Chapter 17
17
Seated in an intimate corner of the private dining suite beside a floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the glittering golden lights of Central Park and beyond, Deedee took a swallow of the pairing wine that had been recommended by the sommelier. Crisp and chilled, it was the perfect accompaniment to the poached lobster and truffled gnocchi they had devoured while chatting about everything – apart from the torch that Yiannis was supposedly still carrying for her.
‘So, Deedee, are you going to tell me what’s really on your mind?’ Yiannis asked, after thanking the waiter as he took their plates away and discreetly swept crumbs from the white linen tablecloth. They were seated adjacent to each other so they could both enjoy the iconic view.
‘What do you mean?’ Deedee turned her head sideways to look at him, playing for time, but wishing she had brought it up as soon as they had arrived, instead of circling around the flame of the torch by slotting into their typical rhythm of teasing each other and catching up on all the topics they usually discussed. Because now that she had let it build up over the last hour or so into a much bigger deal inside her head, it was feeling even more difficult to approach. She took another sip of wine and leaned forward, her hand on the table. Mirroring her, Yiannis sat forward too and placed his hand over hers in an amicable gesture just as he had a million times before over the years. But this time his skin felt like fire on hers and Deedee instantly pulled her hand away as if she had been scalded. She thought of all the times she and Yiannis had shown their affection for each other with a hand squeeze, an arm around a shoulder, revisiting an old joke they shared from years ago, and often with Joe there. She searched her memory, desperate to discover a moment she might have missed, an awkward look on Joe’s face, uncomfortable body language, but there wasn’t anything. He had always been relaxed and confident, at ease with himself, and with her too, even when Yiannis was there. But still, she felt uncomfortable and insensitive not to have realised how the physical touches of her relationship with Yiannis might have been perceived by Joe. And it hurt that she would never know for sure, that she couldn’t check in with Joe and apologise for ever making him feel uncomfortable and explain that it was never her intention.
‘Hey, sweetheart… what’s up?’ Yiannis’s voice was full of concern as he sat back in his chair and turned to look at her.
‘Sorry, I, um… it’s…’ She stopped talking as the waiter reappeared with two warm Peruvian chocolate tarts and vanilla ice cream.
‘Thank you,’ they both said, and the waiter left.
‘So?’ Yiannis tried again. Deedee spooned a sliver of the deliciously creamy sweet tart into her mouth, savouring the salty crunch as it came through too, while she tried to work out what to say to him. ‘I know there’s something going on,’ he nudged her gently.
She put down her spoon and picked up the wine glass. ‘I don’t know where to start.’
‘OK… well, how about you just say the first thing on your mind, and we go from there,’ Yiannis said kindly, his eyes searching hers.
‘Did Joe have another woman?’
Silence followed.
Yiannis let out a long puff of air as he pushed a hand through his hair. ‘Dee, sweetheart… come on, you know?—’
‘No, no I don’t any more,’ she said, immediately wishing the words hadn’t come out sounding so needy and shrill. And why on earth had she said them at all and still not mentioned the flaming torch he was supposedly carrying! She swallowed a mouthful of wine.
‘Where’s all this coming from?’ Yiannis asked.
‘Did he? Did you know?’ She fiddled tentatively with a corner of the linen napkin on her lap as she waited for this answer.
‘No! Of course not,’ he said quickly. Deedee tried to work out if it was said too quickly, as in a loyalty way to his friend and in an attempt to not hurt her. But then, as if reading her mind, Yiannis followed it with, ‘Don’t you think I would have told you if Joe messed around? What do you take me for? I know I’m no saint and I’ve made mistakes in the past but, come on, Dee… you mean the world to me and as much as I loved Joe too, my loyalty has always been with you. Your happiness came first over his.’
More silence.
‘I know,’ Deedee said softly, a flood of relief rushing through her as she could tell he was being truthful. Yiannis had never been a good liar. It was part of what had got him into all those messy situations with his many girlfriends over the years…
‘Where has this all come from, sweetheart?’ he said. ‘Tell me why you would ask such a question.’ And so she did.
