Being Shirley (22 page)

“Opa! A traditional Greek dinner for our guests! Lamb Kleftico,” she declared in her well-practised English. She seemed to stand a little taller as around the table they clapped and oohed and aahed over the meal she had produced for them. The tense atmosphere of earlier had dispersed as the heated words Kassia and Alexandros had exchanged were seemingly forgotten. Good food had the power to do that, Annie surmised. She wondered idly whether warring factions around the world were to simply sit down over a hearty meal like this whether they could work their problems out with so much more ease than by shedding blood on a battlefield. With that thought in mind, she eyed up the loaf of thickly sliced crusty bread already buttered and just waiting for them to mop up the juices left behind by the stew. Nikolos banged his spoon on his highchair in anticipation of being fed and Mateo kneeled up on his chair, about to lean over the table to see for himself what was in the pot. It was a futile attempt as his mother grabbed the back of his T-shirt and hauled him back down to a sitting position.

“So Alexandros, how is your new friend? Perhaps instead of taking her out on the boat tomorrow, you could take her into town to buy some new swimwear. Her bikini bottoms seem to have disintegrated!” Spiros tossed over the table at his brother with a smirk on his face.

“Sharon is fine, as is her bikini but thank you for your concern, Spiros,” Alexandros shot back. Mama ladled the stew into her oldest son’s bowl, placed the spoon back in the casserole dish and swiped him across the back of his head.

She fired something off in Greek, which Annie decided was probably along the lines of “Don’t wind your brother up.”

“And just what were you doing looking at
Sharon’s
non-existent bikini bottoms, Spiros?” Kassia bantered to her husband.

“I was concerned she might catch a cold or worse, suffer from sunburn of the bottom. You know, it is a terrible thing not being able to sit down.” There were snorts of stifled laughter around the table and Spiros, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth, carried on. “It was nothing more than that, Kassia, my love, I can assure you. You know I only have eyes for you, my wife.” The tender look in his eyes despite the playfulness of his words spoke volumes. Annie suddenly found herself hoping that one day someone would feel that way about her. Tony had never looked at her the way in which Spiros just had at his wife. It was a realisation that filled her with sadness but she steeled herself against it and told herself once more that she had indeed made the right decision in breaking things off with him. They both deserved better than what they had been able to give each other.

Mama sat down and urged them all to start. Calls of
pass the salad
and
pass the bread
went up. Annie’s gaze swept round the table and her heart swelled. It was true that she had been saying an awful lot of goodbyes over the last few months but she’d also said hello too, and now here she was in the midst of this crazy, lovely Greek family. She watched Carl break off a piece of bread and place it down on Nikolos’s highchair tray. She knew that she’d miss him like crazy but she also knew she would be okay without him. He was right in what he had said to her earlier in the day. She was exactly where she needed to be at the moment.

Carl announced his plans to leave in two days to begin his return trip to New Zealand after the last scraping from the pot of tender lamb, feta cheese, and onions had been consumed and the last drop of the delicious gravy mopped from each of their plates. The children had gotten down from the table and the first thing Mateo had done was race over to the kitchen bench to swipe a piece of baklava. Annie and Carl had bought the box of sticky honeyed pastry back from Elounda with them. He’d shovelled it into his mouth before his mother could stop him and the sight of him trying to chew with chipmunk cheeks sent them all into fits of laughter.

The knowledge that Carl’s visit was to be fleeting was all the excuse needed. And so as they sat back in their chairs satiated and well fed, hands sticky from the baklava they’d just polished off for dessert, the Raki had been produced again. Despite her protestations that the aniseed liqueur was responsible for her hangover that morning, Annie still found herself raising her shot glass to toast her friend.

She shuddered as the potent liquid went down and a rush of heat went to her cheeks.

“What about you, Annie? What are your plans?” Kassia asked.

“Yes, Annie, what are your plans?” Alexandros looked at her with open interest on his handsome features and received a kick under the table from Kassia. “Ouch!”

“Don’t you have some place to be?”

“Sharon and Tracey have gone to Malia to have dinner with some friends staying at a resort there and I’m not meeting them in town until ten o’clock.”

