“I think it may have something to do with a rumor that’s been going round.”
“Oh yes?” Angie replied, her green eyes widening with curiosity. “Would you like a can of something?” she asked, and opened the door of a large drink fridge.
“Yes, please. Something about someone resigning?” She noticed the other woman wince as she handed Kizzy an ice-cold can. “So it’s true?”
“Afraid so. But it’s not like it sounds, honestly it isn’t. He’s the best boss either of us has ever had and we both love it here, but life happens and Liz’s been trying to talk to him for ages.” She took a seat next to Kizzy and curled her long tanned legs up beneath her like the sleeping cat outside. Her eyes rounded on Kizzy with intensified interest. “He hasn’t been answering his phone. Are you being lined up to work here?”
Kizzy was taken aback by the directness of her question but blinked back her surprise. “I don’t think so. That is, I can’t be sure about anything at this stage.”
“Pity. Now that Liz’s pregnant, she’ll be heading straight to Australia with her boyfriend and it’s left me in a bit of a spot—” Angie suddenly looked horrified. “Whoops! I think I’ve just let the cat out of the bag.”
Kizzy shook her head and smiled, comforted by Angie’s friendly company. For the first time in days she felt warm on the inside.
“I won’t say a word, I promise.”
…
“You seem a lot more cheerful since our little trip to the office,” Andreas remarked as he absentmindedly ran a lean finger up and down the icy mist of his beer glass. “Anything I should know?”
“What’s there for me to be unhappy about?” Kizzy took a deep breath of the breeze that coasted up from the bay and cooled her skin beneath the canopy of a tiny rooftop restaurant. “I’ve just had the most delicious meal, the view is amazing, and my indulgent boss has cleared all my debts. It’s a new beginning for me and I’m very excited.”
Andreas quirked up an eyebrow. “I’m glad to hear it. You’re obviously having a better day than I am.”
“Is it so bad?” She tipped her head sympathetically to one side and then averted her eyes before letting the next few words slip out. “Was it bad news this morning?”
“Yes and no. Liz is in fact resigning her position as office manager and leaving Lindos, which is a huge shame—she’s very good.” He pursed his lips together and considered the bubbles that were rising to the top of his drink. A slight edge crept into his voice. “But she’s going to have a baby with the man she says she loves, so what more can one say?”
“I see.”
He shrugged and looked distractedly away toward the nearby acropolis that rose high into a vibrant blue sky. “I can only wish her the best and hope it all works out the way she thinks it will.”
“You don’t sound too convinced,” Kizzy replied cautiously.
“I’m not. They’ve got no money saved, no qualifications, and no property, but they have love.” He tipped the glass of beer to his mouth. “They seem to think that’s all they’re going to need.”
A waiter drifted close to their table and silence fell for a few seconds before Andreas flicked her an uncomfortable, rigid smile.
“Ridiculous, isn’t it?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Me neither, and that is quite simply because there is no such thing as love. The notion is a convenient myth that’s developed over millennia to facilitate social control and stability—just like all those crazy religions out there. Oh, and throw in a marriage vow and it makes it a lot easier for a guy to get regular sex as well.” He frowned at the pink tinge on Kizzy’s cheeks. “I just hope Liz knows what she’s getting herself into. It beats me how a girl can get pregnant by accident these days—there’s no excuse for it really.”
“You’re not the marrying kind then, judging by what you just said?” She couldn’t help but register the shocked expression on his face. “I mean, as you said, you don’t need to these days. Unless you’re very traditional or religious or—” She could feel she was digging herself deeper and deeper into a very big hole of embarrassment. “Or for financial reasons.”
She coughed away her discomfiture and began to fiddle with the stem of her wineglass, anything to avoid the glowering expression that dominated his features. She should just shut up.
“Marriage?” He lifted his eyes skyward and let out a bitter laugh. “Once was quite enough, trust me.”
His jaw lowered to meet her gaze with ultimate precision, and she felt as if she were being sucked into the eye of a dark storm.
“The institution is pointless—it didn’t stop my father from being a serial philanderer and making my mother’s life a humiliating misery. Why they never divorced is beyond me. Still,” his bottom lip tightened with disgust, “my mother’s dead and the old goat’s so senile now he’s oblivious to the damage he did. As for my own taste of wedded bliss? It was a living hell. So your answer is a definite no. I’d never, ever do anything that stupid a second time.”
His mum had died too…and he’d been married…
Kizzy felt a strange sensation of renewed loss and disappointment. She quickly looked over to his left hand to confirm the absence of a wedding ring. He must have loved his mother, but he clearly had no feeling left for the woman he had once cared about enough to marry. Not because he loved her, of course—he’d made his feelings known about that particular notion. But his revelation was creating more questions than answers in Kizzy’s mind.
What had happened?
Where was his wife now?
Had there been any children from the marriage?
Kizzy was sickened by the pounding of her heart as unbidden images forced their way to the front of her mind: Andreas in his dark, sartorial suit, smiling into the face of his beautiful, ivory-swathed bride; then the image of him naked and determined, rolling over to caress his wife’s slender limbs beneath crisp, white sheets; the sable, downy head of their baby in the crook of his protective arm…
Kizzy shook her head to banish the madness that seemed to be consuming her and said the first thing that came into her head, just to change the subject.
“I’ve got good news.” She smiled as brightly as she could when he quirked up an eyebrow to indicate she should continue, and suddenly realized there was no going back now that she had started. “I can move out of your villa immediately. Get out from under your feet. That’s good, isn’t it?”