As Anna locked the door of the summer house, she mentally double-checked that she had everything she would need for the day. It had been so long since she had done any real shooting. She had brought three lenses, two extra batteries, an extra memory card, and a small tripod. She also had a spare dress and a towel with her. The camera equipment was for her shoot with Elena, but Nikos had instructed her to bring a change of clothes as well. Given that he had also told her to wear a swimsuit, she assumed they were getting in the water somewhere, and it was about time. She had been living on an island for weeks and had yet to go in the sea. She had tried to force herself to choose the more conservative one-piece she still had from the summer she spent lifeguarding, but she couldn’t resist grabbing her white crocheted bikini instead, throwing it on under a flowy white blouse and denim cut-offs.
She heard the sound of a motorbike pulling up outside, and when she turned around, saw Nikos walking through the gate with a helmet on.
“Um, am I supposed to ride on that thing with you?” she asked.
Nikos grinned. “Come on, it’s the perfect day for it!”
Anna laughed and shook her head. “No wonder you drive the truck everywhere you can.”
“Come on,” Nikos said with a wave. “Elena is meeting us in town.”
Anna walked through the gate to see a mint green Vespa parked in the drive. Nikos offered her a helmet, so she took it, put it on, made sure her backpack was secure, and hopped on the back.
This obviously wasn’t the first time she had been this close to Nikos, but it was the first time she had been this close without tears streaming down her face, and it was a much different experience. As she wrapped her arms around his waist, she felt how firm his abs were, and the memory of him wearing nothing but a towel flashed through her mind. She tried her best to push it aside, but she also scooted a bit closer to him, pressing herself against his back and inhaling the scent of him. His shirt smelled like fabric softener, but beneath that was the musk of a sweaty – though not smelly – man. She startled when he pushed off and drove the Vespa forward, and her clinging on instantly became less about feeling him up and more about actually staying on the motorbike.
The wind whipped through Anna’s hair as they climbed the hills, heading away from the resort. The helmet kept her hair from blowing in her face too much, but still she spent an inordinate amount of time pulling strands from her mouth. Houses and vineyards lined the roads as they twisted and turned. Occasionally Anna would think she caught a glimpse of blue sea through the hills and buildings, but then it would disappear as quickly as it had appeared. Finally they came to what looked like a major road at the top of the hill and turned right. And just like that, the entire caldera was laid out in front of her.
She gasped, craning her neck to see around Nikos and take in every inch of the view. They were in almost the exact middle of the crescent, with the northern tip reaching into the sea in front of them. A channel to the left separated a much smaller island from Santorini proper. Another island, so small it was barely visible, sat further off to the left. Anna craned her neck around and could see that beyond that the other end of the crescent curved around to complete the circle. Boats of all sizes, from big cruise liners to tiny catamarans, were sailing through the channel and around yet another island in the center of the caldera.
Anna could hear that Nikos was trying to say something, but she couldn’t hear him over the wind and the engine, so she just admired the view, saying “wow” every now and then in case he was looking for acknowledgment. They were only able to see the caldera for a minute before the road went downhill again, weaving through small clusters of buildings and over the hilly terrain. After a few minutes they came into what Anna recognized as the town of Thera, where she and Nikos had come for supplies, though they had come at it from a different way.
After they passed through the town, they came to a part of the journey where they could only see the sea on the other side. And while there weren’t any other islands or any boats to be seen, it was still beautiful. Here the land ran more steeply down to the sea than it did down near the summer house or the resort. There were no buildings along the road, just hills sloping sharply up to the left and down to the right, the Vespa winding around them at what felt like a million miles an hour. It was absolutely exhilarating. This wasn’t the postcard version of Santorini, but it was a very real and important part of it, and Anna loved it.
After what must have been about forty-five minutes, Nikos pulled over into a parking lot. “This is where we get off,” he said. “We’re walking from here.” Anna handed over her helmet and followed Nikos through the streets.