“Well, just make sure you don’t go drinking and dancing the night away. Not when you have the breakfast orders to help me with in the morning. And don’t forget that it’s your turn to make the rooms up tomorrow. Annie?”

Annie’s eyes stopped swivelling from one to the other; she was only just getting used to these three-way table conversations.

“Oh, I’m definitely staying for a while yet. If that is okay with you all?”

Kassia’s grin as Spiros got up to fill the glasses for another toast said it all.

“Opa!” Mama raised her glass.

Annie’s phone bleeped. The sound intruded on the peaceful murmurings of distant conversations and slushing waves of the incoming tide. It was a reminder of the real world and one she couldn’t ignore, just in case.
That was the thing with text messages
, she thought as she sighed;
it might be something really important or it might not
.
Unless she checked her phone, though, it would niggle at her because of that all-important “just in case.” She held her book in her right hand and reached over the side of the sun lounger with her left to pat the warm sand in a lazy attempt to locate her bag. At last her hand settled on the scratchy cane of her tote. She found her phone inside it, held it aloft to read the message and squinted into the mid-morning glare, despite her sunglasses. It was no good; she’d have to move if she wanted to see who it was from. Reluctantly, she pulled herself up into a sitting position and shaded the screen of the phone by holding up a corner of her towel. Annie smiled as she saw the message was from Carl. He’d made it from Athens to Heathrow and was at present devouring a Mars bar while he waited to board his flight to LA. Okay, so this earth-shattering news could have waited but it made her smile anyway.

She pitied the poor sod who wound up seated next to him for the next leg of his trip home. Despite his best efforts to secure a business class seat, the plane had been full and there had been no last-minute cancellations, so once more he was forced to join the heaving masses in economy. She tapped out a reply to ask him whether he had invested in compression socks this time round and pushed Send. A couple playing catch in the shallows caught her eye. They must have been in their late thirties but the holiday spirit had them cavorting in the water like a couple of kids.

It was nice to see.
Sea, sand, and sunshine were definitely good for the soul
, Annie mused as she waited for Carl’s reply. She didn’t have to wait long and she laughed out loud as she skimmed over the shorthand that said she had better not be mocking him because swollen ankles were a serious business. Never one to cut a long story short, he went on to say that he was at risk of becoming a forty-year-old sufferer of the dreaded cankle but he’d decided it was a risk he was going to have to take. No way was he forking out a small fortune to wear what equated to knee-high pantyhose. Look at Mama—the knee-high tights she insisted on wearing hadn’t done anything for her, he finished. With a grin at the mental image of him holding up a packet of the ugly socks in the airport’s pharmacy, Annie quickly replied and signed off by wishing him safe travels.

She put the phone away in anticipation of settling herself back down on the lounger. It was costing her good money, five euro, for the privilege of reclining on it. As she reluctantly handed the note over to the girl who manned the beds, she’d reminded herself that everybody had a living to make. The locals had to make hay while the sun was shining—fair enough—so she was going to bloody well make sure she enjoyed it. Besides, an hour or two’s R&R after the morning she’d had was just what the doctor ordered.

She tried to submerge herself into the pages of her book once more, but Annie found her mind wandering. Carl had been gone for three whole days now. They’d filled the last of his time in Crete from sunset to sundown, exploring their surrounds and spending time with Kassia and the family. Borrowing the courtesy wagon, a morning had whizzed by in Heraklion as they mooched around a market together before a visit to the ruins of Knossos. They’d both been in awe of the fact that the rubble remains they walked amid had been home to the Minoans, the earliest known civilisation in Europe. Carl had announced with loud passion that it had inspired him, and he was seriously thinking about redecorating in the style of Modern Greek Revival when he got home. Annie had told him not to be such a tosser.

The next day, Kassia had taken them with her to pick up supplies in Agios Nikolaos and used the trip as an excuse to while away the hours over lunch. She’d taken them to a tucked away tavern that overlooked an inlet bustling with boats and afterwards they’d worked the meal off with a walk along the waterfront to watch the never-ending stream of promenading bad drivers. When they’d arrived back in Elounda later that afternoon, Annie had asked as to whether they might be able to take Mateo down to the beach for an hour. It was a request that saw the little boy plonked in front of them swim togs on, towel in hand before either of them had a chance to change their minds!

