Wish You Were Here. Victoria Connelly

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 as possible when Stella asked her where she was going.

      ‘I don’t know yet,’ Alice had said with a shrug. ‘Probably a museum or something. Want to come?’

      Predictably, Stella had declined which was a great relief to Alice who had made her escape into town and was now just about to get off the bus at the stop for the Villa Argenti. This time, a young couple got off the bus with her and they all walked together down the road that led to the villa. They were from Worcester and had just got married and Alice couldn’t help but envy them their new life together. She saw the way that Tim looked so adoringly at his new wife, Janey, and the way that they held hands so tightly. What must it be like to be so adored, Alice couldn’t help wondering?

      There was a little old man by the gate today and he took their money with a polite little nod and Alice watched as Tim and Janey walked hand in hand towards a sunlit bench. She didn’t follow them.

      All of a sudden, Alice wondered what she was doing there and a coldness resembling fear chilled her whole body. It had all been very well imagining romantic scenarios with the handsome gardener whilst in the safety of her bed but Alice really wasn’t the kind of girl to initiate something as wonderful and frivolous as a holiday romance.

      She stopped by a little fountain and trailed her fingers in the cool water and sighed. Perhaps she was worrying unnecessarily. She couldn’t see the gardener anywhere and it occurred to her that he might not be there at all. She couldn’t help smiling at that. The СКАЧАТЬ