Epilogue
Avlaki
Faye ran out of the hotel, hair flying in the breeze, and Kostas watched her from the pillion of a motorbike he now owned, not dissimilar to the one he had hired when he’d returned here almost a year ago.
And she had never looked more beautiful to him.
It had always been how natural she was, how effortlessly and completely herself.
She was still the strongest, yet sweetest, person he knew, and he was thankful every single day that she was in his life.
‘I don’t have long, Kosta, I have a wine delivery coming and they’ve asked for me to be there because Katerina signed last time and it was wrong and no one could work out afterwards if it was too much or too less and it was a nightmare so—’
In one quick move, he got off the bike and silenced her with a kiss.
It had only been hours since he had last kissed her, in the master bedroom in her little house at Almyros, but he knew now the need was always so strong when you adored someone this much.
And he totally and utterly adored her. She had helped him become the person he was today, the man who was still learning, still evolving, but definitely, without doubt, on the right track.
So much so that he nestled against the cushions on Faye’s bed and there were circular crochet dinner mats on her table that his grandmother had made which he actually used and did not fear.
‘Kalispéra,’ he said, smiling.
‘I like that kind of kalispéra,’ she answered. She grabbed the helmet.
‘What are you doing?’ he asked.
‘Putting on the helmet,’ she said. ‘We’re going to lunch, right? You said we were going for something to eat.’
‘I did,’ he agreed. ‘But we’re not going on the bike.’
‘You want to take my car?’
‘No,’ he replied, and then he gestured up and back with his head. He watched her look in that direction and then her expression cracked.
‘Are you joking, Kosta?’
‘Come on, Faye. We have not ridden in the cart for almost a year now. It is nostalgic. It reminds me of the very beginning of our relationship. It is romantic.’
‘You are so crazy,’ she told him.
‘You think?’
‘I know.’
‘OK, then you can drive,’ he said, leading the way.
‘No, no, it’s OK, we don’t want to break with any romantic traditions,’ she answered fast.
* * *
Faye closed her eyes as they rolled along the road, towards the other end of Avlaki beach, enjoying the light breeze and the warm, not-yet-roasting temperatures of the island.
There were plenty of tourists here already, but it wasn’t quite at the summer peak that meant she was fully booked and completely hectic.
Not that she didn’t still totally love her job.
And not much had changed. Dimitria still owned Hotel Margaritári but she had stepped back a little further from the physical helm and had been doing some much-longed-for travelling over the winter.
‘Why are you not looking at your paradise?’ Kostas asked as he drove. ‘Or has Almyros taken over this role?’
Faye opened her eyes and shook her head. ‘Almyros is my home now, but you know Avlaki will always be my special place.’
‘I do know that,’ Kostas said. ‘So… here we are.’
He pulled the cart to a stop, got out and rushed around to her side of the vehicle to offer her his hand.
‘Why am I getting this weird princess treatment today? It’s not my birthday.’
‘Ah, well, do we need a reason?’
She took his hand and got out onto the stones of the beach. And it was then she noticed the blanket and picnic basket set up on the shoreline.
‘Kosta! A picnic!’
‘You sound even more excited than when I took you to Green Park in Athens.’
‘Sorry.’
He laughed. ‘Don’t be. I only hope the ice cream hasn’t melted. We might have to eat that first.’
Sitting cross-legged on the blanket a few minutes later, Faye savoured every spoonful of the mint chocolate chip ice cream Kostas had acquired. It was fresh and cold and delicious and exactly what she needed.
‘So, we talked about having a picnic so many times and we never did it on our own,’ Kostas said, watching her enjoy the ice cream.
‘I know,’ Faye said. ‘We’ve had a picnic with nearly everyone, haven’t we?’
‘Saffron so many times, Dimitria, Katerina and her whole family, all the cats in Almyros—’
‘Your yiayia,’ Faye added.
‘In that treehouse every meal is like a picnic,’ Kostas stated.
‘But she’s happy there, Kosta, and happier now you are around more.’
