Chapter 62
Akis watched his grandmother gingerly make it over the threshold of the house, aided by Yiannis and a makeshift walking frame that looked like an art easel on wheels. He rushed forward to help her. It was a miracle she was even able to stand, let alone feel up to coming to this pre-wedding blessing.
‘Yiayia, you should have told me you were going to come,’ Akis said, taking her arm. ‘Yassas, Yiannis.’
‘Ya,’ Yiannis replied.
‘If I told you I was thinking of coming, you would have told me not to,’ Irini replied.
‘And you would not have listened,’ Akis countered. He kissed her on both cheeks.
‘Mama! What are you doing here?’ Sofia exclaimed, bustling forward.
‘Oh, please, Sofia, are we doing this again? You asked me to come this time.’
‘I did,’ Sofia agreed. ‘I just meant you should have asked me or Thanasis to get you in the car.’
‘I have my truck,’ Yiannis remarked.
‘Yes,’ Sofia answered. ‘And I have seen your truck.’
‘Mama,’ Akis said, warningly.
‘Please,’ Sofia said, nodding at Irini and Yiannis. ‘Help yourself to snacks.’
As with all Greek gatherings, the word ‘snacks’ was a complete understatement. There was, in fact, as much food on a long trestle table as Akis knew there would be for Cosmos and Wren’s wedding tomorrow, whether the caterers got their act together or not.
‘This is a set-up, my friend. And I think that you knew!’
It was Horatio, slapping a hand to Akis’s back.
‘What is?’
‘Oh, I get it, play dumb now. Perhaps I should blame Anastasia. Because, you know, I am the second youngest male here so I have to dance with the snakes.’
Akis laughed. ‘Really?’
‘Go on, keep going, act surprised, laugh some more.’
Akis smiled at Horatio, and then he felt his heart beat a little quicker as Cara appeared at the door.
‘Oh, there she is,’ Horatio said, sighing. ‘How is it that she looks so sexy all of the time?’
‘Yes,’ Akis answered. ‘I know.’
‘What?’ Horatio exclaimed. ‘You like Margot too?’
Akis looked away from Cara and to his friend. ‘No… I was talking about Cara.’
Horatio laughed. ‘Phew, I was beginning to think I would have to fight you.’ He sighed again. ‘So, how are things with you and Cara? Or are the big black priesthood robes still getting in the way?’
‘It is a little more complicated than that,’ Akis replied.
‘There are many complications with women,’ Horatio agreed, nodding. ‘But that is one of the beauties of them. I think tomorrow, at the wedding, I am going to ask Margot to be exclusive with me.’
‘What?’ Akis exclaimed. He had never known Horatio to be exclusive with anyone. He liked to play the field, experience and experiment.
‘I don’t know, there is something different about Margot. Something that connects with me in a way I haven’t had before,’ Horatio explained.
Akis felt exactly the same with Cara and he had told her last night… except she hadn’t heard.
‘God, will you listen to me,’ Horatio said. ‘Like this over a woman. Did you ever think it? And right at this moment, feeling this way, I am about to dance around venomous snakes.’
‘Venomous ones?’ Akis asked. ‘Are you sure? Because no one has ever brought a nose-horned viper to any blessing I have been to.’
‘This is your sister we are talking about! You might have got the expectation of being a priest. She got all the family crazy.’
Suddenly there was the sound of a horn. Badly played, and loud enough to break into all the chit-chat that was going on in the open-plan kitchen diner. It was Cosmos, standing on a stool, his old trombone in his hand.
‘Cosmo! Get down from there!’ Sofia yelled immediately, bustling into the space. ‘You will fall and break your leg and not be able to walk up the groom king’s steps tomorrow!’
‘Groom king’s steps,’ Horatio said with a snigger.
‘No!’ Cosmos declared. ‘It is time for me to speak… for me. For me and for Wren.’
Akis immediately began to feel uneasy. It was so unlike his brother to be putting himself in the centre of anything, let alone on a stool with his trombone, countering their mother.
The whole room fell silent.
Cosmos cleared his throat. ‘When I asked Wren to marry me and she said yes, it was the happiest moment of my life. But then, when we began to plan for the wedding, it was like all our happiness was being taken away and replaced instead with things that made other people happy.’
An exclamation of shock came from somewhere. Pappa Spiros made a sign of the cross in the air.
‘And,’ Cosmos continued, ‘I have learned from my brother, Akis, that it is far easier to make other people happy than it is to have courage to speak out, to make your own choices and to be brave.’
Akis swallowed as Cosmos caught his eye.
‘My brother has tried to make everyone happy, always. He saved my life, he lost his finger and harmed his own career and he was prepared to become a priest to ensure that nothing bad happened to our family. But that was not brave. That was giving in. Something I have also always been good at.’
‘Cosmo,’ Sofia butted in. ‘Come on, no one wants to hear any of this right now. Let us get you down.’
Akis stepped forward then, taking his mother by the arm. ‘No, Mama. Let Cosmos speak.’
‘I want to be brave,’ Cosmos stated, brandishing the trombone. ‘I want to be the kind of husband that Wren is proud of. Someone who will stand up for what she wants. What we both want. And that is why… we are not getting married tomorrow.’
Akis had to hold on to his mother as it felt like the life force was suddenly plummeting out of her. Anastasia’s clipboard dropped to the floor. There was murmuring and whispering, like no one quite knew what to say or do.
‘Fuck,’ Horatio whispered.
Then all the sounds stopped.
‘We are getting married today,’ Cosmos announced.
There were gasps, conversations beginning, some oranges rolled from the trestle table to the floor.
‘And I know that some of you will be confused, or angry or sad or many other emotions but those feelings will have nothing to do with me and Wren and our marriage. So, we ask of you, to be ready, in one hour, at 4p.m. We will be getting married at the Diakos family chapel.’ Cosmos stepped down from the stool, only to get right back up on it again to say, ‘Thank you.’