Fun In The Sun chapter 11 (Previously entitled 'Off The Cretan Track' ) Edited and extra chapters.

Poor Nick, Ruth had to do something to distract him before his hormones got the better of him.

"Hey you two," she said to Sal and Adam, "enough talking about work now, we're going to play a little game," She announced.

Sal's head swung to Ruth then with interest. "What kind of game?"

"It's just a bit of fun. Saw people play this in a pub in Elounda last week," she informed them. "The rules are simple: each person gets a category in turn and they have to list as many things they can in that category in only ten seconds..."

"Ten seconds!" Fay exclaimed.

"Yep, so you have to think quick. Just list everything that comes into your head as quickly as possible. Then whoever names the least number of items has to buy a round of drinks for everyone."

"Ooh, better get my credit card out then," Adam said.

"Need to remortgage my bike," Nick added.

"Hey, my drinks aren't that expensive!" Ruth said defensively. "And anyway, you haven't got a bike yet," she pointed out to Nick.

"Will have tomorrow," he replied immediately.

"What, so you managed to buy a bike in the couple of hours you've been back?" she answered doubtfully.

"Err, not exactly, I rented it," he admitted.

"Well then, you can't remortgage it, can you?" she came back.

His eyes widened in a competitive determination. "I can do anything I want, I am ruler of the universe!" he boomed out, standing up off his stool and flexing his muscles.

They all fell about laughing. He grinned and took his seat again. "Ok, so who goes first?"

"Ruler of the universe, I guess," Ruth grinned back.

Fay, Adam and Sal chuckled.

"Okay," Nick said, "do your worst."

"Alright then. Adam, can you time us?" Ruth asked.

"By all means," he replied, reaching into the pocket of his trousers for his phone, and finding the stop-clock setting.

"Ready?" Ruth asked.

"Steady?" Adam said.

"Go!" Sal joined in.

"Wait!" Nick exclaimed. "I don't even know what the category is yet."

"I was just about to tell you," Ruth assured him.

"But she just said 'go', and I've only got ten seconds. It will take you ten seconds to tell me the category!"

"Don't exaggerate," Ruth replied. "Okay so Nick, your category is...types of sticks. Go!" She said to Adam.

"What?" Nick frowned in confusion.

"Types of sticks... name types of sticks, quickly!" Sal prompted him.

"Err, sticks, sticks," he said to himself, perturbed to realise that he couldn't think of any at all. "Pogo stick!" he finally came up with.

"Yeah, that's it," they encouraged him. "Go on!"

"Match stick, err, err..."

"Come on! Come on! Time's running out!"

"Err, err," he panicked. "Big stick, small stick, sticky stick..."

They all collapsed about laughing.

"Time's out!" Adam called.

"No!" Nick shouted dramatically. "I'm done for," he concluded, slumping over the bar to the sound of hysterics around him.

He sat back on his chair and covered his face with his hands, shaking his head. "What kind of stupid, crazy category is 'types of sticks'? " he said, with a muffled voice from behind his hands.

Ruth reached across the bar and peeled his hands away. "Firstly, may I say that 'big stick' and 'small stick' don't count and are disqualified."

"Disqualified," he exclaimed in dismay. "That's not fair!"

"And furthermore," she went on, "What on earth is a 'sticky stick'?"

They all burst out laughing again.

"Don't," Adam said between laughter. "You're killing me."

"Actually, on second thoughts," Ruth continued, "I don't think I want to know, Mr Elliot. I'm too scared to find out what goes through that mind of yours," she laughed.

"So, what did he get?" Sal asked.

"Two," Ruth chuckled.

"Okay, but it's not that easy you know," Nick said, "Let's see how you lot do."

"Come on then," Fay offered. "I may as well get this over and done with...but..." she went on, "I'd just like to say that..." She thought for a moment about how to ensure her success. "Whoever wants to give me the category, I will give them a kiss," she finished.

"Ooh very clever," Ruth thought to herself. "Only Adam and Nick will volunteer, and Adam won't let Nick do it and get a kiss off Fay. So Adam will do it, and for sure, he will give her an easy category."

Ruth was absolutely was right: both Adam and Nick reacted immediately. Nick jumped off his chair to volunteer and Adam swept him to one side, threatening certain death if he even thought about it. Nick chuckled and sat back down.

"Here," Adam said to Nick, thrusting his phone into Nick's hand. "You can time her."

He laughed at Adam's impatience to get proceedings going. "Okay, okay, are you ready?"

"Yes," Adam answered for Fay. "Your category is...alcoholic drinks. Go."

"Wine, beer, vodka, gin, whisky, brandy, Bacardi, Sambuca..." she said in a stream.

