‘Can we not be honest and not tell Dimitria I called you amaláka?’
‘Are you not going to offer me a complaint form?’
She swallowed, not knowing what to say. She couldn’t seem to get an accurate read on Kostas Petsas and that bothered her. She used to be so good at getting a sense of someone but, since the breakdown of her marriage, and the person she thought she knew best turning into someone unrecognisable, or perhaps finally revealing who he had always been, she sometimes doubted her instincts.
‘Hey,’ he said, waving a hand in front of her eyes like she was in a trance. ‘This is not how we should be in “paradise” as you called it.’
‘You don’t think it’s paradise,’ she answered him.
‘Convince me it is,’ he said.
She smiled. ‘Like a Jet2 holiday advert? Or the piece on the hotel website Dimitria paid way too much money for someone to write. Someone who had never been here.’ She sighed. ‘I’m not going to convince you it’s paradise.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because paradise is a depth of feeling, not something to be negotiated.’
‘OK, so why not tell me why this place is paradise to you.’
She shuddered. Too personal. Not something she wanted to give up to someone she couldn’t read yet. She’d have to lie. Artfully. Because one thing she could tell about Kostas was that he was smart.
‘It’s just beautiful, isn’t it?’ Faye said, spreading her arms again. ‘The beautiful blue sea and the beautiful blue sky.’
‘I do not think I have ever heard someone use “beautiful” so many times so close together.’
Smart. Tuned in when he wasn’t on his phone. And she had sold it very poorly.
‘Well, why don’t you tell me what you don’t like about it,’ she suggested, taking steps towards the water’s edge.
‘I do not think I said I did not like it. Just that maybe “paradise” was a strong word for a beach with no facilities.’
‘Facilities?’ Faye queried. ‘There are twotavernasand water sports – boats, paddleboards?—’
‘Wow, twotavernas.’
‘What did you expect? A multiplex cinema and a valet for your car? This is Corfu, not California.’
‘Narrow-minded and uncompromising. Nothing has changed.’
‘So “paradise” to you is noise and options?’
‘And you get excited by a whole lot of nothingness?’
‘I take back my earlier apology,’ Faye snapped uncompromisingly. ‘You are amaláka.’
She watched those oddly green, crazily brown eyes flash.
‘Say that again. With your chest, Mrs Lawson.’
He was eye-to-eye with her now, laying down a challenge. Well, she was angry. She loved this place. It wasn’t only her paradise. It was her refuge and her sanctuary and she didn’t like the way this ‘celebrity’ was dissing it. It was uncalled for and rude. He was rude. But he was a customer and something was already afoot with her boss. She needed to think with her head and not deliver with her mouth.Mouth. Why was she looking at Kostas’s mouth? Why was he still looking at her like that? Like that?
She jumped as the sea washed over her toes.
‘Ah, the sea of paradise just got your feet wet,’ he commented. ‘I think you have made it angry.’
‘I think you’ve made it angry.’
‘Have I made you angry?’
