Chapter 15
CARRIE
Carrie sat down on the dry powdery sand, the colour of shortbread, her favourite biscuit.
The salty breeze lifted her blonde hair, released from the ponytail that kept it prisoner most days in Manchester.
Tolmiros beach was more remote than the touristy ones she’d visited with her friends over the years.
There was a local feel about it, with elderly Greek couples, and parents with small children building sandcastles.
According to everything Carrie had read about Paros, that would change with July and August. A welcome change of atmosphere no doubt, as it meant income coming to an island that was miles and miles from any mainland.
It was half past eight and the sun was setting.
She’d made her way to the beach after all the commotion with Giannis’s fans.
At lunchtime she’d eaten at a bar just on the beach that had a piano and guitar in the corner, and smelt of olive oil and rosemary.
She hadn’t wanted to leave; the ambiance was so welcoming.
The decor was like having the outside inside, a secret garden effect with wooden beams covered with green foliage and fairy lights and small candles on the tables that had benches either side covered with green cushions.
She’d taken a photo of that and the amazing Greek pitta sandwich she’d eaten, filled with salad, olives, feta and a garlicky dressing.
Eventually she’d gone on a walk, not wanting to go back to the villa, not yet, enjoying the freedom and lack of buildings, the sense that, at last, after such stressful months, she could finally breathe.
As the afternoon had drawn to a close, and after another coffee at Nana’s, Carrie had bought toiletries, food and a floppy straw hat with a blue and white ribbon around it.
A cat lay on a pile of nearby rocks. She’d have to bring out cheese next time she went for a walk.
Boo loved a lump of cheddar. She tentatively went over and poured some of her bottled water into a dip between the rocks that acted like a dish.
The cat hesitated before lapping it up greedily.
The day had felt aimless, but in a good way.
Every minute of her life ran on a schedule back in the UK.
Get up, feed Boo, breakfast, cleaning job.
Back to grab food, out again, the shift at The Niterie, put Boo to bed, sleep.
Repeat. Repeat. And in between all of that, finding the time to fake being an influencer…
No wonder her social life had suffered and she’d become less punctual for her job at The Niterie.
Whereas here it was simply Carrie and her thoughts – thoughts she was doing her best to avoid, about being shallow, about upsetting friends, about not being seen as their equal any more but instead, an object of pity… No. She wasn’t ready for potentially accepting or dealing with any of that yet.
Carrie strolled nearer to the tide and sat down again, wanting to be soothed by lapping water.
Giannis GoGo. Annoyingly, that name kept popping into her mind.
A colleague at The Niterie had developed a crush on him last summer, her face all dreamy when his songs came on.
Who’d have thought he’d be such a jerk? Rude?
Making assumptions? Not liking the attention that made him millions?
Talk about first-world problems. Right now, lonely Carrie could think of nothing better than a bunch of people, even if they were strangers, liking her that much.
Perhaps her Carrie Crusoe account would be a huge success.
She went online to find out more about him when an email notification popped up.
It was from Eliza. Oh, and a photo of Boo sitting on the fence.
How lovely. He looked as if he were okay so far.
Was she a bad cat parent for leaving him with a stranger?
She bit a fingernail and mulled that question over as she read the rest of Eliza’s message.
No, she’d made sure Eliza liked cats and Nessa had promised to go around and check on him and… What?
Wow!
Eliza was halfway through her seventies!
That was unexpected! But also amazing. Good for her, starting over when many people were settled into a groove.
Carrie emailed back.
Hi Eliza,
Hope your shift went okay. Jez is great – but don’t slag off George Michael in his presence! And I’m well impressed at you buying a new life at your age. I couldn’t stay another minute in mine. Guess it was the same for you.
Going by the introductory email you sent when pitching to buy my life, you are obviously into music.
Guess what? Have you heard of Giannis GoGo?
He sang that song ‘Can’t Break Me’ that everyone went mad for last summer.
Well, I’ve met him here! Talk about not being as smooth as his image. I’ll be steering clear.
But the owner of the small villa I’m renting, Dimitrios, seems lovely from his messages, a waitress called Nana, too. We laughed about her nickname. I’ve never had a grandma and now I’ve kind of got one, even if we’re not related and she’s around my age!
Thanks so much for the lovely photo of Boo. I’ve sent you one of the many cats here. They are very thin but so cute.
Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions about the house or work. Hope you are managing with the car. As you know, it’s really old and belonged to my mum, but it has always been reliable. Jez has got a mechanic friend who knows the model inside out and doesn’t charge much.
Take care.
Carrie
She pressed send and put away her phone.
