Page 20 of Undercover Billionaire

Ari was distracted during dinner that night. Jean Paul, the maître d’ – a fit-looking man in his fifties with silver hair and plenty of swagger – had suggested the previous evening that Ari might like to try a different table every night rather than sticking to the same one. To meetallthe ladies, he had said with a hearty slap on the back.

Ari wasn’t keen on the smoothness of the maître d’ but he was clearly popular with the female passengers and itwassensible advice to get to meet as many people as possible. And that was, after all, what he was here for – to meet fellow passengers, garner their experiences, find out about their gripes.

Get to the bottom of the problems with theHellenic Spirit.

It was a shame he was being constantly distracted by Kelsey. She was at the opposite end of the restaurant to him, but the bob and swish of her blonde ponytail was like a magnet in his peripheral vision, a constant reminder of their tête-à-tête earlier. Of how he’d triedso damn hardnot to put his hands on her in that godforsakencupboard,of how she’d looked at him with heat and hunger and destroyed all his resolve.

He didn’t want to feel this way,damn it.

‘Can you pass the bread please?’

Ari dragged himself out of his head and smiled at the woman beside him. She was an American, diamonds glittering on her fingers and at her throat. Her hair was elegantly greying and she had a tightness to her face that did not match her neck or hands. Her husband was wearing a ten thousand-dollar suit and, if Ari was not very much mistaken, had also had some work done around his eyes. He was in crypto apparently.

There were three other couples around the table. Two of them were travelling with Mr and Mrs Bitcoin and were obviously as wealthy, talking about the time they all stayed in Monte Carlo. The seat beside him was vacant, but on the opposite side of the table were a couple from Lancashire, celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary.

He’d been a factory worker all of his life, and his wife worked as a care assistant in a nursing home. They were dressed well but it was clear they were not in the same socio-economic class as the other couples at the table. Not that it seemed to matter to anyone. The Americans were including the English couple and himself in their conversations and were interested in life in the UK and Athens.

The only person that seemed to have trouble with the wealth disparity between the passengers was the waiter allocated to their table. His name was Sameel, he looked about twenty-five and he was new to cruising. TheHellenic Spiritwas his first vessel and this cruise was his first after completing his training a few weeks ago.

And so far, he wasn’t doing so great.

Whilst he wasn’t exactly rude to the English couple or Ari, he was far more attentive to the Americans. He fussed over them to the point of obsequiousness and turned himself inside out to correct the error when one of their steaks arrived medium rather than rare. Meanwhile, the gentleman from Lancashire had asked twice for some mustard and it still hadn’t arrived.

Ari made a mental note and filed it away for later as, once again, his peripheral vision snagged on the swish and bob of Kelsey’s ponytail. He surrendered to the urge to watch her for a moment or two, drawn to her in a way he didn’t understand. She was in silhouette, framed by the large round porthole to her rear, and the golden rays of the sun setting over the Mediterranean temporarily set her aflame.

His breath caught at the sight. It felt like a metaphor for her impact on his life and it was hard to believe he’d met her for the first time only yesterday.

How was that even possible?

Sameel took his plate away, regaining Ari’s attention, and his eyes took a tour of the restaurant as the waiter busied himself with clearing the table. It was a huge two-floor behemoth with a sweeping circular staircase in the middle leading to the upper floor. An expensive chandelier crafted in Murano hung above the staircase.

Modern décor gave the surroundings an elegant but charming feel, supported by the low orchestral music playing through the state-of-the-art sound system. Large scattered urns of greenery and fresh flowers were the perfect foil to the deep blue of the sea, providing a shifting canvas through the multiple portholes.

On one side of the restaurant, the colour and chaos of Naples grew smaller, and on the other, the horizon lay steady and unwavering.

Ari’s attention was snagged by Crypto Dude discreetly slipping some euros into Sameel’s hand. Sameel took it just as discreetly, aside from the smile on his face as big as the room.

Ari didn’t begrudge him the tip. He knew, as he had told Kelsey earlier, that tips helped bolster what could be a very basic wage for a junior staff member.

But they shouldn’t be used to discriminate against passengers. All passengers were to be treated as equals – that was the Oceanós way.

He’d actually noticed similar staff behaviour at a couple of bars around the ship as well. Preferential service, going that extra mile for wealthier passengers. And, if he’d noticed, maybe the passengers were noticing as well? Nobody wanted to spend thousands of dollars of their hard-earned money and be made to feel like a second-class citizen.

It was troubling behaviour. Maybe even a pattern? All a ship needed was a few bad eggs to influence the staff culture. Obviously not all staff engaged in discriminating behaviour, but there shouldn’t beany.

The captain arrived at the table. The American men went to stand but the captain waved them back into their seats as Sameel performed the introductions. He got the English woman’s name wrong but nailed the names of the wealthy at the table and spent an inordinate amount of time singing their praises.

Ari was vaguely acquainted with Captain Russo. They had met a long time ago at an Oceanós event, but he showed no recognition now of the Callisthenes familyrecluse.

A badge Ari wore with pride.

After a lifetime of flashbulbs and cameras following him everywhere, Ari had been well and truly ready to escape them when he’d moved to London to study, and it had been his salvation. Then he’d met Talia and, despite her own pedigree, they’d been content to live in complete anonymity amidst London’s thriving boroughs, even declining the obscene amounts of money offered for the pictorial rights to their very private wedding.

It was no surprise the captain didn’t recognise him. That was the whole point of Ari doing this investigation.

Captain Russo was excellent at his job. He’d been with Oceanós for a dozen years captaining various ships and his qualifications were impeccable. Unfortunately, listening to him in person wasn’t a particularly thrilling experience. He obviously suffered a little too much under the weight of his own importance.

Ari’s grandfather always said that doctors and lawyers had nothing on the arrogance of a ship’s captain, and now Ari knew exactly what the old man meant.

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