Page 13 of Old Girls Go Greek
A small white-haired woman went to sit down at the next table with a sigh of relief.
‘Please don’t fuss, Dennis,’ she said. ‘I’m fine.’
‘Blisters need looking after. I remember a chap in the ATC when I was at school. Blister went septic, almost lost his leg. Now then, let’s move these tables together and shift around a few chairs.’
The next few minutes were taken up with introducing everyone to Susan, rearranging the terrace furniture and pulling chairs from other tables while from behind the bar, Costas fixed us with a brooding gaze and rustled his newspaper to convey his disapproval.
‘We had a grand old time too,’ Anita said, ‘and a lovely lunch.’
‘I should have come with you,’ Dennis said, favouring her with a roguish twinkle.
‘Where did you go?’ Susan asked. ‘We went to a place by the little quayside after our walk. Really nice if you like fish. Which luckily I do. I had the freshest sardines I’ve ever had.’
‘I had a bulgar wheat salad, which is a nutritional powerhouse,’ Dennis said, thumping his broad chest. ‘I’m up for anything. Now, where are the other two? I thought they were just behind us. And Will? Where’s he got to? I wanted to talk to him about the Minoans.’
Susan gave a shrug.
‘Jillian was just sorting out my shower and she needed an aspirin. She’s prone to headaches.’
‘I have a few plasters in my first aid kit,’ I said, leaning towards her. ‘Dennis is right, you don’t want to leave that blister.’
‘Anyone got any ideas for a painting yet?’ Anita asked. ‘The view from my balcony alone would be ideal.’
‘Isn’t this place nice?’ Susan agreed. ‘Not too fussy. I wouldn’t have dared come on my own, not abroad or anything, but June said it would be fun. She’ll be here in a minute. She’s my neighbour. We go to the Begley Moor painting group on a Friday.’
‘Ah, here come the stragglers,’ Dennis said, turning round in his chair. ‘Come along, everyone. We’ve started without you.’
Another woman in a flowing sundress and cardigan came out onto the roof terrace followed by the tall man. He was quite handsome in a rugged, Mark Harmon sort of way (I’d watched a lot ofNCISat this point) and he came to sit down opposite me and gave me a quick look with wonderful blue eyes before he put his sunglasses on.
‘Here we are, so now you have met, this is Susan, and this is Will who has come here independent of us all, poor fellow,’ Dennis said, ‘but we’re old friends now, aren’t we chaps, so we need to make him welcome. The gang’s all here so let the battle of the brushes commence. Shame you missed out on the group walk earlier. I know Jillian was disappointed not to see you there.’
‘We just needed a little stroll and some fresh air,’ Beryl said.
Dennis shook his head in sorrow. ‘Valuable connecting time.’
‘I’m not much of a connector, more of a rheostat,’ Effie said and gave him a mischievous smile. ‘We have plenty of time to connect.’
‘Painting, that’s what we should be doing,’ Susan said. ‘I can’t wait to get my paints out. Those views are just catnip, aren’t they?’
‘We’ve got catnip in our garden,’ June said eagerly. ‘It’s powerful stuff. Sometimes when I go out there, it’s like some sort of feline drug den. A lot of yowling and writhing, and that’s just me.’
I snorted with laughter and started to giggle, and then everyone joined in.
Will looked over the top of his sunglasses at me and grinned. He was very attractive when he smiled, there was no doubt about it. But why was he so familiar?
4
We sat there for about an hour while the chat flowed between us. Jillian appeared once or twice, looking harassed and slightly panicky. Apparently there were problems with the showers in two bedrooms, and breakfast had been rescheduled for eight o’clock in the morning instead of seven thirty, because Costas had a darts match that evening and was evidently anticipating a late night.
‘I don’t care either way about the shower dribbling,’ Susan said. ‘I can always use June’s, and if I start to pong, just sit downwind of me.’
‘But it’s a basic human right,’ Dennis blustered, ‘and we were promised proper facilities, it says so in the brochure.’
‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ June said, finishing her coffee. ‘Nothing about water pressure.’
‘Well, I wish I had brought my tool bag,’ Dennis said. ‘I’d have it sorted out in no time.’
‘Perhaps it needs a good whack with a mole wrench?’ Beryl said. ‘You know, I’ve always thought that sounded a bit cruel. Why would anyone want to wrench a mole?’
