Welcome To Crete - Regreece (100 best novels of all time txt) 📗

Adam and Fay walked back towards the town in companionable silence until they reached the square, where Fay suggested that they go to find a friend of hers in a local taverna.
"His name is Nikos, I've known him for years and he has taken my friends and I out into the bay on his boat many times. I thought that he might take us out today and you could get a closer look at Spinalonga. We won't be able to get onto the island as it is still out of season but it would give you an idea of the place. You may even like to use his services for small exclusive trips. He often catches fish from the boat and cooks them there and then, you couldn't get any fresher, and the tourists tend to like that kind of thing."
"Sounds great," Adam replied.

She directed him across the square and around the church to a second row of tavernas behind it. He threw his arm around her shoulder.
"You know Fay, I think fate was on my side the day I almost ran your best friend over. You're an inexhaustible source of information aren't you?"
"Well in truth, I was already recommended to you so we could have spared risking Sal's life in the process," she said.
"A fair point," he nodded, "still, I would've hated to have missed the sight of a feisty, blonde lady storming up to me and giving me hell, an unexpected treat that was!" he grinned down at her.
She rolled her eyes. "Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit Adam Ford."
He frowned, "Who's being sarcastic? You should have seen the look on your face when Sal invited me into your apartment too!"
"Hmm, she tends to be a bit impetuous like that," she replied.
"Even better when you turned up at the office that evening and saw me there," he laughed, "classic!" "I knew it was you," she lied, trying not to smile.
"Oh really," he replied, "that's almost as believable as you having to check your diary to see if you were free the following day."
She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment and then walked away, heading for the last taverna in the row and entering it without a backward glance. He followed.

She was always doing that, and he was always chasing after her. Why did he get the feeling that it wouldn't be the last time either?

Once inside the taverna she thought for a moment that it was closed as it seemed completely empty but then a well built, bearded man in his late fifties appeared from a back room and welcomed her enthusiastically, grabbing her by the shoulders and kissing her on alternate cheeks.
"Welcome, welcome, welcome Fay. I have not seen you for many months now, where have you been all this time?" he bellowed in a deep voice, gesturing for her to sit.
She laughed, "Hi Nikos, I've been busy working."
He noticed Adam and she introduced them, "Oh, this is Adam, Adam Nikos."
They shook hands and Nikos gave Fay a cheeky look. "Now Fay I am angry with you," he frowned, "you promised that I would be your boyfriend and now here you are with another boy."
Shaking her head, she put him right. "Actually Adam isn't my boyfriend, he is my boss. He is interested in organizing trips around Elounda and naturally I thought of you. We were just saying that it's a shame we can't get a closer look at Spinalonga until the season starts," she hinted.
He put his hands on either side of her face and planted a kiss on her forehead. "I will take you out. Sit here, drink and wait a bit and then we will go. Olla Kala?"
She smiled, "Ne, efaristo para poli Niko."

Adam and Fay sat at one of the small, wooden tables in the narrow taverna and Nikos brought over a carafe of wine for Fay and a small carafe of Raki for himself and Adam.
She sighed at him but smiled, "You needn't do this you know Nikos."
"Come on Fay, you know it is the way in Creta, a small drink with friends," he grinned, filling a wine glass and pouring some raki into two shot glasses. He passed them their drinks and then banged his glass loudly on the table before clinking with them and downing his shot.
"Yamas!"
Adam shot Fay a quizzical look and she banged an invisible glass on the table with her other hand, copying Nikos and motioning for him to do the same. He shrugged and complied. 'Yamas' she mouthed.
Nikos laughed. "You must teach your boss to speak some of the Greek Fay."
"You say 'yamas,'" she teased.
"We try again." Nikos poured two more shots of Raki and they both banged their glasses this time and clinked.
"Yamas!" they said in unison.
"Good, he learns quick. Wait here, I be back. I have a few jobs to do and then we go," he said, refilling Adam's glass and disappearing out of a door at the back of the taverna, leaving them alone.

As soon as he was gone Adam leant over the table to talk to Fay, "What is this stuff?"
She chuckled, "It's Raki, otherwise known as 'Fire Water'."
"Hmm, it tastes like it! So how come you get away without having to drink 'Fire Water' then?"
She looked at him smugly, "Nikos knows I won't drink it."
"Ah yes, Nikos your new boyfriend," he provoked.
She glared at him. "No, Nikos who has been trying to get me to go out with him for years but who knows it will never happen."
He clicked his fingers and pointed at her. "Yes of course, little Miss 'you can look but don't touch,'" he said finishing another shot.
"Who said you could look Adam?" She took a sip of her wine.
He moved his chair back and ran his eyes up and down her body. "You're going to have to blind me to stop me from looking!"
She couldn't help but laugh.

