by Oliver Rill
“Your new business cards.” I presented Aristo with a small stack of cards done in Can Am colors. “But if you don’t turn up in the office on Monday, you can rip them up and throw them to the four winds. Do you get my point?” I asked with a hard stare.
“100 thousand?”
“Yes, but not so that you can stay here and sell armbands for €15.” I explained that I had sacked his boss, something that had travelled faster than me on the grapevine, and he was now the head of the department and so taking on an important role in the company.
“Ok. Then I’m going to hire Eleni. She was the best of the bunch.”
“Go on then!” I clapped Aristo on the back.
“Yeah. It’s going to feel odd that someone else is in the shop.”
“We’re going to meet the surveyor at the house in an hour. He wants another look at it, but he thinks it’s not going to be a problem. I have to say, I didn’t’ think that we would be doing so much rebuilding!”
“Great! Have you had some ideas?”
“Well from the impression I got from the area, I’d say we have to keep it simple, with clear outlines. No fancy stuff, but I think I’m going to install an elevator.”
“What? An elevator? On Sifnos?”
The waiter put a large tray down on a nearby table and handed our drinks to us one by one and our plates of food. I had ordered a yoghurt with fruit and honey.
“An oil pressured one. No big deal.”
“Just for one story?” I asked dumbfounded.
“Well, the problem is, that I’ve got to join the two buildings. I’ve got to move the front wall, the one that looks over the sea, forwards a little. Otherwise we couldn’t join the two elevations. There’s only a terrace above the lower floor, you see.” Debbie tilted her tablet to show me a cross section of the building.
“If I move the front wall forwards by about four and a half feet, the terrace up there is still quite large, and we can move the elevator between the floors. I would have to build a staircase right across there” She pointed diagonally across the drawing. “And that would take up so much room. The alternative is an outside stairway, but I’m sure you don’t want that.”
“No I don’t want to be on full view when I run from the bedroom to the kitchen to get a glass of milk in the middle of the night.”
“Milk. Yes of course. So to the elevator. We’ll blend it in with a small headroom of about eighteen inches that could also hide the air-conditioning unit and it could all be housed in a little tower, just like those that the other houses have, with the triangular bit that look like stylish bird houses.”
“They are nest boxes, right. But an elevator! On Sifnos. Unbelievable!”
“And you won’t hear a thing. The oil pressure driven elevators are really quiet. And slow.”
“What is the layout like? Show me.”
Debbie passed her tablet over to me. To the right downstairs there was a large bedroom with ensuite and walk-in closet. Typical American style. The lounge covered the rest of the area. It was here that the elevator popped up, too. The terrace stretched out in front and looked over the sea. Originally there were four rooms upstairs. Now the garage was on the left and a bedroom in front of that that opened onto the balcony. The elevator stood proudly in the center with a dining niche behind it and an open plan kitchen to the right of that. On the far side was another bedroom.
“Debbie, you really have made good use of the space! But there are three bathrooms, but none that a guest could use without going through one of the bedrooms.”
I could swap around the walk-in closet and the bathroom on the street side bedroom. It would just not have any natural light as it wouldn’t have any windows. There again, the dressing room would have a window. And the bathroom would be narrowed down by the two doors that we would have in there.”
“And in the other bedroom? Couldn’t you put the bath in the middle, the bedroom on the outside wall and replace the walk in wardrobe with a built in one?”
“Then you’d only have one wardrobe, the room would gain a little room and you’d have a window in the bathroom. It might not be the best though, everyone on the patio would hear anything going on in the bathroom, at least when the window is open.”
“It’s the only solution I can see.”
“If you need a bathroom for a guest who isn’t staying here … maybe put it here, next to the garage. You don’t have any windows for it, but it might be better.”
“Let’s do that. We could put in a skylight.”
“Good idea! You should have been an architect.”
“And the garage door?”
“I’ve got to speak to the surveyor about that. The problem is making it invisible, as you asked. The only possibility is opening it upwards or downwards. You can’t take it to the side, because you’ll block off the next house if you do. You can’t put in a roller door either because that wouldn’t be invisible.”
“Could it be a moving wall?”
“Yeaaahhh. And when you open it to the left you block off your entrance. So again, only upwards or downwards. You can’t have it swinging out either. Then you’d block the street.”
“Let me guess. The most charming of ideas – it sinks into the floor?”
“Jackpot! But we’re going to have to drill deep into the stone underfoot. I don’t know if we’ll get permission to do that or if the building will stand it. Added to that we’d have to close the road off for a whole week. And then there is another problem.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“It might not be. We need to measure up and see if your car will go in the garage at that angle.”
“Oh boy! I’m getting the feeling I should’ve bought a Smart car.”
“Wait up. We’ll measure up when we’re there.”
“And the door coming up from below, that’d work wouldn’t it?”
“That’d be the easiest thing. But it will look odd, a wall appearing out of nowhere.”
“And it’d be the cheapest!” I remarked.
“Of course. Just attach rails to the walls and Bob’s your uncle. The drilling will cost a fair bit. And then again, if stones and dirt get into the shaft, the door won’t work.”
