Claudia's Big Break (22 page)

18

‘J
ack,' I said after I'd managed to prise myself out of the chair, ‘I am
really
sorry about this morning. I was being
really
silly and I'm
really
sorry for being so stupid.' All I wanted him to do was to hug me and tell me I was forgiven. Call me a people pleaser, but even though I might not want a relationship, I didn't want Jack to hate me either.

‘Don't worry about it,' he said calmly, wrapping his arms around me. ‘You were just showing off in front of Tara. It's okay.'

‘Really?' I said, my eyes teary. ‘I thought I'd screwed up big-time.'

‘You did, but I'm a big boofy bloke and I can handle it.' Jack paused for a moment. ‘I have to go now but how about we meet up later and head to the beach?'

‘Sounds great.' I said, immediately recalling the foot debacle from yesterday.

‘Promise I'll check for sharp objects before I let you in the water. Let's meet at that café you were lurking at the other day? Say oneish?'

‘Sure.'

Jack was clearly not one to stew on trivial arguments. That boded well for me because I was always putting my foot in my mouth. He was also a take-charge guy. I didn't want a Greek Adonis after all. Jack from Yackandandah would do me just fine.

When he kissed me, I knew we were back on track. It was a great kiss. A passionate kiss. Even my toenails danced. Everything was right with the world and I was damn glad the volcano hadn't swallowed me up. I told myself Jack was only a holiday fling. No point beating myself up about a future with him back in Brisbane when I knew it was only going to last until we left the island.

‘Thank goodness he's gone,' said Tara, dragging Levi behind her onto the terrace a few moments later. ‘Sophie's on the phone to Alex and it's getting quite h-e-a-t-e-d,' she said, spelling out the letters and pointing to Levi.

‘Exactly . . . heated . . .' I was miles away, kissing Jack on a huge yacht in the middle of the Mediterranean.

‘It's getting quite hot in there,' Tara hissed, pointing inside.

‘Hot?'

‘Bloody hell, Claud. They're arguing on the phone, for fuck's sake, and I don't want Levi to hear.'

‘So instead you brought him out here to listen to you swear?'

‘If you could spell I wouldn't have to.'

I ignored her. ‘So, what did you do with Jack this morning?' I asked Levi, pulling him up onto my knee.

‘Looked at poo.'

‘What else?'

‘Patted donkeys. Jack let me sit on one.'

‘Jack's nice, isn't he?' Looking for positive reinforcement from a three-year-old. Pitiful.

‘Yeah. Not as nice as my daddy.' Levi started crying. ‘I want my daddy.'

Before long, he was sobbing. Thankfully, Sophie heard the commotion and came rushing out.

‘Here, Leev,' she said and handed him her phone. ‘It's your turn to talk to Daddy.' Levi looked up, took the phone and jumped off me, but only after he'd wiped his nose on my shoulder.

A couple of minutes later, he waved the phone in Sophie's face. ‘He's gone now but he's gonna play ball with me when we get home and take me to the beach.' Levi was beside himself with happiness. Sophie looked exhausted.

‘You okay?' I asked her.

She nodded.

‘What did Alex say about Bryan?'

‘He said that I should do whatever makes me happy.' Sophie threw her hands into the air.

‘That's a bad thing?'

Sophie glared at me, before stomping back into the apartment.

I checked my messages. A text from Marcus, apologising for being abrupt on the phone the other day and adding,
Twenty
grand has been deposited into your bank account. What you do with
it is up to you.

Yippee! I texted back.
Twenty thousand thankyous! I promise
I'll track Con down, even if it takes me another month!

It was close to one o'clock by the time I walked into Fira. I had a spring in my step at the thought of meeting Jack for lunch. The fact that I was almost officially debt-free didn't hurt either. But just to be sure, I stopped at an automatic teller, not quite believing Marcus had actually paid me. I punched in my four numbers, asked for the account balance and the machine spat out a slip of paper. I read it and almost keeled over. I had twenty thousand, three hundred and forty-two dollars in my savings account. This was officially the best day of my life!

Not only was I rich (okay, I had to pay all the money to my bank and American Express, but today I was rich!), now that I'd put things right with Jack, I was happy too.

