One Summer in Santorini. Sandy Barker

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СКАЧАТЬ know, you might meet someone.’ And then she gave me that look – you know the one.

      And in an instant, my sister, my best friend in the entire world, joined the ‘poor Sarah’ pity party.

      ‘Did you really say that?’ I asked, shooting fiery daggers from my eyes.

      ‘What?’ She feigned innocence, her eyes widening.

      ‘You know exactly what!’ I didn’t think it was possible, but her eyes got even bigger. ‘Do you know how many people have said that to me since I booked this bloody trip?’

      She shook her head, giant eyes fixed to mine.

      ‘A bazillion!’ Okay, so sometimes I tend towards the hyperbole. It was probably more like twelve, but in my world, that’s a lot of people.

      ‘Fine!’ she retaliated. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t realise it was such a sore point.’

      ‘Well, it is. I’ve been single for, what, a few months? Right now, I just want to be on my own.’

      ‘Great!’

      ‘I mean, can’t I go on this trip, and have it be about me? Seeing somewhere new and hanging out and sailing and shit?’ I was whipping myself into quite the little frenzy.

      ‘All right. Yes. I’m sorry. I hope you don’t meet anyone.’

      ‘Thank you.’ It came out angry.

      ‘And, especially not someone cute, who makes you laugh, and is an all-round great guy. Actually, I hope all the men you meet are old and mean and ugly. No! Better yet, I hope there are no men. I hope you sail around the Greek Islands with a bunch of lesbians! I hope you go to Lesbos and are surrounded by lesbians!’ She pinned me down with a ‘so there’ stare, and after a beat, we both fell about laughing. My laughter quickly turned into a yawn. ‘How are you doing over there?’ she asked.

      ‘Good!’ I replied with more enthusiasm than I felt. She looked dubious. ‘Okay, I’m shattered, but I need to stay up and get on European time. I’ll be fine. The tea’s kicking in.’

      ‘How about a top-up then?’

      ‘Yes! Definitely more tea.’ I drained the last of my mug and handed it to her. She took it into the kitchen and put the kettle on.

      With her back to me, she asked, ‘So, as long as you’re staying up for a while, do you want to talk about it?’

      ‘It?’ She turned to face me, looking mildly uncomfortable, like she was holding in a fart or something. ‘What?’ I asked, knowing exactly what she meant.

      ‘Neil.’ My break-up with Neil was literally the last thing I wanted to talk about. I would have put a lively conversation about Trump’s presidency, or the Syrian crisis, or even Brexit ahead of talking about the pile of shit I’d called my boyfriend for almost a year.

      ‘Not really.’ I feigned what I hoped looked like indifference.

      ‘Oh. All right.’ I could see the disappointment on her face. I could also see her mind working. ‘It’s just … well, we never really talked about it. Properly, I mean.’

      She was right. I hadn’t wanted to talk to anybody about what happened with Neil – not my girlfriends, not my Sydney bestie, Lindsey – not even Cat. It was too humiliating.

      ‘True, but …’ I hesitated. Please don’t make me relive it all now when I am so exhausted. I’d rather stick a fork in my eye. I thought that, but what I said was: ‘Okay, you’re right.’

      She brought fresh cups of tea back to the couch and pushed the chocolate biscuits towards me. She knew me so well. ‘So, what happened?’ She folded her legs under her and looked at me expectantly.

      ‘Well, Neil was a dickhead, and it took me far too long to get rid of him.’ I took a bite of a chocolate biscuit.

      ‘But I don’t get it. If he was so bad, why did you stay with him for so long?’ It was a question I’d asked myself a thousand times. I swallowed the hard lump of biscuit.

      ‘I really don’t know. I mean, almost immediately there were all these alarm bells going off. And I kept dismissing them – time and again. I told myself it wasn’t weird that he wouldn’t meet my friends, or that he never wanted to go anywhere or do anything. You know, I realised after we broke up that I stopped travelling when I met him. He wouldn’t even go away for the weekend with me. That’s why this trip … well, it’s not just the chance to return to Greece. It’s more. I knew as soon as we broke up, I had to go somewhere – anywhere.’

      I looked over at my sister, and she was nodding sympathetically like she got it. It felt great to be ‘got’.

      ‘Oh, and he hated it when something good happened to me.’ Cat’s brow furrowed, questioning me. ‘You know when I got promoted to head of department?’ She nodded. ‘Well, I told him, and he said – and I quote – “Well, thanks for rubbing it in. Right after I got passed over for that promotion. Now I feel like shit. Nice one, Sarah.”’

      ‘He did not!’

      ‘He bloody did. And even then, I didn’t end it.’

      ‘Jesus. So, who was this slapper he cheated with?’

      ‘A friend.’

      ‘Hardly,’ she scoffed. ‘Do I know her?’

      ‘No, she was a new friend – from yoga – or at least, I thought she was my friend.’

      ‘But, how did they meet?’

      ‘At my place, would you believe it? I’d invited her over for a barbecue and I didn’t think anything of them talking for most of the night. I was just happy he was finally meeting my friends. Apparently, it started right after that.’

      ‘How did you find out?’

      ‘Well, he started acting way weirder than usual, so I figured something was up. Then I did something I never thought I would do – something truly awful.’

      ‘What?’ I could see the suspense was killing her, but I had never revealed this detail to anyone before. I sucked in my breath through my teeth.

      ‘I still can’t believe I did this. I hacked into his email account.’

      ‘Oh my god! That’s brilliant. How?’ I laughed with relief, loving her for saying it was ‘brilliant’, rather than ‘stupid and illegal’.

      ‘Well, it wasn’t exactly hacking. I guessed his password, and I got in.’

      ‘Seriously?’

      ‘Yep. Second try. It was his footy team.’

      ‘What an idiot.’

      ‘Yep. And there was an email trail of the whole thing. Months it had been going on – and get this, the whole time she was telling me to my face about this great new guy she was seeing.’

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