Modern Cleopatra: A Summer Love Story [COMPLETE] 📔

LAST SUMMER | CHAPTER IX : Santa Maria

The rest of their drive had been quiet, and serene. They didn't talk much, but listened to the car radio after the Coldplay CD Theo had put on an hour ago came to a stop. The calm between them was palpable and enjoyable, so much so that Cleo had completely lost track of time and any lurking feeling she would otherwise usually have to make conversation. She couldn't believe how comfortable she was in Theo's presence, how at ease she felt, how protected, how alive. The feeling was foreign to her, and she wondered if he was feeling it too.

"I will take you for our ice cream," Theo said to her, pulling a sharp right and turning into the platia. It was beginning to crowd now, filling with tourists.

Theo threw the car into park, and Cleo got out before he could move to open the door for her. Skin browned from the day, she surveyed her reflection in the Jeep's window, letting her hair down from the bun she had left it in all evening. Her long tresses fell around her face to her hips, tousled and waved, a product of the beachy island air. She adjusted her T-shirt, pulling it down, before realizing Theo could totally see through the window she had been using as a mirror. She blushed profusely.

"Come," he told her, smiling and ignoring her burning cheeks as he rounded the front of the car to meet her. He had stealthy pulled a black T-shirt on. "The best gelati shop is this way."

They began to walk together, their steps falling in tandem with one another, synchronized as they made their way to the gelateria.

"There is no line yet; we are lucky." He told her as they entered the shop.

Cleo contemplated the many flavours on display in the countertop freezers before deciding upon a combination of two. She looked up at the woman behind the counter, a lady of around forty-five who seemed a little tired. She had a classic Mediterranean visage, and wore a blue kerchief around her head to keep her hair out of her eyes as she worked.

"Hi," Cleo said to her, smiling. "How are you?"

The woman looked back at Cleo and smiled too, a faint, near-imperceptible smile, but a smile nonetheless.

"Very good, you?" She replied. Cleo wasn't sure if she was Greek; perhaps Italian or Bulgarian, or potentially Albanian. She spoke English proficiently, her accent nearly undetectable.

"I'm well," Cleo answered before going on. "May I please have a cone of... vanilla, and tiramisu?"

Within moments, she handed Cleopatra a gelato cone. Then she looked behind the girl, over at the man beside her.

"Ne?" the woman said to Cleo's date.

Yes?

They had clearly met before.

"Ya." Theo greeted her, ignoring her bluntness. "Boroumena echoume chocolata? Mono chocolata separakalo."

"Veveos." She replied before making Theo a generous chocolate cone. She handed it to him and he gave her two small bills, smiling kindly at her as he did.

Cleo smiled too, and on her way out, following Theo as he passed through the gelateria shop entrance, she heard the woman behind the counter speak again.

"You're a very pretty lady," She said loudly enough to make Cleo stop in her tracks.

Cleo turned around, completely caught off-guard, almost tripping down the step out of the ice cream store.

"Me?" She asked, totally surprised.

"Yes, you." The woman said matter-of-factly. "Very pretty girl. Very angelic. Santa Maria," she added before turning away from Cleo completely. "Santa Maria."