Faye lost count with the stock she was checking at the pool bar the next morning. It was another beautifully warm day, clear blue sky, guests filling the sunbeds and conversation declaring the cool water was fine ‘once you were in’ filling the air.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Katerina exclaimed, suddenly in the space behind the bar with all her vast hair and energy. ‘I am so annoyed with you right now! I thought we were close friends and now the whole of Corfu gets to see before I have any idea! How did you keep this from me? Literally how? Because I am an expert at picking up clues and I had no idea! OK, friendship redemption is possible but only if you give me all the details, and I mean all the details!’
‘Breathe, Katerina. What’s going on and what have I done that’s so awful?’ She adjusted a vodka bottle on the shelf.
‘Skata!You haven’t seen the Corfu News page this morning! Well, not that it’s breaking news for you seeing as you’re in the photos but?—’
‘What photos?’
Suddenly Faye felt deeply uneasy about whatever was coming next. She held her breath as Katerina got out her phone and began pressing the screen until: ‘Here! Look!’
Her friend passed over the phone and, as Faye looked at the screen, her face hit a deeper shade of red than a ripe Greek tomato. It was a picture of her and Kostas from last night in Corfu Town, their kiss after the ice creams. She scrolled down. There was another one of them at his statue surrounded by the crowd of people… She scanned the article accompanying the photos.Older woman.The new Cruz Beckham. She didn’t want to read any more.
‘You and Kostas Petsas are dating!’ Katerina yelled at full volume.
‘No,’ Faye said straightaway. ‘No, we aren’t.’
Katerina looked confused. ‘What? So, you fell into each other’s faces?’ She took her phone back and zoomed in on the photos. ‘And this one, you cannot see very well, but it looks to me like you are holding hands. If I zoom in a bit more I can?—’
‘Please, Katerina, don’t zoom in any more.’ She felt panicked. This was public. She didn’t want it to be public. Here in Avlaki, doing her job, being seen with a VIP guest, it was open to interpretation. But the photos of them kissing… How were they going to explain that away?
‘Why didn’t you tell me? Because it might have been embarrassing if I had decided to sneak into his room and jump naked from his closet one night.’
Faye wrinkled her brow. ‘Were you planning on doing that?’
‘I would have planned on doing that if he had been Christoforos Papakaliatis.’
What should she do first? Had everyone she knew here seen the photos already? Fani had smiled at her a little differently earlier this morning, but Faye had taken that as a good sign that harmony was being restored in the kitchen. She needed to head this off. Yes, that’s what she did all the time in her work role, dealt with potential problems before they became actual problems.
‘So, what is he like?’ Katerina asked, elbows on the bar top, eyes wide, eyebrows raised. ‘Tell me about every inch of him if you know what I mean.’
‘Katerina!’
‘Do not pretend you do not know. I zoomed in on those photos in all the right places and it was clear to me that there was a lot waiting to be explored.’
‘OK, I have to go,’ Faye said. ‘Can you look after things here?’
‘Go? Go where? We have a meeting in thirty minutes about the Greek music night.’
Faye was already leaving the bar area, only damage limitation on her mind.
42
KOSTAS’S SUITE, HOTEL MARGARITÁRI, AVLAKI
Kostas sipped at his Americano and looked at the photos of him and Faye again. He had already seen them on his phone but Stathis was here now, article up on his laptop, photos enlarged as they sat at the table on the outside terrace.
‘It’s not good,’ Stathis stated. ‘Terrible timing, Kosta. We were trying to gain public confidence. We had such fantastic PR from the kids coming here and now you’re in the news like this.’
‘Like what?’ he asked. He was deliberately goading his advisor. He wanted to know exactly Stathis’s opinion on the pictures and the bullshit article.
‘Come on, Kosta. You don’t need me to spell it out for you.’
‘Maybe I do.’
‘You are a public figure, Kosta, retirement or no retirement, you know that. You have to make sure that everything you make public is curated to give you the best possible outcome, particularly when you are about to embark on such an ambitious and contentious project.’
‘And?’
