Faye caught the nostalgia in Dimitria’s tone. She was right, and perhaps Faye should have thought about this earlier. For all the fruit basket, buggy craziness this guest had brought to the hotel so far, she perhaps should have suggested some mutually good PR. Except he had been very clear on privacy…
‘And here he is!’ Dimitria said, clapping her hands together.
Faye’s eyes went to the door. Kostas and his friend, plus a woman.
* * *
‘So, I will go in and meet the photographer and the reporter when they get here and lay the foundations so to speak,’ Stathis told Kostas, slapping him on the back.
‘Yeah, OK, good.’ He had had three espressos and still his brain felt like it had been boiled in tequila. He watched his friend enter the conference room and then he turned to Roula.
‘OK, so a car is coming to take you wherever you need to go,’ Kostas said.
‘You do not even remember where I said I lived,’ she answered.
‘Does it matter? If I remember correctly you were only looking for “short-term fun”.’
‘And it was absolutely no fun,’ she answered hard.
He swallowed. ‘Listen, Roula, I?—’
‘You remember my name. Bravo.’
‘Listen, I know nothing happened but I would still appreciate your discretion and?—’
‘I would have appreciated you not wasting my time but here we are.’
Kostas looked to the door. Faye was on her way over. This day hated him.
‘Kaliméra, I’m Faye, the hotel manager. Can I get you coffee? Pastries? Anything else?’
Now Kostas wanted the floor to open up and swallow him and his tequila brain as Faye offered her hand to Roula.
‘No, thank you,’ Roula replied, shaking Faye’s hand briefly. ‘But if I could tell you discreetly…’ She lowered her voice. ‘The mattresses here. They make more noise under pressure than the VIP guest the morning after the night before.’
Now Kostas actually wanted to die; his stomach flooded with sickness, and there was bile at the bottom of his throat. Nothing may have happened but when he had swiped right on Roula’s profile and invited her to the hotel, he had wanted it to. And this was nothing more than he deserved.
Faye smiled, coolly. ‘Thank you. I will add a mattress audit to my to-do list.’
‘Great,’ Roula said. ‘And I will add this guy to my never-to-do-again list.Ta léme.’ She headed towards the exit.
Kostas didn’t know what to say, but he had to say something. He went to speak but Faye beat him to it.
‘There are almost one hundred children in my conference room waiting to meet someone they think is a sporting hero. If there’s one thing I definitely know now, it’s that you can put on a good show.’
And with that said, she led the way into the conference room.
31
‘Is he really that famous?’ Saffron asked. ‘Like Kylie Jenner famous?’ She sipped at her frappe as Faye was eyes down on the booking system on her phone, attempting to move a group of guests who had made a complaint about a grasshopper. One grasshopper. The conference room was still busy, over an hour on, people – adults and children – buzzing around like they were being given the chance for an audience with Jesus.
‘I don’t think anyone is that kind of famous in Greece. We have different priorities here,’ Faye reminded her.
‘But hundreds of people have turned out to see him. This guy who chased me on his motorbike and almost punched Dad’s friend.’
And Faye was still waiting to see if there was going to be any backlash from Matthew about that. It wasn’t Matthew’s style to immediately jump on information. He was a processor. He liked to sit and mull and then think of the best possible way to use the opportunity to his advantage.
‘Basketball is very popular here,’ Faye stated.
