CHAPTER 25
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EVA
It was over.
On August thirty-first, my contract came to an end, and my flight had been booked back to the States. Maria insisted that I fly back from Athens in first-class. She wouldn’t hear of me going in coach. She’d paid me as promised for the two months I’d been with her and even threw in a bonus as a thank you.
“My knee is so much better,” she said. “It was worth going through all the pain.”
“I’m glad,” I said. “You know I never really meant to bully you.”
“I know.”
She was staying on for another couple of weeks before making her way home, after deciding to spend a few days in Athens to visit some of her old friends and family. After that, the house would be thoroughly cleaned and then closed up for ten months, until the next time the family came over for the holidays.
I was sad to think that I wouldn’t be there.
Nonetheless, I was looking forward to going back to California for a few days before going back to Texas. Mom and Dad knew there was something I wanted to talk to them about, and I was excited to tell them all about my summer and especially about Lily.
Lily.
My beautiful, smart and talented niece. She had my blood running through her veins, and if ever anyone had any doubts, they’d only have to look at our eyes, our hair, and the way we both wrinkled our noses when we’d laugh, to know that it was the truth.
As I packed my clothes, the thought of saying goodbye to her wasn’t easy, but I knew that I could just pick up a phone and talk to her whenever I want. We’d already decided to see each other at every opportunity, and she was very excited about meeting her new family.
It was a Friday, and I wouldn’t be back in America until late on the Saturday evening. The thought of thirty hours or so of traveling was exhausting, and I had to admit that I was relieved to have a first-class seat, so I could sleep all the way back if I needed to.
Nick was leaving that night, too. We were alone in our respective rooms, packing our things, saying goodbye to the summer, independent of each other. The last couple of weeks with him had been strange. A gentle touch of my arm here, a tucking behind the ear of my hair there. Intimate. Sweet. But nothing more than that since the evening in the back of his car. It was as though we’d said our goodbyes that night.
It’s like seeing a friend in the supermarket. You bump into them, talk for a little while, and then say goodbye and carry on with your life. But then you realize you’re both heading in the same direction. You see them on the next aisle, and the one after that, and then at the cashier’s desk. The awkwardness of having said goodbye and yet continuing to see them is agonizing. It was much like that. Only amplified tenfold.
Their flight was at nine, mine at eleven. They were flying to Berlin rather than Athens and was then going on to Chicago. At seven, it was time for them to leave. My hands were trembling, my eyes already filled with tears by the time I came downstairs. The car was packed with all of their suitcases, and once they stopped at the airport, it would be collected again by the same guy who’d delivered it at the beginning of the summer.
Lily was crying, too, and I clasped her to me, tightly. “You’ve got my number,” I murmured. “And we’ll video call, okay?”
“I don’t care. I don’t want to go,” she cried.
I kneeled down and smiled at her as best I could. “Everything’s going to be fine.” I smoothed her hair from her face. “You’re as strong as your mom. Don’t ever forget that. She was so strong and beautiful, just like you.”
Lily sniffed and nodded. “You’re already using her against me,” she said, and I had to laugh.
I stood up and took a deep breath. Nick stood at the door, his hands shoved into his pockets. He wore a light jacket. The weather in Santorini was still warm, but Berlin was already mild as they prepared for the fall. He cleared his throat and grinned at me.
“Well, I’m leaving you in my house. Try not to trash it before you leave.”
“Maria’s here,” I said. “You don’t need to worry.”
“Thanks for everything you’ve done for her this summer. It’s been a strange old time.”
“It has,” I agreed. The best two months of my entire life, I wanted to add, but didn’t.
He held out his arms and hugged me. I pressed my nose against his shirt, inhaling the scent of his cologne one last time. He kissed me on the forehead, and then he turned to Maria and said something to her in Greek. She was frowning, looking at the two of us, but he only held up his hands as though to ask her not to start anything now.
And with that, he was gone. He left. He walked away. And I stood at the front door and waved as Lily waved back at me from where she sat in the back seat of the car. I stood there long after they’d disappeared out of sight and then walked back to my room, opened the door and flopped onto the bed, pressing my face into a pillow.
