Wish You Were Here. Victoria Connelly

Chapter 9

      It had been very remiss of Milo not even to ask the English girl her name. He should have found out a little bit more about her but, by the time he’d thought to do so, she had long disappeared.

      He’d recognised her as one of the tourists he’d seen in Kethos Town the day before. She’d been with the beautiful blonde girl who had looked so moody. Milo now realised that this was the English girl’s sister. He shook his head. He knew the sister’s name but not the girl he’d sat with for half an hour. How absurd was that? He felt as if he knew everything about this girl’s life from the father whom she obviously loved more than life itself to the job that seemed to be swallowing her whole.

      He smiled as he remembered the way her past had tumbled out of her mouth with no regard for what he might be thinking. There was something curiously endearing about that. She’d had a certain sweetness and he’d adored her honesty when she’d tried to pay her entrance fee and she had the prettiest blue eyes he’d ever seen. He should have kept her talking at least until he’d finished work and then he could have got to know her better.

      Perhaps she’ll come back, he thought. Maybe he should make a wish on the statue of Aphrodite so that the English girl would return. He smiled at the thought. He didn’t really believe in wishes even though he told all the tourists that he did. It was all just a bit of fun, wasn’t it? Still, as he walked towards the statue before the last of the sun’s rays dipped behind the villa casting Aphrodite into shade, he knew that he wanted this wish to be granted more than anything else.

      Alice felt strangely flat when she returned to the villa, which was odd, really, because she’d had such a wonderful day. She knew what it was, of course. It was the gardener she’d met.

      Why did she tell him those things, she wondered, blushing at the memory of having revealed so much to somebody she’d only just met. Perhaps it had been part of the magic that was the Villa Argenti. Perhaps it had woven its spell over her and had broken down her inhibitions. She’d certainly never behaved like that before in her life. She never expressed her true feelings to anybody around her because nobody ever seemed interested enough but this gardener had really listened to her.

      He seemed to have cared too. She remembered the gentle look in his deep brown eyes and the expression on his face as she was leaving. But then something occurred to her. He was a good-looking young man who probably met and flirted with hundreds of impressionable tourists every year. Alice had been just another gullible young woman who would fall for his easy charm and handsome face, hadn’t she? Only she hadn’t given him a chance and she was glad of that now.

      Are you? Are you really glad? a little voice inside her asked. Why did you up and leave him so quickly when he was obviously interested in you? How many chances like that come along?

      Alice laughed. No chances like that ever came along in her life. She thought about Ben Alexander at work and how the only time he looked at her was when he was handing her a member of staff’s sick note.

      ‘Here you go, Anna. Another one for the collection.’ His brief eye contact was what got her through whole days of boredom and that was a very sad way to live. But here, on this beautiful magical island, she’d held the sole attention of one of the most handsome men she had ever seen and she had batted it away as if she received such attention all the time. What had she been thinking of? And what was it about Kethos that was making her so reflective? She’d never really stood still and examined her life before but she was beginning to realise how unhappy she was and she knew that something had to change.

      ‘Oh, there you are,’ Stella said as Alice walked out onto the terrace. ‘You’ve been gone for hours.’

      Alice couldn’t help but be surprised that her sister had even noticed her absence. Sitting down on the sun lounger beside her, she wondered whether to tell Stella about the young gardener she’d met but decided not to. For the time being, she wanted to keep him secret – a wonderful secret.

      ‘What are you grinning about?’ Stella suddenly asked, peering at her from behind her oversized sunglasses.

      ‘Nothing,’ Alice said.

      ‘Don’t lie – you’ve got a silly smile plastered right across your face.’

      ‘Have I?’

      ‘Yes, you have,’ Stella said.

      ‘I’m just happy.’

      ‘Are you?’ Stella said. ‘Well, I’m bored.’

      ‘I’m not surprised if you’ve just been sitting here all day doing nothing.’

      ‘What was your villa like, then?’

      ‘It was—’ Alice paused. If she told her sister just how beautiful it was, Stella might decide to visit it for herself and Alice knew exactly what would happen then. She would be bound to run into the gardener and then he wouldn’t even notice Alice any more. It was a pattern that had repeated itself since the girls had become teenagers and it had happened with at least two of Alice’s boyfriends.

      Alice took a deep breath. She didn’t like telling lies but this was a time when a lie was definitely needed. ‘Oh, the villa was deadly dull,’ she said. ‘You were right. I don’t know why I went there.’

      ‘I told you!’ Stella said. ‘Didn’t I say?’

      ‘Yes,’ Alice said. ‘I should’ve listened to you.’

      Stella nodded. ‘Nobody ever listens to me but I’m always right and I don’t know about you,’ she continued, ‘but I’m going to spend the entire week right here.’ She stretched out her long legs which were gleaming with sun lotion and settled back to soak up the rays.

      ‘I thought you said you were bored.’

      ‘I am but at least I’m getting a good tan.’

      ‘You really shouldn’t lie out in the sun all day,’ Alice said.

      ‘Oh, don’t start!’ Stella said. ‘I haven’t come to Greece to remain all pale and pasty like you.’

      ‘I’m just saying that you want to take care of yourself.’

      ‘Oh, lighten up, Alice. Stop worrying about everything and start enjoying life!’

      Alice sat stunned for a moment. Not because of her sister’s rude tone – she was quite used to that – but because perhaps for the first time in her life, Stella had actually given Alice some advice worth listening to.

      That night, Alice couldn’t sleep. Stella’s words kept somersaulting around her head in a teasing chant.

       ‘Stop worrying about everything and start enjoying life!’

      Alice sat up in bed. Start enjoying life!

      She couldn’t remember the last time she’d enjoyed herself. Stella was right. She was always worrying about everything, wasn’t she? Perhaps it was time to relax a little and have some fun.

      For a moment, she thought about the dark-eyed gardener at the Villa Argenti. She didn’t even know his name but she couldn’t help wondering if he was somehow inextricably linked with Stella’s advice.

      There was something else too – an idea which Alice just couldn’t shake from her mind.

      ‘Aphrodite.’ She spoke the name quietly into the silence of her bedroom. It sounded like a magical spell and seemed to weave rainbows in her mind. Lying back on her pillow, Alice closed her eyes. She knew it was ludicrous and impossible but, all the same, what did she have to lose? She would go back to the Villa Argenti tomorrow.

       Chapter 10

      The bus ride up into the mountains from Kethos Town was just as beautiful the second time. Alice had left around mid-morning and had tried to be as casual