‘Konstantinos.’
Sofia looked down at the strong tanned hand holding her own.
‘Sofia.’
‘Pleased to meet you, orhero polias we say in Greece.’
Maddie raised her eyebrows at Charlotte.
‘Here we go again. Do you think she’ll remember she’s got two passengers before she drives off?’
Car hire guy (they were too far away to hear his name) brought out an iPad and asked their friend to sign something.
Then he brought out his phone. Maddie strained to hear their conversation.
‘He’s asking for her number, I’m sure of it.’
‘Let’s get over there.’
‘Hi!’ Charlotte raised her hand at car hire guy, who smiled at her and Maddie for all of a second before looking longingly back at Sofia.
‘Are you sure you don’t need me to show you how everything works?’
‘No, I’m fine, Konstantinos.’
Maddie smiled at the disappointment which oozed out of the man at not getting the chance to be squashed up against his new client.
‘Remember what I said!’ Konstantinos held up his phone as another car, a bigger, flashier, black one pulled into the courtyard, which Maddie presumed was his lift back to the office rather than a sudden upgrade.
She pulled open the back passenger door of the Suzuki and indicated that Charlotte, with her long legs, should get in thefront. It wasn’t an entirely selfless gesture. Being closer to Sofia meant being closer to the action. Charlotte would have no choice but to navigate. At least in the back she could close her eyes occasionally and hope no one would notice.
‘Made a conquest?’ Maddie caught Sofia’s eye in the rear-view mirror.
‘He asked me out for a drink if that’s what you mean,’ Sofia snapped back, before remembering their pact, and smiling widely. ‘He seems like a nice guy.’
‘Very much your type, I’d say. Knocking forty and fit.’
‘Yeah, he is cute. I’ll give it some thought.’
Although it was true that on paper Konstantinos was everything she liked, muscular and smiley being her main prerequisites, the thought of a possible date with him didn’t fill her with the joy of old. He could fill out a t-shirt, no problem, but she knew nothing about him. She would be seeing Adonis again in a week’s time. She knew what she was getting there, and what she would be getting was pretty damn good. Her encounter with Giannis hadn’t exactly been a triumph. Surely, she could wait a week. She’d leave Konstantinos on hold for the moment. It was always good to have a back-up plan.
The journey to the car park was mercifully short and Maddie breathed a huge sigh of relief when she could open the car door and escape. There’d been a couple of hairy moments involving stray cats, lorries and boy racers taking corners on the wrong side of the road, as well as plenty of swearing in Spanish from Sofia, but they’d made it in one piece.
‘Don’t forget your hats.’ Charlotte was back in Girl Guide mode, her earlier outburst seemingly forgotten. ‘And as we have to swim through the gorge to get to the waterfall, I think we should lock our valuables in the car and just take our towels.’
‘What! Hang on a minute… Swim through the gorge? I never signed up for that.’ Maddie couldn’t keep the tremble out of her voice.
‘It will be fine. Hundreds of people do it every day.’ Charlotte was using her best matron voice now. ‘Chuck everything in the boot you’re not taking and let’s go.’
The woodland path to the waterfall was paved with dappled sunlight and tall trees, and for the next half hour, Maddie tried to distract herself from what was to come by looking at the shape of their leaves. A trickling stream ran beside them, full of boulders and smaller stones, and the soothing sound of water enabled her to slow her breathing, rather than panting like an overheated dog. Plants with delicate pink flowers hung their branches over the stream, and tall green reeds with heads that looked like corn grew in the shallows.
A yellow butterfly fluttered in and out of the reeds just ahead of her for most of the journey. She and Tony had loved butterflies. It must be a good omen.
Not having any phones was somehow freeing. Maddie truly believed that taking away the pressure to photograph anything or put it on social media meant a deeper connection with virtually any experience, but she knew it wouldn’t be a popular theory with anyone under thirty-five, so she usually kept her opinion to herself at family gatherings. Not that there’d been many of those lately.
There’d been simple meals at her daughter’s, with her as the lone guest, but not the big family meals of old. Elsie would be big enough to join them now, in her own highchair. Maddie stumbled a moment as she imagined the scene, her little golden-haired granddaughter making the usual mess that babies made. She’d be happy to be covered head to toe in banana mulch if it meant they were all together again.
When they reached the huge rocks that signified the start of the stretch of water which led to the waterfall, Maddie noticed groups of people stretched out on them drying themselves in the sun like giant insects. The myriad of languages being spoken created an unwelcome buzz after the quiet of the pathway. She didn’t hugely want an audience for her waterfall feat, but it seemed like there wasn’t much choice.
