‘There is something wrong?’
Caught up in her thoughts, Faye hadn’t realised he was looking at her. Rather intently, like he could read her mind. Perhaps she shouldn’t beat around thekalamákiaand get this truth-seeking mission going.
‘I don’t know,’ Faye said. ‘Is there?’ Now she was sounding as cryptic as Katerina had earlier. ‘You said, last night, there was something you wanted to tell me.’
She watched his body language, ready to pick up on anything, because she had obviously missed a whole lot since their very first encounter. He was still looking at her, no visible change in its fervent nature…
‘Yeah,’ he answered. ‘But I don’t think we need to talk about that right now.’ He held out his hand. ‘Shall I pour the good wine?’
Evasive. She passed the bottle over and watched him take two glasses off the shelf and begin to fill them.
‘Well, if it’s important then I want to listen so?—’
‘I went to see my grandmother again today,’ Kostas said, passing her a glass.
‘Is she OK?’ Faye asked him.
‘She can apparently live a wonderful and complete life without a coffee machine or a television,’ he said, picking up asouvlakistick and tearing the meat off with his teeth.
‘Wow, that is some real pure grounding advice there.’
‘And she is right, maybe?’
Now he was looking at Faye as if he really wanted her to consider her life without access to Netflix or Nescafé. Was his gigantic holiday complex going to serve series boxsets by osmosis and freddo cappuccino by IV?
He sighed when she didn’t immediately reply and put the bare stick down on the plate. ‘I bought her this stuff and, I don’t know, I think my grandmother hates things that make you have to use your brain less. No television – you have to find other things to look at or give your attention to – the outside, books, games, people from every walk of life. No coffee machine – well, you have to make coffee the same way they have been making it in Greece for decades. Maybe the changes we make should reflect a life that still needs us to interact with it more, not less.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Yeah, I know I’m not making sense right now but, Faye, I promise you, in a few days, I am going to tell you exactly what my plans are here in Corfu.’ He smiled. Warm. Genuine looking. ‘And it will mean I have to spend more time here, you know.’
She swallowed, the vision of those reams of maps and plans and architects’ drawings raining down on her brain like someone had made them into Polaroids and ripped them up into confetti. Spend more time here. Destroying with diggers.
‘With you,’ Kostas said, his tone soft and deliciously sexy. ‘I hope.’
Faye couldn’t do it any more, couldn’t hold it in. ‘With me?’ she spat. ‘Or with a massive workforce scything through the woodland at Erimitis, killing habitats and eco-systems, constructing a total eyesore for millionaires like you to play with just because you can? Or were you hoping to swing on the wrecking ball with me when you send it pounding into Hotel Margaritári and demolish it?’
57
By the time she had delivered the final sentence of her impassioned explosion, Kostas could see she was shaking with emotion. She was hurt. He had hurt her. And there was nothing he could do to deny that to her or to himself. He simply nodded. ‘OK.’
‘OK?’ she exclaimed. ‘Is that really all you have to say? Kosta! I’ve seen the plans in your room! You came to Corfu, to Avlaki, to destroy the countryside, just like someone already tried to do before! But worse! Your idea is bigger, more horrible, more celebrity-y, I’m surprised you don’t have donkey milk in the pools instead of water! It’s a disgusting display of wealth! Are your luxurious clients going to need a special runway for their private jets or is the state-of-the-art marina enough?’
He took a swig of wine from his glass. ‘Please, do not stop. I want to hear it all.’
This was what he had wanted to hear from his grandmother, and he knew she had felt his betrayal far more deeply than she had let him know. But she was perhaps too close, too affected by the family situation to deal the blows he knew were warranted. He wanted these words of pain like a stab to the heart and he wanted Faye to deliver them.
‘What?’
‘Yell at me. Tell me what kind of person would do that. I want to hear it.’
‘Only a monster would do that,’ Faye told him bluntly. ‘I told you how I felt about the people behind the last attempt to develop that land. It was all about greed and fuck everything else.’
‘Well, maybe this time it was about a monster creating a monster and maybe that creation needed a harsh reality check from an island and its people who have never truly been anything but supportive.’ He wasn’t going to pass the buck to anyone else. These plans, all the decisions surrounding them, they were on him alone.
‘Just tell me, is it true?’ Faye asked bluntly. ‘What I’ve seen. The marina and resort plan?’
He nodded. ‘Yes.’
