The Summer House in Santorini

by Samantha Parks

  I should have known, though. Even the way you said, yes, with tears in your eyes not quite convincing as tears of joy. The way you insisted we keep it small, getting married with just your parents at the local church despite your friends having lavish weddings every other weekend. The way you cried every night and told me it was the hormones. I wanted to believe you, but I think I knew deep down that that wasn’t it.

  I went to a wedding here this weekend. It was a small one, even by Santorini’s standards, but it was so happy and full of joy. Everyone dancing together, laughing, celebrating what we all knew was true love. You and I never had that. And if I had been paying attention, if I hadn’t been fooling myself, maybe I could have seen that in time to stop what was happening. I could have kept us from growing to resent each other so fully that the only way out was to blow things up. I’m sorry for my ignorance. I’m sorry I was never honest with myself or with you.

  Please, Grace. I’m begging you. Please let me see my children. The summer house you stayed in all those years ago is still here. Just say the word and I’ll have it ready. I can stay with my parents, and you and the girls can come stay in the cottage. Just please let me see them. It’s all I want.

  Giorgos

  14

  “Aaaaand… done!” Nikos said, slotting the last tile into place and standing up. They had strategically tiled themselves right out of the summer house so they wouldn’t have to walk on any of the fresh flooring as they left, so they were standing just outside the door. Anna was just coming back from putting her bags in the truck.

  “You’re my hero,” she said, high-fiving him. “There’s no way I could have finished this by myself.”

  Nikos flexed his arms, and Anna laughed. She looked at her phone to check the time.

  “Well, we’re right on schedule. Maybe we should go get me checked into my room?”

  “Sure,” Nikos said. “Let’s go.” They walked to the truck and got in.

  “So anything I need to expect for tonight?” Anna had done a bit of Googling about Greek weddings – and had resisted the urge to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding as research – but it seemed that it could be vastly different depending on the couple, the region, the religious denomination… basically, her research had done her absolutely no good.

  “Hmmm, let’s see. Long ceremony, people dancing in circles… what color is your dress?”

  Anna paused to recall what she had packed. “Blue.”

  “That’s a stroke of luck,” Nikos said. “It’s not necessary to wear blue, but a lot of guests will. It’s a superstitious thing.”

  “Lucky I packed it then.”

  “Also, bring some cash with you. There’s a dance at the end of the night where you’re meant to throw it at the bride and groom.”

  “Like they’re strippers or something?” Anna asked, shocked.

  Nikos laughed. “Honestly? Yeah, a lot like that.”

  “Weird,” Anna muttered, but she was determined to embrace tradition. She thought back to the comment Elena made when Anna cut her foot. “No smashing plates?”

  “Not usually. Too dangerous. But I guess it depends on how drunk the koumbaro gets. And given that it’s Kostas, I imagine that will be very.”

  “Holy shit,” Anna said as she opened the door to her hotel room. For some reason, Xenia had offered to upgrade her to one of the new rooms if she checked to make sure everything was okay with it. Anna agreed immediately, especially since this meant she got to have a room service breakfast each morning.

  What she didn’t anticipate was how incredible the room would be. The ceilings must have been twenty feet high at the tallest point, with crossed arch domes over every room area. A wide hallway with closets on one side led into a massive open room, with a lounge at one end and a massive four-poster bed at the other. Anna peeked into the bathroom and saw a massive freestanding tub, a vanity with lights all around the mirror, and the most incredible rain shower. She actually shuddered with excitement at the idea of an actual shower.

  “Nikos, come look at this,” she said, waving him over. But when she turned around, she saw him taking his clothes off. “What the hell are you doing?” she asked, not sure whether to look away or go stop him. But before she could decide, in just his shorts he ran out through the patio door and splashed into the pool.

  Anna had been so distracted by ceilings and showers that she hadn’t even realized there was a private infinity pool on her patio overlooking the sea. She stepped outside and laughed when she saw Nikos splashing around like a kid.

  “Come on, get in!” he shouted from the pool.

  “No way,” she said, shaking her head and staying well out of the splash zone. “I have to get ready for this wedding. One of us should probably look presentable.”

  Nikos rolled his eyes. “Okay, but at some point over the next three days you have to come swim out here with me.”

  “The second I don’t have anywhere to be, I will,” she said, then turned back to the room to start unpacking her clothes.

  “Why are you unpacking?” Nikos called from the pool. “You’re only here for three nights. Surely you don’t need enough clothes to require unpacking.”

  Anna shrugged. “I always unpack when I go somewhere. I don’t like living out of a suitcase.” And I’m a chronic over-packer, she thought. She turned to look at Nikos, who was dripping wet in the doorway. “Nikos, you’re soaking the floor!” she said, running into the bathroom and grabbing a towel. She threw it to him across the room.

  He wrapped it around himself and walked toward the bathroom. “Okay, calm down. I’ll dry off and get out of your hair.” He shut the door behind him.

  Anna rolled her eyes and walked over to her bag. She spotted her camera and decided to take a few shots of the room. Her grandfather’s crew had done an incredible job. It was the nicest hotel room she had ever been in. She crouched low in front of the TV to get a good shot of the sofa, bed and ceiling. Then she moved Nikos’s pile of clothing and took a picture of the lounge. She even arranged some of the toiletries on the bed and took some shots of them.

