Chapter 25
RECEPTION, HOTEL MARGARITáRI, AVLAKI
‘The eggs were better at breakfast,’ Katerina remarked, chewing on the end of her pen as Faye searched the drawers of the reception desk for a spare phone charger she knew she kept there.
Saffron had forgotten to bring hers and had commandeered Faye’s to charge, watch TikTok and repeat until Faye got to escape hotel demands later in the day.
Faye had suggested her daughter head to the beach or sunbathe by the pool, but apparently that required too much effort for a first full day…
‘Fani staged an intervention,’ Katerina continued. ‘Last night, she locked her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend in the apotheke until they had sorted things out one way or another.’
‘Uh huh,’ Faye said, fingers roving around in the next drawer.
‘So she tied him up and threatened him with a rake.’
‘Really?’
‘No, Faye!’ Katerina exclaimed. ‘Not really! You are not listening to me and… What is that on your shoulder?’
Faye got caught between trying to digest the information and wondering what was on her shoulder. She looked to her left and, to her horror, there was a mark and she knew exactly the origin of it. Kostas.
‘Oh, that!’ Faye said as nonchalantly as possible, putting her hand to the spot on her skin. ‘Horsefly. Didn’t put my repellent on and it got me really good.’
‘Faye! What happened to your hand?’
Faye’s eyes then went to the hand she was holding to the square of skin where the ‘horsefly’ bite was.
The cut from the glass, bloodied but already starting to heal.
Kostas’s mouth on that was how last night had started.
Well, actually, she could blame Saffron taking her bed and that sofa stopping her from sleeping as to the reason she had been in the hotel grounds with a jug of sour cherry in the first place…
‘Faye! What happened!’ Katerina repeated, eyes a little on the crazed side.
‘Stupidity happened,’ Faye stated, covering the wound with her other hand until she looked kind of like someone about to be harnessed into a straitjacket. ‘I broke a jug.’
‘Are you sure it is OK? Let me look,’ Katerina ordered.
‘No, it’s fine, honestly and… Oh, Dimitria, I didn’t see you there.’
Faye backed away from Katerina’s attention and banged her hip against the side of the desk as she realised her boss had arrived in the space.
‘Faye has hurt her hand. We should put this in the incident book,’ Katerina said to Dimitria. ‘That’s right, isn’t it? That is what it says in the staff handbook.’
‘It’s fine,’ Faye said, still wrapped up in her own limbs. ‘I don’t know how many times I need to say “it’s fine” but, right now, I feel I’m going for a world record.’ She smiled at Dimitria and noticed her boss looked a little wistful. ‘Is everything OK?’
‘Ne,’ Dimitria replied. ‘Yes. But, if you have a moment, there is something I would like to discuss with you.’
She sounded serious. The kind of serious where Faye wondered if she had done something wrong. Could it be she knew what had happened in the suite? They hadn’t been that loud, had they?
‘Walk with me?’ Dimitria requested.
Faye said nothing more but came around the reception desk, unravelling herself.
‘Saffron got here OK?’ Dimitria asked as they walked out into the hotel grounds and stepped on to the grass, starting to yellow in patches with the heat.
‘Yes,’ Faye said. ‘It was a bit of a palaver but, yes, sorry, I should have texted you to let you know but I was still answering emails late and then—’
Dimitria waved a hand, dismissing the conversation. ‘Faye, I know you work hard, you do not have to explain everything to me.’
‘OK,’ Faye answered. ‘So, what happened with Alexandros? Is that what you want to talk to me about?’ She had an urge to cross her fingers behind her back.
‘Yes,’ Dimitria said.
‘Did he think you could get a good price for the house? Was the condition it’s in better than you thought?’
Dimitria sighed. ‘We hit… a stumbling block.’
‘Oh?’
They stopped walking by the circular patch of wildflowers the hotel had planted to encourage butterflies.
‘I… could not do it,’ Dimitria said, voice shaking a little.
‘I know I do not visit. I know I do not want to live there again, but the way Alexandros was talking about its potential for extension, a swimming pool as it is on a buildable plot, and what other modifications people would be wanting to make, I just started to feel like someone was going to rip the heart out of what had been mine and Spiros’s home and the more he talked the more it felt like my own heart was being taken from inside of me. ’
As she breathed hard, Dimitria put her hand to her chest, as if she wanted to keep everything inside.
‘Oh, Dimitria,’ Faye said. ‘I should have been there with you.’
‘No,’ Dimitria said, shaking her head. ‘It would not have made a difference if you were there.’
