One Greek Summer Wedding

Chapter 22

She had done it. Cara had left the hotel and she had followed simple road signs and now she was sitting at a bar/restaurant right next to the water in this upmarket marina, Margot left behind at the hotel. Tall masts made the skyline; boats and yachts that all had to be worth vast sums of money sat parked next to each other on the virtually motionless water. And within a minute she was thinking about Seb. He had loved the water – not to swim in, he hated that – but it was his dream to take after his father and own something you could power up the River Thames on or have sitting on its own mooring in the South of France. Cara had always thought that boats were trapping. Once you were on one, that was it until you got to the next piece of dry land. And the same went for the people you were travelling with – there was no escape for a walk or the ability to slip into another room. But looking at them now, she could see the beauty, the tranquillity their gentle movements provided. And, with a glass of Metaxa brandy in front of her, cubes of ice gently bobbing, there was no pressure to jump on board. It was like looking at a piece of art in a gallery and not feeling you needed to buy it for your home.

Breaking the peace a little, came the sound of a motorbike, which pulled to a stop by the edge of the water just ahead of her. She took a better look at the rider. Jeans, a T-shirt, and when he had removed his helmet, she saw the dark hair.

Akis. How did he know she was here? She swallowed, watching him put a hand through his hair. And why had she made the assumption he was here for her? He might simply have an interest in luxury yachts. Although he hadn’t given her the impression it was something he might be into. From the way he talked about the expensive wedding, she got a ‘disinterested in wealth’ vibe from him. Maybe he was meeting a girlfriend. But, he had kissed her. And she hadn’t really emotionally acknowledged that yet.

She turned a little on her seat, feeling suddenly as if someone had swung a spotlight on her.

‘Can I sit?’

He wasn’t here to see the luxury boats it seemed.

‘I don’t work here,’ Cara answered. ‘But I’m sure not all the tables are reserved.’

He smiled, pulling out the seat opposite her and sitting down. ‘You are mad with me.’

‘No,’ she answered with a sigh. ‘I am still angry with my aunt. Other than that I am only angry with one other person.’

‘Pig?’ Akis queried. ‘Because I should have remembered that he is not a fan of Adele.’

She smiled. ‘I’m not sure he stuck around long enough to really hear me murdering her.’

‘Oh, come now, Cara, I think we both know that it was me who was murdering my relic from the Nineties.’

She couldn’t help but laugh. He seemed to have a habit of breaking her down. It was like only this moment mattered; anything else was gone and forgotten about. If only all of life was that simple.

He put his hand in the air and a waiter arrived to take his order before disappearing again.

‘How did you know I was here?’ Cara asked, before sipping her drink.

‘Would you believe me if I said divine intervention again?’

‘You play the priest card a lot for someone who doesn’t want to be one.’

‘Wow, that is low,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I tell you my secrets and you come back at me with them?’

‘You came at me with an ancient old Yamaha in a field earlier.’

Now it was his turn to laugh. ‘You are right.’

‘And you still haven’t told me how you really knew I was here.’

‘I sense people,’ Akis answered.

‘I’m not buying it.’

‘OK,’ he said as his bottle of beer arrived. ‘Well, let us just say that Corfu is a small island and my friend, Horatio, pretty much knows everyone.’

‘And everyone knows who I am?’ Cara asked, confused. ‘I’ve been here two days.’

‘What can I say? Before the world made CCTV, there were the Greek yiayias.’

It didn’t sound as if that was an explanation she could argue with.

‘So, I wanted to find you,’ Akis began. ‘To apologise. It was not my place to make you sing.’

‘Well,’ Cara said. ‘You didn’t force me to sing. It was my choice. And I got my answer that I’m not ready to do it in front of an audience.’ She sighed. ‘And if I know anything about my aunt, she won’t want me to sing if I’m going to fail like the last time. Her reputation is everything to her.’

‘No wonder she and my mother are friends. It sounds like their values are aligned. But, you know, again, reputation is nothing more than other people’s opinions.’

And she already knew that he was a firm believer that other people’s opinions didn’t matter.

‘What do you want to do with your future, Cara?’

The sincerity of his tone hit her hard. It was such a big question. She needed a minute.

‘What do you mean?’ she asked, buying time.

He smiled. ‘What do you think I mean?’

‘Well, maybe I shouldn’t care how you mean it,’ she said. ‘Maybe I’ll make whatever interpretation I like and answer it my way.’

He knocked his beer bottle against her glass and nodded. ‘Now you are getting it.’

But what was her answer? Did she even have one? She swallowed. ‘I don’t know. Yet.’

‘OK,’ Akis responded.

She leaned forward in her seat, picking up her brandy glass and cradling it in her palm. ‘I mean, singing was always what I loved to do. I never thought about doing anything else but then…’

‘Then?’

‘Well, naively I didn’t realise how tough it would be and, to be honest, if I hadn’t had something that stood out from the crowd, I probably wouldn’t have made it as far as I did.’

She shivered. Now she had revealed more about herself than she had ever intended to. And she could see from his expression that he knew it.

‘I am not going to ask,’ Akis said, before she could carry on. ‘But, you know, if you did decide to tell me more, it would be as secret as confessing to a priest.’

She smiled. Was there any point in backtracking now? Would it instead do her some good to simply be honest?

‘I could… sing a note called a G10. It’s the highest note ever to have been sung. In fact, it’s not even really a note, it’s referred to as a frequency.’

She swallowed and watched for his reaction. But his expression remained unchanged. He looked like he was listening intently and giving her space to add more.

‘It’s, you know, just a trick really. Like that one show-stopping moment everyone waits for at the end of a performance. A magician making someone levitate and turning them into dust. Or at the end of your show when all the dancers dropped through the floor. A split-second thing that makes people wow for a breath and then they move on.’

‘And does everyone always ask you if you can break glass?’ Akis asked.

‘Usually they ask if I can summon dolphins.’

He laughed and then straight away put on a serious expression. ‘And can you?’

‘Well,’ she said, keeping her own expression straight. ‘I’ve never done it close to the water before.’

He got to his feet. ‘You know what? We should do that.’

‘What?’ Cara asked.

‘We should get on the water,’ he said, beckoning. ‘Bring your drink.’

‘But… I haven’t paid for it yet. I can’t just leave.’

‘Mario!’ Akis called.

Cara watched the waiter turn around. A quick exchange in Greek and Akis was offering out his hand to her.

‘So, all you have to tell me is that you can swim.’

‘Well, I can swim but?—’

‘Let us find some dolphins.’