It had got to the point where Kostas’s home was more Corfu than Athens.
The local basketball courts were starting to be built and it was hoped that work on the centre for excellence would start very soon.
It had taken a while for the people and the press to start thinking good things about Kostas and restore faith in his promises, but he was putting in the work here on the island and with his therapy.
Faye couldn’t have been more proud of him.
‘So, when we have finished the ice cream I thought we could skim stones.’
Faye laughed and then she held her breath. ‘Oh my God, it’s not… our anniversary, is it?’
Kostas laughed too. ‘Which one? The first time we met when you thought I was about to break in to the hotel? The first time we had sex? I remember that very, very vividly.’ He dipped his head close to hers.
‘Sometimes, late at night when I am alone and you are here and I am in Athens without you, I like to remember that moment.’
‘Me too,’ she admitted. ‘But sometimes I just think about the last time, in the early morning before you leave for the airport or for a meeting—’
‘Or how about the time after the Sinies panegyri? When we stopped on the way home.’
He kissed her then. His kisses were something she never tired of. They were the perfect combination of passionate yet gentle, soft and deep, teasing then completely following through on that promise.
‘OK, stop,’ Faye said, breaking their connection. ‘Or I will cancel the wine delivery.’
He smiled. ‘Me before rosé. It’s official, you love me.’
‘That was never in question,’ she answered.
‘No?’
‘Kosta, se agapó. I love you. Endlessly.’
‘Se agapó vassilisa mou.’ I love you, my queen. ‘So, come on. We need to skim the stones or we will run out of time.’
* * *
He watched her, lining up beside the water, her stance no better than it had been when they had first done this together. The stone didn’t even manage one jump.
‘I still need lessons,’ Faye moaned as he moved next to her.
‘Perhaps the stones do not mean enough to you,’ he suggested.
‘What?’
‘Well, perhaps you are thinking of the stones just as stones, not as… I don’t know… sea wishes.’
‘Sea wishes?’
‘Yeah,’ he said, scrunching his trainers into position on the beach.
‘This sea wish for… everyone’s good health.
’ He threw the stone and watched it bounce four times across the water.
He was ready with the next stone. ‘This sea wish for… Saffron’s next hair colour to turn out better than the last.’ He threw it.
‘She hated the copper,’ Faye agreed.
Kostas turned back to face her. ‘Faye, hold out your hand.’
She did as he had asked without hesitation.
‘This is my biggest sea wish,’ Kostas said, and into her hand he placed one of the large white stones from the beach. Except this one had some words written on it.
* * *
Faye looked at the letters. English letters. A whole sentence. She read it in her head, heart hammering in her chest, and then she said the words out loud.
‘Can I share you forever?’
She looked up at him, waited for him to laugh and make a joke or take it from her hand and throw it into the sea. But all she saw in his eyes, his whole expression, was the deepest sincerity. Honesty.
‘Faye, it’s been almost a year and I know how I feel about you.
I know. And I feel it.’ He touched his head with his free hand.
‘In here.’ He touched his chest. ‘Here.’ He held his torso.
‘And wherever the soul lives.’ He swallowed.
‘I do not want to ask you to marry me. Because I think that marriage to you still feels like something you do not want to be a part of and I wholly understand that. So, Faye, I ask the question “can I share you forever?” to let you know that I know the only person you belong to is you, and I am asking you to share yourself, your life, with me.’ He took a breath. ‘For always.’
Her eyes were full of tears. He couldn’t have said anything more personal, anything so completely and exactly how she needed a partner in life to be.
She closed her hand around the stone, felt its heavy presence in her palm, but it was a feeling that resonated right through her core and came to rest firmly in her heart.
‘Ne,’ she answered. ‘Yes.’
‘Yes?’ he clarified, elation written all over him.
She nodded. ‘Yes.’
And, as Kostas swept her up into his arms and held her tighter than he had ever held her before, she knew, beyond doubt, that the beautiful Greek life she had created here in Corfu was only going to keep getting better.
* * *