had hardly expected to acquire this by meeting a sexy cosmically attuned Italian. She could hardly believe herself. She had never been remotely interested in any of the alternative hippy stuff that she was now meeting in Ikaria – and that, apparently, despite herself, she was starting to enjoy.
‘Paolo has offered to teach me some yoga,’ Calli said, looking at Sylvie over the rim of her coffee cup. ‘I’m meeting him on the beach this evening.’
‘Lucky you!’ her friend replied with a mischievous smile. ‘What was it we were talking about before . . . Something about the secret of longevity around here?’
When Calli arrived on the beach Paolo was already there waiting for her; he had just finished his own yoga session and was sitting on a mat laid on the sand, evidently the one he had been using earlier.
‘Come, Calli,’ he said kissing her on both cheeks and taking her by the hand, ‘first we take breath . . . fill our lungs with sea air . . . feel the energy.’
They stood side by side facing the water and as they did, she stole little glances at him. He looked strong, with wide shoulders and slender limbs; his eyes were closed and his arms lifted to the sky as if in prayer. She raised her arms too and as she did, she remembered her plea to Raphael the night before. Could it be that her guardian angel had something to do with sending this fabulous man to her so swiftly? She closed her eyes, smiled to herself, dismissing the thought, and silently thanked the angels and the moon for this moment of peaceful bliss, whatever it might be.
‘The physical, the mental and the soul are all believed by many spiritual traditions to be part of our true selves,’ Paolo began to explain again as she lay on the mat while he knelt beside her. ‘The ancient Greeks called this the soma, psyche and nous – maybe you know this, Calli, as these are Greek words?’ But Calli was oblivious; all she knew or was conscious of at that moment was his hand on the small of her back.
It didn’t take long for Paolo to recognize the effect that he was having on Calli. It was hard for her to hide it. She hadn’t been exactly blatant, she thought with a slight sense of embarrassment back in her hotel room later that night, but she hadn’t been too subtle about it either. But she was a grown woman, for heaven’s sake. She was free. She had no need to justify her actions. She could do anything she wanted. Above all, she told herself, it was time she felt the surge of sexual desire run through her veins – she had been too long without it. If sex was one of the secrets of longevity, then she wanted plenty of it. She wanted to live again, and she intended to do that for a good while yet.
She’d had plenty of boyfriends when she was younger but it had been a while since then, she’d been with James so long she had forgotten the thrill of a new romance. Besides, Paolo was no ‘boy’, he was very much a man. He was forty-two, he told her, and although he had never married, he had a seven-year-old daughter called Anna, with a woman who was now one of his best friends.
‘Serena and I lived together for three years after the baby was born,’ he said later that evening as they sat under the vine with the circle of friends during their usual dinner at the taverna. ‘Then we realized we want different things: I want to go to India, she wants to be in Milan; I want to teach yoga, she wants to paint . . . It is better to be free – now it is good for all of us.’
Calli sat silently absorbing this information from him as alarm bells began to ring in her head. How is that good? a voice in her head nagged. What of the child? How is that good for her without her father? Is Paolo another irresponsible quitter?
‘Well, yes, freedom is good, but it also has its price,’ Calli suddenly heard Maya interrupt as if she had read her mind. ‘I know that you and Serena do the best for your girl, my friend, but there are many who don’t, and there is always a cost.’
Paolo sat back in his chair, and before