Google couldn’t compete with the Greek horizon as the sun sat lazily on the water amongst streaks of pink and peach and yellow.
Carrie went to take a photo but, strangely, her heart wasn’t in it.
No screen or filter could improve on this reality.
Gulls bobbed on the sea’s surface and a smart couple walked past in office clothes, carrying their shoes and having an argument, making up, then laughing at themselves.
A man, several feet away from her, caught her attention, simply because he’d been frozen to the spot for over an hour but was now getting to his feet.
She narrowed her eyes, her view of him clearer now the blinding sun had set.
Oh. That height. The sullen face, now the wind had blown back the thick hair.
There was only one man it could be. Her cue to GoGo, but for some reason she sat, transfixed.
There was a beauty about him that was purely physical and the flutters in the pit of her stomach reminded Carrie how long it had been since she’d been with a man.
Yet it was more than that. As he gazed into the distance, she had a sense that he was searching for something.
Forcing herself to turn away, Carrie pushed herself up, brushed the sand off her shorts and picked up her bags.
Hurrying, she went to pass the bar – it was literally called that, The Bar.
Unpretentious and she loved it. It wouldn’t harm to get one of those pitta sandwiches to take back to the villa, and then from tomorrow she’d get down to cooking, cheaply, for herself.
She ordered the sandwich and sat at the bar whilst she waited, swinging her feet that dangled down the high stool.
All her life had been mapped out and about supporting Mum, who’d had no one to rely on since she got pregnant with Carrie.
She would have been horrified that Carrie viewed it like that.
Mum had been strong, independent, and worked all hours to feed and clothe them.
But with ever-rising rental costs, even though Carrie could by then look after herself, she hadn’t had the heart to move out and risk her mum having to downsize to a flat.
Then she’d become ill and Carrie’s responsibilities had weighed heavier.
Then Mum had died.
But Carrie had still had Boo, two jobs, a car to maintain and rent to pay.
Until now. Now, she had nothing, for the first time in her life.
Carrie yawned as the barman handed over her sandwich.
‘Efcharisto,’ she said and put it in her bag. She swivelled off the stool and collided with…
Of course she did.
Giannis. Or was it Doritos?
His tired face had deep black circles underneath those death-glare eyes that fired up on meeting her gaze.
‘Now you’ve found out where I like hanging out with my friends,’ he muttered.
‘Wow. You’re unbelievable, still thinking my time in Paros revolves around you!’ She walked away.
Footsteps sounded behind her. ‘Don’t come in here again,’ he said in a clipped tone.
Outside now, she spun around. ‘Are you for real? You can’t ban me from anywhere.’
‘Really?’ He took out his phone. ‘I’m telling Ajax and asking him to arrest you on sight for harassment.’
‘You have no right!’
‘Why not? You’re clearly following me and trying to get into my life, like everyone else.’
‘Oh, boo hoo. You mean the fans who pay your bills are interested in their idol? What did you expect?’
‘So? You admit it?’
She threw down her bags. ‘Let’s get one thing clear – I didn’t know who you were until I saw that group of women yesterday.’
He shook his head and started tapping on his phone. ‘It’s clear to me you’ve come over to Paros for one reason only – a stupid Greek dream. Why don’t you head home to reality and stop chasing it? Because believe me, dreams can be overrated.’
Her breath caught and she almost teared up. His comment took her back to that evening in The Niterie and the moment her friends found out she’d been living through a fake Instagram profile.
Giannis tilted his head, paused, and put his phone back into his pocket. ‘I’m not some sort of villain,’ he said quietly, his gentle tone at odds with his tall, imposing physical presence.
In another life, of course – the one where he wasn’t such an asshat.
‘I get it. We all have famous people we admire,’ he continued.
‘But flying over here, like those other women, after my location was revealed last month – it’s creepy, to say the least. It’s a step too far.
If you don’t understand boundaries, you will leave my police friend no other option than to take action.
Go home and save spending any more money on this ridiculous escapade. ’
‘Because any woman under thirty, with a pulse, could only have one motive for coming all this way to Paros, right?’ she snapped, trying to hold it together. Ridiculous. That was what Ariana and Rae thought of her.
‘You said it,’ he snapped back, the soft tone gone.
Eyes blurry, she picked up her bags, distress growing in her chest until it burst out.
‘Of course! I couldn’t possibly have any other reason for trying to escape England!
You know nothing about my life, how dare you!
Ridiculous me, indeed, for daring to think I could start over!
’ A sob escaped her lips as she glared at his shocked face, and the bags banged against her legs as she ran into the night and back to the villa.