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‘Okay, okay, let’s go with “romantic boat trip” then. Remind me of your admirer’s name again? Maybe I know him.’
Suzie gulped; she hoped not.
‘His name’s Christos.’
‘Hmm, I know a couple of guys called Christos,’ mused Katerina, tapping her lower lip with her manicured fingernail. ‘One of them owns a vineyard on the other side of the island, but he’s happily married with three gorgeous children, so it can’t be him, and the other is Christos Manikas, who works at an accountancy practice in Fira. He’s one of Giorgos’ best friends; Heidi and I were invited to his sixtieth birthday party a couple of months ago. Is it him?’
‘No!’ Suzie laughed, trying not to be too offended by Katerina’s assumption that her “date” was with someone over thirty years her senior. She dropped into the chair on the other side of the desk from her new friend and took a sip of the home-made lemonade she’d asked Katerina to bring back the last time she’d made her coffee excursion to the taverna. She’d needed the change as her heightened caffeine levels were making her jittery.
‘Are you sure?’
‘The Christos I met yesterday is the same age as we are.’
‘Maybe he’s a new arrival,’ said Katerina as she toyed distractedly with her empty coffee cup. ‘Yet another escapee from the unreasonable, and frankly deplorable, expectations of his Greek family.’
‘What do you mean?’
Suzie saw Katerina flash her a quick glance from beneath her long dark eyelashes, her forehead creasing as she considered whether to confide in her, and she wished she’d engaged her brain before blurting out her last question. As someone who consistently avoided talking about her own past, she had an inexplicable habit of delving headfirst into other people’s.
‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have—’
‘No, no, it’s fine, it’s not a secret I keep from my friends. I’m… well, I’m an escapee, too. In fact, my parents don’t even know I’m in Santorini.’
‘They don’t? Why not?’
‘Because I haven’t yet forgiven them for what they did. Don’t get me wrong, I’m working on it, but it’s going to take some time before I make that call.’
‘What happened?’
Katerina expelled a long, slow breath, and her eyes filled with a sadness that tore at Suzie’s heart as she waited for her to elucidate. When she finally spoke, her voice was strained, and it was clear she was still struggling to talk about what her parents had done.
‘It’s a long story so I’ll just give you the shortened version. Leonides and I grew up in the same village just outside Thessaloniki. Our families were the best of friends, and we did everything as one big, happy, chaotic group; trips to the beach, hikes in the mountains, monthly excursions to the city, and huge parties at Christmas and Easter, and for everyone’s name day – and there were a lot of those!
‘Almost from the day we were born, Leo and I were inseparable. We went through school together, we both got summer jobs at the local taverna, and we were there for each other throughout our teenage years when we would rage against the restrictions our parents insisted on putting on our lives in the name of achieving academic success. Little did we know that our parents also had ourfuturesmapped out for us, too. Apparently, our Big Fat Greek Wedding had been planned down to the last detail, as well as where we were going to live and how many children we were going to have. But Leo was mybestfriend, not myboyfriend!’
Katerina paused to swallow down on her rising emotions.
‘The saddest part of it, though, was that Leo wasn’t upset about what they’d done; it turned out that he wanted that, too. It was the hardest conversation I’ve ever had in my whole life when I sat down and told Leo how I felt; that I loved him, but not in a romantic, heart-fluttering, all-consuming kind of way. He was devastated, but to give him his credit, he thanked me for my honesty and said he accepted and respected my decision, unlike my parents. They refused to take no for an answer and as the weeks and months went by, the pressure to change my mind became unbearable, as was the truckload of guilt they piled on me by telling me how embarrassed they were at my cruel rejection of their best friend’s son.’
Suzie reached out to give Katerina’s hand a gentle squeeze. She was shocked to find that her friend was trembling, her face paler than she had ever seen it, and that tears had gathered along her lower lashes.
‘It was terrible, just terrible. I cried myself to sleep every night for six months, but I refused to change my mind. That’s why I decided to apply for a post-graduate place at Brighton University for a year. I stupidly thought that when I came back home, things would have moved on – that our families would have seen how their actions were manipulative and demeaning, or that Leo would have found someone else to love – but I was wrong. I tried again, calmly and without raising my voice, to explain to my parents how I felt, and that spending the rest of my life with someone I didn’t love was a recipe for unhappiness, for meandfor Leo. But do you know what they said?’
Suzie shook her head.
‘That happiness was over-rated. I couldn’t believe it!’
Silence filled the thankfully empty gallery while Katerina made a concerted effort to calm her breathing so that she could continue her heart-breaking story. Suzie didn’t know what to say about what Katerina’s parents had said to her because it was the complete opposite to what her mum had constantly espoused to both her and Amber after their father had passed away.
Not content with simplytellingher daughters that their happiness was of paramount importance, she had led by example, resigning from her job as a primary school teacher and heading to Indonesia to take up a post as an English teacher. Living in Bali was something her parents had talked about doing for years after honeymooning there, but, like most people with similar dreams, they hadn’t taken the plunge, until, in the most painful way possible, her mother had been reminded that life was short and the time to follow her dreams was not next week, or next month, or next year, but now; right now.
‘I’m so sorry, Kat.’
‘The irony was that I missed Leo dreadfully. I’d lost my best friend at a time when I needed him the most, but that was the price I had to pay for doing what I knew was right for both of us. Marriage simply wasn’t an option. Arguments and confrontations became an almost daily occurrence, and to make things worse Leo’s brother got engaged to one of my cousins and a family wedding was looming on the horizon, so I packed my bags – again – and headed here. I needed time and space to make a new start, so I didn’t tell anyone where I was going – although I sent regular emails to my mum to let her know I was okay – and as the weeks turned into months, I realised I’d found my forever home. Santorini is a place where people can escape the shackles of the past and forge a new, happier, more fulfilling and joyous future.’
Suzie opened her mouth to speak but found that her words had caught in her throat. She understood exactly what Katerina meant about escaping the past because she had been trying to do the same – although for completely different reasons – for the last year, and she suspected it would take her just as long to come to terms with what had happened.
But even though her new friend had laid bare her soul, she wasn’t ready to do the same, and to her relief, Katerina didn’t expect her to.
