‘Faye has hurt her hand. We should put this in the incident book,’ Katerina said to Dimitria. ‘That’s right, isn’t it? That is what it says in the staff handbook.’
‘It’s fine,’ Faye said, still wrapped up in her own limbs. ‘I don’t know how many times I need to say “it’s fine” but, right now, I feel I’m going for a world record.’ She smiled at Dimitria and noticed her boss looked a little wistful. ‘Is everything OK?’
‘Ne,’ Dimitria replied. ‘Yes. But, if you have a moment, there is something I would like to discuss with you.’
She sounded serious. The kind of serious where Faye wondered if she had done something wrong. Could it be she knew what had happened in the suite? They hadn’t been that loud, had they?
‘Walk with me?’ Dimitria requested.
Faye said nothing more but came around the reception desk, unravelling herself.
‘Saffron got here OK?’ Dimitria asked as they walked out into the hotel grounds and stepped on to the grass, starting to yellow in patches with the heat.
‘Yes,’ Faye said. ‘It was a bit of a palaver but, yes, sorry, I should have texted you to let you know but I was still answering emails late and then?—’
Dimitria waved a hand, dismissing the conversation. ‘Faye, I know you work hard, you do not have to explain everything to me.’
‘OK,’ Faye answered. ‘So, what happened with Alexandros? Is that what you want to talk to me about?’ She had an urge to cross her fingers behind her back.
‘Yes,’ Dimitria said.
‘Did he think you could get a good price for the house? Was the condition it’s in better than you thought?’
Dimitria sighed. ‘We hit… a stumbling block.’
‘Oh?’
They stopped walking by the circular patch of wildflowers the hotel had planted to encourage butterflies.
‘I… could not do it,’ Dimitria said, voice shaking a little. ‘I know I do not visit. I know I do not want to live there again, but the way Alexandros was talking about its potential for extension, a swimming pool as it is on a buildable plot, and what other modifications people would be wanting to make, I just started to feel like someone was going to rip the heart out of what had been mine and Spiros’s home and the more he talked the more it felt like my own heart was being taken from inside of me.’
As she breathed hard, Dimitria put her hand to her chest, as if she wanted to keep everything inside.
‘Oh, Dimitria,’ Faye said. ‘I should have been there with you.’
‘No,’ Dimitria said, shaking her head. ‘It would not have made a difference if you were there.’
‘Well, I might have been able to stop Alexandros from banging on about “improvements” and “swimming pools” because he obviously can’t read a room if he thought that’s what you needed to hear.’
‘He was just doing his job,’ Dimitria said, fingertips brushing the long grass. ‘And, in the end, he offered an alternative. One I had considered. But perhaps one I did not want to really face.’
Now the concern wriggled in Faye’s belly like a pre-butterfly caterpillar.
‘Faye, I do not want you to worry. You know that I will always, always look after you and Saffron, no matter what happens, but…’
‘But?’ She had hardly got the word out of her mouth, her insides were shaking.
‘Alexandros suggested I think seriously about selling the hotel.’
She’d known it was coming. On some level she had known. She wanted to grab the grass too now; no, not firm enough, she needed to grab the trunk of a strong tree. Her roots felt like they were being gnawed at by hungry stone martens.Stand strong. Be the unwavering woman you have made yourself.
‘Faye, you are wobbling,’ Dimitria said, putting a hand on Faye’s arm and holding on tight.
‘No, no, I’m fine.’
‘Faye, you are not fine. I know exactly how you are feeling and there is no need to pretend any other way.’
‘It’s your hotel, Dimitria,’ Faye said, voice a touch robotic. ‘And it’s your life, your future and?—’
