Chapter One #3
Hope bit her lip. It was silly to feel so nervous. She’d served thousands of people food on planes. ‘OK, look, you go and lie down. I’ll handle it.’
‘Thanks, Hope.’ The fact that George wasn’t fussing was proof that he wasn’t feeling well.
Hope prepared the tray with the salad Mr Drakos had requested. Sparkling water. No alcohol. No bread. She was getting the vibe that he was a supremely controlled individual and had a bizzare urge to see what it would be like to watch him lose control.
She ignored her overactive imagination and at the last minute added a little vase and put a flower in it. Who didn’t like flowers? She picked up the tray and headed into the main cabin where the man was now on his phone speaking in what had to be Greek. Low and deep. Fast.
He saw her and she caught his eye and then she got flustered because she realised he’d taken off his jacket and his sleeves were rolled up and his forearms looked so muscular and she shouldn’t be making eye contact and she didn’t see his feet extending out under the table because his legs were so long and it all happened so fast she couldn’t have stopped it even if she’d tried.
Hope was airborne for a second and then the tray was airborne and suddenly she was on her hands and knees at Mr Drakos’s feet and his lunch was strewn all around him and on him.
There was a big wet stain on his waistcoat and shirt.
The water. And, most incongruously, the flower from the vase was now on his head.
And all Hope could think about in that moment was the fact that he didn’t look ridiculous. He still looked totally intimidating and stupendously gorgeous.
But as it sank in, what had just happened, she came up on her knees and put her hands over her mouth. He didn’t even blink. He said something into the phone and put it down. Then he plucked the flower off his head, looked at it and said, ‘A flower?’
Hope took her hands down from her mouth. ‘I thought it might be a nice touch.’
Mr Drakos put the flower down and then he said very calmly, ‘I am going to go and change. When I come back I expect this to be cleaned up and a fresh lunch waiting for me.’
And then Hope sat back on her heels and watched as Mr Drakos rose fluidly to his feet and walked down the length of the jet to a door at the back. She put her hand back up to her mouth and stifled a semi-hysterical giggle.
Then she imagined George’s face if he saw this and it galvanised her into action.
She cleaned up the mess and had a fresh lunch tray ready in minutes.
This time without a vase and flower. She was just putting it down on the table when she felt a presence and looked up to see Mr Drakos had returned wearing fresh dark trousers and a light blue shirt. Open at the neck.
She made sure the tray was fully on the table before she let go and then she stood up straight and took a step back so that he could sit back down. But he didn’t move.
Hope swallowed and said, ‘I’m so sorry, Mr Drakos.
Truly, I think I just tripped over—’ She stopped and said, ‘It doesn’t matter.
I should have been more careful.’ She was going to be so fired for this.
Her career of working at the luxury end of things was to be short-lived. Oh, well. It had been interesting.
‘Thank you, that will be all.’
Hope blinked. ‘You’re not firing me?’
He looked at her and there was the faintest hint of a twitch on his lips. ‘For being human and dropping something? You tripped over my feet—it was partly my fault.’
‘I…oh, well, that’s nice of you.’
Hope stood there for another moment before he said, ‘I don’t require anything else right now.’
‘Oh, right, yes, of course.’ She turned to go and then back. ‘Would you like tea, or coffee?’
‘I think maybe not, just in case.’
Hope fled, her insides swooping and diving. Adrenalin still coursing through her system. Had he just made a kind of a joke? But he hadn’t been smiling. He’d been utterly serious.
At that moment George appeared. ‘Everything OK?’
Hope smiled brightly and hoped he wouldn’t notice the first-attempted lunch tray behind him. ‘Fine, absolutely fine. If you want to keep resting, go right ahead.’
‘OK, thanks, Hope.’
George left and Hope sagged against the counter in the galley area.
This high-end-luxury lark wasn’t for the faint-hearted.
It was seriously unnerving. She was usually unflappable and efficient.
But she was being reduced to jangling clumsiness by Mr Drakos’s insanely charismatic presence.
People didn’t dazzle her so easily. She liked to think she was street-smart.
But here she was sweating and giddy, like a lovestruck groupie.
She snuck a peek around the curtain to see Mr Drakos finishing his salad and quickly ducked out again in case he caught her ogling him.
The sooner this flight was over and she could take a couple of days off at home in London, the better.
They weren’t due to fly again for at least a week, apparently.
Time to get over her nerves and hopefully the next time she saw him she wouldn’t be so surprised by his model-handsome looks and brooding intensity.