“Did you catch up with your sketches?” I questioned Hayley as we walked into our workshop.

It was early morning and the two of us planned to leave by about midday. It was optional to stay longer, but if the workshop got too busy, then priority went to those who were scheduled to be using it at that particular time.

“Yep,” she replied with a confident smile, with her folder under her arm. “I can’t guarantee they’re good enough, but at least they’re done.”

“That’s the spirit,” I chuckled.

We sat at a table and I spotted the new girl as she walked into the room. Hayley looked up and smiled at her, waving friendlily. To my surprise, the new girl came and joined us at the table, with a massive white smile on her face.

“Hi,” she said to the two of us. “I’m Antonia.”

“I’m Hayley,” she grinned at Antonia.

Antonia nodded and then she turned her gaze to me. I was taken aback by her beauty. She had very pretty eyes. They were a pale blue ringed with a darker blue right at the edges. It was a striking contrast with her black curls.

“What’s your name?” Antonia asked me when I didn’t reply.

“Coral,” I smiled, embarrassed that I’d been caught staring at her.

“You have a nice accent,” Hayley said.

Indeed she did. I wasn’t sure where exactly it was from, but I’m sure Antonia was about to tell us.

“I’m Greek,” Antonia replied. “And thank you.”

“Nice,” Hayley widened her brown eyes. “I’ve always wanted to go.”

“You should, it’s pretty cheap for tourists,” she said with a half smile.

Hayley turned and grinned at me, “Next holiday together?”

I scoffed at her, “When exactly was the first holiday we had together?”

Hayley chuckled and Antonia laughed with her. Again, I was shocked at how light-hearted and...nice she was. If anything, I was learning not to judge a person before actually taking time to get to know them. Just because she was pretty didn’t mean she was a bitch. That was a lesson for me.

***

We spent our time developing our designs and adding more colours and textures to them. The three of us mostly talked about our projects and what our inspirations for them were, and the more Antonia talked, the more I enjoyed listening to her lovely Greek accent.

At the end of the session, Antonia left a couple minutes before me and Hayley, saying she was being picked up. We smiled at her and said our ‘see you laters’. After packing up our things, Hayley and I left the building to see Antonia being met by some badass-looking guys. Badass, the way Walter and his brothers were. They wore similar leather jackets and hard-edged expressions. I even saw some tattoos peeking out from their shirt collars and jacket sleeves. They didn’t have cars, they had motorbikes. Three of them. They were nice and big, parked right there on the curb (where they shouldn’t have been) with their engines still running.

“Do you think they’re her older brothers?” I asked Hayley as we went down the steps slowly, watching Antonia laugh as she took a shiny black helmet from one of the boys. Or should I say man rather? He was big and muscular. Even through his jacket, that was evident. He was certainly in his early twenties and reminded me of Phoenix.

“Three older brothers?” Hayley mulled over it. “Very possible, yeah. They do look like family. That one has curls like she does.”

I spotted the one Hayley was talking about. He was slimmer than the first man, and younger. His thick, black curls screamed Greek and I’m sure if he was smiling he might have even looked like Antonia too.

“Maybe the last one is the youngest,” I said.

The last boy had brown hair with lighter regions where the sun had highlighted it. He was sitting on his bike, revving it up loudly and ignoring the glances from passer-bys.

“I think so,” Hayley said.

Eventually we had to reach the bottom of the stairs and walk on as if we hadn’t been staring at the group the whole time.