SECTION 1: LIMNOS & ISTANBUL. Liz and Erdal. If Liz peered obliquely out of Jules’ long bedroom window she could just see him drinking his first Retsina at Lefteri ‘s, lower down the quay. Behind her, on the rumpled bed, lay her suitcase full of summer dresses and white underclothes.
‘Shoes,’ she thought, and looked under the bed.
She chose a pair of sandals, two pairs of dark-blue elegants and a pair of ridiculously high-heels for evenings. If indeed there were going to be any evenings, which seemed increasingly doubtful as the complexities of ‘Turkey Today (Provisional Title Only)’ unfolded themselves.
‘Above all try to make some sense out of their economy,’ her producer had said. ‘That’s what people expect from you. Facts and figures and go easy on purple nights across the Bosphorus.’
A hoarse hoot announced the arrival of the steamer from Rhodes that was going to take her back on its return journey, so she muttered ‘That’ll have to do’ to herself, packed her shoes and locked up. Jules, she knew, was sulking, as he always did when she had to go away, and that was why he had gone early to Lefteri’s and left her to walk her suitcase down on her own.
”Do not forget passport, tickets, credit cards and condoms,” he said, as she dumped the case at his feet. Liz thrust back her long straw-coloured hair and pretended to be more hot and bothered than she was, just as he was exaggerating his French accent…