As they crossed over an intersection, all of a sudden the town of Oia was laid out in front of them. Beautiful white and yellow buildings with arches and blue domes and infinity pools were clustered together on the hillside so closely that no earth was left to be seen. This was the Santorini Anna had always pictured.
And it was fucking crowded.
Within thirty seconds, Anna was asked to move twice for pictures. It was only nine in the morning! Where had all of these people come from?
“A bit busy, isn’t it?” Anna asked, and Nikos laughed.
“I told you,” he said. “Bloody influencer wannabes. They come in for the season and take over the town and then disappear, leaving us to deal with the aftermath.”
Anna looked up at Nikos, who was making faces at the crowd milling around them.
“Okay, Mr Grinch,” she said. “I was more thinking that it’s going to be tough to get photos of your cousin, who I believe actually wants to be one of these ‘bloody influencers.’”
Nikos gave a sarcastic smile before raising his eyebrows and then his hand. He started waving. Anna turned around and saw Elena pushing through the crowds pulling a suitcase behind her.
“Hi, guys,” Elena said, kissing them both on the cheek. She looked at Anna. “I didn’t know where we would find the best light, so I brought a few different outfits to make sure each photo is cohesive.”
Anna eyed the suitcase. “How many is a few?”
“Well, let’s see,” Elena said, pursing her lips. “I have six dresses— no, make that seven, a few swimsuits, a pair of flowy trousers…”
“I guess it’s a good thing we have all day then, isn’t it?”
Nikos laughed. “You two have fun. I’m going to work for a bit, but I’ll come back when you two are done. Just text me.”
“You don’t want any photos taken?” Anna asked, pulling her camera out of her bag and winking at him.
“Hah-hah, very funny,” he replied as he walked away.
The girls waved at him as he left.
“Alright then,” Anna said, “I guess we’d better get started.”
Four hours later, they were sat at a cafe eating gyros, Elena taking delicate, photogenic bites of hers while Anna snapped away. Being Elena’s personal paparazzi was a bit exhausting, but she knew Elena would be returning the favor over the next few days with the tiling project. They had actually gotten a lot of good photos despite the crowds, though a lot of them involved jumping up on people’s walls or asking the crowd to hold back. Anna suspected Nikos would not have approved, but that was fine. They were Elena’s photos, and she looked stunning in every single one.
At one point, when they were finishing up on a particularly pristine wall with a gorgeous view beyond, a group of girls – seven in total, all in crop tops and white sneakers – stopped and asked if Anna would take their pictures, so she reached out her hand to take their phones.
“No, we mean with your camera,” one of the girls said with a strong southern accent. “You could email ’em to me, maybe?”
“Oh, I don’t know…” Anna looked at Elena, who shrugged.
“We’re happy to pay,” the girl added, reaching into her bag. “We’re all leavin’ tomorrow anyway, and we have a bunch of euros left. Is a hundred enough?”
Anna agreed, took the bills from the girl’s hand, and directed her on the wall. She got a few good snaps in different poses and showed them to the girl to make sure she liked them. When they were done, she motioned for the next girl. But instead of stepping up to the wall, she held out 100 euros of her own. Anna looked at Elena, who was grinning like a madwoman. She took the money from the second girl, who then posed on the wall, too. Again, Anna made sure the photos she took were unique enough to justify the payment. Then they followed the group to another spot where some of the girls wanted their photos taken. After she’d taken photos each of them – and they’d each paid her their 100 euros – Anna took out her phone and entered each of their email addresses so she could send them the final shots.
One of the girls tried to give her another 50 euros, but she shook her head. “Don’t be silly. If you want, you can give me a photo credit, but even that isn’t necessary since you guys paid for these.” The girl insisted though, so Anna gave her the handle for the Instagram she hadn’t logged into in weeks.
“Unedited JPEGs please,” one girl said. “I need to be able to apply my presets.” The others all nodded their agreement, but Anna didn’t much care what format they wanted – she had walked away with 700 euros more than she’d arrived with that morning.