"What?" she can read them from behind the bar for a start, "Nick pointed out shortly before the stop-clock on the phone in his hand beeped to indicate the end of ten seconds.

"Well, that would be around a million points for Fay then," Sal said, glaring at Adam.

Adam grimaced but then shrugged and grinned as Fay wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly on the lips. Fay finally pulled away and Adam glanced up looking very smug.

"When you two have quite finished," Ruth said. "This is getting ridiculous. I'll choose the next one for Adam," Ruth said, taking control again. "Nick?"

"Ready," he confirmed.

Adam pulled away from Fay and prepared himself for battle.

"Good. Your category Adam is..." Ruth said, "...breeds of horses. Go."

Damn. "Ok, Arabian, Shire, stallion, mule, pony... err, donkey, ooh ooh and," he clicked his fingers, trying to remember, "Err, the, err, that American type. I know, Mustang!" he said finally. Then the phone beeped.

"Unfortunately Adam," Ruth began.

"A donkey isn't a horse," Nick finished for her.

"Neither is a pony," Sal chipped in. "Well, not a breed of one anyway."

"Nor a stallion or a mule," Ruth finished.

"They're horsey kind of animals," Adam said in his defence.

They laughed at him.

"Unfortunately, 'horsey kind of animals' wasn't the category. You have three points," Ruth smiled, pleased at having her revenge on him for unashamedly helping out Fay.

"Ok, I'll give you the category this time," Adam said to Ruth. "Ready Nick?"

"Yes," he nodded.

Adam grinned. "Types of amoeba," he said, convinced that he had beaten Ruth this time. "Go."

Ruth grinned back, holding his gaze confidently. "Amoeba Antillius, Amoeba procastus, Amoeba Nefrus...err... and ... Amoeba menillius. I can't think of any more," she finished.

Still, she'd got more than Nick's two and astounded everyone in the process.

Adam stared at Ruth in astonishment. "You've got to be kidding."

What Adam had failed to consider was that if by chance anyone had known the names of several different types of amoeba, he wouldn't have had a clue if they were right or not.

Sal giggled. "Who would have guessed? Ruth is an amoeba expert." Then she had a thought and absentmindedly reached behind her for Nick, placing a hand on his knee and turning around to whisper, "Did she just make them up?"

Nick became suddenly aware that Sal was a little closer to him then and he noticed that the closer she leant, and the longer she waited for his reply, her eyes fixed curiously on him, the more 'funny' his head went... or was that the Sambuca, like what had happened to Ruth? He put a finger to his lips, "Shhh, " he responded, lifting his hand and gently sweeping back her curtain of shiny, auburn hair to lean closer and whisper into her ear, "She's trying to beat Adam."

His soft, warm breath sent tingles into her ear before she was abruptly brought out of her daze when Ruth announced,

"Sal's turn now then."

"Oh no, please don't let me come last," she said. "Sorry Nick," she added, realizing that if she wasn't last, he would be. Not that she minded buying the drinks, she just didn't want to be the one who did the worst.

Nick tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to glance up at him.

"Come on, I'll give you the category," he offered, "I'll make it a nice one," he smiled.

But if he made it a nice one for her, then he would probably lose.

"Ahh, thank you Nick," she replied. He was so sweet at times.

"Are you ready?" he asked her.

She took a deep breath, grabbed hold of the edge of the bar with two hands as if to brace herself for something and replied, "Go."

"Hold on," Adam laughed. "You need to pass me my phone for the stop-clock."

"Oh yeah," Nick replied, reaching to retrieve it off the bar and hand it back to Adam.

Adam took it, grinning at Sal as he did so. She was still grasping onto the bar and appeared to be holding her breath, still waiting for her game to begin. "Sal, I think you need to resume breathing before we start or you're likely to pass out," he chuckled.

She let out her breath in a rush, gasping and giggling.

"Good God, it's only a game, Sal," Ruth laughed.

"My reputation's at stake," she replied between breaths.

They chuckled.

Boy, she really was nervous about this. Nick needed to give her a good category but he also didn't want to make it as easy as Adam had for Fay as that was too obvious.

"Sal, come here," Nick said, taking hold of one of her hands and turning her around in her seat to face him. He reached for her other hand too and held them both loosely in front of them. Then he looked purposefully into her eyes, drawing her attention, and made a sweeping movement with his eyes as if following the path of something flying though the air.

What was he doing? Sal frowned with confusion.

Nick tried again. This time jumping his eyes a couple of times before widening them and again, making the sweeping movement.

Sal started to giggle and Nick gave up with a short burst of laughter.

"What on earth are you two doing?" Fay asked.

