I laugh. ‘They sell like hotcakes around the world so it’s a winning formula.’
‘Blame BookTok. You know she went off with Stavros last night?’
Thanks to Gran pulling the old bait and switch on Lucy so she’d get over her hissy fit about Georgios. ‘Yeah I heard.’
Roxy shakes her head. ‘He’s a heartbreaker, and so is she. I give them a week tops.’
‘The flingiest of all holiday flings. And good story fodder, I imagine.’ I feel less like tossing Lucy Strike off the Santorini cliffs after my chat with Gran about it all. People are not always as they seem.
‘I wonder if we’ll make cameos in her next book. She’ll probably kill you off in the first chapter.’
‘That would be amazing. I’d love to see my name in print!’
Roxy laughs. With the sea breeze blowing against my face, I relax against my towel, willing all the muddy thoughts away for a bit. I can’t quite manage it though, with the knowledge that Gran’s been shouldering this burden alone.
I throw open my towel and place it on the sand next to Roxy. ‘Wasn’t last night fun?’ The after-party glow is real! I’m not sure if it’s because it’s over or because it was a success. Maybe a mix of both.
‘I had the best time. Everyone’s raving about it on socials today. Sadly, I’m no closer to finding a husband but I have faith Floretta will share her wisdom with me and it’ll only be a matter of time. You should have seen her antics after you left. That woman is my idol.’
‘Oh God.’ I cover my face. ‘What did she do?’ All sorts of visions pop into mind. Gran dragging a hottie atop the bar and doing the mambo with him.
‘The jazz band played “The Time of My Life”, and in the next breath Floretta and Zorba are doing the dance fromDirty Dancingand we’re all goggle-eyed waiting to see if they’ll do the lift, because surely not, right? But they do it – and it was spectacular. Floretta was so graceful, utterly mesmerising. Her dress sparkled under the light; she looked like a floating angel.’
My eyebrows pull together. ‘Zorba the pig farmer and Gran? How would they even know the routine?’
Roxy shrugs. ‘They must have been practising. It was flawless. No one could quite believe what they were seeing.’
‘Golly. How is she so effortlessly cool?’ I’m bummed I missed it. ‘Did anyone film it?’
Roxy clucks her tongue. ‘I didn’t. It was spur of the moment and all eyes were glued to them. I’ll check with the official photographer. She might have caught it, and we can look at the Epeolatry hashtag later; hopefully a guest captured some of it. I’m kicking myself about not thinking quick enough to film it. It would have made such a good promotional video. The space is big enough to host dance lessons and last nighteveryonewas keen to learn. I’m going to speak to Floretta about it later. How did she learn to move like that?’
My wild and wonderful Gran. So many hidden talents. ‘Jimmy from Australia, husband number five, taught her to dance. I didn’t know she could do the lift, but they’d do salsa, mambo, all those sensual dances. Gran said Jimmy should have been a choreographer but instead he was an outback tour guide. In retrospect, dancing might have been the safer choice. He was violently killed in a random drop bear attack.’
Roxy gasps. ‘What? What the hell is a drop bear?’
I forget this news is shocking the first time people hear it. ‘A drop bear is a terrifying Australian marsupial. A carnivorous species of koala. The razor-sharp fang-like teeth were Jimmy’s undoing. A wrong place, wrong time situation.’
Roxy shivers. ‘How are Australians even alive with the sheer number of predators that can kill them there?’
I shake my head, confused about it too. ‘Gran says they’re bred tough to withstand the climate and all those poisonous spiders, snakes, jellyfish, and let’s not forget the saltwater crocodiles, who kill their prey by means of an underwater death roll.’
‘I don’t even want to know what that is.’
‘Right? It’s an efficient way for crocodiles to kill their dinner. Gran loved Australia. She still tells stories of her time there in the outback of the Northern Territory. If Jimmy’s injuries hadn’t been fatal, Gran would have stayed in Oz.’
We lapse into a comfortable silence and people-watch. My mind drifts to Gran and all the remarkable adventures she’d had. A few beachgoers walking past wave hello. I recognise them from the launch.
‘Thank you for all of your help with the launch. You worked miracles to get the word spread so far and wide. We have some money set aside for you, Roxy.’
She waves me away. ‘No, we already made a deal about this lifetime membership to Epeolatry, remember? It was only one night.’
‘It was a lot more than one night. All your PR work and …’
She drags her sunglasses onto her head. ‘Seriously, Evie, it’s been a godsend to get out of the house. Mom is doing really well so we’re at that stage where we’re getting on each other’s last nerves. It’s been fun to use my brain again. And the launch has been a helpful experiment to see if there’s enough call for PR and marketing on the island, and by the success of last night I believe there is. We’re even.’
‘That’s great, Roxy. But Gran’s insisting.’
‘I’ll tell her myself.’
