Welcome To Crete Chapter 57

Adam, Nick and Sal arrange tours

At the end of the second week Adam received a text message from Fay apologising for taking so long but informing him that she had sent an e mail containing the information that Pedros had wanted. The messages between them had become more and more impersonal as the time had passed and Adam delayed sending her a reply immediately, printing off the e mail instead, closing the office and heading for Mardi Gras in search of Pedros.

He entered the bar and found Nick chatting to Boycie by the DJ console.

"Is Pedros here?" he asked Boycie.

"Sorry, he left about half an hour ago but he will be back later tonight," Boycie informed him.

Adam turned to leave then but Nick stopped him before he got to the door.

"Can I have a quick word with you?" he asked, leaping off his stool and appearing in front of Adam.

They both took a seat and on impulse Adam ordered a beer, figuring that Pedros might pop back to the bar whilst he was still there.

"What can I do for you?" he inquired, offering to buy Nick another drink.

"I've been thinking about these trips you're organising," Nick began, asking the barwoman for a beer and thanking Adam. "Have you thought about who you want to guide the trips because I could do with some more work and I've had lots of experience guiding before."

Adam had automatically assumed that Nick and Sal would guide the trips anyway; however he now had to admit that he had been remiss in not discussing it with them before then. And come to think of it he would probably need extra guides too as some days Nick and Sal would be busy at the airport.

"Thanks for reminding me," he said. "How about you and Sal sort out which trips you want to guide between you and if you hear of anyone else who is looking for work let me know as I'm going to need more guides later on in the season."

Nick looked thrilled. "Great, I'll talk to Sal then. I was planning on going to The Wheelhouse next anyway; she will most probably be in there. Why don't you come down with me and watch the football?"

Adam looked undecided. "I was hoping to talk to Pedros today, I thought I'd hang around here for a while now that I've got a beer in case he comes back in."

"He won't be back until late now. You'll be waiting for a long time," Nick warned. "Come on I'll buy you another beer. Besides you can't leave me with all the girls in there, they'll natter my head off!"

Adam laughed. "Well I guess I haven't dropped by to say hello in there for a while. I'll leave a message here for Pedros and we can go when we've finished these," he said, taking a large swig of his beer.

Nick stood at the doorway of The Wheelhouse and scanned the bar for Sal. He was disappointed to see that she wasn't in there as he had wanted to talk to her about the trips and confirm them with Adam there and then. They both sat in front of the large plasma TV behind the bar and ordered some drinks from Ruth.

"Hello stranger," Ruth said teasing Adam. "Where do you think you've been hiding these days?"

Adam shrugged. "I've been busy with work so I haven't been out at all lately to tell you the truth."

Ruth bent down to take two beers out of the fridge and she placed them on the bar in front of Nick and Adam.

"Do you know if Sal is coming in here later on?" Nick inquired.

"She's not long left Nick. She said that she was going home for a shower but she didn't mention coming back later. Why?" Ruth asked.

"I just wanted to talk to her about work," he replied, taking out his mobile phone and dialling her number.

Nick waited for a few minutes for Sal to pick up before the voicemail message came on, after which he hung up with a groan.

She doesn't live far from here does she?" he said thoughtfully. "Perhaps I could run there and back before the football starts."

"Hey, what happened to not being left with all the girls?" Adam cut in. "I thought you were here to watch the football."

"I am, I'll be back before it starts," Nick said rushing towards the exit. "Will you put that beer back in the fridge for me Ruth?" he shouted over his shoulder before disappearing out of sight.

Sal fell through the front door of her apartment and dropped the shopping bags she was carrying onto the floor, searching frantically through her bag for her mobile phone which had been ringing for the past couple of minutes.

"Hello...Damn!" she exclaimed when she realised that the other person had hung up.

She shrugged and proceeded to empty the contents of the shopping bags, placing the perishable food into her fridge. She left the remaining items on the kitchen counter top, put some music on her stereo and headed straight for the shower, desperate to cool down after her long trudge up the hill with the heavy shopping bags.

Moments later Nick arrived outside the front door and peered into her apartment with curiosity.

She must be in as burglars don't usually rob the place to the music of Jon Bonjovi!

He entered Sal's lounge and scanned the room, wondering where she was and why she had left the front door open. As he moved back into the hallway he heard the sound of running water coming from the bathroom so he knocked on the half opened door and popped his head around the corner, recoiling in shock at the piercing scream that followed.

