Page 10 of Footprints in the Sand (Coleman #13)

Chapter Ten

T wo days after the party at Athena’s place, Aphrodite contacted Eva and asked her to go swimming in the coves.

Eva was up early, answering emails and scheduling social media posts, finally finding herself at ease in a schedule seven hours ahead of her normal East Coast American one.

Because she decided to slough off the rest of the workday, Eva said she was available a little after noon, and Aphrodite said she’d come pick her up. Eva texted Theo.

EVA: I think I’m befriending a woman named Aphrodite? One of Dimitra’s cousins, lol.

She hadn’t told Theo about Nico because she wasn’t sure what there was to tell. That she’d met a handsome stranger? That she was going to marry a Greek guy and never come home? Give it a rest, Eva.

THEO: Aphrodite? You’re befriending the goddess of love? Can you tell her to give me a call? I have a bone to pick with her.

Eva had only been in Greece for a few days and had already met numerous Greeks who were named after ancient Greek mythology: Artemis and Athena and Eros and Helios and of course Dimitra. It was their culture, and they weren’t afraid to carry the torch for it, even thousands of years later.

Like her mother Athena, Aphrodite drove a little beat-up car that seemed like it was about to fall apart.

She beeped the horn, and Eva came out of her house wearing a sundress and a baseball hat with her swimsuit beneath it all.

Aphrodite was listening to a CD she’d burned herself back when people still burned CDs, and on it were songs Eva hadn’t heard in what felt like a decade, one of which was Evanescence’s “Bring Me to Life.”

It was intense. Eva laughed, but when Aphrodite asked why, she said, “This music brings back old memories, I guess. I don’t know.”

She felt nervous and jittery.

“Tell me,” Aphrodite said as they drove too fast through the mountainous roads, “how are you finding our little island?”

Eva thought for a moment and gazed out the window at the wide, glinting blanket of water.

“It’s truly magical. But I have to admit, I miss my parents and my brother.

I don’t know if I could be away forever.

” She didn’t say how much she missed Finn because she wasn’t sure she wanted anyone to know about him here. She wanted a clean slate.

Aphrodite nodded. “It’s why I came back to the island. I went to university in Athens, but I couldn’t take all the time away from my family. I guess I can’t get this island out of my blood.”

She sped up around a curve, and Eva thought she was going to jump out of her own skin. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever get used to this frantic driving.

They reached the coves, which were situated about a half hour’s walk away from the more public and packed beach.

It looked like the tourists hadn’t yet discovered the coves, and Aphrodite and Eva had them all to themselves.

They swam far out into the soft turquoise water.

Eva felt lost in her thoughts, wondering if it was safe to swim this distance from shore, but she was a strong swimmer and didn’t want to be afraid.

Aphrodite called her name. “Eva! It’s the most beautiful day! Isn’t it?”

Eva tried to get caught up in Aphrodite’s euphoria.

She tried to remind herself of the last time she’d been in Europe with Finn—two years ago, when they’d gone to Italy, before Finn had stolen so much of her money and lost it.

They’d gone swimming and kissed on the beach and drank Aperol spritzes till the sunset blurred in their eyes.

They hadn’t fought about money. They’d talked about the babies they wanted to bring into the world.

When they returned to shore, Aphrodite revealed a large bag of snacks: crackers, cheese, fruits, and a bottle of white wine with two cups.

“I hope you are done with work for the day?” Aphrodite said, wagging her eyebrows.

“They don’t need me,” Eva said.

Aphrodite threw her head back with laughter and poured two glasses. “To taking time for ourselves,” she said, and Eva clinked her glass with hers.

“What is it you do that allows you to come out to the beach at a time like this?” Aphrodite asked.

Eva explained her job with the social media and the fashion brand. As she spoke, Aphrodite’s face transformed and tightened.

“You said you were working for Gretchen Collingsworth?” she asked, as though she couldn’t fathom it.

Eva felt proud. “That’s right. I applied for this job at least three times before I got it.

