Welcome To Crete Chapter 46

Afternoon in the Wheelhouse

Fay and Adam collected the food, paid George behind the till and went back to Adam's car.
"Do you want to give Sal a ring to check that she's in before we call round there?" Adam suggested as he started the car up and pulled out onto the road.
Fay pulled her mobile phone out of her bag and dialled the number. "Sal, it's me...I'm fine, listen Adam and I have got a takeaway and we're going to 'The Wheelhouse' to eat it, do you want to come? We are in the car now so we can pick you up...okay, I'll see you in a sec." She went to hang up then but was stopped when Sal asked her another question. "What do you mean? Did you hear about the burglary then?...You did what? I didn't know that, that's so kind of you...thanks Sal, I really appreciate that...Yes...okay we'll be there in a minute, bye."
She hung up and turned to Adam immediately. "You and Sal sorted out my flat then?"
He smiled. "Yes, I asked Sal to help as I reckoned that she would know more about where things would go."
Her expression softened. "That was really kind of you. Thank you Adam."
"It's my pleasure. You know I don't think that they took a thing, I think that they were looking for something," he hesitated, "maybe information on the tours you've been writing about if I was correct about these events being linked to someone who doesn't want my business to succeed."
"Well they wouldn't have found anything, it's all at the office," she replied. " I've been thinking, it also may have been someone who knows me to some extent because they seemed to know about the key."
"Hmm. Well whoever it was just make sure that you keep your keys with you now. You should also change your lock you know."
"Yes, I guess it would put my mind at rest," she said with a thoughtful expression.

They went to pick up Sal and Fay stayed briefly to have a look around the apartment while Sal bounded from room to room excitedly. It was small but clean and bright, if not a little lacking in furniture and ornaments. Fay made a mental note to look for a couple of housewarming gifts to make the place seem a little more lived in.

When they got to the bar they were greeted by the sight of a group of reps standing on chairs, waving their arms in the air and laughing hysterically. The sound of "Born To Hand Jive' bellowed out and Susie was standing in front of them, resembling something like a conductor.

They put the food down on the bar and Fay leant across to Ruth, shouting, "What on earth are they doing?"
Ruth didn't have chance to answer however before Susie spotted them and called out, "Hey Fay, you coming to 'Mardi Gras' tonight. It's the opening night for the summer season. Everyone will be there."
"Oh, I didn't realize it was opening yet. I guess I'll go down to say hi to Pedros and Dimitris then," she shouted back. "Please don't tell me that you are practicing the party routines for the bar." She looked at them incredulously and the girls giggled.
"We certainly are. The girls here are a bit rusty from last summer and I consider it my duty to whip them back into shape," Susie replied.
"You've all lost the plot!" she laughed, turning back to the bar and addressing Ruth again. "We have brought lunch from 'Popeye's', can you get me a wine, whatever Sal, Adam and you want and then come and help us eat it?"
Ruth's face lit up as she watched Adam pull out the packages of food. "Wine Sal?" Sal nodded, "Adam?"
"I'll have a beer please Ruth."

Ruth was gone and back with the drinks in minutes and she sat down ready to enjoy the food.
"Bill, we have some food over here, want some?" Fay called down the bar when she spotted Bill at the other end watching football on his own.
He looked up with interest, grinned and brought his beer down the bar to join them, sitting next to Adam.
"Never say no to a bit of grub eh," he said to Adam.
"Help yourself," Adam replied as he began to eat. "So what are the scores then?"

Adam and Bill fell into conversation about football so Fay turned to Sal and spoke quietly.
"I'm not having a go at you or anything but in the future it's probably best not to mention the boss's relationships again in your transfer speech," Fay warned.
Sal cringed. "I know but I panicked because Nick stole my speech notes. How did you know anyway?"
"You're not going to believe this but Adam's ex girlfriend was on your coach and she was livid. She caused a scene at my meeting and then stormed into the office and...well it wasn't pretty," she said, grimacing.
Sal put her hand over her face. "Oh hell, I'm sorry Fay."
"It's okay, she was a complete witch anyway. She was swearing and shouting so I threatened to have her thrown out," Fay laughed.
Sal thought for a moment. "Actually I had a run in with a woman at the hotel. she threatened to get me the sack because she followed me up the stairs by mistake."
"That was probably her," Fay replied.
"What a b***h! Poor Adam!" Sal paused for a moment before a more serious look passed over her face.
"What's wrong," Fay asked noticing the change.
Sal hesitated as though reluctant to continue. "Well, you had a phone call when I was in your flat tidying up."
"Oh yes, who was it?" Fay asked.
Sal watched her for a moment and then seemed to have a change of heart. "You know what, I'll tell you about it later. I'm going to have a go at the hand jive," she announced, jumping up and moving abruptly away from Fay. Fay frowned at her for a second, wondering who the telephone call was from, but then she simply shrugged and went back to finishing her food.

