Chapter Thirty-Nine #2
Her one close childhood friend was someone whom she never saw any more because she wasn’t in the same industry.
The endless regime of touring meant never sleeping in the same bed more than a few days. She’d been to Europe as a teenager, had seen nothing but the greatest hits of every capital city from the back of a people carrier or bus.
Her normal was taking pills to help her wake up, pills to calm her, alcohol to give her a buzz, cocaine to get her high.
It had left her feeling hollow and ashamed, and in rehab. She will drink and drug again if she goes back into that world and now that she’s clean, she truly wants to stay that way.
The peace of mind, the calmness – she can’t give that up. Even for Bobbi.
Keera slides under the water to escape the feelings, letting the pool close over her head, hiding her from the world.
She pushes up through the water, feeling it streaming off her shorn head, and swims to the pool edge like a seal.
What if …
She suddenly has a plan.
‘Rose!’
Adriana calls out when Rose comes back into their private quarters from her walk around the garden.
‘We’ve found Dan,’ she says. ‘He’s fine. He’s in Corfu, he’s been talking about taking the ferry to Igoumenitsa but he obviously doesn’t mean it: he’s missed all of today’s sailings so far.’
Rose almost can’t believe it. Relief floods through her.
‘Is he coming back?’
‘Yes, just not yet,’ Adriana says.
‘Pavel’s cousin found him. Now they’re in a restaurant waiting for dinner.’
Rose rolls her eyes. ‘Seriously?’
‘Pavel’s friend owns it and the friend’s grandmother cooks there and she has insisted they cannot leave until they have had her lamb souvlaki – her special marinade recipe – and her galaktoboureko.’
‘In other words, they may be hours while Yaya stuffs them with filo pastry and custard filling because they are too thin,’ says Rose.
‘Precisely.’
Somehow, this vision of a Greek grandmother fussing over Dan and Pavel’s cousin makes Rose laugh. The stress leaches out of her.
Half the island are looking for Dan for the second time and he’s dallying in a restaurant with Pavel’s cousin because a Greek yaya is determined they need to taste her souvlaki. Nobody can argue with a yaya.
The sisters begin to laugh and then Adriana is sitting beside Rose on the couch and they’re holding each other, convulsing with laughter.
‘I hope this isn’t the last retreat,’ says Adriana seriously.
‘It won’t be,’ says Rose.
India can’t help herself:
She needs to look at Julia up close.
See what makes her so special.
Brushing her curls till they’re glossy, she pulls her hair into an easy knot at the base of her neck. She applies a coat of mascara, a smear of cherry lip balm and a heady blast of Byredo perfume.
She’s clad in very cool mannish trousers in a khaki linen, worn with a light-weave cotton halter neck in rich copper that matches her hair tones. She looks businesslike, she thinks approvingly. A woman in control.
Then she leaves the safety of her room and goes to the bar.
Keera’s mother, Alexei, Stavros and Julia are all arranged around it, with bartender Jimi shaking the cocktail shaker to some Latin-sounding music.
‘I love this song,’ says Bobbi, hopping off her barstool and shimmying dangerously close to the infinity pool.
Julia is deep in conversation with Stacy, the evening bartender. Julia is also holding Stavros’s muscular arm as if to stop him leaving.
Stacy’s twenty-something, studying hotel management, loves Villa Artemis but has to go back to her college in Belgium when this placement is over. She looks a trifle bored at whatever monologue Julia is delivering.
India grins hello and slips in at the end of the bar. Alexei and Stavros both see her and nod, while Bobbi and Julia see her but make no gesture of welcome.
India asks for a cucumber martini and some iced water.
‘Which one is yours?’ Jimi asks quietly as he starts making the cocktail.
‘None of them,’ India says. ‘But that one,’ she gestures towards Julia, ‘is Dan’s ex, and me and Dan were involved and …’
She trails off.
Jimi appears to grapple with some vital rule of hotel management, then leans close.
‘I shouldn’t say this but I don’t like her,’ he says. ‘She hasn’t shut up about how she travels to all the best places, and I have friends all over the place and the “top” hotels she says she’s been in don’t exist! She’s told me that she’s getting married.’
‘She and Dan are not getting married,’ says India crossly. ‘She “didn’t want to be tied down”.’
Jimi shrugs.
‘We all know people like that. They don’t want something until they can’t have it and then, they’ll scream to get their hands on it.
Dan is cute, he’s a decent guy. You fight for him.
I have to book a taxi for her now; Rose doesn’t want them drunk in the bar any more.
We’re sending Julia to Casa Siren and Keera’s mother is staying here. ’
Bobbi’s stopped dancing and is gulping back the glass of iced white wine that Alexei is keeping filled up.
