‘Everything OK?’ she shouted over.
‘Fine,’ Maddie shouted back, before lowering her voice again.
‘I don’t know what this thing with Thanassis is. But I wish you two would let me be a grown-up and make my own decisions.’
Sofia got up and pulled Maddie in for a hug.
‘Of course you’re a grown-up, but we also know that this is the first time you’ve spent any time alone like this with a man– I’m not calling it a date– since Tony died.’ Sofia held up her hands. ‘We just want to make sure you enjoy it and are not stressing out about it.’
‘Thank you both for your concern, but I’m not stressed… much.’
Her friends really did care, and although they felt like overprotective maiden aunts at this point, she couldn’t imagine being on this journey without them.
The noise of a motorbike pulling up outside put their squabble straight out of her mind as her stomach curled into a knot. The bike sounded just like Tony’s. For one insane second, she imagined him walking into the hotel, dark hair all over the place as usual, winning smile in place.
But it was Thanassis, in a red T-shirt and jeans, who appeared in reception, two helmets hooked over his arm. Maddie clocked his bafflement at being confronted with three women rather than just the one he’d come for, but he recovered well, which was a big tick in her book. He approached their group with a blistering smile.
‘My three guardian angels, all together. What a lovely surprise!’
Maddie stepped forward and took the helmet he was offering her.
‘Don’t worry. They’re not coming with us.’
‘Shame.’ His eyes twinkled. ‘But we don’t have room anyway.’
His attention was solely on her. The others might as well have been invisible. It must be an unusual feeling for Sofia,thought Maddie, as she tried to avoid catching the smell of Thanassis’s aftershave again. Not that he was Sofia’s type, far too old, but she was always the one out of the three of them who men looked at first.
In a tight long-term friendship, everyone had their assigned roles, and Sofia’s was definitely the man magnet. Not a role Maddie or Charlotte had ever craved, but Thanassis obviously hadn’t got the memo. His eyes were on her again. It was nice to be appreciated, but it wasn’t going anywhere.
‘Are you OK on a motorbike? Have you been on one before?’
‘I can honestly say hundreds, if not thousands, of times.’
His relief was palpable.
‘Ah good, as it is a lovely way to see some hidden parts of the island. Parts that most tourists never see. And we won’t be bothered by anyone wanting to talk to you about what happened.’
‘Works for me.’
Maddie blew a kiss back to her friends as Thanassis linked arms with her.
‘Goodbye, angels. Be good, and don’t wait up.’
Sofia waited until they’d gone out the front door.
‘He definitely wants to explore her hidden parts, no matter what she says.’
‘Very definitely.’
‘Char! That’s not like you.’
Charlotte smiled at Sofia’s shocked reaction.
‘I’m a bit bored of being like me all the time. We could all try swapping personalities for the day tomorrow. I’ll make endless raunchy remarks, Maddie can take us on a very long tour of ancient monuments, and you can spend some time communing with the elderly. What do you think?’
Sofia stared at Charlotte open-mouthed. She wasn’t sure what to think. She and Maddie still hadn’t got to the bottomof what was wrong with their friend after her wobble in the ice cream café a couple of days ago. But this sort of talk was very unlike Charlotte.
For Sofia, knowing with certainty how her schoolmates were going to react in any given situation was a big attraction of the friendship between the three of them, since the rest of her life had so little structure, especially now her job had been snatched away from her.