A little while later, having finished the tarts and the last of the wine, Yiannis had ordered a cognac and a French 75 cocktail for her.
‘Hang on… so this woman just appeared at Joe’s beach house,’ Yiannis checked for the second time.
‘That’s right.’
‘And you thought you recognised her?’
‘Well, yes… but I couldn’t have, could I?’ Deedee traced a fingertip down the stem of the champagne glass. ‘Not really though, as I’d have remembered where I had seen her before by now, wouldn’t I?’
‘Maybe… but then you are getting on a bit, aren’t you, with the big seven-zero and all coming up? Have you done one of those memory tests yet?’ He nudged her and winked as he finished the cognac.
‘Stop it. I’m not going to tell you any more about it if you’re going to be like that.’ And she elbowed him sharply, trying to keep a straight face.
‘Ouch!’ he yelped and pretended to be seriously injured. ‘You’ve broken a rib.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
‘OK… I’m sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood,’ he said, sounding more sensible now. ‘I can see you’re worried about this, Dee, but there’s no need to be. Joe didn’t have another woman that I knew of. Whoever this woman was, and she could’ve been anyone… I don’t know… the cleaner, cake maker, party person or whatever—’ Yiannis immediately stopped talking.
‘What do you mean, cake maker, or party person?’
A beat of silence.
‘Damn… I’ve put my foot in it now.’ Yiannis sighed. ‘I promised Cleo I wouldn’t ruin the surprise, and now I have.’ He let out a puff of air and shook his head.
‘Surprise? Well, you need to tell me now!’ Deedee looked directly at him and saw a spot of red on the tanned skin of his cheeks.
‘OK… but please, can you not let on to Cleo, or my mother, especially not my mother as she will likely spontaneously combust into a giant puff of disappointment if she finds out I’ve messed up on this and spoiled it for you. I’ll never hear the end of it.’ He shrugged, a pained look on his face.
‘Promise. Now get on with it.’
‘I think this woman could be the one that Joe asked to set up the surprise for your birthday.’
‘Go on,’ Deedee said slowly, trying to wrap her head around this revelation.
‘OK.’ Yiannis swallowed hard as if bracing himself to tell all. ‘So we were over there at the beach house when he had the idea?—’
‘You were?’ Deedee interjected, flabbergasted. ‘You and Joe? You went there? But I didn’t think—’ she paused, gathered herself so she could think straight. ‘When was this?’
‘On the day he recorded the codicil. We went to Haven Harbor, after visiting the lawyer’s office.’
‘Whaaat? But why didn’t he ask me to go too? And why didn’t you say something?’
‘Please, Dee, darling… don’t be annoyed. It wasn’t that he didn’t want you there. Joe asked me to help him make your seventieth birthday special for you. He knew that he wasn’t going to be here to share it with you and that you’d likely find it hard, as the pair of you had planned all kinds of things – a music festival I think he mentioned.’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ Deedee said.
‘Of course I told him I didn’t want to keep a secret from you, but then he explained, and it made sense to me. He didn’t want you going with him to record the codicil, because he didn’t want to put a whole new property on you at that point, because it’s a lot. It was a hugely emotional thing for him to do. He was strong and stoic, much like you in that respect… you were more alike than you realised, I think. But he could hardly go by himself, could he now? Not to something like that, so I went with him, to support him. I wanted to help the guy… he was dying. And he still wanted to make you happy for as long as he could, and I got that. I want you to be happy too. And he was my friend.’
‘I know he was… and you were a good friend to him,’ Deedee said, trying to make sense of it all and realising that Anthony and Karl, Cleo too, may not have been colluding, setting her up on a pity date, after all. Yiannis was loyal, not only to her, but to Joe too. His friend. Maybe Yiannis did still carry a torch for her. But she couldn’t think about it now, she needed to know about the surprise. Then it struck her… did Yiannis know what Joe said in the film about her finding new love? ‘Were you with him when he recorded the film?’ she checked and held her breath as she waited for his answer.