"Calm down Sal, it's only me," he said, chancing another glance into the room to see Sal covered by the shower curtain that she was holding against her with one hand, and armed with a long loofah that she was holding up with the other. Nick laughed at the sight of her. "What the hell do you think you're going to do with that?"

"Bloody hell Nick what are you doing here? You scared the living daylights out of me!" she sighed with relief, dropping the loofah into the bath.

"I just phoned you but it went onto your voicemail. Adam has said that we can share the guiding work for the trips and I wanted to talk to you about it," he said, watching as she dropped the shower curtain and stepped back behind it. He could just see her head above the curtain pole that ran from one end of the bath to the other.

"Do you think that we could talk about this another time? I'm a busy at the moment in case you hadn't noticed!" she exclaimed.

"Need to sort it out now Sal as Adam is in the bar and if we don't confirm it quickly he might give the work away to someone else," he stated.

"Look Nick I've got to get this soap out of my hair, at least wait until I've finished having a shower!"

"No can do, there's a footie match about to begin and Adam's waiting as we speak," he pushed, as Sal held her head back under the stream of water and let the soap suds fall down her back.

"Heaven forbid! Don't let me interrupt your football match," she replied with sarcasm, turning off the shower and squeezing the excess water out of her hair. "Go on then, pass me the towel and we can sort it out."

Nick looked around him to see a towel hanging on a rail next to the sink. He grinned mischievously and whipped it off the rail, throwing it behind a washing basket in the corner.

"There doesn't seem to be a towel here Sal," he said, folding his arms and leaning nonchalantly back against the sink.

"What do you mean no towel? Yes there is, it's there," she said reappearing from behind the shower curtain and pointing towards the towel rail. "There was one there," she said, looking at Nick with confusion.

Nick rolled his eyes. "No time for this Sal, just come out and find one."

"Yeah right I'm going to parade around in front of you with no clothes on!" she said incredulously.

"What's wrong Sal? You don't strike me as the coy, shy type. And we're only friends after all," he reminded her.

"Friends or no friends, you're still a bloke and unless you tell me that you're gay I'm not coming out until you get me a towel," she said firmly.

He tutted. "Kill joy!"

"Go on, there'll be one in the wardrobe in my bedroom," she informed him.

"How come the gay guys get to see?" he sulked, turning around and heading for her bedroom.

"Because gay guys don't invade people's apartments and try to ogle naked women under false pretences!" she shouted after him.

He came back into the bathroom holding a towel out for her. "Come on get a move on, I've got to run."

She grabbed the towel, wrapped it around herself and stepped out over the bath, facing him with her arms folded across her chest.

"Okay, okay so what do we need to discuss?" she said, glaring at him.

"Well do you want to do the tours?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "Of course I do, if that was all you wanted to know I could have told you that from the start!" He watched as water rivulets dripped from her hair onto her neck and ran down her front beneath the towel. "Well? Is that all?" she asked when he fell silent.

"Err, no," he replied shaking his head suddenly. "We need to work out which trips each of us will do. You have the list don't you?"

She sighed, glancing out of the bathroom door towards her lounge.

"You're going to make me find it now aren't you?" she groaned.

He nodded and followed her into the lounge where she began to search through some papers on top of one of her shelves. He came up behind her and looked over her shoulder as she flicked through the letters, bills and old transfer sheets.

"I put it here somewhere I'm sure," she mumbled, beginning to feel annoyed at his insistence that she find the sheet at that very moment.

"Is that it?" he asked, reaching across her and pulling out an old letter.

"No that's not it," she growled, swinging around, snatching the letter out of his hand and almost losing grip of her towel at the same time.

He laughed and his eyes shot immediately to front of the towel which had begun to gape. She dropped the papers in her hands and rescued the towel.

"Right! You can go back to your bloody footie match and leave me in peace Mr Ogle! Just split the tours fifty fifty, I don't care which ones I do. I just want a bit of privacy in my own home!" she shouted as her patience ran out.

"Fine," he said, holding up his hands. "But you've just missed an ideal opportunity."

"Hmm, what's that?" she asked with suspicion.

"The opportunity to practice your sexy, naked walk ready for mind shattering sex guy," he chuckled.

She shook her head in disbelief. "Go back to your football, that was a lousy attempt at getting me naked." He shrugged and made for the front door. "And by the way Nicholas, I won't need to practise my sexy, naked walk for mind shattering sex guy because we'll be too busy having mind shattering sex!" she yelled after him.