India’s not sure about this method of keeping Bobbi and Julia calm.
Seems to her that they’ll only get even more upset when they’ve had too much to drink and can’t find their significant others.
She hopes the taxi comes soon for Julia and that Bobbi gets sent to her room, with an empty minibar.
‘It’s very hot,’ says Bobbi, fanning herself with a little plastic battery-powered fan.
She catches sight of India.
‘Hello, are you on this retreat?’ Bobbi asks.
India shakes her head. ‘Just a guest,’ she fibs. ‘I think the retreat people are off somewhere …’ she adds vaguely.
‘My daughter’s one of the retreaters,’ says Bobbi. ‘Can I tell you a secret?’
She leans closer to India, who is afraid Bobbi will fall off her stool.
‘I think they’re brainwashing them. It’s the only answer.’
For a moment, Bobbi looks lost.
‘My daughter’s acting crazy, that’s all I’m saying.’
‘Really?’ says India, attempting to sound as if she’s not paying that much attention. ‘What about you?’ she asks Julia.
Alexei gives her a heavy-lidded look that says What are you playing at?
India ignores him. She can’t help herself.
‘My fiancé’s here too,’ says Julia, reaching into her pocket to find a shocking pink lipstick, which she proceeds to apply without once confirming her application in the bar’s mirrored surfaces.
India’s face betrays nothing.
‘Is there a family part of the therapy?’ India asks innocently now. ‘Is that why you’re both here?’
Bobbi nods gloomily but Julia narrows her eyes.
‘No, I don’t do stupid therapy. It’s all a con,’ she says, assessing India.
India sips her cocktail.
‘Are you here with your family?’ demands Julia.
‘No, no husband or boyfriend. It’s a me-time holiday,’ India answers, then steals her stepmother’s career for her own. ‘I work in interior design and needed a break after doing a big job in Hackney. How about you?’ she asks slyly.
‘I’m a trust-fund girl,’ says Julia smugly. ‘I’m terribly lucky. But I know how lucky I am,’ she coos with a fake smile. ‘That’s key,’ she adds.
India hides how shocked she is with all the lies.
Dan had never mentioned the fantasy-creating side of his former girlfriend. But clearly Julia has a very tenuous relationship with the truth.
Also, she must have had therapy in hospital, surely?
Is she embarrassed at what happened? India can understand that.
Making up a fantasy to cover up the pain about her suicide attempt would make sense in some ways. India wants to feel sympathy for the other woman.
Except Julia is not exactly sympathetic.
‘Your fiancé …’ India says, unable to let it go. She has to find out what sort of person Julia truly is. ‘What does he look like? I may have seen him …’
‘Tall, handsome,’ says Julia airily. ‘He asked me to fly out. Can’t bear to be without me!’
She turns to Stacy and waggles her fingers at the bartender, signalling a request for another cocktail.
India thinks she might just explode with rage.
What a cow!
Alexei intervenes: ‘I thought there was a message for you up at reception,’ he says to India. His expressive eyes say that he wants her gone before it all falls apart.
With Julia and Bobbi both looking elsewhere, India sticks her tongue out at him.
‘When are you getting married?’ she asks Julia.
She can’t help herself.
She is convinced that Dan is not lying about him and Julia being on a break, which means that Julia is the most barefaced liar India has ever met.
‘And have you got a dress?’ India adds.
Julia drinks at least half of her new cocktail in one fell swoop without even flinching.
‘I’ll probably wear one of Mummy’s couture dresses,’ she says, twirling some of her long blonde hair. ‘October. That’s when we’re getting married. October. Daddy will just book somewhere lovely when the time comes. I’m feeling Venice …’
India is finally rendered speechless. She knows she’s been working on her own wedding dress looks without having a spouse-to-be but at least she wasn’t lying about it.
She glares at Alexei who’s still staring at her.
‘I must go and get that message,’ she tells him grimly. ‘Bye all,’ she says and leaves the bar.
India is supercharged with temper.
Dan cannot continue to date Julia.
She’s a complete stranger to the truth and is nothing like the fragile woman Dan described. She might have been once but now, all India sees is someone who is pretending to be someone she’s not.
Rose will know how to sort the situation.
India stomps up to her room. Even though Dan’s not hers, he doesn’t deserve Julia.
Rose has made her mind up: no matter what happens, she will handle it.
If the Instagram menace tries to out her, she will make sure that Adriana is not involved.
If Bernard tries to destroy the Villa Artemis business, Rose will give interviews to everyone and their lawyer about how she was threatened by him.
She is going to fight back.