Surrendered: Journey to the Greek Islands Journey to Love

By Diana Karezi

Hope has been back in her well-ordered Melbourne for five years. She has worked hard and has managed to pick up where she had left off and carve a successful art career for herself.

She has never forgotten Jason and the life lesson she learned from him. His brief presence in her life instilled enough courage in her battered soul so she could believe in herself and move forward.

Jason at the other end of the world in London has become a workaholic. He wants to be the man he wished he had of been when he met Hope on the island.

In their own way they have buried themselves in their work but never forgot what they gave to one another.

As time goes by a summer a love affair on magical Greek island seems like an aberration.

Can the years and the distance keep them apart?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Feb 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781984504517

Diana Karezi

Diana Karezi was born on the Greek island of Lemnos. These days she lives in Melbourne Australia. She is fluent in both Greek and the English languages and goes back and forth between Athens and Melbourne to try and understand her place in the world. She was a visual artist for many years till she turned to writing. She’s comfortable writing about characters who like her straddle the two or more cultures she belong to. She loves to travel and these travels have influenced her art and her writing. Her stories are often about socially mismatched lovers, lovers who overcome obstacles that life throws their way. Friends and lovers who are torn between the multi-cultures they belong to and life’s path to understand where they belong.

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 by Diana Karezi.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2018910966

ISBN:                  Hardcover                      978-1-9845-0453-1

                            Softcover                         978-1-9845-0452-4

                            eBook                              978-1-9845-0451-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 02/20/2019

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

783815

Contents

Note

Author’s Notes

Meaning Of The Character’s Names

PART 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

PART 2

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Surrendered

BOOK 2

By

Diana Karezi

NOTE:

Same sex marriage has been legal in Australia since 9th December 2017.

This book was written and published for the first time prior to this date.

On revision I chose to leave the story as it was at the time.

AUTHOR’S NOTES

Once again, I need to let you know as I did in Book 1 that the story of Hope and Jason crosses cultures, countries and continents.

Within the Greek culture there are subtle sub-cultures. In this story our hero is from the island of Corfu which in on the western part of Greece in the Ionian Sea.

The Ionian Island of Corfu being one of these islands that were occupied by the Republic of Venice from the mid-14th century until the late 18th century. This left some Italian influence on the local Greek culture. One of these influences is that they call grandmother nona and not yiayia as in the rest of Greece. In this story comprised of two books I tend to go between nona and yiayia.

The phtew phtew is pretend spitting and is to ward off the evil eye. This is practised all over Greece.

HOPE IS A WAKING DREAM

ARISTOTLE

MEANING OF THE CHARACTER’S NAMES

PART 1

Chapter 1

It’s been five years since Hope left Athens to return and live in Melbourne once again. In that five years much has happened, the most life changing experience being her brush with cancer that forced her return to Australia sooner than anticipated. She had been declared cancer free after multiple surgeries. In the years since she had regular check-ups and she was well now, allowing her to live her life and making her optimistic about the future. She thought about the cancer only when she had check-ups, each time crossing her fingers, praying to the universe and hoping for the best outcome.

She was more at peace with herself than ever before, she had reinvented her painting career; her son had excelled in his studies, he had been head hunted as a young journalist and was now out into the big wide world, reporting from an overseas post. Hope’s home was in a picturesque seaside suburb of Melbourne, her small flat doubling as her studio. Her personal life had been ordered as she had had no time to mourn leaving Jason behind or even miss her beloved Greece, she was busy concentrating on getting well and struggling to set up a life back in Australia after an absence of more than ten years. But when she was not doing all that, it seemed Jason was always on her mind; it was as if he would not allow her to forget him. He rang about once a week to ask about her health, her life and even though he could not be near her physically during her ordeal, Hope felt he had been there spiritually. She knew she would never forget this man who had taught her so much about the power of love and what it can overcome; he had taught her about life even though he was fifteen years younger than her. In the years that followed, and via their phone conversations, they had developed a relationship away from the intense physical one they had shared. They learned more about each other from afar than when they had been together with their bodies constantly entwined. They now had the luxury of time and the luxury of distance where lust did not impede on the friendship. Hope had not wanted Jason to see her in the first year she was ill and asked that they not use FaceTime, and even now that she had recovered they did not do that; it had become easier to just talk. She welcomed this, as not seeing him somehow protected her emotions; she did not have to look upon his beauty. Hope’s mouth twisted into a smile, wondering if he had changed physically, if he had let himself go. He was just over thirty now and even though she knew this was unlikely as he had always exercised, she still pondered; she only wanted to remember him as he was, the perfect male specimen he was when they had parted abruptly.

