Page 89 of Love on the Rocks
Sinking into self-pity mode wasn’t going to make me feel better. I closed the newsletter and saw a message from Fred titled Urgent!
Oh God, what now?
I opened it.
Dear Ms. McGinn,
I hope all is well since our last call. I am writing to let you know that Mr. Greystone has moved up the meeting with our Greek partners. Gareth and Seth will be arriving the day after next. Please be prepared to show them the site as well as the projected menus, cost analysis, etc.
“Three days!” I groaned. I wasn’t ready yet! And Gaz’s asshole brother was coming. He’d never liked me. I could only handle one Greystone at a time—and even that one was too much for me these days. I started to hyperventilate.Okay, I can do this. It’s a good thing. I’ll go right to the top, convince Seth of the long-term benefits of my plans.
There was no time to think about handsome, lying doctors. Not when my career was on the line.
I dashed inside to change and raced to the market where I ran into Yiannis and Teresa. I felt a pang of betrayal when I looked at them. How could Teresa not have told me about Nikos’s wife? I found it hard to believe that she would have kept that from me. Unless she didn’t know.
She could tell from my posture that something was wrong. She hit Yiannis on the arm and yelled at him. “What did you do now?”
“He failed to tell me that Nikos is married. Did you know?” I asked her.
“Wife? Not possible.” She narrowed her eyes at Yiannis and pinched his arm. “What do you know?”
Yiannis replied, rubbing his arm. “She’s a doctor. Rich family. The father is maybe a politician. I know he wants a divorce but she will not give him one.”
”You really didn’t know?” I asked Teresa again.
“No, I never heard him mention her. Not once. I would have warned you!”
“But his mother seems so hopeful that they’ll get back together.” I crossed my arms. I believed Teresa, but that didn’t excuse his lies. “He still should have told me. I would never have fooled around with a married man no matter the circumstances.”
“No!” agreed Teresa.
“No!” shouted Yiannis, following her lead. “He should have told you.”
“You too!” Teresa reminded him.
“So, no one else on the island knows?” I wanted to be sure. I hated the idea that everyone knew but me.
“Maybe Panos?” Yiannis suggested.
“Don’t mention it to anyone,” I warned.
When I got back to my place, Nikos was at the door dressed in his work clothes, a white button-up and chinos. He looked as bad as I felt, but that was little consolation. There were dark circles under his eyes and his hair was in disarray. Annoyingly, my first instinct was to run my fingers through the dark waves and brush them into place.
He had two bottles of beer in his hands.
“Is this your latest plan? Get me drunk so that I forget you’ve been lying to me?” I asked blocking the door.
In the past, he would have made some joking comeback, but his expression was serious as he said, “Of course not. Thisis from Panos. He wanted you to try his new brew—for the restaurant.”
He held the bottles out to me, and I took them, careful not to touch him in the process. If I touched him, all would be lost. “Thank him for me.”
I started to close the door, but he braced it open with his hand. “Callie, come on, can’t we talk?”
“I’m not ready yet.” I hated the tremor in my voice. “I’ll only say things I’ll regret. I’m so fucking angry right now.”
“I understand,” he said but didn’t move. “I’ll be home tonight if you want to talk. Or if you want to yell at me, throw something at me, I can take it. I deserve it.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to see you right now.”
