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At that moment Mary could happily have killed Costa, but she stammered out something about not being comfortable giving out such personal information.
‘We’ve never met,’ Mary pointed out to Kristina. ‘How do I know it’s not a scam?’
‘You think Costa Leventis wants to scamyourbank account!’ Kristina laughed to herself, only not in a very nice way. ‘Is there anything you need from your bag before we put it in the car?’
Retrieving her shiny new contraceptive pills and her fridge magnet—as the immaculate but very bored Kristina looked on—was an exercise in humiliation.
The whole morning was.
With each passing moment Mary methodically retrieved and discarded all the little arrows Costa had lodged in her heart and mentally grounded all flights of fancy. She was so disappointed by Costa’s no-show that even the bright sun left her disenchanted.
It was time for some more dreaded small talk. ‘Gosh, it’s warmer than I expected...’
‘False summer,’ Kristina said.
Mary attempted no more.
Santorini’s marina was brimming with gorgeousness when they arrived there, but Mary felt numb as Kristina told her the plans for the day.
‘Leo will sort out your wardrobe.’
Mary frowned. ‘Leo?’
‘Leo Arati.’
Even Mary had heard of him. He dressed the rich and the beautiful who featured in the salon’s magazines, which she pored over at night, but she felt no real joy at the thought of being dressed by such an icon.
‘First, though,’ Kristina said, ‘let’s get you to the salon.’
‘I thought there was one on Anapliró.’
‘You need a complete makeover prior to your arrival there.’
Kristina’s brusque manner offended Mary too easily. And so did the salon girls as they discussed with Kristina all that needed to be done. Mary was taken off to be pummelled and waxed—though certainly notthere, she told them. And even before she got to her first ever scalp massage with a deep conditioning treatment she no longer craved it.
Frankly, even Coral was kinder.
Only it wasn’t really Kristina who upset her, nor the salon girls. There was just nothing fun or romantic about being groomed to meet ‘the master’.
It was romance and fun that she craved, but she dislodged a few more arrows and just sat there, shrivelled into herself, as she always tended to, and watched silently as her hair was expertly cut and dried.
Mary thought she was over Costa before the weekend had started. But then came kindness from a most unexpected source in the tiny frame of Leo Arati. He was shorter even than Mary, and elegantly bald with huge silver earrings. As she entered the small studio he tried to embrace her rigid body in a hug, but when Mary resisted he let her go.
Kristina said something to him in Greek, but Leo wasn’t listening.
‘Adio.’He snapped, and then pulled a face as Kristina left. ‘She kills me.’ He rolled his eyes dramatically. ‘She tries to tell Leo Arati how to dress you.’
‘Yes,’ Mary said. ‘She tried to suggest I go copper.’
‘No, no...’ He pulled out a ream of fabric and held it next to her. ‘Not your colour.’
Mary had been talking about Kristina’s suggestion for her hair, but it really didn’t matter.
‘Costa is such a bastard,’ said Leo.
‘Yes.’
‘But...’ He shrugged. ‘Then he smiles and all is forgiven.’