Hope had fought her feelings for him back then. He was young and broke and she was older than him and scared. But just as they had found their way to be together in more ways than the physical, Hope discovered she had cancer. She left him to return to Melbourne and for him to find his way in life, with the hope that she would recover. She thought of him a lot between their conversations these days, her relationship with him then and now had helped her mature emotionally, to be more accepting of herself. She knew if the cosmos had not conspired against them that they might have had a chance at a life together, but it was always if and Hope did not like the could have scenarios. She needed to control her exterior life, she needed order, she knew she needed that order because her life had been a mess and her interior self-had been, and still was, without order. They exchanged emails often but they had never asked for each other’s home address. All that Hope knew was that he lived in London. He had told her that he had done well in the IT business and had also diversified into property and other ventures. She surmised that he had made a substantial amount of money, she admired how quickly he had gone from very little to what she assumed was multi-millionaire status. She had never volunteered her address to him and he had never asked. But she was aware that he had followed her online as she had tried to follow him.

Hope had not had any serious liaisons since she had recovered. She had a short affair with a nice man who had been good company, they had music in common and the love of books and it was pleasant in the short time it lasted. Hope could not give herself, she felt that no man measured up to Jason, but then again, no man had measured up before Jason. He was the full package in every possible way - beginning with his beauty: he was a Greek god on a Greek island who had pursued her - elevating her worth in her own eyes like no other man had done before in her forty years of life and when they eventually got together. The passion was more than more, if there really is such a thing as more than more. It did help that he was also caring, loving, passionate and intelligent and she seemed to understand in an inner soulful way from the start that this man could never be replaced. For her, there was no man in any corner of this beautiful planet that could ever measure up to Jason. She left this perfect man behind and she often wondered if the universe hadn’t conspired against her, what her life would be like now. Just at that moment in their relationship when she surrendered to him and to her growing feelings, just at that moment when she had forgotten their age difference, at that moment when they began to talk about being together, when he had asked her if she would mind living in London and she was considering the logistics, just then the dyke broke. Dimitri, her son, had decided to finish his studies in Australia, cancer made its presence known, she needed the comfort of Melbourne and to be close to the only family she had, her son. Jason was just beginning his civilian life after finishing his national service and she had to let him go and explore his future. After all that, life continued with its changes and after five years, with two hemispheres separating them, Hope still felt him in her heart. She did not know if it was love or just the memory of this amazing man; she could still smell him and on her own bed at night she often felt his arms around her like a friendly ghost who helped her sleep. She knew she would always have him close to her.

Yes, Hope remembered late at night with Jason’s imaginary arms around her, she reminisced how they had got together on that mysterious Greek island, a summer island sexual encounter that had turned into a bond so hard to break. She had been afraid of the age difference, she felt it was too big and it had made her insecure and unstable in the way she loved him. Jason did not seem to notice the age difference, but for Hope it was only when they were alone together that she forgot the age difference. These days she looked back at the woman she had been with him and knew she was intimidated, not just by the age difference, but also by his beauty. She would often ask him why he was not with a younger woman and he told her over and over again that he wanted to be with her.

She had become aware how trivial her argument was, how fragile life was, she had not heeded this when Jason had told her that he had lost his parents and his sister in a car accident when he was only ten years old. She had to come face to face with her own mortality to understand this, to think back and remember a man who somehow had embedded this in his everyday living, who understood that love is the now and if the now is not understood there is no after. Jason had proven to be more sophisticated and grown up than she was. Jason’s parents, in their wisdom, had put aside money so he could get an education and he did not disappoint their memory, he got the best education in the UK, maybe living away from home and in a big sophisticated city like London had helped to make him into the man he was. She eventually realised that she had never been loved so completely, she had never loved with such intensity, she had put it all down to lust and refused to look at the love they shared till the very end. And still with some trepidation, she knew just before they parted how precious he was and how lucky she was to have had him in her life.

Hope had now poured all her energy and her passion into her work; she had been making a big effort to rejuvenate her art career. Her son had moved on to make his own way into the world although Hope felt she needed to still keep a close eye on him, much to Dimitri’s frustration. However, she was smart enough to know that she had to back off and allow him to be the man that he was, very mature, centered, responsible and hardworking, who often helped her more than she had helped him. He graduated with high honours and had a master’s degree, and after gaining a lucrative position with one of the television stations as a reporter, he was laying out a very successful journalistic career. She was overwhelmed with pride for her only child. He was posted overseas and Hope missed him but she still mothered him whenever he came back into the country. She really wished he did not take these assignments overseas.

Her flat was small; it had a living/dining area, only one bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen. She kept the bedroom clear of any art, it was where she relaxed, read her books, watched a little television and slept. She had originally intended the dining area to be her workspace but the work had leaked itself to the rest of the flat, except her bedroom; she had somehow managed to keep that space free of art rubble. She had a couch in the living area and a small coffee table where she often sat, relaxed, had some tea, looked and pondered over her work in progress and made decisions on how to continue. Her home had become her sanctuary, she woke early to utilise all of the daylight, she was disciplined and she worked hard producing a large show once a year. Her great love for music was always there with her, if she was asked what she would take to a deserted island, it would be music. With music she came alive and her taste covered a large repertoire, music was always playing in her studio and often reminded her of Jason because they used to listen to music together. He came from that Greek island of Corfu with a tradition of the serenade and the brass bands: his heritage had music in its DNA.

