Page 72 of Hot Greek Summer

‘Holy shit,’ Stella whispered, completely distracted as she leant in to get a closer look at her screen. ‘Oh man.’

Winnie frowned at the disconsolate tone of Stella’s voice. ‘What is it?’

‘I should have known better.’ Stella turned her laptop around. Pictures of Angelo with various women and accompanying headlines, all of them salacious.

‘Playboy Greek spirits tycoon in danger of drinking all the profits?’ Winnie murmured, scrolling down to scan the trashy piece. She screwed her nose up, her opinion of their charismatic Greek guest dimming with every new sentence.

‘Bar-room brawl … sex addict … wines and spirits tycoon …’

‘Oh,’ Frankie said softly, crossing the kitchen to look over Winnie’s shoulder.

Stella slammed the lid shut on the laptop and laughed bitterly.

‘Doesn’t matter,’ she said, convincing no one.

Winnie felt wretched. She’d never seen Stella lose her head over a man before, but something about Angelo had slid past all of her usual checkpoints, and Winnie had a sneaking suspicion that he’d unearthed Stella’s unused heart and written his name across it.

‘He broke his shoulder in a bar-room fight over a woman?’ Frankie said, pissed off. She’d wasted countless hours looking up the best recipes for convalescence, and encouraged him each morning in their dawn yoga sessions. She might just throw in a few more taxing moves tomorrow and a couple of extra chilies in his favourite feta and chili morning rolls too.

‘Wait,’ she said, as a thought suddenly struck her. ‘He’s a wine and spirits tycoon?’

All three of them looked towards the cellar door, thinking of the tiny, secret distillery that lay beyond.

‘I had sex with him down there,’ Stella said. ‘What if he did notice after all?’

‘What difference would it make?’ Winnie said, trying to think it through practically. ‘It’s not like he’s going to get us closed down or anything, is he?’

The other two looked at her, perturbed by the revelations too.

‘Shouldn’t think so,’ Frankie said, shrugging. ‘We’re a tiny two-bit island that hardly anyone knows about. Why would he go to that kind of trouble?’

‘Let’s not worry about the gin,’ Winnie said, rubbing Stella’s shoulder. ‘I couldn’t care less what he does for a living. All I care about is the fact that you’ve gone and fallen in love with him and he might be a dog.’

Stella turned to look at her as if she’d lost her marbles. ‘I’m not inlovewith him,’ she said, as if it was the most ridiculous suggestion in the world.

‘No?’ Frankie said, sliding a warm scone towards Stella, because she was a firm believer in the healing power of good food and they were Stella’s favourite. ‘You’re sure? Only I’ve never seen you like this with anyone before.’

Stella looked down at the scone for a long, silent moment. ‘Stupid holiday romance,’ she said. A big fat tear dripped from her face onto the shiny golden top of the scone, and she shoved her stool back, upended her plate into the bin, and marched out of the kitchen.

‘It’s a pleasure doing business with you.’ Seth grinned his trademark heartbreaker smile as he shook hands with each of the three women in turn later that afternoon. They’d just agreed the deal for the exclusive hire of the villa for the remaining weeks of the summer season to Tryx for a sum of money that they wouldn’t have dreamt of asking, leaving their books in a healthy state and the future rosy for Villa Valentina.

‘Don’t worry about the other guest currently staying here,’ Stella said, referring to Angelo. ‘He’ll be leaving in the morning.’

‘Angelo?’ Seth said. ‘Oh, he’s cool to stay. I don’t think he even knows who we are, and if he did, he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to rat us out to the press.’

The fact that Angelo was leaving in the morning was news to Frankie and Winnie. They’d heard heated voices coming from upstairs after Stella had left the kitchen, but they hadn’t had a chance to catch up on any developments as yet.

‘Not a chance I’m willing to take,’ Stella said smoothly. ‘You’ve asked us for privacy, and God knows you’re paying for it, so that’s exactly what you’re going to get.’

Her no-nonsense tone brooked no argument. They all smiled blandly as Seth left them to it in reception, and when they were alone Stella slammed the diary shut with unnecessary force.

‘Yes. He’s leaving, before you ask.’

‘The villa, or the island?’

Stella hesitated. ‘I don’t know, and I don’t care. I shouldn’t think Corinna will be best pleased if he decamps over there.’

Winnie hated seeing Stella so obviously unhappy. ‘Did he have anything helpful to say?’

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