Tandem

Arina Kostas

Arina couldn't help herself from smiling as she closed the door to her new home. It was a beautiful two-bedroom, stone cottage situated in Bridges Ford, a sleepy village in the heart of rural Hattenbury, England. There was nothing about the place that Arina didn't like. The house had character and charm and it was more than she could ever have hoped for. When she was a little girl she had dreamed of living in an enormous palace, she would never have imagined the sense of pride she felt at owning the little cottage.

On this particular morning, Arina hesitated slightly longer than usual as she locked the front door. She took her time admiring the climbing rose that draped itself across the front of the cottage. She had never been very good at gardening or keeping any sort of plant alive before and yet here in front of her was one of the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen and it was thriving in her front garden.

Arina had been nervous to move from her home on the busy island of Cosall, just off the coast of Greece, to an old cottage in the British countryside. She had only ever known life on the island, and the thought of moving away from everything she'd ever known terrified her. It was her home and always would be, so the fact that she was now here in England, was still something she was trying to get used to.

It was her boyfriend, a successful English businessman by the name of Bertie, who assured her that there was nowhere else better to live. He'd had his eye on the cottage since before they were together. When the owner passed away and the house went to auction, Bertie fought hard to outbid the competition. He said the cottage would be his and soon enough it was. He had brought it for them both to live happily in, just as soon as he finished travelling with work. He would frequently reassure her that soon business would settle down and they would be together again before she knew it.

Arina still felt a little out of sorts though. There was only so much she could do in England. She wasn't able to drive and even if she could she wouldn't know where to go or how to get back. Her freedom was limited, but she enjoyed walking around the village, familiarising herself with the stillness of this little rural community. It was so much more peaceful here than it was back in Greece. Back there, her house was surrounded by families with their young children playing in the streets. The sounds of their delighted squeals and giggles were a sound that she'd come to love. She didn't realise just how much she would miss that familiarity now that she was in England.

Her initial introduction to Bertie had been completely by chance, bumping into him whilst carrying out her housekeeping duties at the local hotel. She had worked at the Ivy Stream Hotel, just a few minutes' walk from her family home, since she was fourteen. She had grown to love the owners of the hotel, Helena and Nicos Dimitriou, who had become more like grandparents to her over the years. Their eldest son Tomaso had also been Arina's first love when they were teenagers, before he left to study politics at a university in Spain. The two had remained in contact as good friends but their feelings had long since been left behind.

One morning, Arina had been taking the dirty laundry out to the washing room, when she walked straight into a young man holding his phone up in the air. She took note of his suit and thought it best not to tell him that this courtyard was for staff access only. She walked past him towards the door of the laundry room, when the man turned around and spoke.

"Hey, sorry to bother you. Do you work here?"

Arina turned around to face him. She was intrigued by his British accent and it was only now that they were facing one another that she saw how blue his eyes were. They were the bluest eyes she had ever seen. The colour rivalled even the clear waters of the ocean behind him.

"Yes, I do," she replied. At that moment, a breeze swept through the courtyard, blowing Arina's hair across her face. She attempted to tuck a strand back behind her ear and as she did so, she dropped the pile of bed sheets on the floor.