Chapter 27
27
ILLUSIONS KITCHEN BAR, KASSIOPI
‘You know what would look really cool on Insta?’ Siobhan asked Molly the next morning. ‘Those flying dresses. You and me with those billowing out behind us, product on our faces and stuff for pack shots on an ornate balustrade or something. Or on a horse… or a moped, a classy one, like a Vespa, not like most of the ones around here with sponge coming out of the seats and gaffer tape.’
Molly wasn’t listening fully as they sat at an outside table near the water’s edge, because the make-up Insta account had lost nine followers overnight. For a following of previously 2,549 it was still quite a number to drop in one short period of time. And why? Did they take exception to the make-up and yellow cup post? Did they not like the story she had posted last night with a pot of miracle eyeshadow next to some beautiful bright pink plants by the beach, accompanied by the music from the traditional festival band? She couldn’t believe it was the last one – the reel had almost a hundred likes already and shares. Should she try to work out who had left? Maybe it was just a bunch of robots who weren’t real. It would take time to analyse the following but…
‘Molly, are you OK?’ Siobhan asked. ‘You haven’t touched your scrambled eggs.’
Molly came to. Looked at the plate of delicious food in front of her. Her head needed to be back in the game. Both the games. Her make-up enterprise and her inheritance. The game her head did not need to be in was the one involving Christos as anything other than a part-owner of her new things. Despite last night, in the sea, when she had silently unravelled inside from her own imagination and then unravelled more rapidly the second she looked into his eyes and felt his breath on her face. She quickly picked up her fork.
‘Sorry, I was just distracted. Did you see the make-up account lost nine followers overnight? I checked it before I went to sleep,’ Molly asked Siobhan.
Siobhan waved a dismissive hand. ‘That’s not a lot with the number of followers you have. They’re probably spam accounts anyway.’
‘That was my first thought,’ Molly said, taking a breath of relief.
‘Well, you should make it your last one too about that. However…’
‘Oh no,’ Molly said. ‘You’ve noticed something else that I haven’t! A typo? Much worse than a typo? A hashtag that’s going to get us cancelled?’
‘No,’ Siobhan said. ‘Nothing like that. I just think you ought to really think about…’
Why was Siobhan stopping before she had ended her sentences? That wasn’t like her at all. She was brutally honest and clear-cut. That was one of the things Molly loved about her. Suddenly the beautiful morning sunshine was feeling intense.
‘Tell me,’ Molly begged. ‘Whatever it is.’
‘Well… I think you should launch,’ Siobhan said.
Molly dropped her fork. ‘What? Are you insane? I’m not ready, you know that. The formula for the foundation hasn’t been formally approved and?—’
‘I know that,’ Siobhan said. ‘But your other products are more than ready and, you know, there are only so many “coming soons” you can put up there before people lose that excitement and anticipation.’
‘Is that what you think people are doing?’ Molly asked, her stomach taking a dive. ‘Is that why we’ve lost nine followers?’
‘No,’ Siobhan said straight away. Then, ‘I don’t know. Maybe.’
‘Siobhan!’
‘Molly, you created this brand a year ago now. You have product. Yes it’s small scale, but the pop-up shops you did went brilliantly, people couldn’t get enough and now…’
Another unended sentence. But this one she knew the answer to.
‘And now I haven’t done a pop-up shop in four months, the formula for the foundation still isn’t finally approved, I’m running out of cash and I’m losing Instagram followers,’ Molly said, hands going around her frappé for comfort.
‘I’m more worried about you running out of energy,’ Siobhan admitted. ‘It’s a lot, Molls. Working at the pharmacy, doing work on the make-up brand, all that research, all those emails to influencers.’
‘None of which have really paid off,’ Molly admitted.
‘I don’t know what’s wrong with some of these so-called celebrities. Maybe you should try Alan Carr or… Rylan. They seem nice.’
‘Maybe I should just give up.’
Siobhan screamed and it was only then that Molly realised she had said that out loud. Had she meant it?
‘I didn’t mean give up,’ Siobhan said, at lesser volume, having attracted the attention of two people working on the boats and a tired-looking tabby cat. ‘Why did you say that? Do you want to give up?’