And now, sitting in the cafe with Elena, she flicked through the photos, amazed that she could earn so much money from something she loved doing. Could she make a living taking pictures of influencers? Probably not. But it was nice to feel valued. It was more than she could say about working with Marcus, anyway.
“Okay, let’s just eat normally now,” Elena said before taking a giant bite of her wrap, but Anna couldn’t resist the urge to snap another photo. Elena heard the shutter and squealed. “Oh my god, you have to delete that!” she said, her eyes wide.
Anna laughed. “Whatever you say.” She set the camera down on the table and began to eat.
“So what’s the deal with Nikos and ‘influencers’?” she asked after a few bites, raising two fingers from her gyro to make the air quotes.
“Ugh, don’t even get me started,” Elena said. “He’s impossible. You get dumped by a few American girls on holiday and all of a sudden all influencers are bad. Despite the fact that the tourism industry has almost always been our primary source of income and we make almost all of our money during the summer—”
“I’m sorry, did you say he’s been dumped by a few American girls?”
Elena paused for a moment. “Yes, I did. Why? Is that of interest to you?” She wiggled her eyebrows at Anna and made kissy noises.
“That’s not what I meant,” Anna asked. “I’m just curi—”
“I know it’s not what you meant, but is it true?”
“Well, yes, it’s true that it’s of interest to me. I am interested to know.”
Elena smiled at Anna wordlessly.
“Oh, shut up and just answer me,” Anna said, even though Elena hadn’t actually said anything. If it were Nikos sitting across from her, he undoubtedly would have commented by now on how red she was.
Elena nodded and put her food down. “Over the years, Nikos has tried to date a few girls who have come here on vacation. He always catches feelings, but none of them are quite into the storybook idea of living on a tiny fishing island in a foreign country forever, so they leave, and he gets sad. He’s sort of learned to just stay away, which manifests as him being annoyed with all of them before they can break his heart.”
Anna nodded along as Elena talked.
“Any thoughts?”
“Not really,” Anna said. “It’s just interesting. He seemed so against all tourists. But if he wants to date someone who’s not Greek, why did he stay here? Lizzy told me he has a degree from LSE. Surely he could get a job anywhere in the world and actually have a future with one of these women?”
“Because he’s a masochist,” Elena said. “He’s the one that decides to stay here and to hook up with girls that are here for like a week. He always knows that going into it. He’s just a glutton for punishment.”
As Elena continued to complain about Nikos’s behavior, Anna thought about how he had acted toward her. He complained about the other tourists, but would he do that to their faces? Or would he flirt with them the way he had with Anna?
“I just don’t see why he has to— ti manari einai autos Anna. Oh. My. God!”
Anna shook herself out of her thoughts and tried to follow Elena’s gaze across the street. “What? What are you looking at? You know I don’t speak Greek.”
“There,” Elena said, reaching across the table to grab Anna’s face and point it toward a Greek guy eating an ice cream cone across the street.
“That guy? What about him?”
Elena looked like Anna had just insulted her mother. “He’s beautiful. Isn’t he beautiful?”
He was very muscular, that much was certain. Beautiful wasn’t the word Anna would have used, but she could see how someone might find him attractive in a Jersey Shore sort of way, with his greased-back hair and wife-beater top two sizes too small. Thankfully, Elena didn’t wait for Anna to answer. Actually, she didn’t wait at all. For anything. She just stood up and walked right over to him, flipping her hair over her shoulder and touching his arm. Anna watched mesmerized as they talked, eyeing each other up like two juicy steaks. It was as pornographic as an inaudible conversation could be without any actual sexual contact.
Less than two minutes later, Elena took him by the hand and pulled him over to Anna, grabbing her purse from her chair.
“Anna, this is Vasilis. He’s going to take some pictures with us.”
Vasilis nodded. “He is?” Anna asked.
“Of course,” Elena said, putting a hand on his chest. “We’re just going to go next door and get him a better shirt. Do you want to meet us there in a few?”
“Sure,” Anna said, smiling. Before she could ask how long she should give them, Elena pulled him away, and they were gone.
