Epilogue
‘Ladies and gentlemen, please show your appreciation for Cara Jones and Akis Diakos.’
The cruise ship passengers applauded in the gilded wine bar – one of the several that were part of this luxury liner docked in the port of Corfu Town. Cara took Akis’s hand after their performance and made sure that he received a more than equal share of the applause. There was no way she was ever going to grab all the limelight when it was his own songs they were adding into their sets each night on these Greek summer cruises. But this particular voyage was more poignant. Not only were they back on the island where everything had begun for them the previous summer, they were celebrating something very special.
Cara waved a hand as they crossed the room towards Margot and Horatio, who were sitting in an elegant booth at the back.
‘I still can’t believe it, you know,’ Cara whispered to Akis.
‘That they got married?’
‘Yes! But, it’s more than that. They’ve been together for a year now. Margot used to go through liaisons like people go through kitchen towel. A year is such a long time for her.’
‘And marriage is meant to be even longer,’ Akis added. ‘Besides, have we not also been together a year now?’
‘I know,’ she said, smiling at him now. ‘But I didn’t go through liaisons like kitchen towel. Or like you used to go through baby oil.’
‘Used to?’ he asked, quirking his eyebrow. ‘I think the cruise director was giving substantial thought to my idea of a dance show.’
‘But Horatio works for Carried Away now,’ Cara reminded him, as they slowed their walk.
‘Only because he enjoys Margot telling him what to do.’ Akis sighed. ‘The other dancers are all performing in Albania.’
Cara stopped walking and touched his arm. ‘Do you miss it, Aki?’
‘What?’
‘Having women tied to chairs for you to dance over.’
He grabbed her hands and whipped them behind her back before she could do anything about it. She gasped.
‘You forget Rhodes?’ he whispered in her ear. ‘And Mykonos?’
‘No,’ she breathed, her spine tingling.
‘So, what is there for me to miss?’ he asked, dropping a suggestive kiss next to her ear. He stepped away and addressed his friend. ‘Horatio!’
Cara smiled, shaking her head, and followed his lead.
Before she could get to the table, Margot was there, catching her up in the kind of bear hug that Margot had never been synonymous with. The kind that creased fabrics and lightly crushed bones. The kind that said the deepest affection lived here.
‘It’s been so long, darling,’ Margot said, finally letting go.
‘It’s been six weeks,’ Cara said.
‘I know, but a quick coffee at the airport doesn’t really count, does it? And is it really only six weeks since I was knee-deep in vegetation with your mother?’ Margot shook her head. ‘Never again. I don’t care if her charity actually wanted the whole big cheque photo for their socials, I can handle the bugs but those parrots…’
Cara smiled. Another change in Margot was the fact she had reconnected with Wissy a little. They might not be super close but they had spent a week together and from what little Cara had been able to glean from either of them, their previous sibling animosity had been set aside.
‘Did you see Raj has gone into hiding?’ Margot whispered.
‘Yes,’ Cara said. ‘Sofia told everyone at the last family dinner. I think she brought it up because she didn’t know quite what to say when Wren announced she and Cosmos were expecting twins.’
‘You know Horatio has been asked to be a godfather or whatever the Greek equivalent is? He keeps doing a silly voice he thinks makes him sound like Al Pacino.’
Cara laughed. ‘I can almost hear it.’
‘Oh, you will. I can guarantee it,’ Margot said.
‘It’s such lovely news about the twins, isn’t it? Oh, and about Anastasia and her new girlfriend.’
‘Tell me, if either of these twins are boys do they have to become a priest?’
‘Stop,’ Cara said. ‘It’ll be Akis’s children theoretically. But, you know, I think Sofia has stopped thinking too much about curses now she has all this nice family stuff happening. She’s even inviting Irini for dinner once a week.’
‘Only because the donkey’s no longer there to accompany her,’ Margot scoffed. ‘The mule would never have been invited to tea.’
‘You look so happy,’ Cara said, observing her aunt again.
‘I was about to say the same thing about you,’ Margot answered.
‘That’s because I am,’ Cara said, her gaze going to the table where Akis and Horatio were now sitting together. ‘I have never been happier. With everything, you know.’
After her singing at the VIP party in Santorini had blown up the internet, she had had so many different offers coming her way from recording contracts, to being a judge of a talent show, to reuniting with Yodi for a Christmas single, but none of them had felt right. What had felt right was this spot on the cruise ship. And there had been no way she was going to do it without Akis. It had taken a while for him to feel confident about choosing music for his next step but, little by little, Cara had seen him coming back to life in that respect, realising that his disability was only as difficult as he made it and that his talent, even now, was huge.
‘Good,’ Margot said firmly, turning her around into another, rather unexpected embrace. ‘So, seeing as you caught my bouquet at my wedding, I’m expecting an announcement of some sort in the not-too-distant future.’
‘Oh, I don’t know about that, we haven’t?—’
The words stopped as Margot let her go, because the scene in front of her had changed somewhat. Now Akis wasn’t sitting with Horatio, two friends catching up, he was kneeling on the carpeted floor, a few steps away.
‘Yassas, Cara,’ Akis said, looking up at her.
Her hand was over her mouth in shock, eyes wide. ‘Yassas.’
She didn’t quite know what to say at all.
‘When I thought about how I was going to do this,’ Akis began, ‘I thought about our beginning, the first time that we met. But I could not bear to think about priests after everything, so I went for the next best thing. A boat.’ He smiled. ‘Granted, it is bigger than the boat I stole from Gouvia Marina but?—’
‘You did steal it?’ Cara exclaimed.
‘That’s not the important question now,’ Akis said. He opened the box he was holding to reveal a gold ring with a stone the colour of the ocean. ‘Cara, I want to know… will you marry me?’
She’d heard the question and it had hit her hard. And then her brain was replaying it again in slow motion, realising how special this moment was, how much it meant.
‘Yes!’ she breathed. ‘Yes, I will.’
She put out her hand and, as quickly as he possibly could, Akis slipped the ring onto her finger. He got up off the floor and held her hands in his.
‘You make me happier than I have any right to be,’ he whispered.
She shook her head. ‘No. Everyone has a right to be whatever or whoever they want to be. You taught me that. No one else’s opinions matter, remember?’ She smiled. ‘And I don’t need anyone to tell me that what I want most of all now is to be Mrs Diakos.’
‘Actually,’ Akis said. ‘Your name will not change. That is what we do in Greece.’
‘And another thing we do in Greece, is get out ouzo at every opportunity,’ Horatio called, beckoning them to the table that now contained a bottle of the aperitif.
‘Or,’ Akis said, stopping her from moving, ‘I’ve arranged for my motorbike to be at the port. We could go for a ride, if you like?’
Cara squeezed his hand, her new ring feeling good against her skin. ‘That’s another question I’m only going to say yes to. Let’s go.’
He kissed her then, hard, passionate, Cara knowing that he was showing exactly how he felt about this moment with his lips. Then, without saying anything to Margot and Horatio, they started to run towards the exit, heading for the doors that were going to allow them to escape back onto the little Greek island where it had all begun. And what had started with one Greek summer wedding, was going to continue with another beautiful happy-ever-after.