I loved this place: the cobbled pathways; the donkeys vying for road space with scooters, cars and pedestrians; the funky boutiques and fabulous cafés and bars. But it was the spectacular views that got me every time. Like nothing I'd ever seen before.

As usual there were crowds of tourists taking pictures, shouting in a jumble of foreign accents, but the town still had a casual, unhurried vibe about it. I bought a great straw bag and a couple of postcards. I even stopped by Nikos's place to praise him on the craftsmanship of my stunning turquoise necklace.

‘You like?'

‘Yes, very beautiful,' I told him.

‘Now, you buy matching earrings? Come, I show you.' Nikos led me inside the shop, thrust a glass of red wine in my hand and proceeded to show me several sets of exquisite earrings.

‘Best price for you, Clow-di-ah.'

Several minutes later, I waltzed out of the shop with an enormous smile on my face, feeling rather virtuous at having walked away from Nikos's shop empty-handed. No sparkling turquoise jewels would be dangling from my ears for the foreseeable future.

I was making my way to the café when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Con. He was hurrying out of a shop, then he disappeared around the corner. I raced after him but he had vanished. I thought about searching for him — after all, I'd promised Marcus, and he had paid me all that money — but the narrow alleyways were a maze and the chances were I'd only succeed in getting myself lost.

Jack was drinking a short black when I spotted him. My heart skipped a beat — he was actually at the café, waiting for me. I tried to remain outwardly calm and cool, which was difficult given the blazing heat.

‘Well, hello there,' Jack beamed as I sat down. ‘You know, I'm glad I looked over your shoulder that morning at the airport.'

‘So am I. Though who knew we'd end up here?'

Jack's eyes were bright and playful. ‘Santorini's special, isn't it?'

Now was my opportunity. I still hadn't asked Jack whether he had a significant other and the time had come to make a few inquiries. Despite me musing whether or not he had a wife or girlfriend at home, I assumed he didn't. Normally, people volunteer that information straight up. ‘You should meet my wife . . .' Or ‘You'd get on really well with my partner, Jenny . . .'

‘Jack,' I began slowly, opening my mouth and speaking before I had fully constructed the question in my mind, ‘I should have asked this days ago, but do you have a girlfriend or —' I gulped, ‘a wife back home?'

Jack shook his head. ‘No. Do you? A husband or boyfriend, I mean.'

‘No.'

‘And I don't live with my mother if that's your next question.'

Just then I saw Con again . . . this time, walking out of a small convenience store barely twenty metres down the road.

‘Back in a minute . . .' Distractedly, I stood up, and before Jack could say a word, I was off, doing a feeble half-run, half-skip up the uneven road, dodging mopeds, dawdlers and donkeys.

‘Hey, Con!
Parakalo. Me lene I. Ela dho
, Con!' I yelled up the road as he disappeared further into the crowd. Con was gone. At least the Con I wanted was gone. Two other Cons stopped and turned my way.

In the process, I hurt my foot again. Miserably I hobbled back to Jack, gasping for breath. I was definitely joining a gym when my real life began next week.

‘That's it. That's it,' I cursed under my breath when I'd resumed my seat.

‘What's up?' Jack looked puzzled.

‘Nothing. Just a business transaction I'm supposed to complete.' I took a huge gulp of water. ‘Only I haven't been able to do it yet.' A few drops of water fell on my shirt.

‘I didn't know you spoke Greek.'

‘I don't. Well, I speak enough to get by,' I replied, wiping the spilt water from my chest.

All I wanted to do was relax in the sun in Santorini, the jewel of the Greek Isles, with Jack Harper. Not spend endless, thankless hours chasing Marcus's mate. And now I couldn't give up. There was no way in hell I was handing the money back.

I sat and fumed while Jack stared at me, bewildered. ‘I thought you were here on holidays.'

‘I am. My boss asked me to do a bit of work as well . . . It's no big deal.' There was no point telling Jack about Marcus and Con; that was a whole can of worms best left unopened.

‘Really, it doesn't matter.' I smiled awkwardly. ‘Now, where were we?'

But Jack had his head in his BlackBerry and was reading a text.

‘Jack?'

He looked up, clearly agitated. ‘Something's come up. I need to go.'

