“You called your mother?” Elena said, her eyes wide. “You must be really desperate.”
“Yeah, well, this desperate girl is leaving with Marcus,” she said, and Elena nodded.
“I saw that coming,” she said.
“I didn’t.”
“I know.” Elena hugged her. “Do you want me to help you pack?”
Anna looked around at the summer house; at everything she had installed and bought and created and chosen over the past seven weeks. “You know what?” she said. “I’m only going to take what I brought with me. So I’m okay. But I would love for you to do one thing for me.”
Elena hugged her friend tightly, resting her head on Anna’s shoulder. “Anything.”
“Thank you,” Anna said. “I need you to deliver a letter.”
Then she opened her computer and began to type.
The taxi pulled up to the airport exactly an hour before her flight was due to take off. The driver took her bags out of the trunk and carried them up to the door for her, and she handed him all of the cash in her wallet as a tip. He looked at her, surprised, and then quickly thanked her and got back in his car, probably afraid she would change her mind. It was certainly better service than she had received from the person who had picked her up at the airport seven weeks earlier, though less impactful, she imagined.
She approached the check-in desk and smiled at the woman working. “I think someone has left a ticket for me?” she asked. “My name’s Anna Linton.”
“Yes, Mister MacMillan paid for your ticket just a few minutes ago. Let me get that printed for you. Could I have your passport, please?”
“Sure, but just one request. Could you make sure my seat is as far from Mister MacMillan’s as possible?”
The agent gave Anna a knowing smile and nodded. “I think I can arrange that.”
As the woman checked Anna in and weighed her baggage, Anna watched the outside for the sign of anyone she knew, but no one was coming for her. She had isolated herself the moment she decided to go back with Marcus. She accepted her boarding pass and passport from the check-in agent, thanked her and headed for security. The lines were short and the security agents friendly, and once she was through, she followed the signs to her departure gate.
When Anna approached the gate, she saw Marcus smiling at her.
“Came to your senses, did you?” he said, standing up as she approached.
Anna took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. “I would like to formally accept your offer to display my collection at MarMac as the winner of the 2018 Photographer to Watch competition. But I have a few details I want to discuss.”
“That’s fine,” Marcus said. “You’re making the right decision. We can figure everything else out on the way home.” He stuck out his hand. Anna shook it, then picked up her bag and walked across to the other side of the waiting area to sit until boarding started.
Just then, the gate agent’s voice came over the loudspeaker. “Attention passengers of Flight Three-Six-One to Athens, I regret to inform you that, due to a staff shortage, your flight has been cancelled.”
Nikos paced the floor in his house, trying to decide what to do. No, scratch that. He knew what he wanted to do. He couldn’t let her go without at least asking her to stay.
He knew that her flight was at 9:10 p.m., about forty-five minutes from now. It would take less than twenty minutes to get there on the Vespa. He also knew that he had just enough money in his bank account to buy a ticket in order to get past security.
But he couldn’t decide what to do with that information.
What do I have to lose? he thought. Oh, wait, just your dignity when you ask her to stay and she goes with him anyway. She’s already proven that she cares more about showing her photos at some fancy gallery than she does about you. Who are you kidding?
Of course, Nikos knew he was being ridiculous. He knew she had been exercising all the self-control she had to keep him at arm’s length for the past few weeks, even when he continually tested the limits of that control. And he had known what he was getting himself into last night. Plus, he had been the one to tell her to go.
Nikos flipped back and forth between the impulse to run after Anna and his resolve to stand his ground. Deep down, he was most afraid of the possibility that she wasn’t ever actually that conflicted. That she never really intended to stay. That while he had been falling in love with her, she had been having a good time, just like her mother did before her. Nikos knew that wasn’t fair. He wasn’t Giorgos, and Anna wasn’t Grace. But the story felt painfully familiar, and he didn’t want to make the same mistake his dear friend had made in going after a woman who didn’t love him back.
But that was it, wasn’t it? He loved her. He knew he did. And if he really loved her, there was nothing else he could do.
Nikos grabbed his phone, his passport and his keys and hopped on his Vespa. He knew her plane would start boarding at any minute, so he needed to get there as quickly as possible. He pushed forward into the hills as the sun set around him and willed his little motorbike to move him more quickly toward his destination.
He got to the airport in record time, parking his Vespa and running inside, only to see from the departure boards that the 9:10 flight had been cancelled. Elena called him for the fifth time since he had left the house, but he declined the call as he approached the ticket desk and asked the woman what was going on with the flight.
“The flight to Athens has been cancelled due to a staff shortage,” she said in a chipper tone.
“So all of those passengers are stuck here for the night?” he asked, hope building in his chest.
“Actually, those that were continuing on to North America and the UK were rerouted through London on the eight-fifty-five flight. But everyone else has been grounded, yes.”
“That’s fine,” he said, looking at his watch. It was 8:30 p.m., which meant he had made it just in time. “One ticket to London, please.” He cringed at how much he was about to spend, but he knew that he needed to speak to her before she left. Before she went back with him. Before it was too late. He puffed up his chest and held out his passport.
