the right one and began to read. Wow. Did they make the small print this complicated on purpose? Even with a full night’s sleep and no misery she’d be struggling to interpret all these clauses.
‘Okay. You read about your ticket and I’ll start calling round hotels.’
Lily had just begun to re-read everything from the start – reading the terms and conditions was one of those situations where you knew all the individual words, or most of them, anyway, but put them together and they could have been Greek – when a pair of tanned leather-thonged feet came to a stop in front of her. Alfredo’s.
‘It’s worse than we thought unfortunately,’ he said. ‘There’s a strike. As in, no ferries at all until the strike stops.’
‘Ferrystrike?’ Lily parroted. Nightmare.
‘Total disaster,’ Felix said. ‘We’re going to be sleeping on the beach like teenage interrailers. I’ve been phoning around and all the rooms on the island seem to have been taken by the tourists who arrived this morning, obviously before the strike struck. Saturday’s the big swapover day for accommodation.’
‘Fortunately,’ Alfredo said, ‘I bumped into Matt down on the quay.’
Lily looked up and behind Alfredo. And, yes, there was Matt. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed him there before. She’d obviously been too blindsided by the strike news.Fortunatewasn’t the word she would have used to describe bumping into him.
He was standing looking down at her, his face completely blank. Why hadn’t he left when everyone else did? Carole had said something about him staying with her and Norm on Paros tonight. Why hadn’t he already gone?
‘Didn’t realise you were staying on.’ Felix stood up so Lily hauled herself up too.
‘I’m not.’ Matt turned his eyes from Lily to Felix and smiled briefly. ‘I spent the day here doing some work looking at a couple of properties on the island, and now I’m going over to Paros to stay with my aunt Carole. I’ve just spoken to her, and her husband’s going to pick me up in their boat. There’s space for the three of you and you might be better off coming with me in case the strike goes on for a while because the only way off Antiparos is by boat.’
‘I’ve already told Matt that I’m pretty sure you’ll be with me in agreeing that we’d definitely like a lift,’ Alfredo told Felix.
Lily really didn’t want to get a lift anywhere with Matt. Spending any more time with him would be too heartbreaking. She didn’t want to see him again for a very long time, so that she could lick her wounds, forget all about him and get back to her normal happy state.
‘That would begreat.’ Felix took Matt’s hand and pumped it up and down.
The men all turned to look at Lily. She’d be mad not to accept the offer. She needed to get home and there’d be flights off Paros, plus it would be easier to find somewhere to stay tonight on a bigger island. And what excuse could she give for not joining them? Okay. Fine. It was just a short boat trip, and there’d be Felix, Alfredo and Norm as well as Matt.
