Page 22 of Take a Chance on Greece

‘I’ve got to hand it to you, Lyds, you certainly don’t do things by halves. Most people would at least go on a dating site, but oh no, our Lydia has to message a vegetable seller out of the blue. What’s the code word for when we need to rescue you?’

I pouted. ‘That’s all covered, thank you very much. Alexis has agreed to be my backup.’

Kat and Amira exchanged a glance.

‘And before you say anything, Alexis is one of the good guys, and I know I can trust him to look out for me. If he can’t help, he’ll send his sister to sort it out, and believe me when I tell you that Yiota is formidable enough to put the most aggressive Andreas in his place. But I promise I’ll give you a call by 9pm Greek time to let you know that I’m still alive and, if I don’t, you have my full permission to call the embassy and unleash the dogs.’

‘Sounds like you should be going on a date with this Alexis instead,’ muttered Amira. I didn’t dare say out loud that I kind of wished I was as I couldn’t imagine feeling this stressed about a date with Alexis. I pushed the unhelpful thought to the back of my mind. It was another form of displacement, a way of distracting myself from nerves about my impending Andreas meeting. I needed to focus on my mission.

‘Right, back to the task in hand,’ continued Amira. ‘What are you going to wear? How about the outfit you wore on the night out? You know, the one where you got the tattoo. You look gorgeous in it and who wouldn’t feel confident and sexy in that glittery top?’

‘Now there’s an idea,’ said Kat. ‘And when you meet him, he’ll go “Lydia, darling, you haven’t changed a bit”, and then he’ll sweep you off your feet and ravish you, but carefully so he doesn’t make your still-healing tattoo sore.’

‘You guys are the worst.’ I laughed. They were achieving their aim of making me relax before the big date if nothing else.

After much debate, we eventually decided I’d wear my blue and white checked sundress together with a pair of straw wedge heels to give me some added height and therefore confidence.

‘You’ll get bonus points for the colours of the Greek flag,’ said Amira. ‘Cool, collected and perfect for any occasion.’

‘Don’t forget the shades,’ added Kat. ‘They’ll stop you squinting in the sun, and if he’s a horror, at least they’ll help you disguise your reaction to seeing him.’

‘I’d probably need to wear a mask to make that work,’ I responded. ‘You know I’m rubbish at hiding my feelings.’

‘That’s why we love you. And if this Andreas has any sense, he’ll love you for it too. Remember my mantra, if you feel you’re having to put on an act for him, then he ain’t worth it, honey.’

I darted into the bathroom to pull on my chosen outfit and then applied my makeup at the mirror while the girls continued a steady stream of bolstering conversation. I knew that I’d feel lonely all over again when we ended the call, but for now, it was almost as good as having them in the room with me.

‘Bit more eyeliner, hon, then you’ll be done. Ready for a final handbag check. Purse? Phone? Keys? Condoms? Mace? I’m joking, I’m joking.’ Kat held her hands up in mock surrender as I rolled my eyes at her suggestions.

I did a twirl as my personal cheerleaders wolf-whistled their support.

‘Perfect,’ said Amira. ‘Let’s do a final watch sync to make sure we’re in agreement about your safety check-in. We don’t want the time difference to cause confusion.’

‘9pm Greek time. So that’s 7pm UK time.’

Amira wagged her finger at the camera. ‘I mean it, babe, if you haven’t called by then, I’ll ring the British embassy and demand to speak to the ambassador personally. And I’ll kick up such a fuss that the entire police force of Kefalonia will be out searching for you.’

‘I promise I won’t forget.’

‘Good,’ said Kat. ‘Now we’ve done our responsible parent bit, we’ll leave you with this; have fun, Lydia. You deserve to have a good time. And don’t take it too seriously. I know you’re hoping to meet your Awesome Andreas, and we want that for you too. But you’re good enough on your own as well. You don’t need a man to define you or make you whole, despite what Jim might have made you believe over the course of your relationship. You’re a wonderful person in your own right.’

‘I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,’ I said, tears starting to form again in my eyes.

‘Don’t get used to it,’ she retorted, though I could tell she was getting a bit bleary-eyed too. ‘Now off you go before you blub all over the place and ruin that makeup job we’ve so carefully coached you through. And remember, we want details, the hotter the better.’

She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. ‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,’ was her final command.

‘That gives me quite a lot of leeway,’ I said.

‘Exactly,’ said Kat and winked at me.

Chapter Twelve

Standing on the main street and fiddling with my phone in a bid to look busy, I thought about how much I hate first dates. In my defence, it was a while since I'd been on one, and I'm not even sure that my first date with Jim really counted given that at the time I thought I’d been accompanying him to a business dinner as a mere colleague when he’d completely surprised me by presenting me to the clients as his other half. He’d claimed he thought it would make him seem more stable and trustworthy, which seemed a rather 1950s-esque attitude, but I’d been so nonplussed by it, that I didn’t know how to react. I’d barely been able to stammer out a word as we’d had pre-dinner drinks, the frustration had built as I’d choked my way through the starter, and I'd finally managed to confront him about the deception in the corridor by the restaurant's toilets between the main course and the dessert. But he’d been so surprised by my confusion and had made me think that I was the unreasonable one for not wanting to go along with his scheme; I’d ended up apologising to him, and even felt flattered that I’d been singled out for such attention. It was a perfectly executed manipulation and with the benefit of hindsight, I wished I’d been brave enough to see through it.

But what had actually happened was that before I could come to my senses, I’d got used to our names being linked together and the charade had become reality. Thinking about it now in the light of how our break-up had occurred, I really had sleepwalked my way into the relationship, settling into it out of a desire not to upset the status quo, and moulding my dreams so that they fitted into the life that Jim made me believe I wanted. I was determined that I would never allow that to happen again. At least this first date was happening at my instigation, and on my terms, but that didn’t make it any less daunting.

I checked my phone for the third time in as many minutes. I was half-expecting my first Andreas to cancel on me. It was a beautiful day and he probably had much better things to be doing than meeting up with a random woman who'd messaged him out of the blue online purely because his name was Andreas and he happened to live a mile outside of Sami. I told myself to stop being negative. Just because Greece seemed to have more than its fair share of extremely attractive men, it didn’t mean that they were out of my league. Perhaps this Andreas would be intrigued by the situation, and flattered that I had approached him. Perhaps he would even be The One.

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