What are the chances?

I'm walking on sunshine

The air was warmer than Kat expected as she stepped out of the airport and into the early evening Italian sunshine. The rest of the group quickly followed, each stopping in their tracks to take a deep breath as the contrasting sultry air hit them after the well air-conditioned airport. Gill and Joyce immediately began taking off their jackets and puffing profusely as what they referred to as their 'Granny sweats' began to set in.

"Ooooh my, that's warmer than I expected." Gill fanned her face excessively with her passport.

Kat and Debbie giggled like naughty schoolgirls as Gill and Joyce's faces turned a deep crimson shade and they uncomfortably gasped for air.

Jayne scanned the bays in front of them looking for some kind of signal as to where they needed to go for their transfer to the villa. "Joyce, any idea of where we go, or what's picking us up?" She huffed, before engulfing the group in a large cloud of strawberry-scented smoke from her vape.

Joyce ignored her question as she began fumbling around with all the papers from her travel folder, huffing in annoyance as Gill darted around her feet, frantically trying to catch the random falling sheets as they dropped.

Kat and Debbie shared another sideways glance, smirking at each other as Nita excused herself from the group to call home and Rachel and Natalia quickly followed her lead.

Kat quietly sighed to herself as she watched Jayne join them and remembered that she had no one to call. The thought was quickly replaced with a small amount of dread as visions of herself morphing into Joyce, still living alone in her little 2-bed house with only dogs for company filled her head. She rubbed her eyes and shrugged it off just as Debbie interrupted her thoughts.

"Oh for fucks sake." She dramatically rolled her eyes. "Now I feel like I have to call home, like I or they care." Debbie pinched at the bridge of her nose. "I came to get away from them, not to spend the whole time speaking to them." She loudly joked as Kat smiled in acknowledgement of Debbie's plight knowing full well that even though Debbie absolutely lived for her family, she liked her friends to see her as fun Debbie and not Mom Debbie.

"Go call them quickly." Kat encouraged. "You don't know what the connection will be like at the villa, and you'll be mad with yourself if you can't get through when you get there."

Debbie rolled her eyes as she headed towards what had now become an unofficial calling zone and pulled her phone from her bag. Kat smiled contently at the sight of Debbie's face lighting up once the call was answered, and how she joyfully talked her family through the flight and what the outside of the airport was like.

Several minutes passed and one by one the ladies finished their calls and made their way back over to Kat who was now perched on her case engrossed in a game of Mahjong on her phone. A short man in beige slacks and a blue checked shirt scurried towards them shouting "Signora Joyce, Signora Joyce."

"Ahh!" Joyce greeted the man like they were old friends wrapping her arms around him as he finally made it over to the group. "Everyone, this is Stefano, he and his wife Rosa own the villa we are staying at." Joyce beamed with delight as she kept her arm firmly around his shoulder.

Stefano removed his beige hat, and charismatically kissed the back of each ladies hand as he worked his way around the group to greet them.

"He looks like that puppet from the Dolmio advert," Debbie whispered to Kat, as she reclaimed her hand and watched him move towards a reluctant looking Rachel.

"Nah, with a moustache as grand as that, I'd say more Poirot." Jayne sulked, wiping her hand on her jeans as she moved around them.

Stefano turned to Joyce and the two conversed in fluent Italian causing everyone's mouths to simultaneously fall open in awe at Joyce's well-kept secret.