Anna picked up her camera, excited at the idea of a few minutes of solo exploring. Oia was a beautiful town, but Elena was more interested in capturing the sweeping vistas and iconic angles than the details. Anna walked up and down the street snapping photo after photo. She captured two men negotiating the price of the day’s catch in front of a restaurant, a girl sitting in a window reading, and a cat lapping at a bowl of milk someone had left out for it.
After about ten minutes, she decided to head back to the shop next to the cafe. But just before she got there, she passed a small alley where Elena and Vasilis were pressed against each other making out. At least Vasilis was indeed wearing a different top.
Anna cleared her throat. “Should I come back?”
Elena looked up, unfazed, as if she were always making out with one person when talking to another.
“Don’t be silly,” she said. “We’re more than ready.”
Anna shrugged, and as Elena turned back to give Vasilis another kiss, she snapped a photo. Elena didn’t even notice. This was going to be interesting.
The photoshoot with Elena and Vasilis definitely was interesting. It was also incredible. They looked like they belonged on a movie poster or magazine cover. As much as Anna didn’t love the muscles, the camera did. Their faces always found the light, their clothes always billowed flatteringly in the wind, and their chemistry was undeniable. In fact, they had started to gather a little crowd of onlookers in front of what Anna now knew was referred to as Three Blue Domes.
“Amazing Elena, try throwing your train up again.” Elena was wearing a white swimsuit cover-up with slits up both sides, creating a train in the back. She had her left leg poking out of it, and she threw the train out behind her into the wind as she kissed Vasilis.
“Yep, just like that,” Anna said, capturing shot after shot. She looked down for a split second to check the shutter speed, and the image was so bright and crisp she thought she may not need to edit it at all.
“I leave you for one day and you’ve got my cousin making out with random guys for a photo op?”
Anna spun around to see Nikos standing behind her, looking over her shoulder.
“Nikos! I didn’t know you were here. How did you know where to find us?”
He gestured toward Elena, who didn’t seem to notice that the camera had stopped watching her since she was still posing as she kissed Vasilis. Then again, that didn’t seem particularly out of character. “Juliet Capulet over there texted me. Said she’d need to go soon.”
“Oh,” Anna said with a frown, “I didn’t realize she was going anywhere. We’ve still got so much good light.”
“Sorry,” Elena said, trotting over. “I have to work at the bar tonight, so I called in a replacement.” She took her cover-up off and pulled her work shirt and shorts out of her bag. The first public change had shocked Anna, but after over a dozen of them she was used to it now.
“You’ve worked evening shifts every night for the last week,” Anna said. “You must be raking it in.”
“It’s been alright,” Elena said. “It’ll be even better when the resort has its grand re-opening next week. I’m working every night until then, too. Except grout night, of course.” Grout night was what they had started to call the evening they planned to grout Anna’s floors.
“And Wednesday night,” Nikos added.
“Um, no, I’m working Wednesday,” Elena said, looking confused.
Nikos threw up his hands. “What about the wedding?”
Elena’s eyes went wide. “Oh, Nikos, I completely forgot. I am so, so sorry.”
He rolled his eyes. “Myrto is going to be furious if there’s an empty seat. She asked me to confirm like three times.”
“Take Anna, then,” Elena said, nodding toward her.
“Uh, sorry, what’s this?”
“Yes, great idea,” Nikos said. “She’ll be a better date than you, anyway.”
Elena laughed. “Nobody’s a better date than I am, even if I am your cousin. She will do, though.”
“Thanks a lot,” Anna said. “Now what have I been roped into?”
“It’s just a wedding,” she replied. “Just find a dress that’s not white, and Nikos will pick you up. Sound good?”
“A wedding on a Wednesday? Isn’t that a bit non-traditional?”
“This coming weekend is a holiday, so they had to do it midweek to use the church.”
Anna nodded. “Sounds good,” she said. “I’m in. It’ll give me an excuse to show off my dance moves.”