The first wee while on the beach, he had sporadically pulled Annie’s hair as though he still wasn’t convinced it was real. This was a game he seemed never to tire of, not even when there was a bucket and spade he could make use of. Annie’s scalp, however, had tired of the game and so to distract him, she had suggested they have a game of jump the waves. With Carl holding one of Mateo’s little hands and Annie the other, the threesome had paddled into the water and they hauled him up into the air whenever a wave rolled in. His giggles were infectious and as people paused to smile at the happy scene, they’d smiled proudly at each other over the top of his head. It had been fun. Mind you, Carl had commented sagely as the tired trio walked the few metres back from the beach to the house, parenting always was fun so long as you could give the child back at the end of the day.

On Carl’s last night, revved up by too many glasses of Raki, they had decided to check out the local nightlife. Kassia and Spiros had joined them at a club, whose music pumped out onto the street and promised a lively time to all who ventured in. They had stayed for an hour before declaring themselves to be past it. Kassia had whispered in Annie’s ear that although it had been nice to put a dress and some make-up on, the thought of being woken at the crack of dawn by the boys was enough to make anyone want to crawl into bed! Sadly for them, they’d missed the highlight of the evening when a short while after they’d headed off, Carl had spotted Alexandros and Blondie. The dynamic duo cut a few moves on the crowded dance floor.

The pair had been a great source of entertainment for Carl and Annie and now, as she thought back on his comments as a zooped-up version of Van Morrison’s “Gloria” had blared out and Blondie threw herself about the dance floor—“God help us all if she ever takes up Irish dancing,” followed swiftly by “If Alexandros’s nose dives any further down her top he will most likely lose consciousness”—she felt a pang. She missed him already, although with Carl about to wing his way home, she had quickly settled into her own routine. As her attempts at paying for her lodgings had been thwarted by both Mama and Kassia, she had decided that rather than fall into the freeloading bracket of Alexandros, who had far more right to do so than she did, she would make herself useful.

It wasn’t difficult to do at this time of year. Kassia, Mama, and Spiros were run off their feet with a full house and two young boys to look after. There were the breakfasts to prepare and clear away, the beds to be made, a never-ending pile of towels to wash, as well as the guest’s laundry and bathrooms to scrub. There were booking requests to be responded to, tours to be organised, accounts to be maintained, a garden to upkeep, fishing excursions and day trips to Spinalonga. The list went on and on. It was all hands to the deck, so to speak—apart from Alexandros, who was hit-and-miss most days. It was as though he sensed just how far he could go with his mama and when he had stretched the cord far enough, he rallied round and became indispensable, if only for a few hours. Those few hours, though, were enough to have her beaming with delight as she elbowed Kassia. “You see, my Alexandrosaki mou, he does work hard. You need to stop being so hard on the boy.”

“What does it mean when she adds ‘aki’ to the end of his name?” Annie had asked.

“It means my little Alexandros. He’s hardly little or a boy, and I don’t think it is a good thing to always be the reliable ones in this family.” Kassia muttered, “The more you do, the more is expected.”

Annie would be happy for them to take her for granted
, she thought as she stretched out on the lounger with the languor of someone who right at that moment in time didn’t have to be anywhere else in the world. It was a lovely feeling and she did feel a little sleepy. This morning, she had woken just as the sun tried to sneak in through the worn patches of her calico curtains. Adonis was curled up in the crook of her knees once more and she’d lain in bed for a moment to watch the shards of light penetrate the faded spots of fabric and grow ever brighter before she roused herself.

