The Tangled Web (37 page)

Christos cleared his throat.  ‘I’m angry, but I’m not angry
at you.  I’m angry at myself, because I had those chats.  I should never have
done it, but I tried to justify it by telling myself that I deserved a little
bit of fun.’

‘You deserved to be a cheating slimeball?’ Vicky blustered.

‘No, I mean that I deserved to have this freedom because
Jenny had cheated.  And because she’s probably done it again since the one time
I know about.  I didn’t want to be the stupid fool who forgives her every time
and doesn’t retaliate,’ he flushed.  His face turned crimson as he spoke.

‘So leave her!  Don’t just give her something like this to
use against you.  Leave her!’ Vicky cried.

‘It’s not that simple.  We have children together.  We have
a life together.   I love her.  You know it’s not all black and white, Vicky,’
he shook his head.

Vicky stared down at the pebbles below her and kicked a few
around as she thought about what he was saying.  ‘You have to talk to her. 
It’s no kind of life, cheating on each other and fighting all the time.  Get it
sorted,’ she commanded.

Christos nodded.  ‘I know.  But I don’t want her to find
out about this.  It’s important.  She wouldn’t understand.’

Vicky stopped playing with the pebble and looked up at
Christos again.  Had she just been sweet-talked?  Was he feeding her a few easy
to believe lines to keep her quiet and get her on side again? 

She decided to try what Flic was so good at doing.  She
would just flip the switch and act like she didn’t care.  She could have a good
cry and bitch about him when she was back at the apartment.  Right now, she had
to pretend.

‘Whatever.  I’m not going to say anything.  It’s none of my
business.  Just find someone else to moan to in future,’ she shrugged.

She turned again and attempted to walk away, but just as
before he pulled her back and put his hands on her arms, willing her to stay.

‘What do you mean, agapi mou?’ he blinked, his face etched
with concern.

‘Stop calling me that!  And I mean I don’t want to hear it
any more!  I’m not interested in your problems.  Tell it to some random girl
you pick up online,’ Vicky hissed.

He released her from his grip and watched her, open mouthed
as she turned to walk away again.  This time I’ll keep walking, she told her
herself.

‘You’re jealous!’ he stated. 

She swung around and glowered at him.  She could mask
facial expressions, say words that she didn’t mean and act like she didn’t
care, but one thing she couldn’t prevent was her body’s involuntary betrayal of
her by blushing.  She knew it was happening.  She could explain it away as
anger or sunburn, but the truth was she was embarrassed because he was right.

‘Who do you think I’m jealous of?  I don’t want a boyfriend
who cheats on me online with women he doesn’t know, so I can’t be jealous of
your girlfriend.  And I certainly don’t want to be the one you use and then
block.  There’s nobody in this scenario with anything I want,’ she said, ending
with a sweet smile. 

He ran in front of her as she tried to walk away and
argued, ‘You wish it was you.  You wish that if I had cheated with anyone, it
had been you.’

Vicky was about to disagree and put forward a feeble
argument but she caught sight of Flic in the distance, kissing someone.  She
crumpled her face in bewilderment, wondering who she had kissed and why. 

‘She’s a fast worker!’ Vicky panted, shaking her head in
puzzlement. 

Christos lowered his eyebrows, wondering who the fast
worker was.  He noticed she was looking past him, towards the tunnelled
entrance to the beach.  He too turned around and he and Vicky stared in
disbelief as they watched Flic push the man away, do a double take and begin to
whack him with her handbag, while Lumi, crouching behind a rock, appeared to be
taking pictures of the whole incident.

‘What the hell is going on?’ Vicky squinted.

‘Who is that?’ Christos asked.

Vicky started to shake her head and was about to reply that
she had no idea.  Then she looked a little closer and she realised that she
recognised this man from the night before.

‘That’s George Goodbody!’

31

16
^th
July

Flic pushed the man who had grabbed her away and made an
attempt to retrieve her phone to call someone for help.  This was outrageous! 
She had been assaulted on this beach and the attack was completely unprovoked.