I cried until I was sure there were no tears left. I lay there silently, staring into space when I heard a knock at the door. I got up and opened it. Maria was standing there.
“Are you packed?” she asked.
“Yes,” I croaked. “The cab should be here in an hour.”
“It’s outside now.”
“What?” I ran to the window and looked out. “It’s early! I’m not ready!”
“I changed it.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because he leaves in an hour’s time and it’s a forty minute drive to the airport.”
I froze. “What are you saying, Maria?”
“Oh, my God. Do I have to spell it out? I’m saying that I’m tired of you and I’d like you to leave right now,” she said, but her eyes were twinkling. She leaned down and rubbed her knee. “Don’t make me chase you around the room. Pick up your things and go and get him, for God’s sake.”
I stood there in a panic, looking out at the car below, then back at my suitcase. “How?” I asked. “He’s on a different flight, and I don’t know which one it is….”
“It’s Santorini airport,” Maria said. “It has one runway and about five gates. It’s not hard. Figure it out. Now get out of here!”
“But I haven’t finished your care plan…”
“Send it by email.”
I stood there like a statue, frozen to the spot, but knowing that I needed to make a decision. Go or stay; either way could change the course of my life. I grabbed my luggage, and I flew past Maria. Then I stopped, turned back, and kissed her cheek. She smiled and hugged me tightly.
“Come and see me when I’m back,” she said.
“I promise I will.”
There was nothing else to be said. Her face said it all. I tore down the stairs and out of the door, where Anna was waiting for me with my hat in hand. I kissed her, too, and she pinched my cheek. I noticed there were tears in her eyes, but there was no time to lose.
The cab driver was in no hurry at all, clearly having no idea of the situation. He stepped out of the car with agonizing slowness, and I practically tossed the case in the trunk.
“Get back in!” I cried. “I’ve done it myself!”
“Airport?” he asked, his accent heavy.
“Yes!” I yelled. “Fast!”
I got in the back of the car, and he revved the engine. “Are you late?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m seven years late, but I might be able to get there in time.”
He seemed confused, and I couldn’t blame him for it. But he drove as fast as he was allowed, and at the airport, I barely waited for him to stop the car before I opened the door and leaped out. I looked at my watch. I had fifteen minutes.
The airport was small, but I still had to get through security. I had a sudden idea and handed the driver all the cash I had, around a hundred and ten Euros, which was about a hundred and fifty bucks.
“Take it and stay here until I’m back,” I told him. “I just need to do something first.”
He seemed happy enough to wait, and I left everything with him. I didn’t care if he drove off with all my possessions. They were just things. I was beginning to understand more and more how things meant nothing. People were everything.
That was until I remembered I still needed a couple of things from my purse, and I had to race back for my phone and passport. I darted through the crowds of miserable, departing people, all ready to make their way home from their summer vacations. My phone was in my hand, and I showed my boarding pass to a Greek man dressed in a smart uniform, and he pointed towards security. I hurried to the front of the line.
“It’s an emergency,” I said, apologizing to the people as I ran past them. “I have to get through right now.”
I had nothing on my person apart from my phone. I wore only a light blue dress and pumps. I was through in a matter of seconds, pretty sure that back home, I’d never have sped through so quickly.
Then the race was on to get to the gate. The security clerk looked at my passport, then at me, then back down again, before nodding me through. I ran and only stopped to check the notice board to find which gate I had to go to. Maria was wrong: there weren’t five gates. There were six. I read through the list and found what I was looking for.
Berlin. Leaving now. Boarding from gate 2.
“Shit!” I cried as I ran to the gate. But, the doors were already closed. The final passengers had boarded. I craned my neck, looking down the corridor for Nick and Lily, but there was no sign of them.
The woman behind the desk looked alarmed.
“Ma’am, the flight’s boarded,” she said. “You’ll have to take the next available one. I’m sorry.”
“I can’t,” I groaned. “I’m not flying. I just have to tell the guy on the plane over there that I’m madly in love with him, and that I don’t want him to leave.”
“What?”
“You see, I was stupid. I’ve loved him for seven years, and now he’s leaving, and I don’t know when I’ll see him again. And all I want to do is just have the chance to tell him that I love him.”