The girls gave up after close to an hour of dancing on the chairs, eventually shouting their protests to Susie and heading for the bar. To Fay's dismay they ordered Sambucca shots all round and they insisted that she drank one with them. She reluctantly drank the shot and cringed, placing the glass on the bar and looking up to see Adam grinning at her.
"So what's this 'Mardi Gras' place like then?" he inquired.
"It's like a party bar with drinking games, skits and dancing on the bar. It can get a bit wild in there at times though," she replied.
"So are we going then?" he came back quickly.
"Everyone will go. You should come and say hi to the owners, they are good people to know," she responded.
"Okay, I will. Besides I can't wait to see you 'going wild' in there," he grinned.
"I didn't say that I went wild in there!"
"Yes you do!" Susie interrupted from beside Bill, "I've seen you dancing on the bar in there before."
Adam swung his head back to Fay. "I can't wait to go now!"
She went to reply but stopped when she saw more shots being passed down to them.
"Girls, you're not going to make it to this evening at this rate!" she shouted.
"Yes they are, they're pros. And don't think you can get away without drinking that either," Susie said looking down at the shot in front of Fay.
Fay knew better than to protest and quickly downed the shot, unable to stop herself from pulling a face at the aftertaste. Adam seemed to find this amusing and he grinned at her as he poured the clear liquid into his mouth.
"You'd better be prepared too Adam," Susie said, "because they get the men on the bar as well and they'll make you strip your shirt off."
"It's a good job I went to the gym yesterday then isn't it," he replied.
Susie smiled at him.
"Don't do it in front of Fay though," Sal cut in, "she'll run."
Fay frowned in miscomprehension.
"She had one of her daring moods once and organised for a group of us to go to a male strip club for a hen night," Sal explained, "of all people to single out the stripper chose Fay."
Adam rose an eyebrow at her. "So what happened?"
"He came towards her and she screamed and ran!" Sal laughed.
Adam howled. "I have such a vivid picture in my head of that! I can just see it now!"
"Well he did approach me in a very suggestive way!" Fay said in her own defence. This caused more hilarity down the bar and Fay looked indignantly around her. "It was a big shock I can tell you!"
"Yeah, how big?" Susie asked suggestively.
"Very bi..." Fay stopped when the laughter became louder and she realized the innuendo.
Adam chuckled and ruffled her hair. "Don't worry; I'll be keeping my trousers on tonight. Well in the bar anyway," he added cheekily.
She rolled her eyes. "You are all getting drunk and way too boisterous for this time of day."
"Yes actually I think I should get this lot home before it's too late. Come on girls we need to get ready for tonight," Susie shouted down the bar.
"I think we should do the same," Fay said to Sal and Adam.
"Come to mine to get ready Fay, oh but I want to choose your clothes," Sal said, climbing off her stool.
"I'll take you both to Fay's then and your place after, how's that?" Adam offered.
"Fab, " Sal enthused. "I've got a bottle of wine in the fridge too. We can drink it while we're getting ready."
"Oh lord, let's mix it with lots of soda eh Sal," Fay replied.

They paid Ruth and said goodbye to the girls who Susie was trying to motivate into action. As they opened the door to leave Fay turned to Sal behind her and asked again, "So who was the phone call from then?"
Adam overheard and joined in. "Yes, who was the phone call from Sal?"
Sal suddenly looked nervous and whispered to Fay, "I'll tell you later but not in front of anyone else, okay?"
Fay looked intrigued.

***************************************


What is taking her so long?" Fay asked Adam as they sat in his car outside her apartment waiting for Sal to reappear. Adam shrugged and pulled down the visor above him to shield his eyes from the sun's glare. "I don't know why I let her do this," she continued, "it's not as though I'm incapable of choosing what clothes to wear!"
Adam was amused but at a loss to reply.
"Still it could be worse, she could be wanting to dress me in her clothes."
"You dress in each other's clothes?" Adam said, turning to her with surprise.

Women were so strange!

