One Greek Summer Wedding

Chapter 32

‘She’s late,’ Margot said, checking her watch.

Cara and Margot were sat on the veranda outside the main hotel building, a carafe of white wine between them. They were waiting for Sofia, for something Cara had only found out her aunt had organised when Akis had dropped her back at the hotel. Apparently, this tête a tête was to get more info about the maharajah now that the Maxi-Go situation was more ‘incendiary’.

‘Well,’ Cara said. ‘She is planning a wedding and the castle fiasco is a lot.’

Margot tittered. ‘It was awful, wasn’t it? What was she thinking?’

Cara didn’t like Margot’s obvious glee at the situation. At the end of the day this was Wren and Cosmos’s special day and no one should be finding problems amusing.

‘Did they decide what they’re going to do instead?’ Cara asked, then took a sip of her wine, leaning back in her chair.

‘Yes, you left again, didn’t you? With the dancer,’ Margot said, a knowing look on her face.

‘He’s a pianist, actually,’ she corrected.

‘I bet he is.’ A smutty laugh ensued. ‘Well, they don’t know what they’re going to do but apparently the bride and groom are going to get some input now. My guess, from having met them both, is she will want to get married in a field of wildflowers and he will do whatever she wants as long as it doesn’t involve him having to think.’

‘Margot!’ Cara exclaimed.

‘Honestly, when Raj sees this countryside backwater she lives in he’s going to be booking a room here at Cook’s Club.’

‘She’s here,’ Cara said, sitting up in her seat and sweeping her hair behind her ears. She could see Sofia moving from inside the foyer towards the doors that led out to the terrace.

‘OK,’ Margot said. ‘So, like any of the negotiations we’ve handled together, you be the quieter, friendlier one and I’ll be?—’

‘Cruella,’ Cara replied.

‘Sofia!’ Margot said, getting to her feet.

‘Margot,’ Sofia greeted. ‘My God! What happened to you? Were you like this earlier when I saw you?’

‘Yes, actually, a small accident involving an air-conditioning unit, not here I hasten to add, as this hotel is divine. Anyway, earlier on you had so much on your mind.’

‘Yes,’ Sofia said with a sigh, sinking into the spare chair. ‘Hello, Cara.’

‘Hello, Sofia. Let me pour you a glass of wine.’

‘Efharisto poli,’ Sofia said in thanks.

‘So,’ Margot said. ‘Have you been able to find an alternative venue for the wedding?’

Sofia shook her head. ‘Not quite yet. I tried to talk to Wren but her mother is here, as you saw, and she wants to have involvement as if it is not my son’s country and my son’s wedding.’

‘I understand completely,’ Margot stated, nodding as if she were the wisest sage.

‘At this late stage we are going to be unable to secure any of the best hotels although I have tried to get people I know to talk to people they know and get other secure bookings, you know, not so secured.’

‘Hmm,’ Margot said. ‘Euro talks if you have enough of it to splash around.’

‘Well, sadly,’ Sofia began, cradling her wine glass. ‘My husband says no more spending. If only he knew how much I had actually spent.’

Margot laughed. Sofia laughed. And Cara wondered how her life had got to this point.

She thought about Akis then. When they’d gone back to the apartment after his dance, they had sung again. He had started with her like he had before, but then she had taken the lead and he had just played. With every song they had performed together, she had grown in confidence. And it hadn’t felt like it had before when she’d been fighting for a recording contract, when she knew she’d wake at night concerned she hadn’t done enough vocal exercises, praying she was good enough to make it. It had felt warm and wonderful, playful and fun, like no matter what she sang, the joy that each note gave her was the only important thing.

‘Can’t Raj help?’ Margot asked, her fingers gripping the edge of the table. ‘The Raj I remember was dripping in everything from sheer testosterone to Gucci. Surely he’d be able to help out with a few…’ Margot lowered her voice a notch. ‘Backhanders so to speak.’

‘I’m not sure it would be appropriate,’ Sofia answered.

‘You could call it a pre-wedding present.’

‘Oh, well, Raj has already sent a very generous gift. It’s a golden monkey.’

Cara had to quickly swallow her mouthful of wine before she choked.

‘In his province a golden monkey symbolises health, wealth and fertility,’ Sofia explained.

‘Wow,’ Margot said. ‘A triple treat. But, why would he send his present early? Was it too heavy for his luggage allowance? He always used to fly private I remember.’

‘What?’ Sofia asked.

Cara was starting to get a very bad feeling about this…

‘Well, why wouldn’t Raj bring his golden ape with him when he comes to the wedding?’ Margot asked.

