‘There’s a large walk-in wardrobe we can’t find keys for in one of the bedrooms,’ Becky informed. ‘Petra thinks it’s going to be an Aladdin’s cave or, you know, where they keep the cash for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’
‘OK,’ Elias said, his brain trying desperately to regroup.
‘And I guess you still don’t know about the cars,’ Becky carried on.
‘What cars?’
‘O-K,’ Becky said, patting his shoulder again. ‘You might need to pour a bit more of that Metaxa.’
Fifty-Four
Villa Selino
‘You can’t come in?’ Becky asked Elias. She was coiling herself around him in the garden of the villa. He had anchored up the boat and walked her up the beach, and into the villa grounds like the gentleman he was… when he wasn’t doing all the ungentlemanly things she had requested. But she didn’t want him to go. They had had such a perfect day together and she was reluctant for it to end.
‘I would like nothing more than to stay, you know that,’ he breathed, kissing her lips. ‘But we agreed. I need to speak to Chad. I need to speak to Kristina’s lawyer. I need to do this right.’
‘I know,’ Becky said. ‘But… can’t you do it right after you’ve… done all the bad things to me?’
‘The bad things?’ Elias queried.
Becky could smell the olive tree sap in the air and the fragrance of clematis, hear the insistent song of the cicadas… ‘I meant all the things that are so bad they’re so good.’ She kissed him then, hoping to make it last so long that he was completely powerless to resist her invitation to stay… It seemed she had that power with Elias.
‘What the hell is going on here?! Who are you and what are you doing? Put her down!’
Becky literally fell out of Elias’s embrace, her bum hitting the paving of the patio before she could completely come to as to what was going on.
‘For God’s sake! Why weren’t you picking up your phone?!’ Petra called, rushing into the scene. ‘I tried to warn you! I tried at least a zillion times to ring and I sent text messages that were basically longer than… than… all the Harry Potter books… including the ones about beasts and Quidditch.’
It seemed Petra had to stop and take a breath now, which was bad, because without her incessant rambling it gave Becky all the time to focus on the fact that her sister was standing in front of her. Megan was here.
‘Are you OK?’ Elias asked, taking Becky’s hand and helping her up from the floor.
‘No… I… yes.’ Words were failing her and the weight of Megan’s stare was searing her skin like she was pressed between the hot plates of It’s A Wrap’s toasted sandwich maker.
‘Didn’t you hear me, Becky?’ Megan continued, louder and sounding angrier than ever as she took steps towards her.
Wearing patent nude-coloured heels and a matching jumpsuit Megan usually only wore to pitches, suddenly Becky’s barely-there sundress over her swimming costume felt completely inappropriate. What was her sister doing here? How had she got on a flight to Corfu – maybe even via Athens – without Hazel or Shelley having a chance to warn her of the incoming sister missile? Becky suddenly felt unsteady on her feet again. ‘Elsa is coming’. They had warned her and she hadn’t got the code. Shelley had once named Megan after the ice queen when she’d taken the triplets to see Frozen 2. Whatever had happened at home was bad if her friends had been scared into communicating with code…
‘What are you doing?’ Megan repeated. ‘And who are these people?’
Becky watched her sister look Elias and Petra up and down like they were species from another planet who had no place on Earth.
‘I told you my name when you barged through the door. Very rude by the way,’ Petra snapped. ‘I’m Petra.’
‘And I am Elias Mardas,’ Elias interjected, offering Megan his hand. ‘It is so wonderful to meet you. Becky has told me so much about you.’
‘Has she indeed?’ Megan said, folding her arms across her chest.
Suddenly and quickly, Becky got cross. Her sister was being rude, just as Petra had said, and as shocking as Megan’s arrival was, she wasn’t going to let her strut in here and start calling the shots… was she? She swallowed. She had to be strong. She had to make Megan see that she was not going to back down just like that anymore. She had her own life and her own opinions and she wasn’t going to be forced to sing the same tune as Megan any longer. It was time her sister had a dose of the truth.
‘Megan,’ Becky began. ‘This is Petra, my housemate and this is Elias. He’s my—’
‘We need to talk,’ Megan abruptly interrupted. She sleeked her hand down her blonde bob as if she was about to start filming for something. And she was still in charge of this conversation apparently.
‘OK, well, I’ll make us some drinks and we can—’
‘You can listen,’ Elias said firmly.
Becky looked to him and Megan was positively glowering at him.
‘You can both listen to each other,’ Elias continued, somehow manoeuvring deftly in between them. ‘Because, if there is one thing I have learned through my career, it is that the listening counts far more than the talking.’
There was silence for a beat. Becky didn’t know how to follow what Elias had said and she couldn’t believe he had come in and tried to exude authority over her sister when he was wearing nothing but a completely open white shirt over those tight trunks…
‘Sorry,’ Megan said, seeming to lean in a little and sniff Elias. ‘Who did you say you were?’
‘Elias is my—’
‘I am Becky’s lawyer,’ Elias broke in with a determined nod.
‘Well,’ Megan replied. ‘I’ve never seen a lawyer dressed in Speedos before.’
‘In Greece this is the uniform of all the best lawyers,’ he answered, seeming unfazed.
She had been going to be really honest and brave and all the things she needed to be with Megan. She hadn’t been going to say the word ‘lawyer’, she had been going to say the word ‘boyfriend’. Because that was what Elias was to her now? Wasn’t it? Ugh! Why was Megan’s arrival here making her doubt everything?
‘Right!’ Petra exclaimed. ‘I’m done with this Fighting With My Family vibe. I’m going back inside to try again to break into that mystery cupboard.’ She about-turned and headed for the bi-fold doors.
‘And I also should go,’ Elias said. He looked at Becky as if to remind her that he had been going before Megan had suddenly appeared. But also his look said that one word from her and he would stay. No, she was going to handle this on her own. She didn’t need Elias to sit them both down around the infinity pool and mediate. It was time to remember all the things she had learned here. She had grown. She had found out what independence truly meant. And although at first it was difficult and a little bit terrifying, now she rather liked it.
‘Perhaps you should stay,’ Megan suggested haughtily, picking some lint from her jumpsuit and letting it drift away in the slight breeze. ‘If you really are a lawyer.’