She missed Jason every waking hour but she had not mourned losing him. She tried to rationalise this by telling herself that she could not mourn because he never belonged to her in the first place and that maybe in the end he was taken away from her because she could not have given him what he had a right to have and that he might one day need, a normal family with children. They had made that child accidentally but her cancer and the loss of her uterus took it away from them. The universe was telling her that she was not allowed to have him and even though she missed him, she wished that he would find love and enjoy the life he deserved and she knew that she would be happy to hear about this if it happened to him.

For numerous complex reasons she was glad she was back in Melbourne. It was a beautiful city and she also felt secure and comfortable living here. She loved Athens, but her life there had been very lonely; she never truly fitted in as a Greek of the Diaspora but she loved being surrounded by the organised chaos that was the city. Athens was a city of great beauty, excessive ugliness and at the same time full of surprises and great culture. Melbourne was the opposite, it had great beauty, hardly any ugliness, one had to search for the ugly, there was no chaos, it was an ordered disciplined city and Melbourne suited her loner status. As she got older, she had learned to balance her Greek soul with her Australian logic. She had never wanted to remarry and often people around her in both of the cultures she belonged to considered this odd, but she always knew she was different, she had no struggle with that difference, in fact she often felt blessed to have this second person in her even though it made it hard to make friends. Her duality always seemed to get in the way and yet again Hope struggled with keeping people in her life. Whilst friendship was important, Hope knew she only needed two or three friends and she always had Pétro, who had been in her life it seemed forever and since coming back to Melbourne she had met Anthí and not only had they become friends but had created a very good business relationship as Anthí was the owner of the gallery where Hope exhibited her work.

At last Hope felt settled after many years. She felt secure and comfortable since she had come face to face with her own mortality. She felt that she was doing the right thing for her son by being in Melbourne as Dimitri had his father here and it was important to be part of the extended family as she had no family to give him and did not want to deprive Dimitri of such a large chunk of his life.

But most of all Hope needed order in her surroundings as she had never had any order in her head or her heart, her head was full and always confused her and her heart had space for a select few.

Chapter 2

That fateful summer long ago on the Aegean Island had been a catalyst in Jason’s life; he went from a young man to a mature man in the space of just a few months. Growing up with his grandparents on his island of birth in western Greece, he would not have imagined how meeting a woman one summer while doing his national service would make such profound changes to him, re-assessing life, love, and most of all pain. He never imagined that love could be so whole and painful all at once. Finding women to sleep with had always been easy for Jason, he had been blessed with good looks; kelp-coloured eyes that had yellow flecks in them that would sparkle when he looked at a woman. He had been a dedicated martial arts exponent since a very young age, giving him a body that women would salivate over. He was intelligent and street smart all in one package, but most of all he had been brought up by two wise older people who had taught him how to respect women. His grandparents were to him the benchmark of understanding real love and caring since he had lost his parents at a very young age.

For the last five years he had struggled trying to remove Hope from his heart, he’d had a few good moments when he thought he could and each time he’d thought that he had expelled her something would happen, he would see something, hear a piece of music, read something, all the things that triggered the memory of her back to the forefront of his psyche and once again his heart was back to her hazel eyes, her melodious laughter, and most of all her smell. When her essence assailed him from so far away it was as if her body was still wrapped around him. It was a silent and eerie feeling sometimes, feeling her presence in her absence; he would dream about her but never dreamt of her in a sexual way, he saw her eyes, heard her laugh, felt her soft silk velvet skin and saw the smattering of tiny freckles on the bridge of her nose. He never woke up aroused from these dreams but rather with pain in his heart and a knot in his stomach.

A smattering of women had come and gone in the five years, all brief interludes, he didn’t take the time to get to know any of these women, he was too busy building a small business which he wanted to construct into a big empire. Some of these women were beautiful and intelligent, some were just one or the other but none were Hope; his heart needed her so it could function again. The meetings with these women were a way to distract him from thinking of Hope but all this managed to do was to have the opposite effect and as the years went by he had needed to be with a woman less and less because he realised that Hope had left and taken a part of him with her that he knew he could never replace.

Jason rang Hope regularly but he never had FaceTime with her, he did not want to look into her gentle eyes, he was terrified of what he would see in them, he felt guilty every day of these last five years, he condemned himself for having to leave her when she got sick; in so many ways he loved her still and maybe even more now. Via phone calls and emails, he wanted to gauge that fighting spirit of hers because he knew she would survive whatever obstacle life put in her path. He could hear in her voice that she was in a good place now, but then again she had never complained even when she was told she had cancer. She packed her bags and left to go and get well, she wanted to get well and in her mind, she needed to get back to Melbourne to mend and that’s what she did. He had never imagined anyone could be so brave when confronted with cancer. Back in Australia she had her son and Jason suspected that she also needed to return in case things did not come out well for her. She’d had multiple major surgeries in the first year and even when