“Oh come on Debbie. The wall is going to sink into the ground, that won’t work here. There’s always dust and sand and little stones gathering in every corner. It’s washed down with the rain and blown about by the wind. You could get away with it in L.A. but not here.”
“Great, then we’ve solved that problem. A dummy window in the wall so that it looks like a house?”
“That was the plan.”
“In that case, I’m going to go back up to the house and you lot can play on the beach. I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t swim too far out, will you children?”
We laughed and I really did now have a picture in my mind of how it would look. It was a shame that we couldn’t go inside as the rooms were occupied by guests at the moment. I would have loved to have seen it, but that wouldn’t have been any help, anyway. The general condition of the house may well have disillusioned me anyway.
Over the next few days we swam in the sea, I played volleyball on the beach with Aaron and Rachel and we savored orange juice on sunbeds. Debbie and Rachel joined us often in the evening for something to eat and we usually ended up in one of Apollonia’s bars. In between we crisscrossed the island in my Land Rover. The car was perfect for this terrain, the rough pot-holed roads and beaten tracks were hardly noticeable through the air-sprung suspension. The level of the whole carriage could be raised to protect the undercarriage from damage. There was air conditioning and a sun roof. Perfect for any eventuality. It was just a bit big for the narrow streets.
As we waived goodbye to Debbie and Rachel in the harbor, Debbie grumbled incessantly that there was no airport on the island. She had to fly all the way to Berlin and then catch a Can Am flight over the pond. “You should at least fly to Athens and then we could get a helicopter to Sifnos.�
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“We have Athens in our sights. We want to put a 777 in from New York, but we’re not allowed to fly inside Europe. And we don’t do helicopters, but you can rent one for €5000.”
“We’ll do that next time, won’t we, Rachel?”
“You’re coming again?”
“Definitely. With Ellen.”
“And who is Ellen?”
“Ellen, from the TV. The one with the talk show. You must have seen her?”
“That Ellen? Wicked! Yeah, bring her along.”
“Next year, when you’ve finished this place. But we’re going to Ellies’ in Vathy anyway, ok?” She hastily added.
There were just two more things that happened in those four weeks. Number one, I had a date with a guy from Frankfurt. He wasn’t especially good looking, too much chin and nose going on there. But I was so horny that I didn’t care and had the worst sex I had ever had in my life, which, of course, just opened up all my Matt shaped wounds again.
The second thing was actually nothing really important, but I burnt my back in the sun. I was forever laying on my back on the sunbed, and so always sported a healthy glowing tan on the front, but was pale as a ghost on my back. Thinking to solve the problem and even my tan out, I laid on my stomach for a couple of days, even though it was an uncomfortable way to lie. After the second day, my back glowed like a beacon. Aaron suggested I had a shower and laid down inside. He went off to the pharmacy to get some cream to rub in.
In spite of having been burnt on my back several times before, it still felt painful. Even putting a T-shirt on over it was agony. So I went for a cooling shower and laid tummy down on the bed to air-dry my sensitive back and wait for the delivery of the after sun cream.
Aaron knocked and I called out to come in, it was open. He looked at me stretched out on the bed, face down and grinned. He then sat his 200 lb. weight on my backside and began to rub the cooling cream into my skin softly. I felt myself reacting. I wasn’t sure if Aaron’s reaction was the same, but I hardly dared look at him. Luckily the evidence of my enjoyment was hidden against the soft bedclothes and I had to stay put while the cream sank into my skin. After about fifteen minutes Aaron turned away and left and although I surreptitiously slid my eyes around as far as I could, I couldn’t see whether his trousers were tighter or not than before. Sifnos was really an amazing place.
I stayed another week on Sifnos, celebrated my birthday there, then returned to the plastic, throwaway society that was L.A. “Welcome back!” the bill boards and never dimming lights seemed to shout.
It was strange to see the Bentleys and Mercedes convertibles in Los Angeles after five weeks on Sifnos. I had called Matt a few times in the days before I left and I was looking forward to seeing him again. I had even invited him over to dinner.
I watched him come up the driveway and climb out of his black Porsche Cabrio. It could have been the Marlborough Man all over again.
“You look like a film star!” I called over.
“And look who’s talking. You’re not bad yourself with that tan!” He retorted.
“Well what can I say? Five weeks in Greece is gonna getcha a bit of color. Come in.”
We hugged each other at the entrance. He felt good and smelt wonderful, but I reminded myself sternly to keep my hands to myself.
We talked about the excitement for the impending celebrations in October and how it was affecting the rest of the staff. He asked about Aaron, but I didn’t go into details of how he rubbed the sun cream in, of course. He was also as curious about Debbie’s girlfriend as I had been.
We sat out in the sun and waited for the steaks that Gavin was busy grilling.
“Excuse me Matt, I have to answer that. Why don’t you get some more wine?” The estate agent from Santa Barbara called.
“So, I have spoken with the owner, she would like a deposit and if you’re not going to close the deal until January, she’ll need another $500,000.”
“I’m going to have to look at my calculator. Have you got one handy? What percentage is that?”
“Just over five percent.”
