Fun In The Sun by repgreece (read people like a book TXT) 📕

though the giggles were taking over, “I’m being…” she laughed, “serious,” she struggled to say. Now her sides were beginning to ache from laughing so much. Most of the people in the circle were listening to Mike at that point, but at least some must have been wondering why Sal and Nick were having a sudden attack of hysterics.

“Stop trying so hard to be serious Sal,” Nick howled, with tears of laughter in his eyes. “It doesn’t suit you.”

They sat, watching each other helplessly in the grips of hysteria and trying desperately to regain control, if only for the benefit of the company they were with. However, every time Sal took a deep breath to calm herself, Nick laughed even more, causing Sal to begin laughing again. Thank goodness she was sitting with her back to everyone now.

Then mike said something which caught their attention and made things ten times worse, because for some reason, any little thing had become a trigger for hilarity between them.

“Hey Phil,” Mike shouted out, “pass me Bob’s ukulele. I think I’ll have a go at playing something on it.”

Fresh laughter burst from Nick and Sal on hearing this, causing everyone this time to turn to them. Sal leant towards Nick and buried her face into his chest, giving up on fighting the giggles.

“She’s a little drunk,” he said to the group by way of an excuse, “I’d better get her back to the hotel.” Scooping an arm around her waist, he attempted to lift up a very limp, giggly Sal, who had lost all strength in her limbs. “Come on darling, let’s get you to bed,” he said with laughter still threatening to escape. “I’ll phone you tomorrow,” he said to Phil, “Bye everyone.”

Sal was beyond help and had lost the ability to speak by then, so she simply gave them all a small wave behind her back as Nick and her made their way back across the beach towards the main road again, with both of them giggling all the way. By the time they had reached the road, the laughter had run its course and was finally ebbing away, leaving them relaxed, happy and light-hearted.

The moment they had moved up the set of steps, from the sand onto the pavement, and finally out of sight of the party, Nick caught hold of Sal’s hand and swirled her around so that she was leaning against a waist high stone wall that separated the beach from the pavement. Still brimming with amusement, he planted his hands either side of her on the top of the wall.

“You, Miss Sally Fitzroy-Smith,” he began, watching her look of surprise at his sudden action, “are the most fun I’ve ever had,” he finished matter of factly.

Her eyes widened. That was quite a compliment. As always, Sal never knew how to react when he complemented her like that and she found herself simply gazing back at him as a pleased smile flickered across her face at his flattery. Placing her hands next to his on top of the wall, she leant backwards to observe him, smiling coyly. There followed a moment of silence, which was nonetheless filled with warmth and something like excitement between them. Then Sal gasped and put a hand to her mouth.

“Oh God, what on earth must they think of me?”

Nick wasn’t following. “What?” he frowned with confusion.

“Your friends and Kate, Mike, Karen and all the others. I didn’t even say goodbye to them properly,” she fretted.

He laughed, “You’re worried about a load of ukulele paying hippies, Miss million mile a minute mouth and an uninvited gate crasher?” he said incredulously. “I don’t think you should spend any sleepless nights over that Sal.”

She chuckled. “I suppose not. But Sandra and Phil…”

“…will not give it another thought,” he finished for her. “Now,” he said, throwing an arm over her shoulder and turning around to direct them back down the street, towards the hotel, “what you really should be worrying about is if you’re going to win the toss for the bed or not.”

“What?” she said, as her head shot round to him. “We have to flip for it?”

He tried to look serious. “Of course. There’s only one bed. You wouldn’t want to take advantage of me would you Sal?” he grinned at the thought of it and left his question open to interpretation for a moment before adding “…by expecting me to be the one to sleep on the sofa.”

Sal narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. “Well, no of course not,” she shrugged, playing along with his game, whatever it was. “And you wouldn’t want to take advantage of me, would you?” she came back, with another hidden meaning hanging in the air.

He shook his head. “Never.”

“So, you were right, we should toss a coin,” she concluded.

Hmm, he would rather she took advantage of him. The tease hadn’t worked. She was getting to know him too well. Calling his bluff eh. He’d have to try harder next time.

“Tell you what,” he said, after a moment’s thought, “I’ll let you have the bed on one condition.”

She glanced sideways at him warily. “What?”

He tightened his hand on her shoulder slightly and pulled her a little closer to him. “Well… I think we should find a bar and have one more drink, just you and me, before we settle in for the night. What d’ya say?” He watched her face expectantly and waited for a reaction.

She stopped walking and turned to him. “Oh Nick, I’d love to but it’s so late; I really don’t think we’re going to find anywhere open,” she said, glancing down the street, which seemed particularly dark and lifeless at that time.

