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She was about to select the text from Katerina when the gallery’s door opened, and their first customer of the day strolled in, quickly surveyed the room, then headed straight for Katerina’s largest canvas – and Suzie’s favourite – a spectacular depiction of the Santorini sunset. She waited a few moments, then went to join the tall, dark, and extremely handsome guy who seemed to be mesmerised by the watercolour painting.
‘Kalimera. Can I help you at all?’
‘Oh no, no, I just wanted to…’
The man was clearly unsettled by her approach and when he turned towards her, instead of looking her in the eye as she had expected, he continued to scan the room behind her, as though fearful someone might jump out of the shadows and launch an attack on him. When he started fidgeting with the dial on his chunky diver’s watch, Suzie took pity on him.
‘It’s a beautiful painting, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, yes, it is. I… Is Katerina here?’
‘No, not at the moment, I’m afraid. She should be here this afternoon, though. Shall I—’
To Suzie’s surprise, the guy quickly thanked her, then all-but sprinted from the gallery without a backward glance. She shrugged and put the weird interaction down to the potential purchaser’s disappointment at not having the opportunity of dealing with the artist herself, then went back to collect her phone from the now neat-and-tidy desk – she could actually see the glass top – to read Katerina’s text.
‘No way!’
The text simply read “LOL”, but the photograph attached said so much more. She sank down slowly into the white leather desk chair and stared at the image, trying to think of a positive spin on what she was looking at. She suspected that Heidi and Miranda’s texts would be along similar lines, and she was right, except Heidi suggested she considered making “ceramic erotica” her new business venture instead of artisan jewellery.
She stared at the photograph of the vase, which she assumed had been taken by one of the girls she’d seen loitering outside the shop earlier. They’d obviously uploaded the image to their Instagram page, along with several suggestive hashtags, and to her surprise – and dismay – the post already had over a thousand likes. One consolation was that, thankfully, it was difficult to see the handwritten card with her name on it unless you were interested enough to enlarge the image.
The gallery door opened again and this time a gaggle of women surged into the gallery, their phones raised as they searched for their target. With her heart thumping – she’d never been good with any kind of confrontation, or even polite objection – Suzie approached them as she knew that Katerina was very strict about customers not taking photographs of hers, and her colleagues’, artwork.
‘I’m so sorry,’ said Suzie with her best customer-service smile, ‘but we don’t allow photography inside the gallery.’
‘Oh, don’t worry, we’re not interested in the paintings,’ said one of the women, tossing her flowing red hair over her shoulder in what looked like a practiced gesture. ‘Ergh, especially not these awful black and grey ones. If you could just point us in the direction of the Instagram Vase, that would be great. I couldn’t believe it when I saw Scarlet Gardener-Jones’ post and realised she was here in Santorini! Oh my God, I’m about to post the same photograph as her! It’s exactly what I’ve been hoping for to increase my follower numbers.’
Heat flooded Suzie’s cheeks and she made an executive decision.
‘I’m sorry, what vase are you taking about?’
The girl lowered her phone to give Suzie the most condescending look.
‘The one that looks like a—’
‘Oh, yes, that one. Hilarious, isn’t it? Unfortunately, you’ve come to the wrong gallery. The sculpture you’re looking for is being showcased at our branch in Fira.’
She saw the confusion, swiftly followed by disappointment, on the girls’ faces. Thankfully they accepted her statement without question and, after one of them bought a collection of Heidi’s knitted cats for her goddaughter, they hustled from the gallery to catch a taxi to Santorini’s main town. Suzie didn’t have time to feel guilty about what she’d done because after that there was a steady stream of customers, most of whom were there for the artwork, but with a sizeable contingent enquiring about the “famous vase”.
The only tricky moment was when someone asked if her name was Suzie and she almost said yes, until she realised that her worst fear had been realised and someone had indeed enlarged Scarlet’s photograph and discovered the name of the vase’s creator. She managed to deflect the enquiry, and by the time one o’clock came she had never been more relieved to turn the sign to “Closed” so she could have a few minutes respite from the onslaught of would-be Instagram influencers.
She climbed the stairs to her studio to make herself some lunch and send Christos an indignant text. However, after one of Amber’s chamomile teas, she decided to let it pass. After all, he’d done it as a joke and couldn’t have anticipated that it would result in a horde of social media groupies piling into the shop in search of their next Instagrammable image.
One positive thing to come from the whole debacle was that not only had she sold a bunch of Heidi’s knitted cats, but she’d also sold six – yes, six – of Katerina and her colleagues’ smaller canvasses, twice as many as they had sold the previous day. However, unsurprisingly, she hadn’t sold a single one of the paintings lurking in the room at the back of the gallery. While they weren’t to Suzie’s taste either, she was starting to feel sorry for the artist who must be dismayed to almost never receive a phone call – or however Katerina communicated a sale – to inform them that there was room for a new canvas.
An hour later, when Katerina turned up for the afternoon shift – along with a coffee each fromTaverna Giorgosand a selection of honey-soaked Greek pastries – she declared herself thrilled with the success of the morning’s business, and congratulated Suzie on her off-piste marketing strategy.
‘It wasn’t my idea, it was Christos’! He put the vase I made yesterday in the window as a joke when we popped back here so I could get changed before going out to dinner last night. I had no idea he’d done it until—’
‘Ah, so you went on another date, did you?’
‘No, we’d spent the whole afternoon at your studio, we were both hungry, so—’
‘Are you two an item, then?’
‘No, we’re just friends.’ Suzie saw the scepticism scrawled across Katerina’s face so, to head her off at the pass, she continued. ‘Oh, by the way, when I opened up this morning a guy came in asking for you.’
Katerina paused mid-coffee sip. ‘What did he look like?’
