He bent, putting the badge back at the foot of the statue. ‘I think we need to make progress.’ He straightened up. ‘I trust you. Let’s get it done.’
‘Good!’ Stathis said, slapping a hand on Kostas’s back. ‘Right, let us head for that coffee and start the basketball rolling, yes?’
Kostas looked his bronze image in the eye and took a second to remember who he had been in this depiction. An advert for strength, for determination, for success. Those things could still be his. That’s what he had to make happen.
27
CAVO BARBARO, AVLAKI
Faye looked out over the moonlit water from their table closest to the beach. She thought the darkening sky was sometimes more beautiful than the bright, cloudless blue of the day. It was atmospheric, somehow looked like it was holding dreams or secrets amid its varying hues of inky streaks. She was only half-listening to Dimitria’s conversation with Alexandros as she took in the delicate nuances of the cove. Its sounds – the rush and shush of the water as it embraced the pebbles, the chirp of the crickets. Its scents – the deep, sweet fragrance of blooming red roses in thetaverna’sgarden, the heavy humidity with a dash of sea salt. There were so many memories attached to this place – Saffron trying prawns for the very first time, the day a hornet tried to share their beach towel and Matthew got stung, her drinking a bottle of retsina by the shore as she mourned the end of her marriage, her drinking a bottle of much better wine to celebrate becoming the manager at the hotel…
‘What do you think about?’
Faye jumped, Alexandros’s voice close, and she realised he was now sitting next to her and Dimitria was nowhere to be seen. How had that happened?
‘Oh, sorry, I was…’ Her gaze went to the restaurant surroundings, seeking Dimitria amid the other diners, waiters in full swing delivering and collecting plates.
‘Wishing I was not talking about selling the hotel,’ Alexandros filled in for himself.
‘No, well, it’s not an ideal scenario for me, but it’s not my decision to make.’ She took a sip of her wine. ‘Do you think it’s a serious offer? It seems a lot of money, not that I’m an expert on the price of hotels.’
‘I am an expert,’ Alexandros stated with confidence. ‘And the offer is in line with what the agency would market the hotel for, based on size, location, current real estate trends.’ His fingers toyed with the back of Faye’s chair. ‘However, I am convinced we could even get the offer higher.’
‘Really?’
Alexandros laughed then. ‘Faye, surely you know how to negotiate. When you are working out what the hotel will pay for stock, for linen, for staff even.’
‘Of course,’ she answered. ‘But in my negotiations I’m never really setting out to rip anyone off.’
‘To what?’
‘To take advantage. When I negotiate, I’m wanting to get a fair outcome for both parties.’
‘Really? You do not think you should get the best price possible? Perhaps it is a good thing Dimitria is going to sell the hotel,’ Alexandros remarked with a laugh.
His comment irked Faye. ‘I don’t think Dimitria has agreed to sell the hotel yet.’
‘But she will. It is the only thing that makes sense,’ Alexandros stated.
‘In your opinion,’ Faye added.
‘Financially.’
‘And money isn’t everything.’
As the words left her mouth her eyes went to thetaverna’sentrance and there was Kostas and the man who had come to stay with him at the hotel. She had seen him around. Her stomach began knotting itself into rigging. She hadn’t seen Kostas since she had left the suite early this morning after their night together. Obviously she regretted every second because it had been a terrible, terrible lapse in judgement. Although she had also relived every pulse-pounding millisecond of it whenever she wasn’t worrying that she was soon going to have to look for another job and a place to live…
Her eyes dwelled too long and Alexandros turned around, surveying the newcomers.
‘Is that?—’
‘No,’ Faye interrupted, agitated. ‘I mean, yes, it is, but you can’t react. He’s staying at the hotel and it wouldn’t be appropriate. Because he values his privacy and that’s his right and…’ She stopped talking.
Now Alexandros was looking back at her. ‘I am not amaláka, Faye.’
‘No, I know, I just?—’
‘I will let Kostas Petsas eat before I ask for a selfie,’ Alexandros said.
