She put her hand on Charlotte’s arm.
‘OK, I’m sorry if I implied you were up for jumping on Dimitris.’
Charlotte’s tight smile remained.
‘And I didn’t mean to give the impression you were a sex-crazed nymphomaniac only after young flesh.’
Maddie was making good headway with her plate of scrambled eggs.
‘That’s better, isn’t it?’
Sofia wasn’t entirely convinced, but there was no point pushing it now. Charlotte’s over-the-top reaction to her suggestion had been totally out of character. There was definitely something else lurking behind it.
Maria’s tut as she passed their table at Maddie’s food choice was more than loud enough for them all to hear.
‘Woah.’ Sofia wagged her finger at her friend.
‘You’re for it now.’
‘Lucky we’re leaving tomorrow then.’ Maddie pushed her empty plate into the middle of the table. ‘I rather like this idea of island hopping. I’d never done it before you suggested it, Sof, but leaving your mistakes… or triumphs… behind you and moving on to pastures new is starting to really appeal to me.’
Me too, thought Sofia. The thought of bumping into Giannis again was excruciating.
‘It’s like a blank slate.’
Maddie put a napkin on her head and twirled her hand in front of her face like a low rent fortune teller.
‘We can reinvent ourselves on each island if we like, change our names, our appearances, our very souls.’
A confused frown appeared on Charlotte’s face, which made Sofia smile. For an artist, her imagination was sometimes on the limited side.
‘I don’t think we need to go quite that far.’
Charlotte’s colour had at least returned to normal after her outburst, thought Sofia, as her friend stared at a map on her phone.
‘OK, let’s meet down here at eleven for our taxi. Don’t be late. Wear suitable shoes, and don’t forget suncream, hats and insect repellent.’
Sofia saluted.
That was more like the Charlotte she knew and loved.
Chapter Eight
Charlotte screamed as three goats ran across the road in front of them without warning, forcing their taxi driver to slam on his brakes.
‘I don’t think they learned the Green Cross Code at goat school,’ observed Maddie. ‘None of them Stopped, Looked or Listened.’
Sofia exchanged a look in the rear mirror with the driver who had lovely green eyes.
‘At least we managed to avoid them. You’ll be talking about Tufty the Squirrel next, Mads. You’re really ageing us here.’
Maddie shook her head.
‘You’re wrong. The Green Cross Code was big when we were kids in the seventies, but apparently, it’s still used today. My daughter told me.’
‘Interesting.’
Sofia hoped the driver’s English wasn’t good enough to translate Maddie’s whole sentence, particularly the bit about being kids in the seventies. Not that she was planning anything with this guy, one man per island was enough. But she liked tothink that people, well mainly men, thought she was in her early fifties at most, preferably late forties at a pinch. Mentally, she was forever twenty-eight, but that didn’t count, unfortunately.