The family’s bathroom, as she’d tiptoed down the silent, still darkened hallway, was empty, which gave her the chance to wake herself properly under a hot shower. Afterwards, she had padded back to her room to make herself presentable. If she was to be serving breakfast, she’d have to make sure she tied her hair up.
There could be no random hairs in the eggs of paying guests
, she thought with a rueful flashback to the night of the Playboy Bunny outfit incident. As she pulled her damp hair back into a ponytail, she was pleased to find the sting had gone out of that episode now. She wondered fleetingly as she rummaged in her make-up bag how Tony was getting on. She had made a point of steering clear of all social networking sites for the simple reason that although she wanted to know he was okay, she had no need to know how or maybe even with whom he spent his weekends these days. She swept her mascara under her lashes before she finished off with a swipe of lip gloss. She stepped back from the mirror and decided she was ready to face the day. As for her black skirt and white T-shirt—well, that was the closest thing to waitressing attire she’d brought with her. It would have to do.

Nobody had surfaced by the time she pushed the door to the kitchen open, though she had noticed a light peeping out from under the crack of Mama’s door.
She wouldn’t be too far away
, Annie thought as she switched on the light, but in the meantime she’d pop the pot on and grab a much-needed cup of coffee.

Mama appeared just as Annie drained the dregs from her cup. She helped herself to a cup of the steaming brew in the pot before she sat down heavily at the table opposite Annie. “You are up early, Annieaki.” She took a sip from her cup. “I hope you are sleeping okay?”

“Like a log, Mama.”

She looked at her blankly. Her English was good but like Kassia’s, it didn’t always stretch to idioms, Annie realised. “I have been sleeping very well, thank you.”

The old woman beamed. “Good, good.” Then she yawned and held her plump hand to her mouth, her thick gold wedding band still firmly embedded in the folds of flesh. “I am sorry; it is Nikolos. He is still waking in the night. I hear him sometimes.”

She did look tired. Annie noticed the paunches under her eyes and the pinched look around her mouth. As much as she obviously loved being surrounded by her family, having little children in the house again at her age must take its toll. Though now that she thought about it, she didn’t actually know what age Mama was. She could be anywhere between sixty and eighty—she just had one of those faces. The living arrangement probably wasn’t easy for any of them at times, something that was becoming evident from her vantage point as an outsider looking in. Still, now that she was here, perhaps she could help ease the load a bit for them all. “Um, Mama, the reason I am up so early is that I’d like you to put me to work this morning. I want to earn my keep.” Annie smiled at the older woman, who smiled beatifically back at her before doing just that.

By the time Annie had finished setting the tables for breakfast in the dining room the way Mama had shown her how to, Kassia, Spiros, and the children had trooped into the kitchen. An air of chaos circulated as Nikolos loudly let it be known he was hungry. Mateo, not to be beaten, grabbed his spoon and banged it down on the table in anticipation of food. His weary-looking father rubbed his hand over his layer of stubble as he told him to stop it. Kassia, looking marginally more awake than her husband, sidestepped Mama in order to sort the boys’ breakfasts before she tended to her and Spiros’s own desperate need for coffee. Mama was busy cracking eggs into a bowl and asked Annie whether she could go find the bacon in the fridge because she couldn’t see it.

“Mama, it might help if you wore your glasses.” Spiros snatched the spoon from Mateo’s hand, which caused his oldest son to wail.

She threw her hands in the air. “Pah, I don’t need them. My eyes are fine.” She blew kisses over to Mateo. “Agoraki mou.” He stopped crying and smiled at his Yaya as though butter would not melt.

“It means my little boy.” Kassia rolled her eyes at Annie before she carried the two bowls over to the table and banged them down in front of her sons.

Eleni’s served breakfast between eight a.m. and ten a.m. With the twelve guests currently accommodated and trickling through at different times, Annie knew it was going to make for a busy morning. There was a moment’s blissful silence as the boys tucked into their food, broken by the bell ringing in the room next door, which signified the first guests’ arrival to the dining room.
Right, Annie
, she told herself as she smoothed her hair back and picked up the notepad and pen from the bench.
It’s show-time!

Kassia gave her the thumbs-up as Mama placed toast in front of her grandsons and fussed over them. Annie pushed open the door and spied a dourly elegant, elderly couple sitting at the prime table by the window. She paused for a split second to admire the view they were being treated to.
It was bound to lift anyone’s spirits, even this pair who looked completely miserable in each other’s company
. She walked towards them, her brightest smile firmly in place.