Chapter 30
THE CONFERENCE ROOM, HOTEL MARGARITáRI, AVLAKI
‘I am so sorry, Faye. If I knew that Aggelos was planning to do this I would have… locked him in his bedroom,’ Katerina said, handing out bottles of water to the now seemingly never-ending line of children growing in number as the minutes ticked by.
‘I did not know how many friends Aggelos had.’ Katerina frowned, looking at the collection of children.
‘I am not sure some of these even go to his school.’
‘No,’ Faye stated, nodding. ‘I don’t think they do.
’ As much as she was sure that Katerina’s little brother was at the conception stage of this meet and greet with the basketball star, she was smelling ‘publicity stunt’ and she didn’t like it.
And, as if her thoughts were somehow governed like an Instagram algorithm, a local news photographer walked through the door.
Which was more than Kostas had done yet and it was close to forty minutes since the first group of children had arrived all breathless and excited. And then Dimitria appeared.
The very last thing Faye needed was for her boss to see her so not in control of hotel proceedings that she snapped at this first hotel sale offer and fast-forwarded this seemingly inevitable ending…
‘Kaliméra, Faye, Katerina. Are we having an event?’ Dimitria asked.
Katerina fled quicker than Pegasus.
‘Very impromptu,’ Faye said. ‘Orchestrated by our VIP guest. Local children queuing for photographs and autographs. If he ever arrives.’ She checked her watch.
‘And I see the press are here,’ Dimitria remarked, waving a hand at the photographer Faye had already noticed.
‘Yes, I’m really sorry, Dimitria. There are a million and one things I need to be doing and I need to prepare for the meeting with the marine mammal people. And I also need to spare a couple of hours to spend with Saffron if I can manage it and—’
Dimitria put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Breathe, Faye. If you do not breathe then none of those things are going to get done, remember?’
Faye knew the importance of breath. She affirmed it to herself in times of overwhelm. She nodded.
‘And this is good!’ Dimitria remarked. ‘It is positive for the hotel. School children meeting a basketball icon, here at Hotel Margaritári. My Spiros would have loved it.’
Faye caught the nostalgia in Dimitria’s tone.
She was right, and perhaps Faye should have thought about this earlier.
For all the fruit basket, buggy craziness this guest had brought to the hotel so far, she perhaps should have suggested some mutually good PR.
Except he had been very clear on privacy…
‘And here he is!’ Dimitria said, clapping her hands together.
Faye’s eyes went to the door. Kostas and his friend, plus a woman.
* * *
‘So, I will go in and meet the photographer and the reporter when they get here and lay the foundations so to speak,’ Stathis told Kostas, slapping him on the back.
‘Yeah, OK, good.’ He had had three espressos and still his brain felt like it had been boiled in tequila. He watched his friend enter the conference room and then he turned to Roula.
‘OK, so a car is coming to take you wherever you need to go,’ Kostas said.
‘You do not even remember where I said I lived,’ she answered.
‘Does it matter? If I remember correctly you were only looking for “short-term fun”.’
‘And it was absolutely no fun,’ she answered hard.
He swallowed. ‘Listen, Roula, I—’
‘You remember my name. Bravo.’
‘Listen, I know nothing happened but I would still appreciate your discretion and—’
‘I would have appreciated you not wasting my time but here we are.’
Kostas looked to the door. Faye was on her way over. This day hated him.
‘Kaliméra, I’m Faye, the hotel manager. Can I get you coffee? Pastries? Anything else?’
Now Kostas wanted the floor to open up and swallow him and his tequila brain as Faye offered her hand to Roula.
‘No, thank you,’ Roula replied, shaking Faye’s hand briefly. ‘But if I could tell you discreetly…’ She lowered her voice. ‘The mattresses here. They make more noise under pressure than the VIP guest the morning after the night before.’
Now Kostas actually wanted to die; his stomach flooded with sickness, and there was bile at the bottom of his throat. Nothing may have happened but when he had swiped right on Roula’s profile and invited her to the hotel, he had wanted it to. And this was nothing more than he deserved.
Faye smiled, coolly. ‘Thank you. I will add a mattress audit to my to-do list.’
‘Great,’ Roula said. ‘And I will add this guy to my never-to-do-again list. Ta léme.’ She headed towards the exit.
Kostas didn’t know what to say, but he had to say something. He went to speak but Faye beat him to it.
‘There are almost one hundred children in my conference room waiting to meet someone they think is a sporting hero. If there’s one thing I definitely know now, it’s that you can put on a good show.’
And with that said, she led the way into the conference room.