Page 82 of Hot Greek Summer

Mikey Miller had appeared behind her on the grass. ‘Nah. Nekros. It probably means dead.’

Winnie twisted to look at him.

‘Why would it mean that?’

‘Well, for one, she’s just mimed slitting her own throat, and for two, it’s probably like necrophilia – you know, that really weird fetish where people shag dead people?’

He said it as if he’d just said something far plainer, and Winnie found herself both nodding at the linguistic logic but also shaking her head with disgust at the way his mind worked.

‘Thank you, Mikey,’ she muttered. ‘Maybe you should head inside while we try to sort this lot out.’

‘Still no reply from Panos,’ Stella said. ‘Win, can you run and fetch Jesse? He’s our next best hope.’

Winnie hesitated. How do you approach someone who’d just made you feel like he’d hooked the moon just for you and then disappeared when the sun stole over the horizon?

‘I wouldn’t ask if I could think of anyone else,’ Stella said.

Winnie nodded. ‘OK. Give me ten minutes.’

Out of breath from running, she banged hard on Jesse’s door. Even still, her heart banged louder on her ribs.

‘Jesse, it’s me!’ she called. ‘Open the door? Please?’

Nothing.

She thumped it again, this time using both fists. ‘Jesse, for God’s sake. I haven’t come to talk about last night. We never have to say another word about it if that’s the way you want it. Just open the bloody door, will you?’

She waited, but still nothing.

‘Jesse!’ she shouted. ‘You stubborn, stupid man! Why be like this with me? I really need your bloody help and all you can think of is your precious one-night-stand rule! I’m sorry if you wish it hadn’t happened, but don’t ask me to apologise or wish I could turn the clock back and change things because I wouldn’t change one single solitary thing about what happened in my bed last night.’

‘You’re gonna break the door down if you keep that up much longer.’

She swung around and found him sitting in the easy chair in the shadows, his feet propped on a crate in front of him and a half-empty bottle of brandy in his lap. He was still wearing his clothes from earlier, and by the looks of him he hadn’t been to bed at all.

‘What are you doing sitting out here?’ she asked, more softly.

‘Watching the sun come up,’ he said, placing the brandy down beside his chair and easing his feet down to the floor with a grimace. ‘Thinking. Wondering why the hell you’re banging my door as if the sky’s about to fall in.’

‘Because most of the residents of the island seem to think it is,’ she said, her mind back on message. ‘And they’ve all gathered in the garden back at the villa to wait for it to happen. Honestly, you should see it. There isn’t a bare patch of earth that someone isn’t kneeling on and crying, and none of us can make any sense of what in God’s name is the matter with everyone. We’ve tried calling Panos but he seems to have conveniently disappeared off the face of the earth just when we need him most, so I’ve been sent here as a last resort to see if you’ll come and try to shed some light on what’s going on.’ She paused to draw in a deep breath.

‘Well, not last resort, exactly,’ she added, since that might have sounded rude. ‘As our neighbour.’ She stopped again. ‘And as our friend.’ Another loaded pause. ‘And as my –’

‘Your what?’ he said, still and quiet.

Winnie looked down and sighed. ‘My friend who happened to make love to me once.’

He stood up, dusting his hands down his jeans, not quite meeting her eyes when he spoke. ‘There’s a difference between sex and making love, Winnie. Don’t confuse the two.’

Wow. Thanks for pointingthatdistinction out. Embarrassment tried to weave its way like thorny tangled weeds around Winnie’s ankles, but she stamped it under the soles of the cowboy boots she’d flung back on to run down the lane.

‘Whatever,’ she said, offhand. ‘It’s just a figure of speech. Call it what you like. Call it fucking, if you like. We did it, and we’re not going to do it again, so let’s both just grow up and get over it. Now will you come and help us, or not?’

She had no clue where those words had come from, and they clearly shocked Jesse as much as they did Winnie.

He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. Scrubbing his hands over his face, he shrugged.

‘Lead the way.’

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