Chapter 39
39
KALAMIONAS BEACH, KASSIOPI
‘Bastian thinks eight weeks,’ Molly announced. She sat up from the towel she’d splayed over the stones at the edge of another gorgeous beach holding her phone containing the new email from her production manager.
‘Eight weeks!’ Siobhan exclaimed. ‘That’s amazing!’
‘It’s terrifying,’ Molly said. ‘Because it means I need to get my act together and seriously set a date for a full-on launch and focus all my energy on a press release and trying again to get some celebrity endorsements and?—’
‘Will someone tell me what’s happening in eight weeks?’ Janette said, slipping her sunglasses down her nose.
‘Molly’s going to take over the world with her make-up brand! Mollify is going to be on everyone’s lips,’ Siobhan said, excitedly. ‘And face and eyes.’
‘Mollify,’ Janette said. ‘Is that what you’ve called it?’
Molly nodded. ‘It means to make someone less angry or less upset or to soften something, make it more gentle. Basically that’s what I want my make-up to do. You put it on and it helps you feel better, gives you confidence, makes you more powerful.’
She swallowed. She’d never actually told her mum what the make-up meant to her or why she felt so compelled to make sure no one felt the way she had about herself when she was younger. Maybe she should have let her in a bit…
‘Define. Defy. Mollify,’ Siobhan said in a whispered evocative tone like she was a voiceover actress on a perfume commercial.
‘Well,’ Janette said, putting her sunglasses back on. ‘I’m very proud of you.’
‘I think this calls for a celebration cocktail. Let me go and get some from Venus,’ Siobhan said, talking about the nearest bar. She got to her feet, seeking out her flip-flops.
‘We shouldn’t celebrate yet,’ Molly said. ‘There’s a lot of work to do first and there are no guarantees so?—’
‘Pre-celebration cocktails then. Won’t be a second,’ Siobhan said, starting to scrunch across the pebbles.
Molly let the warmth of the Corfiot sun radiate into her skin for a second and then she spoke.
‘Mum, it’s really down to you that I’ve been able to get this far,’ Molly stated.
‘Oh, I don’t think so. You’ve achieved this all on your own,’ Janette insisted. ‘Emails with factories and… celebrity endorsements and whatever a tagline is.’
‘But,’ Molly began, turning towards her mum. ‘It’s only because you taught me to be so independent, told me that I didn’t need anyone else to achieve my dreams, that I’ve been able to do it.’
‘Well, being here in Greece again has made me realise how nice being part of something can be.’ Janette sat up and adjusted her sunglasses. ‘Like last night. All those people at dinner. All that shouting and squabbling and cats coming and knocking things over and that mad old man who wasn’t so old and?—’
‘Magic spells and all that fighting over how tall Vaggelis was.’
‘He was no more than five feet ten by the way,’ Janette said.
‘Don’t tell Angeliki and Maria that.’
She smiled. ‘No, but seriously, it’s real life, as spatty and catty as that is.’ She sighed. ‘I think it’s better to have people to argue with than have no one there at all. So, have you had any thoughts about what you want to do with your share of the things?’ Janette asked.
‘To be honest I don’t stop thinking about it,’ Molly admitted. ‘And every day a different idea is there pushing for attention.’
‘Well,’ Janette said. ‘The only person who can decide what to do is you, Molly. These Greeks can be very pushy when it comes to their opinions and what they think is best.’
That was certainly true, but in a lot of ways Molly admired that gung-ho confidence. Christos had it in spades.
‘I know,’ Molly said. ‘I just wish the timing had been slightly better.’
‘Well, I’m sure Vaggelis didn’t want this particular timing either but?—’
Molly gasped. ‘Oh, Mum! I didn’t mean it like that! I’m so sorry!’
Janette waved her apology away. ‘I always thought the phrase “perfect timing” was nonsense. If it happens by accident then it’s coincidental and if you wait for the right time to be perfect then you’ll never get anything done.’
‘That’s the stage I got to with Mollify,’ Molly said. ‘And I decided it was now or never.’
‘Make the right decision for you, Molly. If you trust your gut you’ll never go far wrong.’
‘But what do you think I should do? About Vaggelis’s estate?’
‘It doesn’t matter what I think, love. He left it to you.’
‘I know, but I want to know what you think.’
‘Well,’ Janette said, picking up a pebble and toying with it in her hands. ‘The only thing I’m really sure of is I want nothing to do with that cat.’
‘Agreed,’ Molly said.
‘But, Vaggelis’s godson… I think you should think about keeping him on board.’
Argh, boat terminology . And already she was blushing.
‘Because there is something going on between you, isn’t there,’ her mum continued.
‘Why didn’t you say a question mark at the end of that sentence?’ Molly said, groaning.
‘Can you say a question mark?’ Janette asked.
‘You definitely can. Can’t you?’
‘All I’m hearing is you trying to avoid answering the question. If it was a question.’
Molly groaned again. ‘I don’t know what’s going on there if I’m honest.’
‘But you like each other? I don’t know what the current words are. Fancy? Have the hots for?’
‘None of those words,’ Molly said. ‘But there’s something there.’ But it seemed every time they got close – physically close and emotionally close – one or both of them shut it down. Surely that meant it just wasn’t meant to be.
‘Want my advice on that?’ Janette asked, picking up another pebble and passing it to Molly.
‘I’m not sure.’
‘Well, I’m going to give it to you anyway.’ She moved the pebble around in her palm. ‘Don’t leave anything unsaid or anything your heart wants to do undone. You think you have lots of time and then before you know it you’re getting served ads for neck cream and cellulite.’
‘Mum—’
‘No, I’m not getting upset, it’s fine. I made my choices and I lived life my way, but I do have some regrets,’ Janette admitted. ‘And perhaps one of them is not giving Vaggelis more of a chance.’
This was her mum opening up a little and not under the influence of cherry brandy. Could she ask a bit more?
‘What actually happened with you and him, Mum? Because you had more than one time here together. You came back and you brought me here.’
She watched her mum’s eyes find the mid-distance, out over the sea, somewhere between the headland and a ferry passing by on the strait.
‘He said he loved me,’ Janette said, sighing. ‘And I laughed it off, because I thought how could that possibly be true? He’d seen me in my best clothes and my nice underwear, looking all tanned and blonde. He hadn’t seen me in my Asda trackies, all pale and deeply British, eating chips out of paper. He didn’t know my life in England. He didn’t know those bigger parts of me that weren’t “holiday” me.’
‘You’re talking about things and places. Unless you pretended to be someone else on holiday he will have got to know the real Janette.’
‘I didn’t believe him,’ Janette said. ‘I didn’t even believe him when he said it again after you were born. I thought the man was mad! There were all these young, beautiful Greek girls and young, beautiful tourists from all over the world wanting to get on his Greek Dynamo and he wanted me?’ She sniffed. ‘I thought it was a dream. A fantasy or a film like Shirley Valentine . I was sensible. Imagine that. I said he was being silly, that my life was in England and I had you and…’
‘And what did he say?’ Molly asked, squeezing the pebble in her hands.
‘He said…’ she started. ‘He said that… his simple life here was not full of the riches that I deserved and that he wished he could give me, but everything he did have was mine to share with him… including his heart.’
As Janette burst into tears, Molly had to swallow a knot in her throat too. Vaggelis Vlachos was coming across like a romantic Hollywood leading man right now. Clutching the pebble in her hand, she put her arms around her mum and held her tight.
‘He might not be your father, Molly,’ Janette sobbed. ‘But I really wish he had been.’
With a million other questions spinning around her mind Molly could only say one thing right now:
‘Me too.’