Elena hugged Anna, kissed Nikos on the cheek and turned back to Vasilis, who had sauntered over. She took his phone out of his pocket, put her number in it, and returned it to him. “Call me,” she said to him, then, to Anna and Nikos, “see you guys later.” And then she was gone, suitcase dragging behind her.
Nikos said something to Vasilis in Greek. Vasilis nodded at Nikos, then at Anna, before leaving.
“What did you say to him?” Anna asked.
“Just that I wouldn’t be making out with him for photos, so he should probably call it a night.”
Anna laughed. “Alrighty, then, should we head back?”
“Well, wait a minute,” Nikos said, “I doubt that you’ve gotten to experience much of the town while taking pictures of madam supermodel.”
“That’s true…”
“I didn’t have you bring a swimsuit for nothing. Why don’t we do a bit of exploring?”
Anna nodded, let her camera rest around her neck, and followed Nikos back into the streets of Oia. As they wandered, they snacked on koulouri, a circle-shaped sesame breadstick they had bought from a street vendor, and ducked in and out of a few shops alongside the other tourists: one specializing in artisan olive oils, one that sold locally made ceramics, and a bookstore called Atlantis Books that was tucked underneath another building.
“Did you know that Santorini was actually the origin of the myth of Atlantis?” Nikos said as Anna stared down at the orange and blue storefront.
“Really? But I thought Atlantis was meant to be underwater?”
“Yes, well, the island used to all be one, and people lived all over it,” Nikos said. “When the volcano erupted, it then collapsed in on itself, creating the caldera. That’s the underwater part.”
“That’s so cool,” Anna said, stepping down into the shop. A cat curled around her feet as she walked inside. Books were stacked floor to ceiling against every surface, held up by rustic wooden shelves, each one different.
She followed the signs for English fiction and picked up a couple of summery-looking reads, taking them to the checkout counter. Once she’d paid for them, she put them in her camera bag along with a candlestick she had bought from the ceramics shop.
They wove slowly side by side through the town, making their way down toward the water. But all of a sudden, the road just stopped, and they were at a drop-off that went straight down into the water. “So, where to now?” Anna asked, but she already knew the answer. Nikos confirmed with the direction he pointed. They were headed down.
Two hundred fourteen steps later, they were at a small bay lined with buildings. Sailboats were moored in the center, and a few people swam amongst them. The water was a deep, rich blue, almost completely still except for gentle rippling on the surface.
Anna heard a shout and turned to the left to see a girl hurtling through the air toward the water. She flailed around, screaming, before plunging into the bay feet first. Anna gasped, but then she heard cheering and realized that there was a small group of people a little ways up one of the cliffs on a massive boulder, a tiny path winding up it toward them. Suddenly, Anna understood what they were there to do.
“Um, I think I left something in the Vespa. I’m gonna go back up,” she said.
Nikos laughed. “You did not leave anything in the Vespa, and you’re not walking up hundreds of steps to escape one itty bitty jump. My friend at the taverna over there told me we can leave our things with him, and the water is plenty deep. You have nothing to worry about.”
“Yeah, see, you’re wrong about that,” Anna said, but she didn’t leave. She didn’t go toward the jump, either, but she didn’t leave. She stayed planted, terrified, in place. Though Nikos was actually helping. Making her feel calmer. Calm enough to jump off a cliff, though? That remained to be seen.
They pulled off their clothes, and Anna saw Nikos notice her bikini, then try to look away subtly. She didn’t hate being appreciated after all the leering she’d done over the last few weeks.
The drop looked so much higher the further up the rock they climbed and, as they got to the top, Anna froze. She had come all this way to Greece to what, sit around and paint cabinets? No, part of her had wanted an adventure. But jumping off the rock with Nikos felt like more than just swimming. It felt like abandon, which was something she had been trying to avoid since she had landed. Since her father had left, actually.
“Come on,” Nikos said. “Have an adventure with me.” He held out his hand and smiled at her.
Then again, how was she supposed to say no to that? Gathering herself together, she put her hand in his and nodded. “Okay. Let’s jump.”
