The feta cheese in Faye’s mouth tasted a little sour suddenly. Why did it sound like her daughter was insinuating she was one breath away from a care home? Perhaps she should have taken Alexandros’s number after all…
‘I mean you need someone with the same interests as you.’
‘Are you going to suggest a nice cream tea or a garden centre trip?’
‘What?’
Faye bit back any next words that might be forming. She was being oversensitive… wasn’t she? ‘I don’t really know if I want to share my life with anyone again, Saff.’
‘Well, you don’t have to share your whole life with someone. And it would be a struggle in this tiny apartment to be honest. But you could have age-appropriate fun. Like you had with Dad.’
‘Wow. OK.’ Now nerves were being pinched.
‘Nan does pottery classes,’ Saffron said.
‘That’s nice.’
‘And she’s going to Bruges with her friends on one of those organised coach trips. You know, so you don’t have to think about what sights to see for yourself.’
OK, that was enough. ‘Saffron, Nan is retired. She’s almost eighty. I am not. I have a job, a good job that keeps me busy and my mind active so I don’t get dementia and I have fun. Fun that people can actually have at any age!’ She picked up her wine and had a large swig.
Saffron went quiet, forked around with her salad, looked much younger than her age… It was her first night back in Corfu; Faye didn’t want to argue and she knew how draining time with Matthew and his mother could be.
‘Would you like to sleep in my bed?’ Faye asked softly.
Saffron’s face lit up. ‘Oh, Mum, are you sure you don’t mind?’
‘No, I don’t mind. The sofa bed isn’t as bad as you’re making out. I’ll be fine on that.’
‘Well, we can talk about that in the morning but don’t say I didn’t warn you,’ Saffron said, smiling.
23
It was 1a.m. and Kostas couldn’t sleep. It was how he had used to get before some big matches. Nerves. Adrenaline. Expectation. It was exactly the same with this project after he and Stathis had really hit the details hard over dinner at the othertavernaon the beach here, Avlaki Taverna. But now his brain couldn’t switch off and it wasn’t feeding him positivity, it was offering him the very opposite; all the things that could go wrong, all the scenarios where he ended up struggling to survive.
He sat up straighter in bed, refocussed on his phone in his hand. Roula, twenty-four. She had ‘liked’ him on Tinder and he had been looking at her photos for far longer than he usually did before he inevitably swiped left to move on. She was only seven kilometres away. Looking for short-term fun. How long had it been since he had met someone in-person instead of having mediocre sexting? Maybe too long…
The sound of breaking glass stopped him from swiping any which way and, dropping his phone onto the bed, he parted the sheet he was under and padded to the open balcony doors. He’d turned off the air-conditioning tonight, opting for the natural drop in overnight temperature which was just enough to stop perspiration. Reaching the balustrade, he looked out over the grounds. There was someone down there, pulling at a sun lounger, moving around in the dark like they were up to no good. He should call the police, or, at very least, reception. Or he could go down himself. He was only in his underwear but his sliders were right there on the tiles…
* * *
He’d jogged, from his suite, down the steps, into the grounds. What was his plan next? He slowed his pace, silenced his footfall on the grass, watched the figure moving around. They were on all fours now, hands reaching out for something. Was this a medical episode? OK, it was time to let his presence be known…
‘Hey!’
There was a scream and the person fell sideways, giving a secondary noise, a yelp of pain. As they rolled onto their back, Kostas saw exactly who it was. Faye.
‘Faye,ti sto kaló káneis? What the hell are you doing?’
‘I… I think I’m bleeding.’
‘What?’
He rushed forward then. Why was it so dark? There was no light apart from the moon and there was nothing coming from any of the apartments or the main hotel building either.
‘I smashed a jug,’ Faye said, trying to sit up. ‘I’ve got most of it I think but please… tell me you have shoes on because?—’
‘There is a power cut?’ he asked.
