‘So, it has taken Saffron only ten minutes to find you a cat,’ Dimitria remarked as they stood on the back terrace of the little house, only footsteps from the water.
Faye looked to Saffron, a few metres away, running around in circles, a small black and white cat at her heels.
‘I’m surprised it took that long,’ Faye replied.
‘No, this is Greece, after all,’ Dimitria agreed. ‘But, Faye, this place. It is like it was made for you. Even the style it is now. It is plain but homely, it is organised, but it has things in all the right ways. The cute kitchen, the bedrooms are a good size, a dining area and the archway with the sofa and TV, and this outside space facing the sea.’
Faye nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘Then what is wrong, Fayemou? Has something happened I do not know about?’ Dimitria asked.
She shook her head. She had made up her mind not to say anything to Dimitria about Kostas’s plans yet. She wanted to see this businessman make his offer for buying the hotel and watch Dimitria tell him where he could stick it. If he even had the balls to turn up. And, whatever happened at that meeting, afterwards she was going to tell Katerina to leak the news to the press. If there was even the remotest chance of the project gaining any traction, they needed to strike first and get ahead of the game.
‘No, just perhaps a little anxious about the meeting this afternoon,’ Faye said.
‘Me too,’ Dimitria admitted. ‘I know it was my idea to sell but it has to be the right offer, you know, not just the most money, but the right person with solid ideas, even if it means changing its purpose.’
Changing its purpose.
‘You really don’t think the new owner will keep it as a hotel?’ Faye asked.
‘I would love that to be the case. But who knows.’ She sat down on the low wall that separated the terrace from the grassland leading to the beach. ‘And I know, with you thinking about buying a place of your own, you need a secure job, but Faye, I am confident there will be many opportunities for you, even if the worst happens. I know people have been trying to steal you from me for years.’
‘Don’t worry about me, Dimitria.’ She sighed. She was concerned about having no job obviously, but there were far bigger things at play here. ‘I know we can’t be… naïve.’ There was that word again. ‘But you wouldn’t want to sell the hotel if, you know, someone wanted to… I don’t know… knock it down.’
‘Well, I suppose that might be a consideration…’ She paused for a second before carrying on. ‘…if the person making the offer was Mr Petsas, ready to tear through the centre of Erimitis exactly like the developers who tried before.’
Faye gasped. ‘You know!’
‘And you know! And you haven’t told me!’ Dimitria fired back.
Saffron looked over from her play with the cat and both women waved a hand and made appropriate noises of encouragement.
‘Katerina came to me. But you should have, Faye, the moment you found out.’
‘I didn’t know what to say to you,’ Faye admitted. ‘And I didn’t know how to say it, and I also didn’t want to think about how I somehow facilitated all this by being there for him.’
‘This isn’t your fault. How could it be? I didn’t know why he was here. I hoped it was with good intentions, to see his grandmother, to do things like the photo opportunity he did with the children; how should I know he was planning whatever this is? And I asked you to look after him!’
Faye nodded. ‘And I fell right into his lap… trap, I meant trap.’
It would have been mildly funny if her feelings weren’t burnt and bruised and aching with regret for allowing him space inside them. She hurt. A lot. Definitely more than she should.
‘You asked him about it?’ Dimitria asked.
She nodded. ‘Last night.’
‘And what did he say?’
‘A whole lot of nothing much.’ She sighed, determined to keep her emotions in check. ‘Just admitted it was his plan, the reason he was here.’
Dimitria shook her head. ‘O po po.’ It was a phrase of disbelief and disappointment. ‘And you think that is why he was… close to you?’
Faye sighed, disappointment in herself still renting space in her stomach. She nodded. ‘It should have been obvious to me. A guy like that with all his status and his money and, I don’t know, probably hundreds of matches on Tinder. I mean, he brought someone to the hotel, and that was fine because I don’t know what I thought we were and…’ And she was talking far too much about a failed situationship when she should be totally focussed on the fact Kostas was planning to order in heavy-duty excavating equipment. ‘Anyway, that isn’t important. What’s important is us putting a stop to his plans, right?’
‘I do not believe he is going to meet us at Cavo Barbaro and tell us these intentions and expect a favourable outcome to his offer for the hotel,’ Dimitria said, waving at Saffron again.
Faye breathed a sigh of relief she didn’t even know had been giving weight to her chest. ‘I am so glad you said that.’