By now, a second flight attendant had sidled up to join the conversation, and she was looking at me as though I’d sprouted horns.
“Why don’t you just call him?” she asked flatly.
Her colleague turned to her, scowling. “It’s never romantic over the phone, Diane,” she said.
“I don’t know, I’ve had some pretty romantic phone calls before,” Diane said.
But the first woman shook her head. “We’re not talking about those kind of calls, dearie. We’re talking about old-fashioned, head-over-heels, true love. The kind that makes you do crazy shit,” she said. Then she quickly looked around, scanning the area, before hitting a button on the desk in front of her.
“Oh crumbs, look at what I’ve gone and done!”
She winked at me, and I looked to see that the door had clicked open. I wanted to kiss her, but I settled for a quick thank you! before racing out of the gate. I tore down the steps and onto the tarmac, running toward the plane.
“Stop!” I yelled as the flight attendant was about to close the heavy doors of the aircraft and the stairs were to be taken away. She paused, and I raced up the stairs to where she stood.
“Boarding pass?” she asked, irritated that an irresponsible passenger was holding up her flight.
“I’m not traveling,” I told her. “I need to speak to someone on the plane.” I pushed inside, but the flight attendant was having none of it.
“Ma’am, you have to leave right now. If this isn’t your scheduled flight, you’re not cleared to be on the aircraft.”
“It’s an emergency,” I said. I ducked my head down the side and looked down the aisle. I called out as loudly as I could. “Nick! Nick Stavrou!”
I heard a murmur of voices. “Is Nick Stavrou on this plane?” a guy at the front asked, excitedly. “Damn, he’s my favorite author.”
“Ma’am, get off right now, or I’ll be forced to I call security,” she said and reached for the phone. I had visions of being arrested.
I grabbed hold of her shoulders, desperate for her to listen to what I had to say.
“Please, listen. There’s a man on this plane, and I have to get to him. I’ve been running away from him more times than I’d care to remember, coming up with every excuse in the book to do so. But I’ve come to my senses, and now I’m running after him. You see, I love him. I love him so much that it hurts physically not to be with him. And I have to take this chance and tell him before he leaves, as I might never have it again. Haven’t you ever felt that way yourself?”
She stared at me, wide-eyed, grabbing hold of my hands and pulling them off her shoulders. “No, Ma’am. Sorry. Can’t say that I have.” My heart sank.
“But, I’m sure the gentleman standing behind you might know what you’re talking about judging by the look on his face,” she said, smiling broadly now, her eyes twinkling with excitement.
I spun around and there he was, standing behind me, as beautiful as ever.
“So, you stopped an international flight just to tell me you love me?” he asked, frowning as he intently looked at me.
I nodded, still a little shocked at knowing he’d just heard every word I’d shouted at the poor flight attendant. But I was here for a reason, and time was running out. So, I threw my head back, lifted my chin and looked him straight in the eye.
“Yes, I did, because I needed to tell you that I love you. There. Now you know,” I said, and I didn’t care that everyone heard me. It felt so right to say it to him, at last, while gazing into his eyes. “I should’ve told you seven years ago. I should have told you seven weeks ago. But I didn’t. And now I’m about to lose you again, and I have to let you know. I love you, Nick. And I don’t want you to go to Berlin without you hearing me say it. God, I don’t want to be without you. Not for a moment longer.”
He stared at me and closed his eyes for a second, his expression not giving away anything. I held my breath; sure he was about to tell me to get off the damn plane so he could leave. Instead, he opened his eyes and slowly stepped toward me until he stood in front of me. Then he smiled the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen as he reached out and cupped my face in both his hands.
“Well, seems like Maria was right all along,” he said. I waited with bated breath.
“I’ve been a damn fool and a coward, not being honest with myself about the way I felt about you; believing every one of my shitty excuses just because I was too scared to face my true feelings. So here it is. I loved you then, and I love you now, Eva Kent. Forgive this damn fool for not stepping up and letting you know just how much he adores you, before losing you all over again.”
And he pulled me to him and claimed my mouth with the sweetest kiss I’d ever had. A cacophony of noise that broke out around us, as one hundred and seventy-three people erupted into applause, faded into the background as our bodies and hearts melted together.