‘You bloody pervert!  I’m phoning the police!’ she yelled.

‘To tell them what?  You weren’t as pleased to see your
ex-husband as he was to see you?’ George mocked.

‘George?’ she gasped.  She had barely stopped to look at
the person who had grabbed her.  She had been so busy trying to push him away. 
The fact that she had kissed this man thousands of times before hadn’t
triggered any memories.  He could have been anyone.  She was just too angry to
think straight right now.

‘I can’t believe you don’t recognise me honey,’ George
smirked.

‘Of course I do.  And don’t call me that,’ Flic spat.

‘Aren’t you surprised to see me?’ George asked.

Flic remained silent.  She sneered at him but couldn’t
bring herself to lie and say that she wasn’t surprised to see him.  After all,
she had known he was on the island.  It wasn’t a total shock to find a fellow
tourist at a busy tourist attraction.

She glanced over George’s shoulder and saw Lumi messing
around with her damned phone again.  Didn’t she ever put that thing down?  And
why wasn’t Lumi coming to her rescue.  She was obviously in distress.  Flic
could have done without her being around today.  All she wanted to do was
support Vicky and get out of here, but Lumi had insisted that they soak up the
atmosphere, perhaps go for a swim.  When Flic had flatly refused to get
undressed and go swimming, Lumi had seemed more annoyed than she should have
been.  Then she announced that she was going to collect pebbles.  Collect
pebbles?  Was she five years old or something?  The least she could have done
was come over and support Flic in her attempts to fight George off.  Whatever
happened to girls sticking together?

‘You should never grab a woman like that!  It’s the
hallmark of an arsehole,’ Flic blasted.

‘Sorry babes, I was just trying to be friendly,’ he
teased.  ‘Nice hair, by the way.  I preferred you as a red-head though.’

‘What do you want anyway?’ Flic flustered.

‘What do I want?  Well, I want peace to get on with my life
without my ex intruding on it.  Isn’t that what we all want?’ George gave a
loud hearty laugh, but it was lacking in humour. 

Flic began to get a little concerned.  ‘You’re a fine one
to talk.  You could just have stayed away, even though you’d seen me here.  You
could have ignored me, not kissed me,’ she scolded.  She was beginning to feel
unsettled.  His warm brown eyes, the ones she had looked into so lovingly in a
past life, used to be reminiscent of a friendly dog.  The friendly little puppy
was morphing into a terrifying Rottweiler. 

‘Flic!  Are you ok?’ Vicky panted as she ran towards them.

‘I’m alright, but I just want to get out of here,’ she
replied pleadingly, giving a glance towards George, then Christos.

Vicky understood the question Flic was trying to ask
without words.  She turned her head back at Christos too, who was standing a
few meters away with his hands in his pockets, sheepishly shuffling his feet
along the pebbles. 

‘We could talk another time,’ he shrugged.  ‘It’s more
important to get Flic out of here.’  As he spoke he nodded towards George. 

George seemed to be sizing Christos up, but clearly decided
Christos was not a threat to him as he lost none of the bravado in his posture
and the cocky, slightly menacing smile was fixed on his face.  Christos ignored
George and kept his eyes fixed on Vicky.  It was clear to Flic from the way
they looked at each other that they had said all they needed to say for one
day.  If the damage to their friendship was to be fixed, it would have to be
done some other time. 

Vicky nodded to Flic.  ‘Of course.  Let’s get you back to
the flat.  Lumi?  Are you coming?’

Lumi flashed a bright smile in their direction. 
‘Obviously!  Where else would I be going?’

As Lumi walked back to them from behind a large rock where
she had been collecting pebbles and playing with her phone, Flic could have
sworn she gave George a sideways glance and a sneaky smile.  She had to be
imagining that though.  Why would Lumi be smiling at George? 

The three women walked through the tunnel back to the car
park and the gift shop.

‘Did I see you taking photos of Flic and George?’ Vicky
asked Lumi.

‘What?  No.  I was taking pictures, but I was admiring the
landscape.  I am outraged at what happened, for sure,’ Lumi nodded
enthusiastically.