It was a huge ordeal. But it’s where I always wanted to work, you know?

If I have to work for a living, it might as well be for something I feel is artistic and worth my time.

” It was one of the best and most creative fashion brands in the world, after all.

But Aphrodite was on her feet, waving her phone in the air. At first, Eva thought she was being terribly rude. Why couldn’t she sit down and listen? Was Eva really boring her that much?

Was this a strange Greek way of having a conversation—or not having one?

“What’s going on?” Eva asked, trying not to roll her eyes.

Aphrodite turned on her heel and looked down at Eva with surprise. “I don’t want to be the one who brings you the bad news.”

Suddenly frightened, Eva turned her attention to the horizon, where a sailboat careened beneath the sunlight.

Maybe she shouldn’t have gone to the coves with Aphrodite after all.

Aphrodite was Nico’s sister, but it wasn’t like Eva really needed to date anyone while she was here.

It wasn’t like she needed to open her heart.

“Look,” Aphrodite said, shoving her phone into Eva’s hand.

Eva read the headline:

Fashion Designer Gretchen Collingsworth Arrested for Fraud

Eva was on her feet, gasping for air. In the attached photograph, Gretchen was pictured with her signature big sunglasses and her neck bent.

The brief yet articulate article explained that Gretchen was one of the top fashion designers in the United Kingdom and was well on her way to securing a billion-dollar brand.

But it turned out that as of this morning, she was under investigation for wire fraud.

All of her bank accounts, including those associated with the fashion brand, had been frozen, and her website was now inactive.

Eva’s heart seized with panic. She couldn’t believe she was receiving this information here and now, in one of the most beautiful coves, as the Grecian sunlight played across the jewel-lit waves. With a shaking hand, she passed Aphrodite’s phone back to her and stumbled back onto her towel.

“Are you okay?” Aphrodite asked. “Do you want to go home?”

Home? At first, the word rattled her because it meant Martha’s Vineyard and her mother and Finn. But she blinked and realized that Aphrodite meant Dimitra’s house. She nodded and got up and followed Aphrodite up the little carved path through the rocks.

“Did you know this was going to happen?” Aphrodite asked as they drove back to Aliki. “I mean, was there any hint?”

“I’m just a social media manager,” Eva said dumbly. She was a social media manager. Did she even still have a job?

“Will you have to release a statement?” Aphrodite asked.

“I don’t know.” Eva couldn’t feel her tongue.

A part of her wanted to believe that what had happened with Gretchen was a fluke.

Gretchen would be released from prison tomorrow morning and want all the websites back up and running again.

Perhaps Eva could devise a humorous social media strategy for this, something to enhance the brand.

Now that she had data again, Eva’s phone buzzed with about a thousand messages from colleagues, telling her to get online immediately. It had been the worst possible day to take a surprise afternoon off.

When Aphrodite dropped Eva off at Dimitra’s place, Eva tumbled out of the passenger seat and adjusted her backpack over her shoulder.

“Do you want me to come in with you?” Aphrodite asked.

Eva said no, but Aphrodite cut the engine and got out anyway. “My mother always said to never leave someone alone in their time of need,” Aphrodite said. “I’m going to the grocery store, and I’ll cook you something nice. And we’re going to need more wine.”

Eva mumbled thanks and wandered into the cool air of the house. In the bathroom, she stripped down and showered off the sand, then put on an oversized T-shirt and a pair of loose-fitting shorts. Maybe there had been some mistake.

She took a breath and sat down at the computer.

Immediately, she was launched into a world of pain. There were more than two hundred thousand comments and DMs and updates from their audience, all of whom were turning on Gretchen’s brand.

They wrote I never would have bought Gretchen’s stuff if I’d known .

They wrote Boycott! Boycott!

It was a nightmare.

Suddenly, Eva’s boss, the head of marketing, was calling her via the online messaging service. Eva forgot she was wearing crappy clothes and had wet hair. She answered with the video on and found her boss in a similar sad shape, her eyes strange and glinting.

“Eva?” her boss, Melanie, began. “I wanted to check in with you.”