“There’s bound to be somewhere, if we’re quick,” he replied, taking her hand and urging her to walk again. Then he suddenly slowed down and faced her once more. “That’s if you want to.”

“Oh yes, I do,” she answered, “I just hope we can find somewhere open.”

He smiled. “Sal,” he began, replacing his arm over her shoulder, “if the likes of you and I join forces I’m willing to bet that, not only will we find a bar open for a nightcap tonight,” he paused, “but, you never know, we might even find the Minotaur’s axe.”

Sal chuckled. Yes, a nightcap with Nick would be nice. She picked up the pace then, having warmed to the idea. “Or, the Minotaur himself,” she chuckled.

Nick swung his head to her and laughed loudly. “Sal, only you could come up with something like that!”
Chapter 25

Nick’s first thought was to head for the cocktail bar they had gone to earlier that evening to see if that was still open. Sal was right though, the row of tavernas and bars were either in complete darkness, or else the owners were turning chairs over onto tables and cashing up tills. Nick’s heart began to sink. For some reason he really wanted that last drink with Sal; maybe they shouldn’t have gone to the party at all and just spent the night alone together in the original cocktail bar. Then again, maybe they wouldn’t have shared that kiss if they did that. For sure they wouldn’t have. Well, whatever, he still wanted that last drink with her.

After having passed the first cocktail bar they went to before the party, and a few more afterwards, they had nearly reached the hotel again.

“It looks like there’s nowhere open after all,” Sal said regretfully, pausing to take a last look up and down the street.

“Wait,” Nick said, scanning the row of roof-top restaurants which were built into the cliff side above them. “That place seems to still be open,” he said, pointing to a dim light shining out of a restaurant window.

Sal squinted and tried to make out any kind of life inside.

“Are you sure it’s still open?” she asked.

Nick grabbed her by the hand, “There’s only one way to find out,” he replied, rushing across the road, towards the steps that lead up the cliff side.

The steps seemed to lead on indefinitely, and even when they reached the approximate level where the restaurant seemed to have been situated, second from last row back, it was difficult to work out which was the correct restaurant, as each one had a further set of steps leading to the front doors.

“Good grief, this place is like a labyrinth,” Sal observed, coming to a halt.

“Nah, that’s in Knossos. C’mon,” he said, urging her towards the middle steps, “This is the one.”

Out of breath, and red in the face from all the exertion of sprinting up the steps, Nick and Sal finally burst through the restaurant doors and expectantly scanned the room. They were faced with empty tables with blue and yellow chequered table cloths and a large balcony area outside with similar rows of tables, equally empty.

“Ti thelis?” came a voice from behind them, causing them both to jump and swing around to face it. They found four men sitting at the end of a small bar in the corner of the room. One man was approximately in his late fifties, with an impressive grey beard and portly belly. Nick assumed that he was the owner. The other men were younger, dressed in casual jeans and t-shirts, perhaps family members or even friends. Before answering, Nick turned briefly again to search the restaurant, as if in the vain hope of finding some customers he hadn’t noticed before, and therefore providing a reason for them to be able to stay for that last drink. No customers appeared however, but Nick wasn’t to be put off that easily.

“Yia sas. Signome, thelume dio ligo bierres, se parakalo,” Nick pleaded, giving the man his best ‘puppy dog eye’ look that was so very difficult to resist. Obviously though, the man with the beard was a tough Greek and immune to Nick’s persuasion. The man shrugged and gestured to the men’s raki carafe, which had already been emptied and finished, ready for home.

“Signome,” the man simply said.

Sal wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but she could tell it wasn’t good news from the man’s tone, so she stepped in, moving towards him and touching his arm lightly in appeal.

“Nick and me,” she said, glancing back at Nick, “We’ve just got engaged,” she explained, suddenly feeling laughter building up inside her at the ridiculousness of her excuse, but putting a stop to her tell tale smile for fear that the man would think she was being rude. “And well, we just wanted one more drink,” she stressed by holding up one finger to demonstrate her request, “just to celebrate.” She placed another hand on top of his arm and implored, “Pleeeeease…”

The man observed her dubiously for a moment before turning to the three men beside him and speaking in Greek. There followed a brief conversation, during which at one point, one of the young men raised his voice and seemed to be arguing with the bearded man. Sal turned from one man to the other and was slowly forced to accept that getting a nightcap at that point was simply not going to happen. She was just about to apologise and leave before a real argument kicked off, when to her amazement the bearded man turned to them again,