Page 43 of Pomegranates and Olive

"All this stress is not good for the baby... not that you even give a shit." Alice snarls at me. "Just let me know if you hear from him, okay?"

And then she’s gone.

Deniz climbs up beside me and passes over another beer. It’s quiet now. Most of the day tourists have left, and it’s still too early for the dinner crowd, so the only sound I can hear is the gentle lapping of the water against the boat hull.

"You okay?"

I scull down the last of my beer before starting on his. I know he’s waiting for me to say something but there's nothing I can say that can explain the hurt I’m experiencing, so we sit silently, sipping our beers and staring out at the sunset.

"That sounded like a difficult call."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Do you remember what I said to you on the plane?"

I snort as I open my beer. "You said a lot of wildly inappropriate things on the plane so you're going to need to be a little more specific."

"True. What I said was, 'Always the wrong person gives you the right lesson in life'. I genuinely believe that.” He taps his bottle against mine. “Listen, my last relationship was a complete mess. I'm sure you heard about what happened."

I didn't reply.

"I was left at the altar."

“I heard.”

“I knew the type of person that she is, or was but I wanted her anyway.” He sighs and is quiet for a moment. “It's been tough to move past Simge, or as your cousin likes to call her, the 'Bitch'."

I smile into my beer bottle. "I understand that's an accurate description."

"Pretty accurate, but Simge wasn't all bad, in fact, she was pretty wonderful a lot of the time and I loved her. She was just, how would I put it? Selfish. I know we might have been happy but…" He trails off and shrugs into the darkness.

"So, who met her first? You or Aydin?"

"We were both almost 20 when we met Simge. Aydin had been doing some modelling work and I went to meet him one day at a shoot. And there she was, the most beautiful woman in the room. She was always the most beautiful woman in the room. We both wanted her. We both loved her. She chose Aydin."

"Which didn't work out so well."

"They fought constantly. She had affairs. He was always jealous. They fought in public, and it wasalwayscaught on camera. By that time, he had moved into acting, so when they fought…” He chuckles into his beer, “Let’s just say they were two of the most famous actors in Turkey and they were having these knock-down, drag-out, arguments in public. It was always big news. Then Emine was born and Aydin lost his will to fight anymore. He had someone that he loved more than Simge. And Simge had me waiting in the sidelines. Did she love me? I’ll never know for sure, but I loved her and that’s all that mattered to me. Anyway, it’s taken time for Aydin to forgive me and for me to forgive myself for that matter, but in the end we both suffered the same destiny."

"Ah-ha!" I point at him triumphantly. "You just said destiny!"

"Not what I meant and you know it." He takes another sip of his beer. "Anyway, Simge has a good life now in LA; lots of films in the works and some semi-famous actor from some movie series that she's dating."

"Oh? Which one?"

"Some superhero or something." He shrugs. "I don't often watch movies."

"Me either." I lay back on the cushions and gaze up at the sky. "And you?"

Deniz lays down beside me. "Me what?"

"Are you happy?"

"I'm getting there."

"You seemed pretty happy last night with Eve."

The corner of his mouth twitches. He's clearly struggling not to laugh and that just annoys me even more. "I had a better time after Eve left."

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