Flic flashed a confused expression in Vicky’s direction and
Vicky returned it with an equally confused shrug.  If she was so outraged, why
didn’t she help me, Flic thought.

They reached the car park and halted almost as soon as they
had entered the area.  Flic couldn’t see their hired car anywhere.  She twirled
around three hundred and sixty degrees, looking for any sign of Adam.  He was
nowhere to be seen.

‘Where’s the car?’ she said aloud.

‘That’s him over there!  Looks like he’s leaving,’ Vicky
pointed out.  He was waiting at the junction for traffic to clear on the main
road. 

Flic started to run towards the car but as she reached it
the car sped off, making a high pitched screech, leaving the smell of slightly
burnt rubber behind it. 

‘What’s going on?  Why has he left?’ Flic fretted. 

‘I don’t know.  I’ll phone him.’  Vicky retrieved her phone
from her pocket and called Adam’s mobile. 

Flic gave Lumi a quick glance and noticed that she appeared
unconcerned and unsurprised.  ‘Ask him when he’s coming back!’ Flic instructed.

Vicky shushed her and said, ‘Adam!  What’s going on?  Where
are you going?’  There was a pause before she added, ‘But why?  How are we
supposed to get back to Paphos?’ 

‘What’s happened?’ Flic panicked.  She could guess from
Vicky’s lowered eyebrows that Adam had gone and wasn’t planning to come back.

Vicky lowered her phone and stared at it.  ‘He hung up,’
she puffed.

‘What’s happened?’ Flic repeated.  She couldn’t help but
detect a lack of worry from Lumi once more.  She might even go so far as to say
that Lumi looked amused.

Vicky pressed the keypad lock on her phone and placed it
back in her pocket.  Her worry had changed to annoyance and she looked directly
at Flic.  ‘He just said he was going back to his own apartment, and maybe
George could take us to ours.’

‘George?’ Flic squinted.  ‘Why would George take us back? 
How did he even know George was here?’

‘Is there a problem?’ George called from behind them, his
voice echoing slightly as he arrived from the tunnel.

‘No problem at all!’ Lumi exclaimed, smiling brightly and
giving him an enthusiastic wave.

Flic and Vicky snapped their heads around to look at each
other.  They were clearly thinking the same thing.  They were silently asking
themselves, and each other, whose side Lumi was actually on.

Christos skulked along behind George, twirling his car keys
absentmindedly in his hand as he moved.  He gave Vicky a guilty glimpse then
turned and made his way towards his own car.

‘There’s no problem,’ Vicky confirmed in an attempt to
avoid speaking any further with George. 

He was undeterred and kept swaggering towards them.  ‘Are
you sure?  Nothing I can do to help out?’

‘Leave us alone!’ Flic squealed.

‘And why would I want to do that?’ he spat.

Flic edged backwards away from him.  Vicky shot a pleading
look towards Christos who had stopped at his car door to watch what was
happening.  He started marching towards George, ready to come to the girls’ aid
if need be.

‘Why would I want to leave YOU alone, when you’ve gone out
of your way to try and destroy MY life?’ George pressed.

‘I haven’t,’ Flic stammered.

‘Oh yes.  Play dumb.  Feign innocence.  Because I’m the one
completely at fault here,’ he continued.

Flic kept taking small steps backwards, moving away from
the source of her irritation and squirmed as he followed her.

‘Do you think doing one unkind thing to you, years ago,
means you have a licence to hate me and try to destroy my happiness for the
rest of our lives?’ he barked.

‘I’d hardly call leaving your wife for her mate an “unkind
thing.”  Get it in perspective!’ Vicky snapped defensively.

George shot a warning glance to Vicky before continuing his
tirade.  ‘I was sorry that I hurt you because I didn’t think you deserved it. 
But you also didn’t deserve to stay married to someone who wasn’t in love with
you any more.  I felt bad for how it happened, but I’ve lost all sympathy for
you in the last couple of months!’ he growled.