‘No. He didn’t want me in the room, so I waited outside and took him for a large brandy afterwards in the bar opposite the lawyer’s offices before driving him out to Haven Harbor. He wanted to walk on the beach and be alone with his thoughts. But that’s when he came up with the idea for your birthday surprise. To organise a party there. He was really fired up about it, it was like he’d found a new energy, something to focus on. So he arranged for a party planner to set it all up, make it nice with lantern lights on the sand and a firepit, I think there might even be a guy coming with a guitar to play music. Cleo has all the details…’ Yiannis told her.
‘But the party is at Athena. I’ve sorted it all out with Cleo.’
‘Who has been liaising with the party planner woman,’ Yiannis nodded. ‘The woman Joe hired to organise the surprise. My guess is that the woman who turned up at the beach house was something to do with the party and perhaps didn’t know all the details but maybe she panicked when you told her you were his wife… She didn’t want to spoil the surprise for you, so ran away instead.’
Deedee sat quietly trying to work it all out. She wasn’t convinced. If the woman was something to do with the party then surely she would know Joe’s surname and the woman definitely said that she had been to the beach house more than once, so when she couldn’t get hold of Joe, why didn’t she just ask Cleo, or the actual party planner where he was?
‘So, how could Joe have known for sure that I would be here in New York for my birthday? Surely he would have needed to give the party planner dates… it doesn’t really add up,’ Deedee said.
‘Ah, Joe had that covered too… When the party planner took the booking, and I never knew that they worked that many years ahead, but they do it seems, she agreed to keep the location “to be confirmed”.’ He paused to lift his hands off the table to emphasise the fact. ‘Obviously, Joe’s preference was the beach house, but just in case we couldn’t get you to come here then the party would have been wherever you were, and I did promise Joe that I would do everything I could to persuade you to celebrate your seventieth here in New York, but as it turned out I didn’t need to, as you suggested it anyway. So maybe it was meant to be. And I can’t tell you how relieved I was when you sent the message asking to have the party at Athena.’ He smiled.
‘And no wonder Cleo was a bit evasive about the arrangements and wouldn’t let me pay for the catering. Joe had already taken care of it all,’ Deedee said slowly as it started to make sense.
‘Yes, it’s all paid for. And the party planner has people she works with all around the world so pretty much any location you decided to be in for your birthday could be where the party would be. And we would have travelled – me, Anthony and Karl, Cleo and my mother too, in fact, I secretly think Elena is disappointed that you didn’t opt for Kalosiros so she could turn it into a big fat Greek family affair with all her many relatives on the island and from Athens too.’ He laughed.
‘Wow. So Joe really did think of everything. I can’t get my head around it. And he never said a word to me about any of it. I had been worrying about him when I discovered he had recorded the codicil when we were together in New York. And I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t notice anything different about him on the day he must have recorded it and now I understand why… I assumed he went alone but I’m so pleased and relieved now knowing that he had you there with him. Thank you. And for keeping his secret since, with the beach house and the party and not spoiling the surprises – Joe was always so very good at surprising me, but I never could have imagined he would do anything like this… I’m sure it’s not been easy,’ Deedee said.
‘No, it’s not been easy,’ Yiannis agreed. ‘And I’ve gone and spoiled it now any case, right at the last moment and all, after keeping my mouth shut for all this time.’ He looked away.
‘It’s not spoiled.’ Deedee turned to him and on impulse, force of habit or whatever, she gave his hand a squeeze and wondered if now was the moment to ask what else he had been keeping his mouth shut about for all this time. How he truly felt about her. Should she confront him? Or tell him her own feelings were actually changing as she realised she was enjoying this date more than any she had been on in years… it was all swirling around inside her head. But instead she said, ‘I can keep a secret with the best of them… I’ll start practising my shocked, surprise party face.’ She finished the last of the French 75.
‘Come on, let’s get out of here,’ he laughed, picking up the candy pink orchid corsage he had brought for her as promised. ‘We need some air and we can talk more, take a walk or a pedicab ride around the park if you like?’ Yiannis raised an eyebrow and gestured to the window with the view of Central Park below. ‘It’ll be romantic. And I did promise you a date just like the old days.’