Page 97 of Pomegranates and Olive

23

This Time It Really Is Goodbye

It's been a little over a month since the fire, and I'm finally back at Ginny's convalescing. I needed a skin graft operation to heal the burns on my feet, but they are now recovering nicely. I also have a few small scars on my hands that haven't quite healed, plus my knee is swollen to the size of a small cantaloupe, thanks to my fall out of the hospital bed. Getting around is a much slower process, but at least I no longer need crutches. I've been vigilant with my physiotherapy, so I will be in tip-top shape to walk down the aisle as Ginny's bridesmaid next week. Next week! Eeekkk!

I'm too proud to ask either Aydin or Ginny where Deniz is although the not knowing is slowly killing me. I’ve gotten close to begging them to tell me a few times, to just give me a clue as to where he is, but I know it would be pointless to ask. I get it. I do. Aydin is protecting his cousin just as Ginny is protecting me, but every second of not knowing is sending my already over the top imagination into a self-flagellating freefall as I picture him pleasuring another woman instead of me. Ginny did let it slip that Deniz has been consumed by guilt over my being injured in the fire, but if I was given the same choices, I know I would do the exact same thing again. And I might have been high on painkillers, but I know what Deniz said at the hospital. He said he loved me. And I told him I loved him as well, but none of that seemed to matter. He's shut himself off from all his family and friends, and there's nothing I can do right now to change his mind, even if I knew where he was.

I dress slowly, relishing the opportunity of finally getting out of my stanky pyjamas. I slip into Rosie's wine coloured harem pants, which are the easiest things to get on with my bandaged knee and bunged up feet. I match them with a black fitted t-shirt and sandals. I'm pulling my blonde hair into a ponytail when I hear a rapid knocking on my terrace door followed by Kat’s voice hollering, "Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!"

"Oh my God, Kat. Calm down. I'm coming!"

After a liberal application of lipstick, I give myself a quick once over in the mirror leaning against the far wall. I lost a little weight while in hospital, and I intend to keep it off. My belly is soft, but its nothing a few million sit-ups wouldn't sort out.

I am feeling surprisingly optimistic about the Olive Russo that I have become. I’m different now. I’m happy for the first time in a very long time and I know what I'm going to do moving forward. I still need to get back to Australia at some point, but I won't go running back Down Under just yet. Psychic Magda may have given me the motivation that I needed to get on that plane but it wasmewho came to Turkey. It wasmewho jumped off that cliff and skinny-dipped in the Mediterranean.Me. And I ran into a fucking fire, for fucks sake!

I give my mirror image a self-high-five and swing open the door that leads out to the terrace, making a theatrical entrance.

"Ta-da!"

Kat launches herself at me, hugging me tight until she's replaced a second later by her sister. "Yeah, Liv!"

"You're looking fantastic!"

Ginny screeches at both of them and jumps out of her seat to pull them off me. "Guys! Give Liv some space! She's still recuperating."

"Stop it, Mama Bear, I'm absolutely fine. And I'm bloody glad to be up and about with something to celebrate at last!" I scowl at my cousin before moaning as I lower myself slowly into a chair. "You know she hasn't let me out of her sight since I've been home."

"Mostly because I need to update your mother every fecking hour!"

"Yeah, well, that's your fault as well seeing you were the one who told her about the fire in the first place."

We all look down to where the restaurant once stood, now nothing more than the stone walls remain. "I still can't believe it, Ginny."

"Thank goodness for insurance. That's all I can say."

"The police came and interviewed me… a few times in fact." I tried my hardest to describe in detail the explosion and what I saw. Aydin was with me the whole time so that nothing I said got lost in translation but even with his help it was a long and arduous morning. I was exhausted by the time the police left, my voice had become nothing more than a raspy croak and I slept for a straight twelve hours afterwards.

"They’ve been out here a few times as well." Ginny grabs my plate and fills it with lots of breakfast goodies while Kat pours me a mimosa. "Let's just say the case is closed and be done with it."

I sip on the bubbly drink, my first semi-alcoholic drink in over a month. "But… but… they caught the guy, didn’t they?"

Ginny shrugs as she places my plate in front of me. "I don't know. Aydin won't talk about it with me at all. All I know is ‘it’s been dealt with’ and shortly after the insurance assessor came out, approved the claim, and a huge sum of money, larger than either of us expected, was transferred into our account."

“Sounds like a pay-off to me.”

Aricia leans over the table and giggles. "It’s all very dramatic, isn’t it?"

Kat joins in. "Very Turkish."

Ginny snorts into her fruit salad. "I expect it will be made into a Turkishdizifor Aydin to star in very soon."

We’re all laughing now as Emine appears on the terrace, followed by Rosie and Luca. They had been down on the beach, and Rosie and Emine's hair are both tangled messes. Still, Rosie's cheeks are pink, and she is smiling contently… that is until she spots me sitting beside Ginny and noticeably tenses. "Sis, you're up?"

"If I'd known you guys were walking down to the beach, I would have joined you." I smile at them both to put them at ease; after all, it's not every day that your ex-boyfriend and your sister develop feelings for each other... even if neither of them cares to admit it. "I'm joking guys, I'm just happy to be out of bed."

Yes, Luca and I finally did call it quits. There was a lot of yelling, and finger pointing by both of us, as well as an ocean of tears, but we also had some laughter mixed in there as well. Now we can both push aside the anger and the blame and somehow continue to be in each other’s lives. He's been staying at apansionin town the last few weeks while he makes travel arrangements, but he still appears conveniently every morning, just in time for breakfast, with a grin and a bag of whatever fruit he happens to purchase from the tiny market in the village.

"Did you swim, Emme?"

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