“Oh, I’m sorry, sir, that plane has already left the gate.”
“What?” he shouted, his chest deflating instantly. “But it’s still almost half an hour to take-off!”
“Well, the flight was full with all the new passengers, and they got an earlier slot, so they taxied out early.”
Nikos nodded at the desk attendant, thanked her and walked over to the window. Sure enough, as he pressed his face against the glass, he saw an EasyJet plane ascending into the clouds.
It didn’t matter how certain he was that he loved her. He was too late.
Anna had forfeited her right to an airport chase scene the moment she had chosen to live in the real world instead of a rom-com; the moment she had decided that fulfilling her dreams was just as important as the guy she had known for weeks, no matter how much she loved him. Plus, if he had already read her letter, he wouldn’t be coming to stop her.
But that didn’t make it hurt any less to watch her life in Santorini disappear beneath her as she boarded the plane and found her seat and they took off and flew straight into the sunset.
There was no turning back now.
Nikos,
I am so sorry to have to be writing you this letter instead of telling you in person, but I want to respect your wishes.
After weeks of uncertainty – years, if I’m being honest – I have never felt so secure in my decisions than I did when I woke up next to you this morning. Even if it had to end like this, I’m so glad we had those hours together. They were the best of my life. I wouldn’t have changed a thing about them, even to make things happen sooner. I’m glad I waited until I was sure.
You were right about one thing. I definitely would have wondered “what if” if I hadn’t taken the placement with Marcus. It would have probably bugged me not knowing what would have happened with it.
But you were wrong, too. My dreams aren’t bigger than the island, or bigger than you. Because my dreams are only as big as I am. What matters is how deeply those dreams have rooted themselves in me. And while my dreams of being a critically acclaimed photographer have been there for longer, they haven’t reached as deep as my love for you. For the life I built – the life you helped me build – on Santorini. And those roots don’t get pulled out as easily as you telling me to leave. The plant may be gone, but the roots remain.
The mistake you and I made was thinking that it was the falling in love that mattered. That we had to keep falling in love or we would end up like my parents. And with so many other dreams in my heart, it was hard for both of us to imagine that being possible. But look at Eirini and Christos. They’ve been together for over sixty years, and they’re still madly in love. They haven’t been falling in love that whole time. They hit the bottom a long time ago. It’s the roots that formed and entwined together that keep them happy and in love. It’s like the rice throwing at the wedding, willing the bride and groom to become one root. And that root existing underneath it all is more important than anything happening above ground.
You rooted into my heart quickly and thoroughly. I fell in love with you quickly, and I’ve stayed in love with you. Pretending that root hadn’t formed didn’t make it any less present. I hope you feel it too. Because I’m not done with you just yet.
Love,
Anna
Epilogue
Two weeks later, Manhattan
Anna paced the floor of the kitchen at the gallery, her second glass of champagne in her hands. The room had filled with prestigious guests, from critics to collectors to other photographers, and any minute now Marcus would introduce her and unveil her collection to them. They would either love it or hate it; there was rarely any in-between with this crowd. And Anna needed them to love it. She needed them to think her work was important. All of her heartache, all of Nikos’s heartache, would be for nothing if they didn’t love it.
Anna had hoped to hear from Nikos after the letter she had written him, but she hadn’t. Not one peep from him or Elena. Or Christos or Eirini. Only Xenia had messaged, asking if she would still be going to London. She knew she didn’t deserve a second chance, but she had hoped she would get one anyway. Like her mother, she had run away back to America when something better came along. Unlike her father, though, Nikos was smart enough to let her go. She had told herself she should be happy about that, but selfishly she wished she could have her cake and eat it, too.
“Anna, they need you outside,” an assistant said, poking her head through the door. “There’s someone trying to get in that’s not on the list.”
“It’s just my mother,” she said. “I didn’t think she’d be here, so I didn’t put her name down.”
The assistant shrugged. “You’ll have to go tell them that,” she said. “I have to do something for Marcus.”
Anna rolled her eyes and snuck out the back door. She didn’t want to walk through the room full of those deciding her fate until she had to. She walked around the corner of the building, looking for her mother’s blonde hair amongst those congregated near the door, but she couldn’t see it anywhere. Just as she was about to go back inside, a man turned around, and Anna saw a familiar face looking back at her.
She nearly dropped her phone on the pavement.
“Nikos!” she shouted, rushing toward him. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Nikos smiled and held out his arms, catching Anna in a hug as she lunged at him. She stood on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his shoulders, burying her face in his hair.
“I couldn’t stay away,” he said. “I wanted to be here to support you.”
Anna leaned back to look at him. He was wearing the suit he had worn to the wedding back on Santorini. “You look so handsome,” she said.
“Yeah, well, I was wearing this suit the night I first kissed you. It was one of the best nights of my life. I thought I’d bring it out again for luck.”
“You don’t need luck, Nikos.” Anna felt tears form in her eyes. She brushed them away, not wanting to ruin her makeup before the event, but she couldn’t quite catch them all. “And, as I recall, you were wearing a lot less when we actually kissed.”
