Page 77 of Old Girls Go Greek
‘But it’s a sign of high favour when cats do that,’ Nicky said. ‘You should be proud. Now then, tell me all about this Doctor Bill person. Maureen was asking about him. She says she had such a crush on him back in the day. What’s he like?’
‘Really nice,’ I said. ‘Rather reserved at first. Almost shy. But when he realised we weren’t going to take endless selfies with him or try to embarrass him, he loosened up a little. He knew all about the Minoans. And he was funny. And considerate. And kind.’
Nicky grinned. ‘Sounds like someone else has a bit of a crush.’
I could feel my face getting rather hot. ‘No, not at all, absolutely not.’
She laughed. ‘It’s okay, Mum. You’re allowed to like him.’
I felt a bit panicky. Did I want to talk about him? I wasn’t sure.
‘Do you want some tea? Or a cold drink? I have some squash.’
Nicky narrowed her eyes. ‘You’re trying to change the subject, aren’t you? What is it you’re not telling me?’
‘Nothing!’
‘Nonsense. I can tell. You’re hiding something. You did like him?’
‘Well all right, I did,’ I said, ‘I liked him quite a bit actually.’
‘So will you see him again?’
‘I shouldn’t think so,’ I said, trying to sound light-hearted, ‘he lives miles away, and anyway, we didn’t exchange any details. So no.’
‘Pity. I expect he still has a good bedside manner.’
‘Nicky!’
‘Don’t be so stuffy. There’s nothing wrong with it. So did you do a lot of painting and sketching?’
‘Not as much as I thought I would,’ I said, ‘although I did do a nice drawing of Costas’s foot.’
‘Huh?’
‘Oh, I must tell you all about that. It was hilarious.’
I filled her in on all the details of our life class session while over the hedge we could hear Bonzo barking accompanied by the sounds of Rick’s lawnmower trundling up and down, so he must have managed to mend it.
Nicky looked at the photos on my phone with considerable interest, particularly the few with Will in them. She spent some time zooming in on the picture to get a good look at him and at last she looked up at me.
‘That picture of him in the restaurant.’
‘You’ll have to narrow it down a bit. We went to a lot of restaurants.’
‘The one where he is sitting across the table from you. And you were obviously there on your own, not with the group at all. That’s a bit of a clue, isn’t it?’
‘Ah yes, that was…’ I tried to remember. Was it three days ago or two when we had gone to the vineyard for dinner? It seemed like an age, another lifetime. ‘We had dinner out together, that’s all. A lovely evening in a fantastic location. It wasn’t without incident.’
‘I think he likes you. I can tell,’ Nicky said.
‘Oh, don’t be daft. It was just one meal out. I expect it was the one that evening, where the waitress took our picture.’
Nicky grabbed my phone and found the picture again. And then she passed it over for me to look at.
‘His expression. Don’t you see it? The way he’s looking at you. I wish Joe looked at me that way sometimes.’
I stared at my phone, and to see Will again, to see his expression and remember how I had felt – it took my breath away for a moment. The problem with the over-spiced meal, the fishbone, the toothpick, the way I had terrified the woman on the stairs – none of that mattered because after that we had gone down to the sea, not wanting the evening to end. And he had kissed me.