They were silent for the next ten minutes but there was still no sign of Nikos so Adam picked up the Raki carafe and poured himself another shot. He downed it but grimaced afterwards.
"By the way, I guess I should give you a few tips on what to do and what not to do in these types of situations," Fay said watching him.
"Would be helpful," he replied.
"Well first of all as you have accepted a drink off Nikos now you must drink all of that raki." She eyed the half filled carafe on the table.
He picked it up, assessing its contents with a look of horror. "Perhaps I shouldn't have accepted it then."
She shook her head. "It would have been very rude not to. And secondly," she continued, "if he offers you anything else to drink you must accept...oh, and whatever you do, don't offer to pay or buy him a drink back. Once he has bought you a drink he must continue to buy you drinks for as long as you stay."
He gave her a look of disbelief. "So basically I have to drink whatever he gives me. Fay, he isn't a marathon Raki drinker is he?"
She laughed. "He's Greek, of course he is! But don't panic, we're going out on the boat so he'll not start a Raki drinking contest with you yet Adam."
He looked relieved and refilled another shot glass. "Bit of practice," he winked.

Another ten minutes and Nikos had still not returned.
"Come on then Fay, I guess you should teach me a bit of Greek," Adam said, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms, feeling more than a little relaxed as the effects of the Raki began to take hold. Fay took off her jacket and hung it on the back of her chair with a sigh.
"Okay, it looks like Nikos is going to be a while. Do you know any Greek at all? I mean, did you understand what Nikos and I said to each other earlier?"
"Not a word," he admitted.
"Okay, going to have to start with basics then. Right, Nikos invited us out on the boat and then asked if we minded waiting and he finished by saying, 'olla kala'. The derivative of this phrase is probably one of the most widely used phrases in the world. 'Olla' means 'all' and 'kala' means 'good', so he was basically asking if that was good with us. Hence we get the work ok from the abbreviation." He looked interested and she continued, "In a way Greek is not as hard to learn as everyone thinks. Firstly because Greek people say things with as few words as possible compared to us British who beat about the bush all the time. And secondly because an awful lot of English words come from the Greek."
"They do?"
"Yes lots. I could reel them out to you but we would be here all day. Anyway, another important word for you to know is obviously 'thank you,'" she grinned, "all you have to say is 'a' 'ferret's 'toe' really quickly."
He looked bemused but copied her, "'A' 'ferret's' 'toe', how did I do?" he asked.
She laughed. "Well you need to say it a bit quicker and without the English accent, more like, 'efaristo.'"
He tried again but she looked at him dubiously. "Think you need a bit of practice."
"Hmm, maybe some..." He suddenly frowned.
"What?" The abrupt change in his facial expression had confused her, that was until she felt the alarmingly nauseous feeling in her stomach and the room began to spin. She went rigid in her seat.
"Did I happen to mention that we tend to get earth tremors at this time of year?" she said as everything around them began to shake.
"Now she tells me!" He eyed the moving bottles behind the bar anxiously and Fay grabbed onto the table with white knuckles.
"There's really not much point in doing that, the whole room is moving so there's not a lot you can grab on to for safety," he observed, and then a thought hit him and he grinned, "apart from me of course."
She frowned, "Fantastic, the building is about to fall down around our ears and you take it as an opportunity to..." she petered out.
"To what?" he grinned.
"Well you know."
He chuckled, "What can I say? A man's got to make the most of every opportunity he gets, especially with you Fay." He looked at her in a predatory way. "Why don't you come and sit over here and then I can protect you from any falling brickwork," he suggested, taking her arm and urging her to move closer.
She eyed him suspiciously, "No it's okay, I think I'll take my chances with the brickwork... it would be safer," she mumbled.
"Come on Fay, why the nervousness?" He gave her arm a sharp tug, pulling her up out of her seat.
"I'm sitting back down now Adam," she informed him.
He took her other arm, pulling her ever closer and she looked nervously towards the back of the bar. "Adam, Nikos will be back in a moment," she whispered.