‘Wha—’
She bumps her shoulder against mine. ‘While I’m all for your boundaries and your rules, and the way you go about self-preservation is great, when it comes to love, you have a tendency to shut down, shut the guy out before he can prove you wrong. Self-sabotage, the cool kids call it. Have you ever noticed you do that?’
I’m a fully paid member of the self-sabotage club but I don’t sabotage my relationships. Do I? ‘When have I done that?’
‘Whenhaven’tyou? You always find a huge glaring fault that cements the reason it won’t work and you end it. You don’t allow yourself to fall in love.’
I frown. ‘That’s because they had too many faults to overlook. What’s the point in wasting time?’
‘So that guy Chase, what was his big downfall?’
Urgh, Chase from Connecticut. ‘He said romance novels were formulaic and thus predictable and not of any literary merit.’
‘OK, fair call. If he’d have been my boyfriend no doubt he would have come to a stunning end when he tripped and fell into a storm water drain that was strangely infested with yellow-bellied taipans.’
‘Wow, not that you’re specific or anything.’
She shrugs. ‘When you’re my age, sleep is hard to come by. These sorts of scenarios play out.’
I narrow my eyes. Could it be possible my gran is some kind of assassin? A spy? Or just a plain cold-blooded killer? I shake the crazy notion away. Of course not! Gran’s simplyprotective! It was just a figure of speech!
‘OK,’ she continues. ‘What about that other guy, the accountant? Pasquale …?’
Urgh. Numbers people. I should have known better. ‘He continually asked for receipts everywhere we went. We’d split the bill down to the very last dime and he didn’t tip! People who treat waitstaff badly are an automatic no. He told me I was flighty. Not ambitious enough.’
‘How dare he!’
‘Gran, aren’t you meant to be convincing me that despite their flaws I should have given them a chance?’ I laugh.
‘Well, yes, but clearly they were meatheads, so there goes that pep talk. All I’m saying is, maybe you’re looking for a way out with Georgios when there’s nothing actually wrong with him. And jeez, Evie, with that background into the tragic men you have dated, Georgios is a catch, is he not?’
When you compare the men to Georgios he clearly trumps them all. ‘There’s one small problem. I’m fake-dating him, Gran. None of this is real!’
She raises a brow. ‘Is that so?’
When she does the stare-down tactic it can be quite intimidating. ‘Uh-huh.’
‘Darling, I wasn’t born yesterday. In fact, I wasn’t even born this century – now there’s a depressing thought. When you return after your dates with Georgios you’re high on your little love bubble. You can’t fake that sort of energy – can you?’
I consider it. He does make every date fun and brings out a playful side to me that I didn’t even know I had. ‘I get the feeling he’s more interested in work than women.’
‘That’s because he got fired. He’s bound to be worried about his job prospects. Just keep an open mind. There’s a sparkle in his eyes since you arrived, and that, young lady, can’t be faked.’
There’s no point arguing about it. Gran’s got love on her mind and won’t be swayed otherwise. ‘OK, let me take you through the order of events and what we expect your role as librarian will entail.’
She claps her hands. ‘I’ve always wanted to be a librarian!’
Chapter 23
The week seems to have sped away and as Saturday dawns, I’m awake before the birds, watching the sunrise outside my window. It’s the day we welcome our celebrity author to the island.
While my nerves are jangling, there’s also the excitement for tomorrow: launching our wonderous night-time library that will serve Santorini bookworms so well and make Gran’s last hurrah everything she’s always dreamed it would be. I pull myself from bed, shower, dress and head to Bibliotherapy.
I’m guzzling coffee when Zorba arrives. ‘Can you watch the shop while I make more?’ I point to the coffee jug.
‘I no understand.’
‘Yes you do and don’t mess up the colours of the books, please. Just for today.’