  Next, she decided to take a couple of the patio outside before Nikos did any more damage, so she walked toward the door. As she did, Anna stepped in the water Nikos had tracked in and started to slip. For a moment, she was able to balance herself, but her camera flew up and over her head, and as she reached out her hands to grab it, she was knocked off balance again and tumbled backward toward the cement floor.

  Just at the last moment, Nikos appeared beneath her, breaking her fall. She landed on top of his legs, her hand flying up and hitting him in the eye as she gripped her camera.

  “Are you okay?” he asked as she rolled off him onto the floor, quickly checking her camera and lens for any damage. She noticed that her fingers were a little tender.

  “Yeah, I’m fine, I just— holy shit!” she said, looking up at Nikos. His eye was completely red where she had slammed into it. Her stomach dropped. All this time trying not to hurt Nikos emotionally and she had managed to injure him physically. She put her camera on the sofa and crawled back over to him. “Are you okay?” she asked, touching his face tenderly, trying not to hurt him further.

  “Yeah, it’s fine,” Nikos replied, grimacing. “It only hurts a lot.”

  Anna laughed uncomfortably. “I am so sorry, Nikos. I didn’t mean to hit you. But thank you for breaking my fall.”

  “Don’t be silly,” he said, trying to smile. “I’m the one that tracked in the water.”

  “This is true. You really only have yourself to blame.” They both laughed, though Anna could tell he was hurt. “Let me call for some ice,” she said, using his towel to pat around the area. She wasn’t sure she was doing anything helpful, but she kept doing it, anyway, until he grabbed her hand, rubbing his thumb along her palm. She could feel his breath on her wrist, and she was sure he could feel her heart beating out of control.

  “No, it’s okay, really” he said softly, “I need to get home and ge
t ready anyway.”

  “You can’t drive like this.”

  “It’s okay,” he said, “your grandfather should be leaving in a few minutes. I can get him to take me home, and then I’ll bring the Vespa back. The wedding is just down the beach from here, so we can walk.”

  “I don’t know,” Anna said, “I don’t love the idea of you driving like this, especially on a motorbike.”

  He grabbed her hand and looked her in the eye. “Anna, I’m fine. I’ll be careful, I promise.”

  She nodded, her hand still against his face. “Okay. At least let me help you find Christos.” She stood up and pulled him to his feet, only a slight groan escaping him. She could tell he was trying to act tough.

  “Seriously Anna, I’m fine,” he said as they walked toward the door. “Hey, on the bright side, at least my bruise will match your dress!”

  After he left, Anna finished unpacking and started getting ready. She had actually brought almost all of her clothes with her – it was easier to just dump everything into a suitcase than try to guess what she’d want for the next three days – including several dress options, half of them blue. What could she say? Blonde hair, blue eyes… it had been her favorite color to wear since she had watched Cinderella as a kid. She hadn’t worn any of them since she’d come to Santorini, sticking mostly to a tank tops and cut-offs uniform. But now it was her chance to get dressed up, and she felt truly giddy at the idea. A couple of the dresses would be hard to wear with a bra, and she wasn’t lucky enough to be able to get away without one like some girls, so she put them to the side.

  After a few minutes, she settled on the dress she wanted – a structured cotton midi dress with a high neck that she figured would be perfect for a church wedding – and hung it in the bathroom so the creases would fall while she showered. She picked up the bikini wax kit that she had bought at the drug store and tried to decipher the instructions. She wasn’t expecting a lot of action down there tonight, but it felt incongruous to get all dressed up and not at least put in an effort. The only problem was that she had never used an at-home wax kit, and the instructions were in Greek, making them about as helpful to Anna as an IKEA manual. She considered running down to the bar to ask Elena to translate, but she didn’t want her reading into the fact that she was waxing her downstairs to go to a wedding with Nikos. In the end, she decided to stick with shaving.

  As Anna got out of the shower, she bent over to wrap a towel around her hair, but as she stood up she knocked her dress off its hanger and into a puddle of water. “Shit,” she muttered, picking it up off the floor. Most of it was completely soaked.

  She looked at the time on her phone. She didn’t have long enough to finish getting ready and dry her dress, so she put on the bathrobe, went out onto the patio and hung the dress up there, hoping the air would dry it while she finished her hair and makeup. But after she was done, as she came out of the bathroom praying for a miracle, her face fell when she saw that the dress was still dripping on the cement.

  With only ten minutes to go until Nikos was due to return, Anna went back to her other pile of dresses. There was only one that looked formal enough for a wedding, but she was going to have trouble with the bra situation. Unless…

  Anna dug through the drawer where she had emptied all of her underwear and pulled out what she considered her sexiest bra, though she had never actually worn it. She had bought it when she and Marcus had started dating, but he had bought her far less tasteful, far more expensive lingerie that she had always felt obligated to wear. While it was no surprise that those didn’t make the journey, Anna thanked her lucky stars that she had packed this one. It was a white longline lace bra with delicate boning, sheer everywhere else, even on the cups. It was the only strapless bra she had owned that she didn’t feel like she had to constantly pull up, and this dress definitely required a strapless bra.

