Chapter 64
‘It is another beautiful day, no?’ Dimitria asked him as they strolled through the grounds of the hotel.
‘It is,’ Kostas agreed. He put his hands in his pockets.
He was coming to the conclusion that the hotel owner was a bit of a chameleon, adapting herself to different situations with relative ease.
One minute she gave off the energy of a sweet companionable grandmother figure, the next a crocodile, ruthless in the pursuit of sustenance for her and her loved ones.
He wasn’t sure which one he was going to get. He deserved the crocodile…
‘Let us not waste a moment of it,’ Dimitria said. ‘I know your plans for the headland and beyond. The complex you wish to build.’
He nodded. ‘Faye told you.’
‘No,’ Dimitria said. ‘Faye did not tell me. But it is inconsequential how I found out. I just want to understand what good you think it will do.’
‘Good?’
‘Yes, when you were coming up with this idea, what did you think it would achieve?’
‘Many things,’ Kostas replied. ‘But none of them were ever about “good”.’
Dimitria flapped her arms and a passing butterfly weaved out of the way and landed on a shrub. ‘You admit this?’
‘I do not think very much of my life has had “good” in it for a long time. I am hoping that is something I can change.’
‘By creating something offensive that everyone will fight against and, if God forbid the fight is lost, everyone will hate?’
Kostas stopped walking and took a deep breath.
‘The heat of everything has got too much for you?’ Dimitria asked.
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘I have never backed away from external conflict. Internal conflict… that is another matter.’
They had reached a seating area that overlooked a small pond with a fountain, and Kostas pulled a chair out for Dimitria and she sat.
‘You knew my father, right?’ he asked as he sat too.
‘I knew who your father was,’ Dimitria replied. ‘But I did not know him.’
‘I feel the same since I have spent some time with my grandmother.’ He sighed.
‘It is amazing how you can believe things so freely when they are told to you by someone you love. And then you realise that the person you loved told many different things many different ways to many different people. And then those words they told you, the words you wholeheartedly believed for your entire life, they become weightless and empty.’
‘You speak about your father.’
He nodded. ‘And, you know, I wasn’t the only one he told empty words to. My mother, she believed those words too and she believed them also so strongly that she reinforced my belief in them.’
‘Oh, Kosta, you know I knew your mother a little. She was a sweet, caring person and I got the feeling that she would do anything for her family.’
‘You know, the doctor, he said she died of a broken heart and, at the time, I thought, how can that be real? How can someone feel so much sadness and hurt and desperation that it physically causes their body to just give up? That isn’t the science of anatomy.’
‘Ah, but it is,’ Dimitria said. ‘We feel emotion inside the exact same way we feel other things outside.’
‘I am beginning to understand that now. Kerkyra, Corfu, it has done what I did not think was possible.’
‘Which is?’
‘Welcome me again. Get under my skin. Remind me what is important. It has helped me reconnect me with a grandmother I thought was lost to me forever.’ He paused.
‘And it has introduced me to someone special I really, really want to get to know better.’ He put his hands together, toyed with his fingers, thoughts of Faye snowballing.
‘I know that I do not deserve her right now. As I am. But I want the chance to work towards something better. Something better together maybe one day.’
‘Oh, Kosta,’ Dimitria said gently. ‘What a mess we make for ourselves.’
He couldn’t disagree but he was also of the opinion that a mess could be cleared up if you wanted it to be.
He looked up. ‘Dimitria, I—’
‘Listen to me, there are two things you should know and what you do with that knowledge is up to you. Firstly, Faye’s ex-husband is here and he wants me to sell him the hotel.
My belief is that this is either about getting Faye back, or at least trying to, or it is about trying to control her future. ’
Faye’s ex was here? His skin prickled.
‘Secondly… there is a secret meeting tomorrow night at eight o’clock, here in the conference room of the hotel, about your plans to develop the land.
Local people want to make sure this never happens.
Believe me, Kosta, many try, and they will always try where land and the government and real estate and money are involved, but in trying times we always pull together.
You want to face the people of this island and talk – that is the place to do it. ’
‘OK.’
‘And thirdly.’
‘There is a third thing? You said two things.’
‘This is why I have an accountant. Thirdly, whatever you say to Faye, whenever you say it, she will tell you that she is strong and she is happy with the life she has made for herself.’ Dimitria reached for his hand.
‘This is all true. She is the strongest person I know. She is happy with the life she has made. But like with every good cake, the element that completes the perfect recipe is not the icing on the top – that is superficial nonsense for the benefit of aesthetics. What is more important is the filling in the middle. Faye needs more middle, Kosta. The sweet, satisfying, gooey and delicious part you enjoy the best. The part you remember the most and sometimes wonder if you will ever get to experience in the same way again. The ingredient that makes something exceptional. You understand?’
He nodded. ‘Yes, I understand.’
‘Good,’ Dimitria said, nodding. ‘Then, for now, we understand each other. Bravo.’