The Greek Guesthouse - Chapter 3
The night got off to a great start, the gods on Annie’s side for once as she drove home from work and struck every green light on the way.
It meant she arrived home ten minutes earlier than normal.
Plenty of time to make myself beautiful, she thought, unlocking the front door and padding straight through to the bedroom with a spring in her step.
She pulled the bunny outfit out from its hiding place and laid it out on the bed, giving it the once-over.
Annie’s good mood dissipated as she wondered how she would squeeze into it.
It looked awfully small laid out like so.
Smaller than it had in the shop. It was almost Kylie-like in its proportions – and Miss Minogue she was not.
She hadn’t wanted to try it on in the shop because she’d been in far too much of a hurry to get out of there. Now she regretted her haste.
She stripped off and gritted her teeth, reminding herself that if she set her mind to something, she could do it.
She was a Capricorn – stubborn, strong-willed, able to persevere in the face of a challenge.
You’ve got this, Annie. Look at her dream wedding dress – she’d managed to get into that, hadn’t she?
Wiggling her goosy flesh into the satiny all-in-one strapless, corset-topped leotard, she also wished she had a heat pump in the bedroom. The one out in the hall wasn’t sharing the love.
After a deep breath in, she managed to wrest the side zipper into place and exhaled. ‘Did it!’
With her bow tie clipped into place, she turned her attention to the mirror and gave herself the once-over. Not bad.
She swivelled round for the rear view, craning to see the little white pom-pom tail over her shoulder, then stuck her bottom out and gave it a waggle.
It made her laugh. OK, so Hugh probably wouldn’t give her a job unless she dropped a few pounds, but all in all, she didn’t look too bad – faintly ridiculous but not too bad.
Now, though, it was time for the final touch, so she opened her sweater drawer to retrieve the headband with its bobbing bunny ears then fluffed her hair out, cursing its curliness for the trillionth time.
Hoping she could stay in character and keep a straight face, Annie leaned into the mirror and swiped on red lippy before taking a step back to admire her handiwork. She’d have to do; Tony would be home any minute.
Speak of the devil, she thought, hearing his wagon and the pulsing beat of the hard-rock music he blared as he pulled into the driveway.
Annie took a deep breath as the music was silenced, a car door slammed, a key turned in the lock and the front door opened.
‘Surprise!’ Like one of those girls popping out of a birthday cake, she popped – not hopped – out of the bedroom and into the hallway.
Tony’s eyes were out on stalks as he dropped his work bag, clearly not expecting his very own Playboy Bunny to jump out at him.
But then Annie spotted his mother, Gaylene, bringing up the rear.
As she peered around Tony’s broad frame to see what had rendered him immobile, her face registered shock at the sight of her son’s fiancée clad in next to nothing with bunny rabbit ears on top of her head at 5. 45 on a Tuesday evening.
Tony finally found his voice. ‘What the fuck are you wearing? Mum, cover your eyes.’
Gaylene slapped her son around the ear reflexively. ‘Don’t swear. I raised you better than that.’
Annie turned and raced back into the bedroom, her cheeks burning as she heard Tony ask his mother, ‘Was that a rabbit tail on her butt?’
She closed the door with more force than was necessary and sank down on the foot of the bed, uncaring that her bobtail would no longer be perky but squished flat – just like her self-esteem. Why, tonight of all nights, did that witch of a woman have to be with Tony?
All the digs Gaylene had made over the years that she’d simply swallowed taunted her.
The sly pressure when it came to a big white wedding, which made no sense given her soon-to-be-mother-in-law made no bones about her not being good enough for her Tony.
Was she right? Because Annie was beginning to wonder if she loved him enough to sustain a lifetime together.
Or had Roz stolen her ability to trust someone enough to give her whole heart to them?
On the wall behind the bed was a large, vibrant print of Greece. The sort mass produced and popularised in the early nineties. Roz had swooped on it when they’d been doing the rounds of the thrift shops together one Saturday morning with Carl in tow.
‘I’m going to go there one day,’ she’d stated with a dreamy expression. ‘I’ll stay with Kas in a little white house with a blue door and matching window shutters. I’ll eat calamari and drink retsina, and we’ll swim in the Mediterranean every single day. I might even meet my very own Greek god.’
‘Well send one back for me too, if you do,’ Carl had piped up, making the sisters laugh. They’d been the three musketeers back then.
Annie knew Tony had only agreed to the rather retro print being hung in pride of place because she’d turned a blind eye to the poster of the busty blonde in his garage-workshop that had gone out with the ark.
Would things have been different if Roz had stayed on track and gone to Greece?
If she’d done all those things she’d dreamed of?
Life is too short. The words reverberated in her head, and Annie’s gaze dropped to the reflection in the mirror. Her face was pale, the red lipstick lurid, the bunny outfit ridiculous.
‘You only get one shot at it, this life business,’ she whispered. ‘So what are you doing with yours?’
She had a job she hated. Her relationship seemed to be on a fast track to absolutely nowhere. She’d even fallen out with her best friend. She squeezed her eyes shut. If she could go anywhere or do anything, where would that road lead her?
Her eyes pinged open and focused on the print. The answer was simple.
Greece.
‘So what’s stopping you, Annie Rivers?’
A shiver danced up her spine because she could have sworn the words had been said out loud and that it was Roz who’d said them.