"Yes. When Sal decides that my clothes aren't risqué enough she sometimes forces me to wear her more...err...revealing ones," she replied, glancing out of the car window again for evidence of Sal.
"Good old Sal." Adam paused for a moment and then asked with boyish excitement, "How revealing?"
"As revealing as the clothes I wore on the pool night," she said matter of factly.
"Mmm, I liked those. Perhaps we should tell her to forget picking up your clothes and stick to hers," he suggested.
She felt insulted. "Hey, my clothes aren't that bad! Besides, not that it's any of your business, but Sal will find my most revealing clothes anyway. That's why she wouldn't let me go in with her, she knows that I'd protest."
He frowned with confusion. "Why buy the clothes in the first place if you don't intend to wear them?"
"I was most probably shopping with Sal at the time, or else I had spoken to my mother that day and I was feeling rebellious."

What was she talking about?

"My mother thinks that I should be more reserved and she annoys me so I usually go through a daring, rebellious stage after I've spoken to her," she explained.
"Your mother thinks that you aren't reserved enough!" he said with disbelief, "who is she, The Queen?"
Fay laughed. "She'd like to think so sometimes I'm sure."
"So," Adam summed up, "Sal will be happy because she has picked out your most rebellious clothes, you will feel a great sense of satisfaction that you are disobeying your mother and I will feel a great sense of satisfaction that you are looking ...what did you call it? Risqué." He folded his arms and nodded his approval at her. "Sounds as if it's going to be a good night all round!"
"Hmm," Fay answered, only half listening to him and shouting out of the window when she saw Sal making her way down the steps. "Hurry up Sal, what took you so long?"

***********
Adam dropped them outside Sal's apartment block and arranged to meet them in 'Mardi Gras' later. They got out of the car and raced up the steps to Sal's apartment where she let them in and headed straight for the fridge, taking out the bottle of wine, a cork screw and two plastic tumblers.

Wine glasses. Fay could get them for Sal from the shop next to Halkiadakis.

Sal poured out the wine and handed Fay one of the tumblers. "Here take this with you and hop in the shower. I'll get in after you."
"Aren't you going to tell me what I'm wearing first?" she asked with trepidation.
"It's a little black number, you'll look great. Now hurry up, time's a wasting!"

Fay let the hot, soapy water fall down her back as she washed her hair in Sal's shower.

Another night out with him! God they were spending a lot of time together. She wondered if he was in the shower now? Why was she wondering that? Was he thinking about her that very minute?

She finished rinsing her hair and stepped out of the shower onto the cold floor tiles, reaching for a towel and wrapping it around her.
"Bathroom's free," she shouted out, padding through to Sal's bedroom, picking up the bag Sal had filled with her essentials and pulling out the black dress inside.

She held it up in her hands and her thoughts went back to the last time she had worn it on her first date with Tim. She had dressed for a night of seduction, however Tim had asked if he could kiss her at the end of the evening and the kiss that she had accepted was awkward and passionless. She wondered if Adam was going to kiss her that night. One thing was for certain, if he did the kiss would not be passionless. Quite the opposite, she was finding it harder and harder to control herself in Adam's company!

"He'll not know what to do with himself when he sees you in that," Sal said, startling her from behind. "I've decided what I'm wearing so I'm getting in the shower now. I'll be two secs." Sal disappeared from the room and Fay started to get dressed for the evening, taking small sips of her wine as she did so.

Fay stood in front of the long mirror, which was attached to the inside of one of Sal's wardrobe doors, and considered her reflection. She looked a picture of sophistication in the classic little black dress which complemented her figure perfectly and revealed just enough of her shoulders, chest and legs to entice any red blooded male. Sal had scooped her hair up with a shimmering hairclip at the back, allowing a few strands of blonde hair to escape and fall around her face and lastly Fay had added a pair of earrings which dangled next to her neck in shimmering droplets. She finished the outfit off with a pair of high-heeled, black stiletto shoes.

"Wow!" Sal exclaimed, "if I wasn't waiting for a hunk of a guy to stroll into my life right now I'd quite fancy you myself!"
They both giggled.
"Hey you're not looking to shoddy there either," Fay replied, admiring Sal's choice of outfit for the evening.

The colour of Sal's dress was in complete contrast to Fay's, but the clingy white material looked fantastic against the tan that she had managed to retain since her afternoon on the beach two days ago. In typical Sal style, the daringly low neckline dipped into her cleavage and Fay wondered how on earth she managed to keep everything in! Sal had explained to her that it was with the cunning use of sellotape as they left the apartment and strolled confidently arm in arm down the street towards the town.