Page 45 of The Greek Villa

I’m sure there is also something in the holy book that says a marriage can be absolved on the grounds of adultery, but I don’t say anything.

‘Oh, Phoebe, it doesn’t sound sad, and I didn’t mean to be cruel,’ I tell her gently. ‘It just annoys me how women always get the blame when it takes two to tango, as they say.’

I wonder how much pressure Phoebe’s husband felt in a small village, to stay with his wife, but I know I could never be with a man whose heart wasn’t truly in the relationship, always living with the fear that they may leave again in the future.

My whole sorry story comes pouring out of how I spent six months of my life with a man who was leading a double life. I met him online and he failed to mention his childhood sweetheart who was now his fiancée. I should have read the signs, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? He would visit me at weekends, or occasionally during the week if he was working ‘up my way’. I never went to his place, him explaining he was sharing a flat that was a bit of a dump, and that the landlord was in the middle of doing it up. It’s amazing what you will believe when you are in love, or at least think you are. As my story unfolds, Phoebe’s expression softens.

‘Then I can understand your anger. And maybe I did not want to admit that I was not enough for my husband. Eliza was always prettier than me.’ She sighs.

‘I doubt that,’ I say, looking at her pretty, hardly lined face. ‘Who knows why some people behave the way they do? Ego maybe, flattered by the attention of another woman? But my boyfriend was in a relationship, and actively went looking for someone else. In my opinion, that is even more despicable than having your head turned. I’m not sure I will ever trust a man again.’

‘You are young. Do not be soured by one bad experience,’ she advises. ‘Not all men are that way. As for my husband, I believe he stayed faithful until his death, but if I tell myself the truth, I know that things were never the same.’ She sighs. ‘I think the guilt would have been too much for him if he left,’ she says, and I feel sad that her marriage ended up that way, after all those years together.

‘Were you good friends with Eliza before that?’ I ask and she nods.

‘For over thirty years, when she first moved here with her husband. They saved to come and live near the sea. Her husband, he had the bad chest.’ She takes the cups across the kitchen and places them in the stone sink.

‘And you don’t think you could ever be friends again?’

‘Too much time has passed. Ten years now.’ She shakes her head. ‘Some things are best left buried,’ she says, but there is a sadness behind her eyes.

‘How do you know, if you don’t try? I have seen her glancing over at you. I get the feeling she might like to put the past behind you both. You are both widows now. You could be friends once more.’

‘Pah. I do not think so.’

Her phone rings then, and her face lights up as she takes a call from her daughter. I gesture to the door to leave her to it and she waves me off.

All afternoon I think about how a friendship of over thirty years came to an end because of her husband’s unfaithfulness. And yet her friend is the one she blames solely for the indiscretion and Phoebe still feels saddened and annoyed about it, but no one is unfaithful unless they really choose to be, surely? Maybe Phoebe’s husband was weak, flattered by the attention of another woman, or maybe he had been unhappy in his marriage. I don’t suppose Phoebe will ever know the answer to that now. I just think it a great shame that there can be no forgiveness on Phoebe’s part and that two women have lost a friendship that they could probably do with in their older age.

Back at the house, Dimitri has already secured two of the kitchen units to the wall, and I offer to help with the base units, but he refuses.

‘I am paid to do this job. I would not mind a coffee though.’ He brushes his hair out of his eyes and smiles.

‘Sure thing.’

‘A double espresso. Maybe it will keep me going.’ He smiles again.

Though the rest of the guys are working hard finishing things upstairs, his comment reminds me of how he promised to work until midnight if he had to in order to keep on schedule. I am beginning to learn that he is a man of his word.

Tomorrow the rendering on the outside of the villa will start, and I dare to imagine a smooth, white-walled building standing tall like the proudest house in the street. There will be pots of flowers either side of the front door, and at last I am able to envisage the long summer days I will soon be able to spend here in my dream holiday home.

Returning with the drinks, I watch Dimitri bending and stretching, his strong body hardly breaking a sweat, clearly very fit, his job no doubt keeping him in shape. His rippling arm muscles are flexing, and I struggle to keep my eyes on the little bit of work I am doing, screwing some hinges onto doors, despite his protestations. I haven’t found a man so physically attractive in a long while, but that’s all I am doing, admiring his physical appearance. Relationships are off the table for me, even if Dimitri had shown the slightest indication that he finds me attractive, which up to now, he hasn’t.

‘Is everything okay?’ Dimitri asks me a while later.

‘Yes, why do you ask?’

‘You are very quiet,’ he observes as he wipes his hands on some kitchen towel.

‘I’m okay. I was just thinking about Phoebe and a conversation I had with her. She was telling me about her friendship with Eliza across the road before they fell out.’

‘Hmm. I remember my aunt telling me a little about that. I was a teenager at the time, but I recall them having a huge row one evening in the street, when I was visiting my aunt with my parents. It seems Phoebe saw her husband coming out of Eliza’s house, after she had returned home early.’

‘Poor Phoebe.’ I shake my head.

‘The strange thing is, my aunt told me that Eliza always swore it was innocent, he had been doing a job for her. He liked to help her out after her husband died. He was just being a good neighbour.’

‘But Phoebe told me that they had an affair and he admitted it.’

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