‘Well, I might have been able to stop Alexandros from banging on about “improvements” and “swimming pools” because he obviously can’t read a room if he thought that’s what you needed to hear.’
‘He was just doing his job,’ Dimitria said, fingertips brushing the long grass. ‘And, in the end, he offered an alternative. One I had considered. But perhaps one I did not want to really face.’
Now the concern wriggled in Faye’s belly like a pre-butterfly caterpillar.
‘Faye, I do not want you to worry. You know that I will always, always look after you and Saffron, no matter what happens, but…’
‘But?’ She had hardly got the word out of her mouth, her insides were shaking.
‘Alexandros suggested I think seriously about selling the hotel.’
She’d known it was coming. On some level she had known. She wanted to grab the grass too now; no, not firm enough, she needed to grab the trunk of a strong tree. Her roots felt like they were being gnawed at by hungry stone martens. Stand strong. Be the unwavering woman you have made yourself.
‘Faye, you are wobbling,’ Dimitria said, putting a hand on Faye’s arm and holding on tight.
‘No, no, I’m fine.’
‘Faye, you are not fine. I know exactly how you are feeling and there is no need to pretend any other way.’
‘It’s your hotel, Dimitria,’ Faye said, voice a touch robotic. ‘And it’s your life, your future and—’
‘It might be my hotel in terms of legal ownership,’ Dimitria began, ‘but I know the hotel has had a place in your heart for many years.’
Faye swallowed. This felt like a defining moment, as defining a moment as finding out Matthew had been sending dick pics to someone called Mistress Melania.
As defining a moment as her looking at the decree absolute and wondering exactly how they had ended up there.
As defining a moment as packing her bags and moving to Greece. What happened now?
‘Faye, I told you I will ensure that you, and Saffron, if she needs it, are taken care of and—’
‘And it might take a while for you to even find a buyer. Not that I’m wishing that, just that, when I’ve been looking for property there are always hotels or complexes for sale for months and months so—’
‘Actually, Alexandros said he had had a very specific enquiry. Someone who is very interested in buying the hotel.’
Now Faye felt as untethered and unstable as one of the windsurfers in Avlaki Bay. This was real. This was going to happen. She nodded even though every fibre of her being wanted to pretend to not acknowledge Dimitria’s words.
Her boss let a breath leave her, then she let go of Faye’s arm and went back to stroking the greenery.
‘It’s a big deal, I know that. My life with Spiros was equally wrapped up in this place, but it is not easy to run a hotel and you know this because you do it, and, if we are honest, it was work that killed him, this beautiful place with all its demands. ’
Faye baulked a little. She never remembered Spiros without a smile on his face.
But when they had first met she had been a customer, and keeping a smile on guests’ faces, even when times were tough, was one of the many things Greeks did best. But even now, even amid a hot, tough season, Faye couldn’t imagine her life being anything else, being anywhere else.
However, this wasn’t her call to make and she knew Dimitria needed something to change.
‘I understand,’ Faye said with a sober nod.
‘Do you?’ Dimitria asked, definite hope and almost relief in her expression.
‘Yes, of course.’ She nodded again. ‘And whatever you need me to do to help you, I’m here.’
The words were burning her insides, but she adored Dimitria, wanted what was best for her, and she could see how much Dimitria needed her to be her supporter in this endeavour.
‘Thank you, Faye. Because I’ve invited Alexandros to Cavo Barbaro for dinner tonight to discuss the enquiry in more detail and I would really like you to be there. You know how much I value your opinion.’
‘Absolutely,’ Faye said. ‘Of course I will come.’
And hopefully the next few hours would be long enough for her to perfect her brave face.
‘So,’ Dimitria said. ‘Have you got to the bottom of what Mr Petsas is doing here?’
‘No. I didn’t realise that was what I was supposed to be doing. I’m just, you know, humouring his requests.’ Was that what they called it these days? She knew she was blushing.
‘I was hoping that perhaps he had come to visit his grandmother,’ Dimitria said, starting to walk again.
‘He has a grandmother here?’ Faye asked. ‘Are you sure?’
She had asked Kostas about family. He had said he had no family on Corfu. Why had he lied?
‘I am sure,’ Dimitria stated. ‘I mean, she is a virtual recluse, but she does venture out of that rustic home every now and then.’ Dimitria patted her arm.
‘Come on, let us be happy today. No matter how this meeting with Alexandros goes tonight we will be having more of Cavo Barbaro’s excellent food, no? ’
Faye smiled, but her stomach was not currently craving a Greek feast; it was filled with a meze of tension.