“I cannot believe you made me do that,” Anna said, taking a sip of her beer.
“Oh, come on, it was cute when you screamed.” Nikos laughed and called the waiter over, then looked out over the water. Quickly, Anna brought the camera up to her eye and snapped a picture. The click of the camera made Nikos turn around. “Hey, no paparazzi,” he said, sticking out his hand. “Let me see.”
“No way,” she said. “I never let people see my work before I’m ready.”
“Well, I didn’t sign a model release form,” he said, “so I get veto power.”
“Fine,” Anna mumbled, handing him the camera. The waiter came over and took their order as Nikos scrolled through the photos from the day.
“These pictures are amazing,” he said. He took a sip of his drink and put it back on the table, sitting up straight like he was debating whether or not to say something. “You’re really talented, Anna.”
“Thanks,” she said, shrugging. She figured that he probably felt that he had to say that.
“No, really,” he said. “You could totally take photos for a living. I bet a lot of people on the island would hire you, especially the resorts and the businesses that cater to tourists.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t really want to spend my summer building a photography business just to have to start from scratch when I go home.” Anna said this casually, but when she looked up, she could tell that it wasn’t the response Nikos had been hoping for, and suddenly everything clicked into place.
“You mean so that I wouldn’t have to go home,” she said. She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to confirm or deny what she had just said, but he just looked back out at the water and frowned. Anna sighed. She thought about what Elena had said about the girls he had dated and wondered if he had been like this with them.
“Listen, Nikos. I can’t just stay in Greece forever. I have a life back home.”
“Do you, though?” he asked, turning back to her. “You said that you don’t have a job, a place to live, or any real friends there. Your sister lives hundreds of miles away, and you don’t get along with your mother. What do you have there that you don’t have here?”
“Um, I don’t know… citizenship?” Anna said, but he did have a point. She had actually done some research before getting her job at the cafe, and she was automatically a Greek citizen because of her dad. She just had to apply. She had been thinking of this summer as a layover on her way to the next stage of her life, and she couldn’t forget about all the work ahead of her to get her to that place. But what if Santorini wasn’t the layover but the destination? What if she didn’t have to go back to the life that left her feeling empty and worthless? Wouldn’t that be worth considering?
“This doesn’t have to be just an extended vacation,” Nikos said. “You have family here. Friends. A job with someone who doesn’t manipulate you. Find a few photography clients, and you could build a life here.”
It was Anna’s turn to look out at the water to avoid eye contact. Nikos was making a lot of sense, but it wasn’t sitting right with Anna. Yes, she could probably find a way to stay in Santorini long-term. But would she be doing it for herself? For her friends? For a job? Or would she be doing it for a guy? She had told Nikos that she wouldn’t use him, but equally she didn’t want to change her plans for him. Not that she had any particular plans; she had been feeling adrift ever since she’d arrived. But forming plans around people she had known for just a couple of weeks seemed foolish, even if she had nothing else to plan for.
“I don’t think so, Nikos.” She went to take another sip of her beer, but it was empty. “I’m having a great time today, and I hope we can be friends,” she said, reaching across the table to touch his hand, but thinking twice about the signal it might send and setting it on the table instead. “You and Elena are the first real friends I’ve had in a while, and I want to spend this summer with you. You make me feel like me, and I didn’t even really know what that felt like before I came here. But I plan to leave when the house sells. There’s too much pain here for me.”
Nikos looked up, and she caught his gaze and held it for a moment. He looked sad, but like he understood as well. “Of course,” he said. “You have to do what’s right for you.”
The two turned their gazes back to the water, where the sun was beginning to set. Anna watched it lower over the caldera and sink below the horizon, casting a glorious rainbow of color on the clouds and the buildings and the water. But despite their conversation, she wasn’t thinking about how her days of watching sunsets here were numbered. She was just enjoying the moment with her friend, and with herself. Her actual self, the one who jumped off cliffs and ate lots of pastries and cared about more than her career and her social image. The self that she hadn’t seen in a long, long time.