Chapter 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.’
‘Is that why you came to Corfu?’
He nodded again. ‘Yes.’
He watched her put her hands to her hair in frustration. ‘Did you spend time with me to get more information on the area and the hotel for this?’
He took a breath before responding. ‘Initially, yes.’
‘Oh my God!’ Faye exclaimed. ‘I am so stupid! So stupid! That’s why you had sex with me! And I thought it was me looking good for my age and having a stunning personality!’
‘Wait, what? No, Faye. I mean, yes. I mean, us having sex was nothing to do with this. And it was everything to do with you being beautiful and having a stunning personality.’
‘Like I’m going to believe you now!’ She backed away from the kitchen island. ‘Like I’m going to believe anything you say to me now. You’re just like him.’
‘Faye,’ he said, taking a step towards her.
She was shaking her head. ‘You know, I was fully prepared to have sex and move on, you know, like everyone is doing these days. I have a life here, a life I took time to build and create my way after spending so many years doing everything for everyone else instead of me. But then you kept wanting to see me again… and you’re pretending to be interested in my favourite fucking ice cream flavour and you’re turning up when my daughter needs help and…
being there to save a turtle.’ She took a jagged breath. ‘Why did you make me care?’
‘Because I care, Faye,’ he said, reaching out to her. ‘I care too.’
‘Well, you can’t,’ Faye told him, shrugging off his touch. ‘Because you weren’t honest. I told you, at the very beginning, that honesty means everything to me.’
‘I know,’ Kostas said. ‘And you don’t know how deeply I regret that, how deeply I regret it all.’
‘Really? Or are you just saying that because you’re not getting your own way? See, now I have no way of knowing.’
He looked at her deeply then, saw in her eyes that, right now, she was lost to him.
She despised what he had done. She didn’t trust him, and why should she?
It wouldn’t matter if he told her he was going to pull the plans; there would be no difference if he told her the outline for his new idea he hoped was going to make people interact with life and each other a lot more.
His words were currently empty vessels unwelcome at her marina.
‘I’m going to go,’ he said, bowing his head slightly. ‘But I want you to know that we are going to talk about this.’
‘You don’t need to talk to me, you’ll be talking to the whole island when the news about this gets out and, I promise you, none of the PR will be good.’
‘Kalinixta, Faye,’ he said, heading towards the door. ‘Goodnight.’
‘Yeah, kalinixta, and I guess I’ll see you for your grand reveal as the hotel purchaser at Cavo Barbaro tomorrow!’
He stepped out into the hotel grounds, closed the door and closed his eyes tighter.
He took a moment to ground himself in the moment, exactly as he had in between quarters of basketball.
Listening to the cicadas’ song, feeling the humidity dampen his T-shirt…
And then he opened his eyes. He wasn’t someone to give up easily. There was work to be done.