One Greek Summer Wedding

Chapter 63

Cara took a minute inside the cool exterior of the chapel. The small and oh-so-beautiful space spoke of intimacy and peace, and she could see why Cosmos and Wren had opted to have their ceremony here instead of under the golden arches and rings of flowers Sofia had had constructed. The heart of the matter, the purpose of the wedding, the love that had got them here had almost got lost under the trimmings. It was a little like how a person could get lost and overshadowed by all those other things in life that really weren’t so important.

‘Oh, sorry, I did not know anyone was here.’

Cara looked up from the music she’d been reading at the sound of that familiar tone. It was Akis standing in the doorway, the sunlight casting him in a not displeasing glow.

‘I’m taking a second to remind myself what I said I’d sing and realising that I don’t have an extra twenty-four hours to go through it.’

He smiled, coming in. ‘My mother is reminding herself that most of the guests in the photos will be wearing jeans unless they go home to change. And that the extortionately priced food she has been battling about for weeks is now not going to be the wedding feast. Her own spanakopita and baklava will be the banquet.’

‘It’s good though,’ Cara answered, looking away from the music. ‘That Cosmos found the strength to say what he and Wren wanted?’

‘It is good,’ Akis agreed, nodding. ‘I have never heard Cosmos be like that before. So unafraid.’

Cara nodded, swallowing away a whole host of feelings that were starting to come to the fore as Akis walked closer. ‘I think that if it proves one thing it’s that it’s never too late to start being unafraid.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes, I mean, sometimes people think that too much has gone before and… that there isn’t ever a turning point. Like you have to keep travelling the same path because that’s the way it’s always been done.’

‘And now it sounds like you could be talking about an ancient family curse and a lineage of priests.’ He leaned against the chair next to her.

‘How long do you have? Is there a date for you to get your robes or something? Sorry, I didn’t mean that to sound rude, I just, is it called “ordained” over here?’

She watched Akis take a deep breath and then he hit her with those eyes again.

‘I am not going to be a priest.’

She realised then she had been holding her breath, not knowing how he was going to reply.

‘I talked with my father,’ Akis continued. ‘He is a man of few words, mainly because, with my mother around, there is no room for anyone to have words, which is probably why Cosmos had his trombone earlier.’ He sighed. ‘Anyway, what he said to me, it made me realise that sometimes the only thing you have to have faith in is the knowledge that the world will keep turning for you and everyone else no matter what decisions you make. You cannot be responsible for anyone’s future but your own. And anyone who tries to make you responsible, needs to take a closer look at themselves.’

Cara could see how much emotion was flowing through him right now. It was showing in the tension in his neck, his shoulders and his arms. She just wanted to soothe it all away. But she had given up that chance…

‘Sorry,’ Akis apologised.

‘Don’t be sorry,’ Cara said. ‘You told me when we first met about the opinions of other people being unimportant. It is only one small step further to realise that the people closest to you can push an agenda on you and will make you feel guilty if you don’t comply.’

‘I love my family,’ he told her.

‘I love mine too,’ she agreed. ‘But it doesn’t mean they are perfect.’

He nodded, then smiled. ‘And here you are, in a chapel, giving me advice. It is like a role reversal from when we first met.’

‘I think a lot has changed since then,’ Cara said.

‘You are singing again.’

She nodded. ‘On the inside too.’

She felt the moment before her brain could think about it. She was standing in this beautiful pre-wedding space, centimetres away from a man who had captivated her from the very beginning, someone she hadn’t and couldn’t possibly have anticipated, someone who was nothing like anyone she had met before. The air between them was as charged as it was still, nothing and everything suspended in time.

‘Aki!’

She jolted and he jolted too, both of them almost catapulting off the chairs as if they’d been caught doing something prohibited, as Anastasia came through the door of the chapel.

‘Oh, Cara, I did not realise you were here too,’ she said.

‘I was… going through my music for the ceremony,’ Cara answered in a voice she knew said that that wasn’t the whole story.

‘And I was checking the piano was still in tune,’ Akis added.

‘O-K,’ Anastasia said, staring at them both like they were curiosities in an exhibition. ‘Well, Horatio has been bitten by one of the snakes.’

‘What?’ Akis exclaimed.

‘It is not the viper, but there is a mark, and he is a baby so…’

‘I will come,’ Akis said.

‘I should come too,’ Cara said, picking up her music.

‘No, Cara, it is OK,’ Akis said. ‘You take your time. To look at… your song.’

Cara swallowed, the moment gone and Akis back to being out of reach.