Page 42 of Suzie's Santorini Summer

To her surprise, Suzie experienced a repeat surge of the elusive confidence she had felt that morning at the taverna that had been the catalyst to her now-regretted urge to talk to Nathan. It felt good, despite its intermittent appearance, and she was determined to take advantage of its re-appearance. When she had lived in London, she had brimmed with self-confidence, never turning down an opportunity to meet new people, or try new things, but all that had evaporated in the space of a few minutes and, until her arrival on Santorini, she had been too cowardly to work on putting that right. It was time to change that.

‘Okay, I’ll ask him.’

‘Great!’

However, Katerina continued to hold her gaze.

‘What?’

‘So call him!’

‘What, now?’

‘Yes.’

Fortunately, a customer chose that moment to enter the gallery and enquire about a multicoloured glass bowl in the window – one of Katerina’s most recent pieces – and Suzie was relieved she didn’t have to make the phone call in front of her friend. She was thrilled when Christos accepted her invitation to “throw a pot”, and she promised herself she would invite him to the dance class if their afternoon of creativity went as well as she hoped.

Chapter Fifteen

Katarina’s ceramics studio was housed in a small garage attached to the back of the house she rented on the outskirts of Armeni, a village further down the coast from Oia. Unlike Suzie’s tiny apartment above the gallery, the house was spacious with two generous bedrooms and a bathroom on the ground floor, and a large light-filled lounge upstairs to take advantage of the stunning view across the caldera.

No wonder she was never short of inspiration.

However, Suzie wasn’t there to tour the house, so she headed across a cobbled courtyard – home to an ancient olive tree that had a fun rope swing attached to one of its branches – and into the art studio, grinning broadly when she pulled open the door and saw what was inside. Her creativity had deserted her after the fire, and apart from a pair of earrings she’d made for Opal’s birthday using coloured beads she’d found in a jar hiding under a pile of oldVoguemagazines at the back of her tepee, she hadn’t made anything.

As she feasted her eyes on the well-stocked shelves that lined all four walls, she could feel her artistic sprites awaken from their long slumber, and when she investigated the area behind a woven bamboo screen and saw the potter’s wheel, they started to dance in delight. Her fingers tingled and she couldn’t wait to grab a slab of the red-brown clay from the adjacent shelf and start making something. She’d made a few basic bowls and wonky flowerpots when she was at college, but here – in Katerina’s wonderful studio – she had the wheel all to herself and she was looking forward to seeing what she could create without the pressure of being watched by her fellow students.

Her excitement was interrupted by a loud knock on the door, and when she saw Christos standing on the threshold, there was no denying her growing feelings for him. As usual, he wore a pair of frayed jeans and scruffy espadrilles, but for their afternoon of pot-throwing he’d chosen a pale pink collared shirt, open at the neck to reveal a tantalising glimpse of chest hair. He’d also made a valiant attempt to tame his curls and had added a spritz of the sea-spray cologne he favoured, but what drew her to him was his smile, bracketed by the dimples she loved, that told her that he was equally as happy to see her.

‘Hi, Christos. Come on in.’

‘Wow, this place is amazing. What I wouldn’t give to have a studio like this.’

‘It’s fabulous, isn’t it? What do you want to try first?’

‘You’re the guru, you decide.’

Suzie laughed. ‘I wouldn’t say that.’

‘You make artisan jewellery!’

‘Iusedto make artisan jewellery. Anyway, there’s no jewellery equipment here.’

‘What about these?’ Christos picked up a jar filled with nuggets of polished glass in a kaleidoscope of colours that Suzie assumed were by-products of Katerina’s glass-blowing items. ‘They look like gemstones, don’t you think? It must be a very satisfying feeling to create a bespoke piece of jewellery that you know will be treasured by your clients, and potentially passed down the generations.’

‘Oh, it is, it really is. I used to love seeing the look on people’s faces when I unveiled the piece of jewellery they’d commissioned. In fact, looking back, it was the best part of the whole process.’ Suzie paused for a moment, running her fingers through the jar of translucent pebbles as she contemplated what she had achieved over the last year before everything she’d worked for had ended up at the bottom of the bay. ‘You know, I thought designing jewellery was my dream career, but now I’m not so sure.’

‘Did you set up your jewellery business straight from college?’

‘No, I—’

She stopped, aware they were skirting around the edges of a subject she usually avoided talking about, but Christos was smiling at her, genuinely interested in what she had to say, and she decided she could risk opening up a little, like he had during their picnic together.

‘I didn’t have the funds to do that straight away, so I took a job at an upmarket jewellery store in the West End of London, which helped to replenish my bank account after university. However, it meant that I also got to learn about the business side of the trade, as well as which products sold well, and which of them didn’t. The store attracted a constant stream of people with more than enough money to last several lifetimes, and we sold a lot of very,veryexpensive watches, which didn’t really interest me, but the jewellery we sold was stunning! I was thrilled that I was able to study designs created by some of the best in the business featuring flawless gemstones.’

‘How long did you work there?’

‘Five years.’

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