‘No,’ she said firmly. But then, ‘I don’t think so. I just?—’
‘Have recently been presented with new opportunities by a Greek man who’s so obviously your father.’
What? Now instead of Greek heat she felt nothing but an icy chill. Siobhan thought that too. She was now getting flashbacks to Christos asking her that same question over the beautiful spaghettada at Tavernaki.
‘We talked about that before we got the flight. I asked my mum and she said no.’
‘You asked her?’ Siobhan said, leaning into the table a little. ‘Straight up? And she definitely, absolutely said no.’
‘Yes.’ And then Molly thought about what Janette had actually said. ‘Well, she said, before I could say anything, that he wasn’t my dad and then she got all defensive like she always does and I… dropped the subject like I always do.’
‘Hmm, well, I think you might want to revisit that subject after a few things she was saying last night when you were looking for your shoe with Christos.’
Molly’s heart picked up pace as she grabbed her frappé and took a nervous sip. ‘What did she say?’
‘Just little things about having kept in touch with Vaggelis for a while… and coming back after you were born… and how nice it was for the two of you to meet and seeing you bouncing on his knee made her well up.’
Now Molly put her glass down for fear of dropping it. ‘She really said that.’ Her heart was pumping hard now. ‘What else did she say? How much wine had she had? Who was she saying it to? You?’ She had had all these thoughts herself but she feared thinking on it too much. It was likely another might-be-pater path that was going to lead to nowhere. Yes, she had never been gifted anything from one of her mum’s past loves before, but did that count for something? She had nothing tangible to suggest that Vaggelis and Janette’s romance was any more rooted than any others she’d investigated. But did it need to be? It didn’t have to be the love story of all love stories for DNA to get shared around after all…
‘Molls, take a breath. I’m not saying anything is 100 per cent, but I just have this feeling that there’s more to it, you know. Like this Vaggelis wasn’t just a random fling like she’s been making out. I mean, who has a summer affair on a Greek island and then comes back with their baby if that person isn’t the dad and there’s no other dad in the picture?’
It made more sense than anything else. It was about the only thing that made sense. But why, especially now, when Vaggelis had passed, would Janette not tell her if he was her father? Her mum knew how important it was to her.
‘Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything,’ Siobhan said, picking up her glass of orange juice.
‘No, it’s OK. I want to know and I appreciate you telling me what my mum said last night, whether it was under the influence of that terrible wine or not. I mean, they say drunk words are sober thoughts, right?’
‘Definitely,’ Siobhan agreed. ‘And, in my case, always.’
‘I need to speak to her again,’ Molly said. ‘Make her give me some truth.’
She deserved the truth. It was her right to know where she had come from.
‘And you should also set a date for launching your products,’ Siobhan said. ‘Because, if you wait for every tiny detail to be in place it will never happen. The foundation can come online as soon as it gets approved. It can be the killer clincher once people are sold on the eyeshadow and the lip liner and the primer and the?—’
‘OK,’ Molly said. ‘I will… look at my diary. I will talk to Bastian about the manufacturing and how much and how long it would take to put together a short run of product, say a thousand units to begin with, and I will… try not to have a heart attack about the fact I might soon be going to the forty-day death service of my Greek daddy.’
‘Never say that again,’ Siobhan ordered, putting a hand to her chest. ‘It’s made me feel queasy.’
‘Thanks, Siobhan,’ Molly said, reaching for her hand.
‘What for?’
‘For being here for me. For always being here for me.’ She squeezed her best friend’s hand.
‘Stop it,’ Siobhan ordered. ‘We don’t do emosh and I am seriously only here for the Greek sunshine and the meat. And I mean the pieces on sticks before you say anything filthy. Ooo, talking of filthy, are you going to let me in on what actually happened with you and Christos last night? Because I am not buying the “a fish swam off with my sandal” story.’
Molly looked at her watch. ‘God, is that the time? I have to be on a boat.’ She pushed her chair back. ‘I’ll pay you back for my share of the breakfast. Got to run.’ She rushed away, heading around the harbour before her friend could say another word.