“Yeah, well, Elena told me that showing up in my pants to a black tie event probably wouldn’t go down very well.”
Anna smiled. “I wouldn’t have minded.”
“Don’t worry,” Nikos said with a wink. “I’ve got them on, too.”
They both laughed.
“You could have called, you know,” Anna said, wrapping her arms around his neck, craning her neck up toward him.
“Nah, too predictable,” he said, pulling her close, whispering in her ear. “You deserve a grand romantic gesture.”
“If you recall, things didn’t go so well for the last Greek man who followed a Linton woman back to America.”
Nikos frowned and shook his head. “You were right. We’re not your parents.”
“No, we most certainly are not,” Anna replied, but before she could press her lips to his, she heard a throat clear. She looked over to see Marcus at the door, glaring at her.
“You can have your romantic moment in a bit,” he said. “But for now, it’s time to introduce you to the world. You ready?”
Anna looked at Nikos, took his hand in hers and nodded to Marcus. “I am now.”
“Great. Then get your ass in here.”
They followed Marcus inside, and Anna joined him on the temporary stage. Nikos stayed just off to the side where Anna could see him. Then Marcus introduced Anna, and the room erupted in applause as she stepped up to the microphone.
“This is such a huge honor,” she said. “Thank you so much to everyone who came.” She looked down at the notes she had prepared, then over at Nikos, who smiled at her. She took a deep breath and continued.
“In my opinion, the reason photography is such a powerful medium is because it imbues the subject with importance. Take any ordinary object or any person off the street and photograph them, and you’ve created an automatic value that wasn’t there before. I take very seriously the responsibility to photograph things in a way that tells the whole truth. I entered this contest with a series about forgotten Manhattan landmarks, because the story of New York City so often features the same things over and over.
“But that series is not the one that you will be seeing today.”
Anna glanced at Nikos, who was still smiling, but his brow was slightly furrowed.
“This summer, I have fallen in love with the Greek island of Santorini. My father grew up there, and I had the privilege of experiencing the island not as a tourist but as a local. And as many photographs as there are of the sunsets and the beaches and the turquoise waters of the Aegean, and as worthy of photographing as those things are, those aren’t the things I fell in love with.
“The island captured my heart, and it did so not through panoramas and party beaches but through the kindness and openness of the people. The homes are built around hospitality. The residents go out of their way to make people feel welcome and accepted. And the most vibrant thing on Santorini isn’t the sunset but the souls who inhabit it.
“This isn’t the most commercial collection, but I hope that it will invoke a feeling of home and comfort for you. Because when I think of Santorini, I think of home. Thank you.”
The room applauded as Anna’s photos were revealed all at once. Suddenly, the room was swimming in a sea of color, the blues and yellows and pinks filling the space with force.
Anna pulled Nikos up onto the stage so he could see all the photos. There was one of Eirini stretching filo pastry, one of Elena and Vasilis snuggled up on a public bus, and one of Christos and the guys playing cards on their break at the resort. There was one of a winemaker, one of a shopkeeper, and one of a stable full of donkeys in Oia ready to carry tourists through the winding streets. But Anna’s favorit
e was the one of Nikos from their lunch in Oia, him looking out toward the water with a beer in his hand and a smile on his face.
“Anna, these are incredible,” he said. “But did you mean what you said? About Santorini being home?”
“Of course I did,” she said. “I already bought a plane ticket back. I leave at the end of next week.”
“But what about the rest of the show?”
“That was one of my conditions for Marcus. I would come back and show if he would let me change the collection to new photos and only stick around for the first week. After that, I don’t need to be here. The gallery will do everything it can to make money, and if that’s from my work, then great. If not, at least I’ll be home.”
Nikos grinned and picked Anna up, twirling her around before setting her back down. “I love you, Anna.”
“I love you too, Nikos. Thank you for coming here.”
“There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”
Then Nikos grabbed Anna’s face with both hands and kissed her. And as they kissed, surrounded by images of Santorini and the incredible people who made it feel like home, for the first time, Anna wasn’t worried about the future. She had everything that she needed all around her. She had everything she wanted right there in her arms.
Acknowledgements
Having worked in publishing and earned an MA in Creative Writing before ever writing a book, I had heard every cliche about the process: that “feeling inspired” isn’t a prerequisite for writing, that effectively self-editing is nigh on impossible, and that structural edits are the actual worst. Having now finished my first novel, I can say with confidence that all of those things are true. However, it is also one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done.
This process would have been genuinely impossible without the incredible team at HarperCollins UK and One More Chapter. To Charlotte Ledger, thanks for letting Santa take a crack at writing a book. To Emily Ruston, your edits are maddeningly brilliant, and working with you has made me a better writer. To Claire Fenby, thank you for being a social media badass. To the talented design team, they say to never judge a book by its cover, but in this case it would be an honour. Thank you so much for a beautiful cover that perfectly conveys what the book is on the inside. To the production team and the pricing team and the rights team and every other team that works so hard to make sure these books make it into the world and into the hands of the right readers, THANK YOU. You are all superheroes to me.
The Summer House in Santorini Page 20