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With the meal concluded, they set off along the Arvanitia Promenade, supposedly the most romantic walk in all of Greece, especially during sunset. Leo had timed everything perfectly. The sun was at the horizon in all its glory, trailing beams of gold, orange, and pink across the sky. The setting was idyllic, and yet an emotional gulf remained between him and Rose, who walked by his side.
He didn’t attempt to take her hand, and he noted with dismay that she didn’t try to hold his hand.
“The city is beautiful,” he said in an attempt to make small talk.
“I agree,” said Rose, though she didn’t meet his eyes.
“The heat from the stone walls is tempered by the sea breeze,” he said. Really? That was the best he could come up with? Ugh.
They scooted closer to the wall as a group of tourists passed, the leader carrying a Greek flag on a tall pole.
“Stavros, there’s something you should know. Something I need to tell you. I’m finding it difficult to say the words.” She fidgeted with her ring.
She was going to end their potential romance. He read the telltale signs in her posture, in the phrasing of her words, in the downturn of her mouth. As first dates went, this was his record worst. He was getting the whole breakup speech of it’s-not-you-it’s-me before the date had even finished. He should’ve known better.
They reached the lighthouse, and Leo led her down onto the sand, out of the foot traffic, and to a slightly secluded area. They both faced the sea.
“You’re being gallant and patient, which makes this all the harder for me,” she said.
Here it comes. Leo braced himself.
“You know from my background check that I’m a widow.” She twisted the ring over and over.
“Yes.”
“I married Robert at age nineteen. He was twenty-one and had just completed his military service. Both of our parents thought we were far too young. We were happy. Our wedded bliss lasted long after it usually atrophies for most couples. We had our little disagreements and arguments, but we always worked them out. We finished school, and Robert went to work for a business in shipping while getting his graduate degree. I worked as a makeup artist in film.”
“Yes, I read about your career in the background check. I’m looking forward to learning more about how you turned to that job.” Where was she going with all of this? She’d repeated to him only facts he knew. Obviously there was more, and the more was what he’d been dying to know to gain a better picture of Rose. He hoped there wasn’t an affair in her past.
She nodded. “Our schedules didn’t always line up, and I missed Robert when we were apart. After a few years, we decided to try to have a child. Naturally I was apprehensive since my sister was well into her journey through infertility. I worried we wouldn’t be able to have a child of our own. We took steps ahead, in case either one of us turned out to be incapable of having a child the old-fashioned way. I had some eggs harvested, and he put some sperm on ice. And then we gave it a go. I was pregnant in three months without any outside assistance. We decided I’d put my career on hold for a while.”
“Was that hard for you?”
She turned her head to see him. “You mean giving up my career or the pregnancy itself?”
“The second one. No, well, yes, well, no.” He arranged his thoughts. “I mean to be able to create a child in the natural way while watching your sister struggle.”
“Telling her I was pregnant was bittersweet. She was thrilled for me, of course, but I could also tell the news broke her heart. Why did she have to struggle so much when pregnancy came easily to me?” Rose turned her sights back on the sparkling water. “In the meantime, Robert and I prepared our home for the baby and went back and forth about names.”
“You were happy,” Leo stated.
“Yes.” She reached a hand up and fingered the ends of her waves. “The time for the baby to arrive drew near. We’d made all the preparations.”
“Though no one can be totally prepared for parenthood,” Leo said.
“I wouldn’t know.” Her voice had a raw edge to it.
Leo grew concerned. His heart drummed in his chest, and a chill washed over him. He was about to learn something that wasn’t on her background check.
“A month before I was due, Robert was killed in a motor accident. He was driving his scooter home from work. The storm came up suddenly, and the rain made visibility difficult. Traffic was heavy. All the wrong conditions. At the hospital, the doctor told me Robert was killed on impact, caught between two large trucks that erupted in a fireball. His spinal cord snapped, so he never felt the burns.”
Leo threw caution to the wind and took her hand. “Oh, Rose, I’m so sorry.” Inadequate words were all he had to give her. The knife of pain over losing his own wife slashed through him.
She gripped his hand. “But there’s more. I was seven and a half months pregnant at the time. After Robert died, only the thought of raising our child kept me going.” Tears trailed down her cheeks. “A week after we buried Robert’s ashes, I lost the baby. Stillborn. The trauma was too much.” She wiped at her eyes, and Stavros did the same. She was touched by his display of emotion. “I buried the two people I loved most in the world in less than ten days.”
Leo tugged on her hand.
Rose turned tear-filled eyes on him and then collapsed against his chest, clinging to him like a lifeline.