Chapter 35
Mia knew the danger of opening her heart to this man. How could she fall for him after he had ruined her family? They never spoke of her father, who even now, was in a sanatorium in Switzerland. But she had to know if he regretted what he had done.
“My father, you destroyed him. Why did you do it?” she asked as he nuzzled her neck. He pulled back, eyes dark as flint.
“Because I could.”
- One Week with the Greek
CALLIE
I was not going to cry, dammit. Not over another man. He wasn’t worth it.
At least that’s what I told myself as I swallowed down the ache in my throat and chest. Buried it under mounds of righteous anger, so I wouldn’t have to feel the drowning emptiness in my gut.
I guess that’s what happens when you let someone take up space inside you, the emptiness you feel when they’re gone.
Or in my case, when you find out it was all a lie. Why did I let myself get swept up in fantasy when cold reality had been staring me in the face since the beginning?
I took a shaky breath and dialed Liv. She picked up after one ring, her voice chipper. “Hey! You’ve been quiet recently. What have you been up to?”
“Oh, you know, the usual. Making bad decisions.”
“Wait, I thought things were going well. Is it Gaz?”
“Ha! If only.” I had forgotten to tell her about getting kicked off the Tastemakers list and quickly filled her in on that particular humiliation.
“That bastard! I swear, next time I’m in London, I’m going to punch him in his smug face.” The image of Liv with her swollen belly attacking Gaz made me laugh. And then I started to cry.
“Cal, what’s wrong?”
“Oh, Liv. I can’t believe I have to say this out loud.” A ragged sob escaped me. “Turns out Nikos is married.”
“What?!”
“Yup, I’ve been sleeping with a married man. I’m that woman now.”
“Okay, wait. Tell me how you found out.” I took a deep breath and explained it all, amazed that I could talk about it like it had happened to some other gullible fool who had let herself catch feelings for a serial liar.
“So that’s that. I continue my streak of falling for shitty men.” It was the first time I’d admitted how I felt about him and saying it out loud made it even worse. I swiped angrily at my tears. “And I just feel so stupid, you know. For not listening to my instincts, for letting him in.”
“Oh, Callie. You’re not stupid. Jake and I both saw how crazy he is about you.” She let me cry more.
“I wish I was there to give you a hug.” She sounded like she was crying too. Such a little empath, my Liv. “Listen, I’m just going to say something, and I don’t want you to get mad. You should talk to him. There must be an explanation, right? His mom said that he and his wife are estranged.”
“There you go, defending him again.” I sniffled petulantly. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I am! But, speaking from experience, it’s terrible to leave things unsaid.”
“I will let him explain, Liv. But my mind is made up. I need to focus on my career. I don’t need a distraction like this right now.
It’s better to nip it in the bud before .
. .” Before I get too attached , I thought but didn’t say out loud because I knew Liv would see it for the lie it was.
I was already too attached . . . and it wasn’t even the right word for how I had let myself feel about him.
* * *
Somehow, I slept like the dead. With a groan I rolled from bed the next morning and shuffled to the kitchen to make myself a pot of strong coffee. I hesitated to go out on the terrace. Nikos would see me and drive his boat over and try to seduce me.
Well, I wasn’t falling for that again. Hoping work would distract me from the permanent lump I’d developed in my throat, I opened my laptop and peeked at my emails.
There was a message from my mom forwarding my aunt Thelma’s family newsletter. Usually it was a hoot, but I couldn’t read about my cousins’ perfect lives when mine resembled a car tire bogged down in mud, spinning wildly in place.
I briefly considered sending my own life update: Callie is barreling toward thirty, banished to a rocky island with only an old donkey for a friend.
She spends her days wandering the hills like a mad woman collecting herbs and fending off the narcissists she keeps attracting.
Her food is mediocre and derivative at best. She should just move back to Ohio and open a Denny’s.
Sinking into self-pity mode wasn’t going to make me feel better. I closed the newsletter and saw a message from Fred titled Urgent!
Oh God, what now?
I opened it.
Dear Ms. McGinn,
I hope all is well since our last call. I am writing to let you know that Mr. Greystone has moved up the meeting with our Greek partners. Gareth and Seth will be arriving the day after next. Please be prepared to show them the site as well as the projected menus, cost analysis, etc.
“Three days!” I groaned. I wasn’t ready yet!
And Gaz’s asshole brother was coming. He’d never liked me.
I could only handle one Greystone at a time—and even that one was too much for me these days.
I started to hyperventilate. Okay, I can do this.
It’s a good thing. I’ll go right to the top, convince Seth of the long-term benefits of my plans.
There was no time to think about handsome, lying doctors. Not when my career was on the line.
I dashed inside to change and raced to the market where I ran into Yiannis and Teresa. I felt a pang of betrayal when I looked at them. How could Teresa not have told me about Nikos’s wife? I found it hard to believe that she would have kept that from me. Unless she didn’t know.
She could tell from my posture that something was wrong. She hit Yiannis on the arm and yelled at him. “What did you do now?”
“He failed to tell me that Nikos is married. Did you know?” I asked her.
“Wife? Not possible.” She narrowed her eyes at Yiannis and pinched his arm. “What do you know?”
Yiannis replied, rubbing his arm. “She’s a doctor. Rich family. The father is maybe a politician. I know he wants a divorce but she will not give him one.”
”You really didn’t know?” I asked Teresa again.
“No, I never heard him mention her. Not once. I would have warned you!”
“But his mother seems so hopeful that they’ll get back together.” I crossed my arms. I believed Teresa, but that didn’t excuse his lies. “He still should have told me. I would never have fooled around with a married man no matter the circumstances.”
“No!” agreed Teresa.
