Page 4 of Waiting For Psamathe

"You should, it doesn't hurt to be in the Queen of the Underworld's good books."

He chuckled. "Fair point."

We stood in silence as we both tried to work out what we should be doing next. "Do you want to come up to the bar for a drink?" I asked.

"I don't have a shirt."

"It's lucky you're friends with the owner, then," I joked. "And you can tell me all about Persi."

He nodded and the two of us headed up to the terrace of my hotel. I didn't want to go inside and face the scrutiny of my staff and customers, but out here was nice and safe.

We made ourselves comfortable and I gestured for one of the servers to bring us our drinks.

"You should come by the sanctuary sometime and see the seals again," Zale said.

"I'd like that."

"Maybe if you do it really publically, we'd be able to get more donations," he half-joked.

"You don't have enough?" This was the first I was hearing about it. "I can free up some funds..."

"No, Sama." He reached out and put his hand over mine, sending tingles through me in response. "You can't spend your own money on the sanctuary, it would be never-ending."

I opened my mouth to protest but shut it again, an idea starting to form.

"But if you visit, some of the other islanders might decide to donate again," he continued.

"So they can donate and I can't?"

"You can donate, just within reason," he reminded me. "I know you love the seals, but you can't give everything you've got to them."

"I do need to keep the hotel running," I agreed.

The bartender returned and put our drinks down in front of us. I smiled at them and made a note of their name so I could make sure to add a tip to their wage packet.

I picked up my wine and swilled it around. "What if I had another way of getting donations for the sanctuary?" I asked.

"Another way?"

I nodded. "There's an opportunity that's come up for me where I can pick a charity, perhaps I could suggest the sanctuary."

"What kind of opportunity?"

I bit my bottom lip, noticing his gaze linger a little more on the gesture than it should, though I found I liked it. "I'd rather not say. Let me make a call tomorrow morning, and then I'll come to the sanctuary and let you know if it's a go or not. Though I'm guessing I'll still need to check with the director?"

He nodded. "I doubt she'll say no."

"Good." I took a sip of wine, pleased and surprised that a walk on the beach had brought me good company, and clarity on what charity I should pitch to Aphrodite.

Which made me feel a whole lot better about the impending party.

Chapter 3

ZALE

I finished writing my report and clicked enter, sending it into the system for the other sanctuary workers to be able to access. Not that there was much that needed adding. There were no new pups, and none of the seals I'd been able to check on this morning had been showing any sign of sickness.

"Hey, Zale," Aimee called as she strode up to the front desk.

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