Samantha Parks - The Summer House in Santorini

As Nikos left, Anna pulled a pen out of her bag. She didn’t have any paper, so she tore one of the flaps off the cardboard box and began to make a list as she noticed things:

Mattress

Pillow

Oven

Sink

Plumbing stuff

Tiles for bathroom floor

Curtains

Curtain rods x2

Vacuum

Dishes

Pots, pans & utensils

Place settings

Trash can

Toilet paper

Food

Bathroom toiletries

Paper

Artwork for walls

Bath mat

Laundry hamper

Hangers

Area rug

As Anna made her list, she realized she had gone from trying to get the summer house to be sellable to putting down luxuries; things that would only matter if she were going to stay for longer. She crossed them off the list. She certainly wouldn’t need a laundry hamper for just a couple of weeks.

List complete, Anna went outside, to find Nikos speaking with her grandmother at the front of the house by the truck. Eirini was happily chatting to him, but the moment she saw Anna, she dropped her smile and squeezed past into the courtyard.

“Can you believe that?” Anna said, gesturing behind her as she climbed in the truck. “You would think that having her long-lost granddaughter come to visit would be a bit more exciting for her.”

Nikos shook his head as he climbed in and started the engine. “It’s not you,” he said. “It’s the situation. None of them knew Giorgos was leaving the summer house to anyone. And it’s not like anyone was keeping you away from visiting them before now, were they?”

“That’s a bit unfair,” Anna said as Nikos reversed down the drive. “Excuse me for not wanting anything to do with the family of the man who cheated on my mother and abandoned his family.”

Nikos slammed on the brakes hard enough that Anna was thrown forward in her seat.

“What the hell was that for?” she shouted, turning to him.

“Maybe it’s better if we don’t talk about Giorgos, okay?” he said, frowning. “I understand why you don’t like him based on the story you know, but that wasn’t my experience with him, and I won’t sit around and listen to you complain about him when you clearly don’t know the whole story.”

Anna blushed and looked at her lap. She felt she had every right to complain about her father, but maybe she needed to realize that she was the odd one out here. And she didn’t want to push Nikos away. She needed his help too much if she was going to get out of Greece as soon as possible.

“Fine,” Anna said. “Let’s just fix up his summer house and be around his family without ever once mentioning him. Sounds easy.” She looked up at Nikos, who was still frowning, and rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine, for real. No Giorgos talk.”

Nikos nodded, put the truck back into gear, and started down the road.

“So tell me about yourself, then,” he said as they turned onto the main road.

“Not much to tell,” Anna said. “I’m from Connecticut, which I’m sure you know from he-who-must-not-be-named. I moved to New York City about a year and a half ago to work at an art gallery. I spend too much time at work, not enough time with my sister, and too much of my salary on cheap wine and falafels. And now I’m halfway around the world collecting inheritance property. Does that about do it?”

“Do you have a boyfriend?” Nikos asked, smiling slyly at Anna.

“No,” she said, perhaps a bit too sharply. Nikos noticed.

“Sounds like there’s a story there.”

“Does it?” She wasn’t about to take the bait. “I assure you, there is no boyfriend.”

“So when do you have to be back at this art gallery job of yours?” he asked.

“Well, the thing is…” Anna wasn’t sure what to say. She hadn’t even told Lizzy that she was fired. But was she going to try to convince Marcus to give her her job back? No, the thought of that made her feel sick. So what was the harm in saying so? “I don’t really have a job to go back to,” she admitted.

“So, your stay is open-ended, then?” Nikos asked, and he almost sounded excited. “Maybe you should see a bit more of the island. Make sure you get the full experience before you go back to the city.”

“We’ll see,” Anna said. “I only want to be here as long as I have to be in order to get the summer house on the market.”

Nikos laughed. “I think you’ll find that will be much longer than a couple of weeks. We’re on island time here, and then there’s Greek time on top of that.”

“What is Greek time?”

Nikos chuckled again. “Let’s just say your social life here will involve a lot of waiting around for people.”

Anna shrugged. “We’ll see. Plus, I don’t think I’ll have enough time to develop much of a social life.”

“We’ll see about that,” Nikos said as they turned into a car park. “Okay, first things first, let’s get you an actual bed to sleep on.”

A couple of hours later, Anna ran out of the McDonald’s in Fira with a greasy brown bag and two drinks. They had tried to fit through the drive-through, but Anna’s new mattress was sticking up too high, so Nikos had made her run in for the food, his only demand for payment for the day of help.

“Two Big Macs, chicken nuggets with sweet and sour sauce, large fries and a Coke,” Anna said, her own burger and fries taking up very little space in the bag. “I still can’t believe you can eat that much.”

“Seeing is believing,” Nikos said. “Now let’s get back to your dad’s place so you can see.”

“It’s my place,” Anna said quietly.

“What?”

“I said it’s my place now,” Anna said, louder this time. “I know everyone wishes I would have just stayed away, but it’s my place now. And I think I deserve it, what after going without a father for the last two decades.”

Nikos sighed as he stared at the road ahead. “I don’t think anyone feels that way – that you should have stayed away.”

Anna scoffed. “Yeah, right. You’re telling me Eirini wouldn’t prefer to have her backyard empty of unwanted grandchildren right now?”

He hesitated a beat before responding. “I thought we weren’t going to talk about this?”

“Yeah, well, we’re not,” Anna said, crossing her arms. “But that response does sort of prove my point.” Plus, it’s not nice to be completely ignored by your only family for thousands of miles.

They made the rest of the drive in silence. When they pulled up to the house a few minutes later, Anna took the food and a couple of shopping bags from the back. Nikos grabbed the mattress and lifted it over his head, following behind her.

“You sure you don’t want to wait until I can help with that?” Anna asked.

“I’m fine. Just carry the light stuff and leave the heavy lifting to the pros,” Nikos said, though Anna could hear a strain in his voice. She just chuckled and continued toward the summer house, leaving the gates open for Nikos behind her. She turned around as she walked through the back gate and chuckled again when she saw him trying to squeeze the mattress down so it would fit through the front gate.

As she walked up to the front door of the summer house, she saw another stew waiting outside for her. She looked from it to the McDonald’s bag and felt a small pang of guilt. She hoped Nikos could eat as much as she claimed. She unlocked the door and stepped carefully around the bowl as she went inside, dropping the bags on the table.

Then, behind her, Anna heard the crunch of something breaking. She turned around to see Nikos frozen, facing away from the door, holding the mattress behind him, the bottom of one of his pant legs soaked in stew, the bowl broken under his boot.

Anna started to laugh.