  She grabbed a white lace thong to go with it – not that anyone would see it, she told herself – and put them on quickly before grabbing the iron out of the wardrobe. She carefully steamed the creases out of the dress, careful not to get the satin wet, and then slipped it on.

  As she looked in the mirror, she felt her stomach flutter. The pale blue dress was clingy and flowy at the same time, hitting all of her curves without being too suggestive. The delicate straps and V-neck cut showed off the freckles that had started to appear along her shoulders and chest. The slit was just high enough for Anna’s leg to peek out without being inappropriate for the church, or at least she hoped. Her strappy heels matched almost perfectly, cutting thin lines across her feet and ankles. The sheer white scarf she had to cover up with in the church was just see-through enough that she could see the silhouette of the dress through it when she wrapped it around her shoulders. Her favorite silver pendant necklace nestled perfectly in the shape of the neckline. She let her hair back down out of its up-do, the waves bouncing across her collarbone, and tried to think of what she could do with it instead. She pulled a sprig of baby’s breath from the bouquet on the table and tucked it behind her ear. Perfect. She truly felt like a princess on her way to the ball.

  When Nikos arrived, his mouth dropped open.

  “Anna, you look incredible,” he said, scanning her up and down. He lifted her hand and spun her around, her dress billowing as she twirled. “Seriously, you’ve outdone yourself.”

  “You don’t look so bad yourself,” she said, admiring his black tuxedo, trying not to notice too much how the shirt clung to his chest. “Like a Greek James Bond.”

  Nikos stopped what he was doing and put one hand on his lapel, squinting his eyes. “Stirred, not shaken,” he said in a deep voice.

  Anna laughed. “Okay, I’ve never seen a single James Bond film and even I know that’s not right.”

  He shrugged. “Neither have I, in case you couldn’t tell from our film night.”

  Nikos had a small bag of rice tucked under his arm, and Anna grabbed it and turned it over in her hand. “Planning to make a curry later?”

  “Very funny,” he said, taking it back. “You’ll see what it’s for.”

  “Your bruise looks less than ideal.” Anna lifted a finger to gently touch the now-purple ring around his eye, and he flinched as she made contact.

  “It’s fine,” he said. “I iced it a bit at home, and once we start drinking, I’m sure it won’t hurt to blink anymore.”

  Anna must have looked mortified, because Nikos instantly apologized, assuring her that it didn’t hurt at all. She almost believed him.

  Anna grabbed her purse from the table, checking to make sure she had everything she needed. “Shall we get out of here?”

  Nikos offered his elbow, and she took it. “We shall.”

  An hour later, Anna and Nikos walked out of the church into the evening light. The ceremony had been long, as promised, but it was far from boring. Even though it was all in Greek, Anna thought it was beautiful. Nikos had translated under his breath most of the time, telling her the traditions behind each part. For the common cup, he explained how the bride and groom drank from the same cup, taking turns, to symbolize how marriage works, giving and taking, sharing everything. The exchanging of the crowns was also interesting, though Nikos was fuzzy on the reason behind that one. Anna thought it was beautiful, anyway.

  But the best part by far had been when the entire audience threw rice at the bride and groom. When Nikos whispered to her what was about to happen, she pictured an American wedding where guests lightly tossed the rice over couples as they left. But this was a completely different animal. Some people threw it as hard as they could, handfuls at a time. A couple of people even ran up to the front and dumped the rice over their heads. After the frenzy had died down, Anna asked why they had done it.

  “The Greek word for rice is very similar to the word for root, and the idea is that the more rice is thrown, the more the couple will root together and become one.”

  As they walked into the hotel where the reception was taking place, An
na and Nikos gasped in unison. The ceiling was completely covered in flowers and foliage, lights twinkling like stars in a canopy of trees. The tables were massive, seating at least twenty people each, and had huge tree trunks growing up through the middle of each one.

  “This is amazing,” Nikos said. “Weddings are never this extravagant here.”

  “Really? This is pretty standard for Manhattan,” Anna said, “at least from what I’ve heard. I’ve never been to one like this though.”

  “It’s funny that you say that. Myrto is actually Greek-American. She’s lived in New York since she was a kid.”

  They walked over to what looked like the table plan. It was a giant slice of a tree trunk, with hundreds and hundreds of rings. Anna guessed it must have come from a massive oak tree, as it was at least four feet across. The names and table numbers looked like they had been individually burned into the tree.

  “Someone went all out,” Anna whispered as they made their way to their seats. “This must have cost a fortune.”

  Apparently everyone else felt the same way, because as they sat down, they heard the people at the table behind them having the same conversation. A Greek woman about her mother’s age was sitting next to an American woman several years younger.

  “Have you ever been to an American wedding?” the American asked.

  “No, not really. I had a friend get married in America a long time ago, so we all thought we’d get a big American wedding invite, but his new wife made him get married in a courthouse.”

  Anna saw Nikos stiffen next to her. She wondered if they were talking about the people she thought they were talking about.