Chapter 62
‘I see old habits die hard,’ Matthew commented as they began to eat.
Faye had ordered the squid. It was her absolute favourite thing on the menu here and the fact Matthew couldn’t stand seafood was going to make it all the more delicious today.
‘I could say the same,’ Faye replied, indicating the soutzoukákia – meatballs – in front of Matthew. She was actually surprised he hadn’t asked for mustard.
‘Fair play,’ Matthew said. ‘But, you know, yin and yang and all that. That’s why we would still be a good partnership.’
Faye wiped her mouth with her serviette. ‘We aren’t talking about a partnership though. I only work at the hotel. Not a decision-maker as you so rightly pointed out.’
Matthew sighed and put down his fork. ‘I don’t want to fight, Faye. That’s not what I came here to do at all.’
‘So what did you come here to do?’ Faye asked him. ‘Because never once in our married life did you express an interest in investing in a hotel.’
‘I know but… the world is changing and… we’re all getting older and when that happens you start to realise what your priorities are.’
‘And pensions aren’t your happy-ever-after any more?’
‘Well, to be honest, I always thought you were going to be my happy-ever-after.’
‘Matthew,’ Faye said.
‘What?’
‘I don’t know what I’m meant to say to that.’
‘I don’t know what I’m expecting you to say to it if I’m honest.’ He took a deep breath and elongated his frame back into the chair. ‘I don’t know. I guess I’ve been doing a lot of thinking back in England.’
‘OK…’
‘And talking to my mum.’
‘You mean listening. She never usually lets you get too many words in.’
‘She hasn’t changed, Faye, and neither has her opinion on our marriage.’
‘Our divorce,’ Faye corrected.
‘She always said it was a mistake.’
‘And she was wrong.’
‘I’m not so sure.’
‘What?’
Matthew couldn’t mean this, could he? He had been the one to end their marriage. He had been the one to move them from Relate, through separation to the finalisation with utter conviction and determination that had never once wavered.
‘Faye, do you think there could be a way back?’ Matthew asked. ‘For us?’
Faye was up and out of her chair like she had sat on a hornet and it was stinging her incessantly. ‘Matthew, what is this?’
‘What’s what? Come on, Faye, sit down and eat your… fishy thing.’
‘No, I don’t want to sit down any more. Because if you don’t have real intentions in buying the hotel from Dimitria, for the right reasons, because it’s a fantastic place making good money, then we have nothing else to talk about.
And even if you had real intentions of making it a business enterprise, you must know that I could never work with you. ’
‘Faye, calm down, people are looking.’
‘There he is,’ Faye said. ‘The Matthew who always worried about what other people thought rather than thinking about the situation he was in the middle of. Do you remember that time Saffron had a panic attack at your mum’s birthday meal when they brought out the surprise cake? You told her to “not to be so silly”.’
‘Faye, come on, sit down.’
‘No,’ Faye said firmly. ‘Because you don’t get to tell me what to do any more and I never should have ever let you.
’ She took a breath, uncaring for the hush having descended around the other diners.
‘Whether this proposition is business, or whether it’s personal, you’ve never cared about Kerkyra the way I care about it.
This island is my home, Matthew. This is the place I feel most like the person I am and the person I’m still very much growing into and—’
‘Obviously I knew you’d have reservations, but we can take our time. We can—’
‘Read my lips. There is no “we”. Not any more. It might not have been my decision to end the marriage but now I am so grateful for that ending because it gave me the opportunity to find a whole new beginning.’
Matthew scraped his chair back and rose. ‘With this fucking basketball guy? With all his fucking… hair. Are you out of your mind, Faye? He’s, what? Mid-twenties? He’s using you. It’s obvious to anyone! Saffron thinks it’s embarrassing and I couldn’t agree more. Total insanity.’
Faye sighed, closing her eyes and taking another deep breath before opening them again and observing Matthew afresh.
He was such an angry person. But the person he was always most angry with was himself.
As he ranted and raved about the photos in the media and she let it all fly on over her head and be swept out to sea, she realised exactly how far she had come.
The Faye who was in the marriage would have buckled under coercion, backed down – particularly with anything in relation to Saffron – and done anything to keep the peace or take the easy route.
The Faye who had had to rebuild a life – externally and internally – didn’t just not suffer fools gladly any more, she ate them like a Greek meze.
‘This has nothing to do with Kostas,’ Faye told Matthew matter-of-factly.
‘Or anyone else. This is my life now, Matthew. Mine. And I only ever do things that I want to do. So, I appreciate what you’ve said, but working together at the hotel is not something I want to do.
If you really want to buy it from Dimitria and make a success of it that’s great, but I would want no part in that.
And, apart from having our wonderful daughter to support together, there’s nothing else I want to collaborate with you on.
’ She pulled her purse from her bag, opened it and put some euro notes on the table. ‘So, I think that covers it.’
And without saying anything further she left Cavo Barbaro without a second glance back.