“For half a year? That’s crazy! That would be ten percent a year. No bank in this world would agree to that. Here’s a suggestion: They get 100 right now and another 150 in January. That gives you five percent for waiting. That’s as high as I go.”
“I’ll try, Mr. Hoffmann, but you’re right. I think it will work.”
“We could also then write up a contract straight away, so we’re all singing to the same sheet of music.”
“Yes that would make it safer all round. That should work. You’ll be hearing from me.”
“I would love to think that you are smiling like that because I’m here, but who was on the telephone?” Matt stand with the bottle in his hand, his black T-shirt with its deep V-neck and sexy stonewashed jeans topped with his killer smile all framed in the doorway.
“Santa Barbara! It’s going to work.”
“Tell me, are you ever going to stop buying houses?”
“If everything goes to plan, I’m just going to buy one more in Berlin, then that’s it.”
“Let’s see, then you’ll have L.A., Santa Barbara, Fort Myers, Sifnos and now Berlin? That’s five! How are you going to live in all of them at once?”
“Work here, live in Santa Barbara in winter, when it’s too cold Fort Myers, Berlin at Christmas with family and so on. And then summer on Sifnos.”
“A lot of travelling, but it does sound good.” He said uncorking the bottle.
“And you, Mr. Sexpot? Everything going well with you? Have you got a girlfriend?” I really wanted to hear that he had three on the go, so that I could stop these unwanted feelings.
“Yeah, Celina. She’s quite nice, but nothing to write home about.”
“Oh wow! ‘Nothing to write home about’ don’t let her hear that! But it is interesting how you talk about your partner. I don’t want to know what you said about me.”
“I never spoke about you to anyone, you know that. And Celina, she’s just, well, she’s just there and she’s nice, but not marriage material. She’s not the right one for that. And how about you?”
I cleared my throat. “There is no one at the moment.”
“I don’t believe that! You’re too … you’re too sex and cuddle oriented to be alone for long. You need someone.”
“Well in that case I would call a rent boy!”
“Don’t! They’re all junkies and have all kinds of diseases, then afterwards they either blackmail you or you get hassle from the cops. Just for goodness sake keep away from them.”
“Yeah, well in that case I’m going to have to stay on my own. I can’t go into clubs either and putting a picture on Grindr is PR suicide.”
Matt roared with laughter. “You’re in a real bind there. Hey, is it ok if I use the pool?”
I nodded and then rued my decision immediately. He stripped off and jumped in, swam two lengths and then, again, just like in one of those adverts, stepped ever-so-slowly out of the pool, shook his hair out, glided slowly to the shelf for a towel and excruciatingly slowly returned, standing right in front of me grinning that maddening grin, the towel hung loosely at his side, hiding nothing.
“Well?”
“I’m sure I am going to replay that scene in my dreams a thousand times tonight. But before we do anything silly, dry yourself off! And put something on!”
Matt turned around and did as he was told.
“I don’t really believe what I said then, but there is no other way.” I murmured quietly.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way!” He said with a wink at me from over his shoulder.
Later, I let Matt out and then after pottering about for a while, went to bed. It had been nice to see him and we had had a good evening. Even the flirting was nice and easy going. I felt a small boost to my ego.
Once back in the office I found that it was all just as Matt had said. There was a lot of talk about the celebration: wha
t wine we should have; how we were going to sort out the bus shuttling where Grace and George were going to stay; what sort of music the Berlin DJs would play, etcetera, etcetera. At one point Matt came into my office holding a folder with lists in it.
“I can’t stand any more of this. Let’s go down to the beach and look at the lists there.”
My first priority though was running over to Santa Barbara and signing the contract for the Spanish villa. The cherry on the cake was that the owners had allowed me to use the house before the property was legally mine.
I used the time in the car to organize Mom, boyfriend Manfred, Helga and Richard (parents of my ex-boyfriend from Berlin) Martin, alias MM and boyfriend, Marie, Dad and his girlfriend and Tobias and Andrea into the house at Fort Myers. There were six rooms, three of the oldies I would put up in the guesthouse. That would leave one free for Aaron.
I called Mom to arrange the dates, but she didn’t want to settle for anything without talking to the others first. So I had to ring Martin. There was an incredible amount of discussion before I finally got ten days between 18th and 28th October settled.
Then I realized that they wouldn’t all fit in my two cars. We’d have to rent another for those days and, of course, I had to let Gavin know so that he could think about catering, especially since we had three vegetarians in the group.
Aaron was glad to spend a couple of days on his home territory. I had also made the daring decision that when Martin was there, I’d also go into the club. I just had to make sure that I didn’t’ drink too much and let myself be pulled up onto the stage again. I was sure that Aaron would intervene if there was any hint of that happening. I would have loved to have done it all with Matt by my side, meeting my family and long term friends. Hey I’m doing good. I’m surrounded by good people, I said to myself. But in my heart I didn’t feel like that. Matt wasn’t there. Just family and friends.
Aaron, Gavin and I flew down to Fort Myers (how can you fly away right now? I hear you say.) It was just a day before the Berlin group landed in Miami. Jason knew to get the cleaning company to do a clean before he picked us up at the airport. It was great not having to worry about picking up luggage or dragging heavy suitcases through security!