Faye swallowed. She hadn’t said anything. Why hadn’t she said anything? This was disastrous and it felt like a proposal of confinement and control. She needed to remember just how much she had grown since her divorce. She wasn’t the same person who had left Matthew. She was so much stronger.
‘Well, I know you regard your manager very highly, Dimitria, as do I, but I also know that she isn’t a decision-maker,’ Matthew said.
‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ Faye said, sitting up straighter, pulling in her core. ‘Because whatever Dimitria decides to do about the hotel, I can make my own decision whether I stay in my current position or not.’ She smiled at Dimitria. ‘Should I take the meeting from here?’
Dimitria smiled back and nodded. ‘Yes, please. Thank you, Faye.’
And as Dimitria made her exit from thetaverna, Faye poured herself a glass of water.
62
‘I see old habits die hard,’ Matthew commented as they began to eat.
Faye had ordered the squid. It was her absolute favourite thing on the menu here and the fact Matthew couldn’t stand seafood was going to make it all the more delicious today.
‘I could say the same,’ Faye replied, indicating thesoutzoukákia– meatballs – in front of Matthew. She was actually surprised he hadn’t asked for mustard.
‘Fair play,’ Matthew said. ‘But, you know, yin and yang and all that. That’s why we would still be a good partnership.’
Faye wiped her mouth with her serviette. ‘We aren’t talking about a partnership though. I only work at the hotel. Not a decision-maker as you so rightly pointed out.’
Matthew sighed and put down his fork. ‘I don’t want to fight, Faye. That’s not what I came here to do at all.’
‘So what did you come here to do?’ Faye asked him. ‘Because never once in our married life did you express an interest in investing in a hotel.’
‘I know but… the world is changing and… we’re all getting older and when that happens you start to realise what your priorities are.’
‘And pensions aren’t your happy-ever-after any more?’
‘Well, to be honest, I always thought you were going to be my happy-ever-after.’
‘Matthew,’ Faye said.
‘What?’
‘I don’t know what I’m meant to say to that.’
‘I don’t know what I’m expecting you to say to it if I’m honest.’ He took a deep breath and elongated his frame back into the chair. ‘I don’t know. I guess I’ve been doing a lot of thinking back in England.’
‘OK…’
‘And talking to my mum.’
‘You mean listening. She never usually lets you get too many words in.’
‘She hasn’t changed, Faye, and neither has her opinion on our marriage.’
‘Our divorce,’ Faye corrected.
‘She always said it was a mistake.’
‘And she was wrong.’
‘I’m not so sure.’
‘What?’
Matthew couldn’t mean this, could he? He had been the one to end their marriage. He had been the one to move them from Relate, through separation to the finalisation with utter conviction and determination that had never once wavered.