‘Oh, Raj isn’t able to come to the wedding,’ Sofia said, circling her finger around the rim of her wine glass.

Cara saw the blood drain from Margot’s face. She looked worse now than she had right after the accident. And Margot never usually gave away a reaction like that. Something was off. And until Cara knew what it was, she was going to have to step in here, if only to cover for Margot’s silence.

‘Oh, that’s a shame,’ Cara said, picking up the carafe and topping up Margot’s glass and then Sofia’s, ‘that you three can’t get together and discuss all the things you got up to at college.’

‘Well,’ Sofia said. ‘I think we’ve all moved on substantially since then. College was so long ago it feels like an alternate reality.’

‘So, is Raj busy with his… kingly… responsibilities?’ Cara asked. ‘I have no idea what a maharajah does.’ She laughed, just enough.

‘He’s actually in Greece right now on business,’ Sofia said. ‘Santorini. But he has to fly off to Dubai before the wedding.’

‘Oh, wow, Santorini,’ Cara said. ‘I’ve always wanted to visit. It looks so beautiful on Instagram. What’s the name of the place everyone takes those sunset views from? You know, the place with all those walk-from-the-bedroom-to-the-pool whitewashed hotels?’

‘You mean Oia,’ Sofia said. ‘Yes, that’s where Raj is now.’

‘Lucky Raj,’ Cara said. ‘Well, Margot, why don’t we show Sofia the menu on the app, order some food?’

‘Yes,’ Margot croaked, reviving enough to speak. ‘Yes, that’s a good idea. But, while Sofia looks at the app, we need to check with Marios about the special delivery.’

‘Gosh, yes,’ Cara said, getting to her feet. ‘Yes, you’re right. Sofia, here’s the app on my phone. If you could excuse us, only for a second.’

Rapidly, they moved into the hotel out of sight of their guest.

‘He’s not fucking coming,’ Margot snarled bitterly. ‘After everything I’ve done.’

‘But you know where he is,’ Cara said. ‘I’m sure it wouldn’t take much to find out the villa he’s staying in.’

‘I do still have my contacts in MI5,’ Margot agreed, nodding.

It would have been funny if it wasn’t an absolute truth that Cara had never asked any questions about.

Margot continued. ‘I’ll give Tony a call and see if we can find out. Meanwhile, I’ll book our flights.’

‘What?’ Cara exclaimed.

‘I need to see Raj, Cara! And if he’s in Santorini then that’s where we need to be!’ Margot was already tapping on her phone.

‘But—’

‘And the other thing I need to do is buy a replacement case.’ She tutted. ‘An inferior Greek one like this substandard phone, I guess.’

‘But we can’t just leave,’ Cara said, her stomach lurching. ‘What about the wedding? And… you know… me singing at it.’

‘Cara, darling, that was just our in, wasn’t it? To get an invitation. You don’t actually have to do it now. What a relief for you! We can make our excuses and never darken the door of this place again.’

Cara swallowed. All she could think of was Akis. Accompanying her today on the piano, and before that on the old keyboard, their boat trip and the swimming, the way he ate fish with his fingers… She couldn’t imagine leaving for another Greek island and never seeing him again. And today she had sang, properly sang, for the first time in so long and it had felt so different than it had before, better even. It had given her hope that even if there wasn’t a way back for her career, there could be a way back to enjoying music.

‘Margot, we… can’t. You have made a commitment for me to sing and I’ve met everyone and we’ve been to the hen night and the wine and cake tasting and?—’

‘Oh, Cara, you’re not caring about these people, are you?’ Margot asked. ‘Sofia all dressed up like Melania Trump, her mother dressed down like a tramp.’

‘Margot!’ Cara exclaimed, appalled by her aunt’s statement.

‘When you start to get feelings for people, that’s when you make mistakes and your vision gets cloudy. I thought I taught you that.’

‘We are going to the wedding,’ Cara stated forcefully. ‘I don’t want to let people down.’

‘Well, I?—’

‘No!’ Cara said. ‘If we really have to go to Santorini then we’re coming back for the wedding. Otherwise I’m not leaving with you.’ She folded her arms across her chest in a show of absolute authority she had never used with Margot before.

She held her aunt’s steely deal-winning gaze with everything she could muster until her eyes began to water.

‘OK, fine. Now that’s decided, let’s eat like it’s an Olympic sprint. Then we’ll get Sofia out of here and back to those crumbling ruins that Shrek wouldn’t even entertain living in.’