“What is going on?” Eva asked. “Fraud? I mean, why? How?” It felt like the last thing she’d been counting on in her life was crumbling in her hands.

Melanie touched her temples. “It’s going to get much worse before it gets better. If we’re going to survive this, we need to put out a statement sooner rather than later. Are you ready to put something together?”

“I don’t know what’s going on! I don’t know what language to use,” Eva said.

“Just say something about how we’re going to continue to strive to, like, bring about change in the fashion industry,” Melanie tried to parrot, although she didn’t know the first thing about social media. “I don’t know. We hired you to do this, remember?”

Melanie’s sharp shift surprised Eva. She took a breath.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Melanie closed her eyes. “I just need you to be cool about this, okay? I need you to do what you’re here to do.” And then her eyes widened. “I have another call. Talk to you soon.” Melanie hung up.

Eva sat dumbly in the living room, unsure where to begin. Just then, the front door opened, bringing Aphrodite and Nico in like a storm, their arms ladened with groceries. Nico flashed a smile at Eva, one that Eva didn’t know how to deal with, not now.

“There she is,” Nico said. “Our favorite unemployed American.”

Eva’s chest went hot. “I still have a job,” she said tentatively.

“Don’t bother her,” Aphrodite scolded. “I told her we’d cook, so that’s what we’ll do.”

Nico and Aphrodite disappeared into the kitchen. Next came the sound of electro beats from a little speaker and the chop-chop of a knife on a vegetable.

Eva attempted to write a few social media posts addressing Gretchen’s arrest. For nearly half an hour, she edited, deleted, and researched, trying to find a way to make this seem only 10 percent as bad as it was.

Just before she posted it, Aphrodite skidded into the living room to ask, “Did you quit?” And then she added, with a wince, “We really think you should.”

Aphrodite turned her phone around to show Eva a brand-new article that had broken just seven minutes before.

In it, the Vietnam-based journalist published a takedown of Gretchen’s practices in Southeast Asia and beyond, where she had numerous sweatshops producing her wares.

Because most of Gretchen’s clothing costs upward of three hundred dollars, Eva had created a strategy around their “incredible eco-conscious branding,” discussing how kind they were to their seamstresses and other employees.

It was clear, now, that Gretchen Collingsworth had been lying and pocketing the profits.

Eva thought she was going to be sick.

Slowly, she shut her laptop and sat, dumbfounded.

Nico came into the living room with a glass of wine. “I told you to wait to show her that till after dinner!” he reprimanded his sister.

“She needs to know,” Aphrodite said.

Nico handed Eva the glass of wine, and she got up and carried it to the rooftop.

Out there, the wind had picked up, fluttering through her hair, and she filled her mouth with wine and thought about Gretchen, about the jail she was sitting in, and about Finn, alone somewhere in Boston (or already dating someone beautiful, someone who didn’t know he’d stolen money from his girlfriend). She felt like the world was crumbling.

Nico and Aphrodite followed her up there, bringing with them three plates of sea bream and more wine and fresh bread. Together, they sat at the table on the rooftop. Aphrodite and Nico didn’t seem to know what to say, and Eva was grateful they weren’t blabbering on.

Eva raised her glass of wine and looked at them. “I came to Greece for a break from stress, but stress found me anyway.”

Aphrodite raised her glass nervously and eyed her brother. “Greece is no place for stress, Eva.”

“I’m already in a bad spot with money,” Eva explained.

Aphrodite waved her hand. “You have a place to live, and you have us. If you need a little bit of money, I can find you a job here on the island, no problem.”

Eva’s throat was tight. Was she really going to resort to some random job?

She was twenty-eight years old. Then again, only she knew the sad state of affairs in her bank account.

She was far too proud to call her mother and father for help.

She knew what her mother would say. You never should have gone to Greece.

You should have stayed home with me. You can move back in! You know we’d be happy to have you.

But Eva didn’t want to take too many steps back. So she said, “What’s the job?” and braced herself for a summer of pain.