"Nothing. We're ready Adam," Nick replied.

"Steady," Adam answered.

"Things that fly," Nick said to Sal. "Go."

"Oh!" Sal exclaimed with realization, taking a second to think and then suddenly feeling confident as a whole stream of ideas flooded into her mind. "Monkey, elephant, house, horse, table..." she listed.

What?... What was she doing?

"...bed, elevator, car, err, err and a...bird!" She finished triumphantly. "How did I do?"

The stop-clock sounded and then the group fell silent as they all stared at her in bewilderment.

"You finish with a bird?" Nick said incredulously. "Couldn't you think of other things that fly?"

"Yeah, I know," she admitted, "the bird wasn't that good."

Adam began to laugh when he saw Nick's face, prompting giggles in the others.

"No Sal, the bird was... what the?" he shook his head. Had the world gone mad? "The bird was the only one!"

"Only what?" Sal asked, puzzled by their reactions.

"The only thing that flies!" he shouted out.

Adam couldn't hold back any more and burst out laughing loudly, followed by Ruth and then Fay.

"No it isn't," Sal came back defensively.

Ruth prepared to chip in. Dare she ask?

"A flying monkey, Sal?" she just about managed to get out before bursting into laughter again.

Adam was laughing so much at this point he had tears in his eyes.

Sal turned to Nick for support but he too had succumb to the giggles by then.

"Has no one ever seen the "Wizard of OZ"?" Sal asked.

They stopped for a second to think.

"You know, those little flying monkeys with little blue and red coats on," Sal explained.

They burst out laughing again.

Adam pointed to Ruth.

"Put...put...put a point on her score... for that... for that one Ruth," he managed to say before the laughter gripped him again.

"Sal," Nick called her, his face alight with amusement. "What was the elephant?"

By this time the rest of the group had thought ahead.

"Dumbo!" they called out in unison, collapsing into laughter again afterwards.

"Are we...are we... right?" Ruth asked.

Sal smiled. "Yeah."

Adam put his hands over his face then and gave into the hysterics.

"And the house out of 'The Wizard of Oz', and the flying horse, Pegasus, and the flying table in 'Mary Poppins', the bed that flew in "Bedknobs and Broomsticks", Roald Dahl's flying glass elevator, and Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang," Sal finished a little short of breath but with a satisfied smile. "How many points did I get?"

The hilarity intensified at her very long list of magical flying things.

"Oh and the bird," Sal added.

"Yeah," Nick said, in a high pitched giggle, "Don't forget the bird, Ruth."

More hilarity ensued.

"Any disqualified?" Sal asked.

Ruth was holding her stomach to try to alleviate the aches that were caused by her excessive laughter which was getting worse by the minute. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to hold back until more giggles burst out of her and she said, "I can't...I can't" she tried again, "I can't disqualify any of them. She...she...she got them all right!"

The room exploded again into laughter once more and Sal slid off her bar stool, watching them all with amusement.

Ruth turned away from the sight of everyone and stood with her back turned to the bar while she struggled to calm herself down and stop laughing.

Adam had a fist to his mouth while he tried to control himself and Fay was draped over his shoulder, having just as much trouble.

Finally, after a few minutes, with a huge calming breath, Ruth turned around. "Right. Let's...let's add up the scores," she said. But her shaky voice and wavering lips betrayed her continued weakness. "Nick, unfortunately you only got two," she said, grinning and biting her lip. She inhaled deeply again. "Adam, you got three..." She glanced at him then, but it was a mistake. His face as he was trying to hold the laughter back just caused her to start giggling again. She shook her head abruptly and went on. "I got four, Fay got eight and Sal..." she paused and closed her eyes for a second before continuing, "got nine and is the...and is the...the... w...w... winner," she finished, giving up on trying to hold it back anymore.

They all cheered, in between fits of giggles, and Sal's face broke out into a big smile. She glanced around at them all, to see everyone of them completely helpless in the grips of uncontrollable giggles. From his bar stool, with a huge grin, Nick reached out, grabbed Sal's arm and pulled her back to him. She stood with her back against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her middle.

"Well done Sal," he giggled into her ear before looking up at Ruth, Adam and Fay again. "The funny thing is," he chuckled, "I meant to give her an easy category but she won it in the most difficult and complicated way!"

They all nodded but daren't speak.

"Wouldn't you all just love to live in Sal's world?" he smiled. "Sal," he began. She leant her head back against his chest and looked up at him. "You're...you're just..." he sighed, "wonderful," he beamed, tightening his arms around her.

"Little flying monkeys," Adam said to himself shaking his head and chuckling after glancing at Ruth.

She put a hand to her mouth and giggled. "In little coats," she added.