Faye watched Saffron and Dimitria standing together by the butterfly garden, trying to be as motionless as possible as the insects danced around the leaves and petals. She took a chance to really drink in the image of her daughter and her dear friend, both so changed over the years. Saffron was taller, a young woman, not a child, Dimitria shorter, older. But their conversation together was exactly the same. That easy, relaxed yin-yang way they had of communicating. She stepped closer.
‘Hello,’ Faye said.
The blue butterfly took flight.
‘Oh, Mum!’ Saffron exclaimed. ‘You scared it away!’
‘Sorry,’ Faye said. ‘But it will come back and bring lots of its friends. That’s why we made the butterfly garden.’
‘Ugh, I wanted to get a photo to show Maddie.’
‘Remember what I said about photographs,’ Dimitria told her. ‘Why don’t you and Maddie come and stand still at the butterfly garden later? Then she can see with her own two eyes.’
‘Maybe,’ Saffron said. ‘What time is it?’
‘It is almost midday,’ Dimitria said.
‘I said I’d meet Maddie at the pool.’ She started to turn, looking like she was about to dash off.
‘Saff, could you just wait a second? There’s something I need to talk to you about,’ Faye said.
‘Mum, I said I’d meet Maddie. Can we talk about whatever it is later?’
‘Well, I?—’
‘There’s nothing wrong is there? With Dad or Nan?’
Faye saw the anxiety written all over Saffron’s expression. She needed to reassure her, then let her go and have fun with her new friend. Saffron didn’t find making friends that easy, so this was a lovely chance for her to just be her with someone of a similar age.
‘No, Saff, it’s nothing like that,’ Faye said. ‘It’s OK. We can catch up later. Have fun with Maddie.’
Saffron smiled. ‘OK. See you later.Ta léme, Dimitria.’ She waved a hand and was gone.
‘Please breathe, Faye,’ Dimitria said, picking up a basket on the ground by her feet. ‘Before your chest explodes.Éla, come, we will pick some flowers for the dining room. I do not like what Katerina has done there. She says “minimalist”. She means she has no idea.’
She did as her friend suggested and exhaled, then inhaled, tried to find a slower rhythm as they walked to another part of the grounds.
‘You wanted to talk to Saffron about the photographs in the news,’ Dimitria said.
‘You’ve seen them too,’ Faye said, internally deflating. ‘Well, I want to tell you about them and to apologise and to say?—’
‘To say what?’ Dimitria asked her. ‘To apologise for what?’
‘I don’t?—’
‘The only person who should be apologising is whoever spent their evening walking through our beautiful capital thinking the way to enjoy a night was to interfere with someone else’s.’ She sighed. ‘There are so many things they could have taken pictures of instead. The forts, the Museum of Asian Art, the church of our saint.’
‘We should have been more discreet,’ Faye said as they stopped by the rose bushes.
‘Pa!’ Dimitria said, sounding impassioned. ‘Because that is what people should have to think about when they are out for a romantic evening! You have done nothing wrong, Faye. You are a single woman. He is a single man. Has the world gone crazy? You do not need to answer that, I know it has gone crazy. Grown people are buying things like Labubus.’ She shook her head. ‘So, I do not want you to say anything to me except to tell me that you had a wonderful time.’
Faye smiled. Whatever was happening between her and Kostas, despite the heaviness they both carried from their pasts, the overriding feeling she had when she was with him, even when she just thought about him, was pure and simple joy. ‘We had a wonderful time.’
Dimitria was smiling at her now, a full, wide smile that stretched her lipstick to its limits. ‘I know. You did not need to tell me that either.’ She snipped at a red rose and put it into the basket. ‘You know when I saw those photos this morning that was the very first thing I noticed and, for all the attempt at salacious writing around them, it was the only thing I cared about. You looked so alive, Faye.’
Faye swallowed. She hadn’t looked at the photos again. As soon as Katerina had shown her and she’d got the gist of the article, she had wanted to manage the potential fallout. But now, something inside her ached to see them again.
‘I do not think I have ever seen you look like that,’ Dimitria admitted.