‘What? Now? But we've —' ‘Claudia, I said I need to go.'

All right. I heard you the first time. ‘Okay,' I said quietly. ‘Will I see you later?'

‘I'm not sure what I'm up to this afternoon.'

Heck, we were on holidays — what was there to do but relax and enjoy the sunshine? Where was the sweet guy from a few minutes ago who said he'd been glad he looked over my shoulder at the airport? He'd morphed into a cocky,
not sure I
can catch up later
guy.

I felt sad and confused. I know I'd dashed off unexpectedly for a few minutes, but why would he suddenly change his tune? Maybe he'd decided that last night had been a mistake. Or perhaps he was paying me back for my stupid Adonis comments this morning.

He must have sensed my hurt because he said, ‘We could go out for dinner tomorrow night. How about I pick you up at seven?'

‘Sure,' I said, surprised at how disappointed I felt.

Tomorrow night? That left all of three and a half days before I would
never
see Jack again. Shouldn't we be making the most of our time together, even if it was only a holiday romance? Weren't we supposed to be strolling through the quaint cobblestone pathways of Fira, nibbling each other's ears? And when all the nibbling became too much, shouldn't we have been running full speed back to the apartment for mind-blowing sex? Wasn't that the way it was supposed to be? Obviously not. Those romance books had it wrong. Jack didn't even try to kiss me, let alone race me off to bed.

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the streets. Whichever direction I glanced, I could see smitten couples kissing. Eventually it was too much to bear and I headed back to the apartment. I wasn't hungry, but given that I was arriving home just before dinner, I thought of Tara and Sophie and stopped to buy some essentials.

I picked up feta, olives, tomatoes and eggplant. All right, so I bought a couple of pizzas too. I ordered the Santorini Special and the Seafood Surprise, which was a surprise, given that the prawns were the size of pinheads. Levi would appreciate it, I reasoned, even if the others didn't. I also didn't show any restraint when it came to buying chocolate — white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, fruit and nut chocolate and liqueur chocolate. That should do it. Along with wine, of course. Wine and chocolate. Comfort food at its best.

By the time I made it back to Marcella's, laden down with goodies, the sun was setting. I was quite looking forward to dinner with the girls. In fact, I'd forgotten about Jack. Jack who? I didn't care.

So what that he seemed to be running hot and cold: one minute playful and intimate; the next minute cool and standoffish. I had girlfriends who loved me. What did it matter that Jack wasn't as fond of me as I'd hoped? It was a fling, after all, and Tara and Sophie were more important than a hot heaving date with Jack the lad.

Our apartment was securely locked. I hadn't factored in the possibility that no one would be home. No one! Where were Levi and his mother? How irresponsible was that? The poor child should have been back from the beach by now.

Unlocking the front door, I let myself in and hit the light switch. Then I dumped the goodies on the kitchen bench, scrounged around for a bottle opener, opened the wine, poured myself a large glass and grabbed a slice of the Santorini Surprise. I walked back out on the patio and watched the sunset. It was pure magic. The Santorini sky was mesmerising.

And here was I, watching it by myself. Less than a kilometre away, people sipped exotic cocktails at the Sunset Bar; all around me couples in other apartments nuzzled each other's ears, necks and breasts, toasting their good fortune. But I was home alone. Not even Marcella's cat, Ari, was around.

As time ticked slowly by, I kept an eye on the stairs, hoping to see my friends. I'd texted both of them a couple of times but either they hadn't seen my messages or were ignoring me.

My third piece of pizza, third glass of wine. Still no one. The sunset faded. It was dark and decidedly chilly. I checked my messages again. None. (There was one from Marcus, but he didn't count.) At least they could have texted me.

I retired to my room at 8.30 pm, but not before I'd scrawled a note to Tara and Sophie telling them about the leftover pizza and wine in the fridge,
not that you deserve any for leaving me
alone!
I waited until a quarter to nine before completely closing my bedroom door. Lying in bed I started thinking about the crazy things that had happened since the holiday began. I couldn't get in touch with Sophie and Tara. What if something sinister had happened to them? I was determined not to get spooked but I was still worried. As I drifted to sleep I heard nothing, nothing but silence. It was eerie.