We meander up slowly; I take a moment to catch my breath and turn back to the stunning vista as I wait for Georgios’ explanation about his cousin.
Georgios lifts a hand to shade his eyes from the glare of the sun. ‘She’ll be posting it to the family group chat with a line saying something like:I saw Georgios in the flesh with a living, breathing woman!’
I cock my head and try to make sense of this information. ‘Do you not date when you’re here or something? Is it because you’re related to everyone and you dating pool is more like a pond?’ I use Roxy’s rather apt description of the dilemma.
He laughs. ‘I have a lot of cousins, yes. But it’s not that. I haven’t had the busiest of love lives.’ He shrugs as if it can’t be helped. ‘My family want me to find a nice girl, settle down. My grandfather especially. He has visions of me moving back to Santorini, having a million babies – you know the drill. The group chat is often about me turning thirty soon andstillbeing single. Like I’m faulty, or defective or something.’
Georgios defective? Those two words just don’t belong together but I laugh at the fact they have a family group chat and Georgios’ singledom is the bone of contention, just like my family group chat, where I’m usually the topic of the day, unless Gran steps up and gives me a break.
Still, it strikes me as odd that he doesn’t have a busy love life. He’s as hot as they come and seems to always be surrounded by women, so why hasn’t he been snapped up? It must be by choice. Or more worryingly heisdefective – like maybe he dog-ears the pages of books! Or reads the end of a book first like some sort of sociopath.
I narrow my eyes, on full alert. ‘Whyhaven’tyou found your person? Is it that you want your freedom, and don’t like the idea of being tied down? Or is it a character flaw of yours that has women you date running off into the sunset?’ Oh my God do I even want to know? Imagine if I found out he doesn’t like reading Nora Roberts books!
‘A character flaw?’ He grins. ‘Like what? What would make Evie Davenport run off into the sunset?’
My brain is having problems switching gears. ‘Me? Uh. If you cracked the spine on a book? And if you insisted on attending nightclubs to dance. If your favourite pastime is watching sports in a massive stadium. If your idea of fun is …’
He holds up a hand to stop me. Probably best as my list is long. ‘I’d never crack the spine on a book – that’s as bad as cracking the spine on a person. Nightclubs, no – too noisy, too dark. Sports – not for me, unless I’m doing them.’
‘OK, good. And what about you, Georgios? What character flaws are a no-go?’
‘If you dog-eared a book, there would be no hope.’
I grin. Is he reading my mind? ‘Not a chance. So really, why are you single?’
He shrugs. ‘I haven’t found the right person. I’m not into dating apps, and those kinds of things. But I’m open to love …’ He leaves the words hanging. Am I supposed to declare my love? My intentions? But if they’re not real, then wouldn’t that be needlessly cruel? Are my feelings real? That’s an even more terrifying prospect. Someone needs to unplug me and press reset, because I’m about as confused as a person can get right now.
‘Apps are the worst,’ I eventually manage. I toy with whether to share my past history with them and figure why not? ‘I tried a dating app a few years back, and soon understood it was purely a way to hook up for those who don’t follow dating rules,at all.The men I met weren’t searching for a long-term commitment; hell they weren’t even prepared to commit an entire evening. A word of warning: Netflix and chill doesnotinvolve TV and popcorn. Let’s just say that particular man was soon evicted from my apartment with some harsh words and a spritz of pepper spray to the eyeballs.’ I stay well away from online introductions after that dud of a date.
He laughs, although I’m not sure why. I’d been forbidden to bring my pepper spray here on the plane but I’ve got the next best thing. Fly spray. Needs must and all that. Mom’s constant threats I’ll be taken are always front and centre of my mind and Georgios might be a cutie-patootie but that doesn’t mean he’s not secretly a body snatcher. It’s best to be prepared for every eventuality.
‘I don’t go near dating apps either, so I’ve found it difficult to find that special someone. I guess I’m a little shy when it comes to love. Every passing year my family up the pressure, in case I forget that I’m still resolutely single. They say I’m not active enough in the dating world. The only thing I’m actively looking for is a new job.’ He runs a hand through his hair, a gesture he does whenever he talks about work. While outwardly he seems calm, resigned to the fact he lost his job, it’s clear it still bothers him.
Then it dawns on me, he said the only thing he’s been actively looking for is a new job! What the hell am I in this scenario? A … way to pass the time?Gasp!A holiday fling? For the record, I don’t do one-night stands and I definitely don’t do holiday flings. I’m only interested in long-term commitments; otherwise, as they say back home,fuggetaboutit.
I’m about to give him a piece of my mind when I remember my mission. Oh. I can’t berate the man for stringing me along when I am stringing him along.Damn it!It’d be a little hypocritical of me to be offended since none of this is real, but for some reason what he’s shared stings a little.
While I’ve been busy having an internal debate he’s been staring at me, probably waiting for a response. I rack my mind to recall what the hell he said. Ah, got it. Work dramas. Unemployment.
I rearrange my expression to one of genuine concern. ‘Gran filled me in on what happened. You did the right thing, you know. Speaking up is never easy, especially when it’s you against a behemoth of an author.’ Even though you’re stringing me along like a row of fairy lights, you monster! OK, perhaps I’m still a little offended. I remind myself I am also stringing him along. And if I asked him outright if he’s the commitment type then I’d be a monster participating in thisfictionI’ve become embroiled in.
He shrugs. ‘Doesn’t feel that way since I’m the one who got ousted.’
‘Yeah, that was really unfair.’ Lifeisunfair, Georgios! Gah, what’s gotten into me? I need water. A seat. A nap. Something. ‘What will happen to the author Adam What’s-his-face now?’
‘I’m not privy to the plan. I assume they’ll quietly cancel his contract and hope it goes away. He’s claiming all sorts of things, threatening to sue them, his wife … trying his best to come out smelling like roses. And the scary thing is, he just might.’
Anger riles me. The situation is grossly unfair for Georgios but he’s handling it remarkably well. ‘How is that even possible?’
‘You’d be surprised at what people will do to make a scandal of this size go away. And Adam is as charismatic as they come, which has served him well. If only he’d kept his wife sweet, he’d have gotten away with this forever.’
‘Why didn’t you fight for your job? After all, you did nothing wrong.’ I’m genuinely curious. He doesn’t seem the sort to back away from standing up for himself when he already did the scariest thing by outing Adam’s crimes.
‘Their first instinct was to protect him at all costs. Not me. I don’t want to work for a company that doesn’t have my best interests at heart.’
‘That’s a good point. How could you ever trust them again?’
‘Exactly. I couldn’t.’
