‘Come and see,’ Elias replied, smiling again.
Fifteen
Anafiotika, Athens
Becky couldn’t believe her eyes. Standing in front of a rather unsubstantial fence surrounded by bushes and other curling green shrubs, Athens was laid out like a picnic blanket of muted Lego bricks before her, the sun starting to go down. Half the panorama was in shade, making it seem like the tops of the buildings were blue and grey. The other section was illuminated, creams and browns and stretching out so far and wide. She had never seen something so vast from a viewpoint anything like this before. And then there was a hump of greenery to the right, a hill in the middle of all the buildings looking so out of place.
‘It’s incredible,’ Becky breathed. ‘It’s so vast and I feel so small. Like a tiny ant looking down on it all.’ She almost couldn’t breathe. She wanted to take a photo and a video, but she knew neither were going to do this vista justice. You had to be here. You had to stand in the midst of it letting it soak into your soul.
‘Is that Mount Lycabettus?’ Petra asked, already leaning over way too much and now pointing with a fully stretched arm too.
‘Yes,’ Elias said. ‘And it might look small from where we are here, but it stands three hundred metres above sea-level. Nine hundred and nine feet.’ He pointed at the lump of green which Becky now noticed had a craggy peak to it. Even from here you could see it dwarfed the properties around it.
‘You really are our tour guide,’ Petra said. ‘Is that what you do for a job?’
‘No,’ Elias replied but said nothing further. He had told her he was an estate agent. Why couldn’t he tell Petra that and stop her endless questions?
‘What do you do for a job?’ Petra asked, skipping over to Becky and dragging her into a position for a selfie with the view as a background.
Oh shit. She should come clean about not being in the army. Right now. It was a lie she should never have trotted out in the first place.
‘Becky cannot tell you what she does,’ Elias said as he moved up next to them. ‘It is confidential.’
‘Ooo, now I really want to know!’ Petra put a braid into her mouth and sucked. ‘Are you a prostitute? You know, not one of those ones who stand on street corners wearing clothes that look like the 1980s threw up all over them. I mean one of the ones who suck off politicians and pop stars in classy hotels.’
‘Petra!’ Becky exclaimed in utter horror. ‘Keep your voice down!’
‘Oh my God! I guessed it right, didn’t I?! Well, you’re a dark horse. I didn’t really have you pegged for that when you said you hadn’t ever had sex in a plane toilet.’
‘I’m in the army!’ Becky shouted quickly. ‘Not the sex trade!’
Her face felt like it was a member of the scotch bonnet family and she could only imagine what Elias must be thinking. Petra didn’t seem to find anything inappropriate subject matter. And they were virtual strangers. Plane passengers who happened to miss the same flight and been given accommodation in the same hotel. Becky chanced a glance at Elias and saw he had an amused look on his face. Great.
‘The army?’ Petra said, screwing up her face as if ‘the army’ was gone-off chicken no longer fit for human consumption. ‘To be honest the sex trade was more believable. What are you? A captain or something? Sitting behind a desk all day planning assaults?’
‘I can’t discuss it,’ Becky insisted. ‘No matter how many times you ask me.’
‘Is that a challenge?’ Petra asked, tilting her head a little.
‘Come,’ Elias said. ‘Let us go and see the Acropolis.’
*
They didn’t have to go far until they were in the perfect place to take in the view of Greece’s most famous monument. Lit up in the last of the day’s golden glow, the relic shone like the iconic star of Athens it was. Those crumbling columns constantly being maintained and restored to ensure none of the history was lost, stood proud above the city just as they had thousands of years ago. And the scenery hadn’t changed in the slightest since Elias had last stood here… with Hestia.
Taking a breath of the still-humid night air, he remembered holding her hand at this very spot and believing that their love would endure anything that life threw at them, exactly like the monument above them. When that sentiment had struck he had been thinking about the everyday kind of rows about meal choices or what to watch on the television, hard monetary times or disciplining their children. He had not thought about someone arriving in Hestia’s affections and destroying their marriage. Endurance was possibly a singular thing. Like with the Acropolis. It wasn’t as if this mighty ruin had been partnered with anyone in its lifetime. It was strong and powerful all by itself. And that’s where his focus should be. Building his business. Doing what he was good at. Avoiding what he obviously wasn’t so skilled at. Like relationships.
‘It’s awesome. And when I stick an Insta filter on it it’s going to look even better!’ Petra announced.
Only this girl would think about putting a photo filter on something that was already completely perfect in his eyes.
‘A filter!’ Becky exclaimed. ‘How can you put a filter on it? It’s so beautiful just as it is right now.’ As if to enhance her point, Becky began taking more photos, her fingers on the screen of her phone, zooming in and trying to get a close up, or maybe something a little more atmospheric.
‘Everything looks better with a filter,’ Petra said. ‘I mean the sea in Thailand was obvs turquoise, but with a filter on it, it looked a touch more beautiful… plus, everyone does it.’
‘I don’t,’ Becky answered. ‘Otherwise people will be expecting something that looks like one thing when you’ve told them it looks like something else. My sister put a filter on a tuna and beetroot wrap once for our website and the beetroot looked like it could double for a bloody liver in Holby City.’
She had a sister. Who did things with beetroot and tuna. And had she said ‘our’ website. Elias suspected that Becky’s job in the army might not be everything she had made it out to be. He sensed a nervousness from her – and obviously there was also the stabbing at pieces of paper and drawing animals without realising it – but what was it she was nervous about?
‘And I expect you’ve seen your fair share of bloody livers on tour with your regiment,’ Petra piped up. ‘What does your sister do?’
‘She…’ Becky paused. ‘She just makes sandwiches.’
Hadn’t some of the words Becky had been bludgeoning with her pen onboard the flight related to food? Drink. Suddenly his throat felt dry and he longed for another beer. And here, in this district, there was only one place he wanted to go.
‘Do you want to see somewhere else the Athenians love?’ he asked his two companions.
‘Is it where the locals hang out?’ Petra asked, wide-eyed. ‘Does it feature in Lonely Planet?’
‘I think you’ll both like it.’
Sixteen
‘This place! It’s absolutely lit!’ Petra shouted, bottle of Fix beer poised for the next swig.