“No!” shouted Yiannis, following her lead. “He should have told you.”
“You too!” Teresa reminded him.
“So, no one else on the island knows?” I wanted to be sure. I hated the idea that everyone knew but me.
“Maybe Panos?” Yiannis suggested.
“Don’t mention it to anyone,” I warned.
When I got back to my place, Nikos was at the door dressed in his work clothes, a white button-up and chinos.
He looked as bad as I felt, but that was little consolation.
There were dark circles under his eyes and his hair was in disarray.
Annoyingly, my first instinct was to run my fingers through the dark waves and brush them into place.
He had two bottles of beer in his hands.
“Is this your latest plan? Get me drunk so that I forget you’ve been lying to me?” I asked blocking the door.
In the past, he would have made some joking comeback, but his expression was serious as he said, “Of course not. This is from Panos. He wanted you to try his new brew—for the restaurant.”
He held the bottles out to me, and I took them, careful not to touch him in the process. If I touched him, all would be lost. “Thank him for me.”
I started to close the door, but he braced it open with his hand. “Callie, come on, can’t we talk?”
“I’m not ready yet.” I hated the tremor in my voice. “I’ll only say things I’ll regret. I’m so fucking angry right now.”
“I understand,” he said but didn’t move. “I’ll be home tonight if you want to talk. Or if you want to yell at me, throw something at me, I can take it. I deserve it.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to see you right now.”
I shut the door and leaned against it so I wouldn’t be tempted to turn around and let him in. I didn’t trust myself. I kept making the worst decisions.
* * *
I didn’t talk to him that night or the next day.
Instead, I did the worst possible thing—a deep dive down the internet rabbit hole searching for more information about his wife.
I knew she was named Nathalie, lived in Manhattan, and was a doctor with a politician father.
It wasn’t hard to find her, and I immediately wished I hadn’t because she was beautiful, a sought-after dermatologist with her own cosmetics line and—wouldn’t you know it?
—had made it on a 40 Under 40 list of influential New Yorkers.
As if I couldn’t feel worse about myself, I scrolled through photos of her at different charity events and political fundraisers. Not one article mentioned her husband. And there was no New York Times marriage announcement I would have expected from someone of her social status.
If it hadn’t been for the pressure of preparing for the investors, I would have spent the entire day ruminating about her. But I was in the midst of professional panic, cycling through moments of profound imposter syndrome to delirious optimism.
While I was fiddling with that damn dessert again, someone knocked at the door.
“Not now,” I mumbled, and my stupid heart fluttered. Why did I still want to see him when I was so hurt and angry?
But when I opened the door, it wasn’t Nikos who stood there, but his mother. She held a baking dish in her hand and gave me a sheepish smile. “I hope I’m not intruding. I made some galatopita and wanted to bring you some information to help you with your project.”
“Come in.” I held the door open even though I wanted to close it in her face. “Would you like a coffee? Tea?”
“Tea would be wonderful.” She followed me to the kitchen island and set her dish down. “Now, you must try this. Do you have a plate?”
She served each of us a generous portion of the creamy custard pie. “Nikos’s favorite. I used to make it for him when he was a boy whenever he was feeling down.”
I didn’t miss the implication that he was currently feeling out of sorts. Good, I thought, but then it also made me want to cry.
I placed the sweets and a pot of jasmine tea on a serving tray and brought it outside. The sun was shining and a gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the cherry tree. I poured tea for both of us and took a bite of the galatopita . It melted on the tongue. God, it was so much better than my dessert.
“Is there saffron in here?”
“Yes, just a little bit. It gives some savoriness. Have more.” She cut another square for me. “I’m sure it’s nothing compared to what you make. Nikos tells me that you are an excellent cook.”
She watched my reaction closely and could tell that I didn’t want to talk about her son, so she dropped the subject and extracted a manila folder from her purse. It was an example of the paperwork that I’d need to complete to sponsor asylum seekers in our restaurants.
“Of course, you’ll be working with the EU and the UK, so their procedures are different from the US.
This is just to give you an idea. It’s a long and frustrating process.
I would recommend speaking with the lawyers that work for your company.
” She flipped to another page. “These are some of the contacts I’ve made through various NGOs that will give you a place to start and, of course, you can call me if you have any other questions. I’ve left my contact information here.”
“Thank you. This will be very helpful.” I took the papers from her. “I won’t have time to look at it today. I have to work on my test menu.”
“No, I see you’re busy with your preparations.
Well, I think your hotel is a good thing for the island.
Maybe some of the young people will want to stay.
That’s what I’ve been telling Niko since the beginning, but does he listen to me?
” She waved in a dismissive way and laughed. I smiled weakly in return.
“And all this led by a woman. I know it’s not easy.” She squeezed my hand and stood, sliding her scarf around her shoulders. “I won’t take up more of your time, but I did want to see you again before I left.”
“You’re leaving already?” I followed her toward the door.
“Yes, it’s a busy time of the year for me.
And my poor attempt to convince my son to come back home has once again failed.
” She sighed and grabbed my hand again. “I’m sorry for making a mess of things and making you think .
. . well, I won’t lie. I have always hoped that Niko would come back if there was a chance that his marriage could be saved.
But he explained to me that there’s no possibility of that.
They never really loved each other. And I believe him.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen my boy in love. Until now.”
I stiffened. “Please, don’t . . .”
“No, he’ll kill me if he knows I’ve been here. But a mother knows these things and he’s probably too stubborn to tell you.” She let go of my hands and slipped out the door. “Best of luck to you with the restaurant. I look forward to eating there the next time I come.”
I watched her walk away across the square. That was the second time she’d dropped a bomb on me, and I didn’t know if I’d ever fully recover.