She flew through the doors of the Casa Adriana and click-clacked her way across the hotel lobby, her stilettoes smacking the marble floor. Nico had emailed her early this morning—at 4:19am to be precise—and had asked her to scan and email him some financial figures.
What on earth was he doing? He was supposed to be on vacation. She knew that he was incapable of relaxing, but this was insane. He would be back at work soon enough. Couldn’t he wait? She wondered what Ava would say if she found out. A smile spread across her lips. Ava probably already knew what her husband was up to.
As she greeted the desk receptionist, her smile promptly disappeared when Demetrio’s body came into view.
He had decided to return to work on a Friday?
She felt a tightness of her facial muscles as she glared at him. His expression was tense and he appeared to be deep in conversation on his cell phone as he walked towards her. Suddenly, he looked at her, then mumbled something into his phone before sliding it into his jacket pocket.
“You’re back,” she stated calmly. “This is a surprise.” She hadn’t expected to see him until next week, when Nico would be back. “How are you feeling?”
He coughed. “A lot better now.” Then he coughed again.
His performance was to be admired. She folded her arms as they squared off in the middle of the hotel lobby. He looked smarter than usual, he had always been smart before, but there was something even sharper, more slick about him today. He’d had a haircut. He looked as if he was copying Nico’s style: sharp dark suits and a shirt with a shiny tie and cufflinks. It then occurred to her that he probably had another interview lined up. He so obviously didn’t look like someone who had spent the last week and a half ill in bed.
“That’s good,” she said. “You’re looking really well. In fact, you’re looking very smart.”
He lifted his chin up and threw her a stony look. “I’ll be back,” he said, starting to walk away towards the direction she had just come from. “I need to go somewhere for about an hour.”
Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. Was this guy serious? “You only just got in. We’ve got a meeting this morning.”
“Are we still doing those with Nico away?”
“We haven’t stopped working just because Nico is away.”
“Can’t we make it later?” Demetrio’s impertinence grated on her nerves. The man didn’t even need to open his mouth to annoy her but his behavior was completely unacceptable, especially in light of what she knew about him.
He was doing his best to push her buttons and she had to stay calm. She had to act as if he was a model employee, not the devil child.
“No, we can’t.” She puffed out her breath slowly, trying to keep her voice level, hoping it wouldn’t ratchet up and give her away. Hard to pretend to be neutral in the face of such disloyalty. She was tempted to ask him about his vacation but this wasn’t the time.
“I won’t be too long.”
Arrogant asshole. He obviously hadn’t quite shifted back into work mode and he was going to do whatever it was he needed to do, first. She bit down hard on her teeth. “I’ll let Nico know that you weren’t available at this morning’s meeting.”
His face contorted. “But he’s on vacation.” He seemed slightly unsure as he said it.
“He is,” she said, “but I report back on everything that goes on here.”
He surveyed her carefully. “I’ll be there.”
She gave a mirthless laugh. “It’s called ‘work’, Demetrio, and you’re already here.” She was about to step away but decided to set something off—a little something to keep him on his toes. “I need to talk to you before the meeting.”
Demetrio’s eyes narrowed to slits. “What about?”
She was saved from replying by her cell phone which went off in her handbag, and she busied herself looking for that rather than give Demetrio an answer. “Hi, Nico,” she said, turning away from Demetrio and heading towards her office. “Yes.” She threw her bag onto the floor and switched on her PC. “I’ll email them to you in the next fifteen minutes. Why are you asking for financial figures? You’re supposed to be relaxing.”
“I am relaxing,” he said, in that tight voice of his which indicated otherwise. “I have been, but it’s impossible to fully switch off.”
She knew, and understood that feeling.
“Would you please send me the documents before Ava wakes up?”
She smiled. “I’m on it.”
She postponed the meeting to 11, because Nico’s request took longer than she had estimated. Half an hour before the meeting was due to start, there was a knock on her barely open door and Demetrio’s beady eyes peered at her through the narrow gap.
“You wanted to talk to me?” he asked, pushing the door wider.
“Come in,” she said, rearranging the stationery on her desk, trying to exude an air of confidence she didn’t fully feel. Meetings with Demetrio inevitably wound her up and left her stress levels high. They were confrontational, at a subtle, understated level.
He sat on the chair and laid his arms on the armrest in a relaxed pose; the sort of pose Nico often adopted. It made her wonder whether Demetrio was modeling himself on her boss and she was momentarily lost noting the similarities in dressing between the two men, because personality wise they couldn’t have been more different.
Demetrio looked smug, so sure of himself and she was more eager than ever to wipe that look off his face. “How was your vacation?” she asked, charging straight into battle. His face hardened in an instant.
“What vacation?” he asked, sitting upright suddenly.
“Greece,” she replied sweetly, enjoying the rush of satisfaction in watching him squirm.
“Greece?” He looked so confused that for a flash she doubted her accusation.
“Weren’t you in Greece?”
His face drained of color. “Greece?” It was the slight laugh at the end of his question that gave him away. “No!”
“No?” She raised an eyebrow and let the silence drag out a few seconds longer. “Last week, and part of this week.”
The color crimson crept along Demetrio’s cheeks. “I was ill. In bed.” His brow crinkled.
“You were?” She examined her bracelet, an impulse-buy on her last shopping trip, and delayed answering straight away. She was enjoying this immensely.
“Yes, I was.” His voice rose, and turned indignant. “I was in bed for days.”
“With what?”
“Huh?”
“What was wrong with you?”
He looked at her as if she’d asked a personal question. “I was—I had-I was vomiting and I had diarrhea. I’ve been too dehydrated and weak to come back any sooner than I could. Even the doctor told me to stay at home for a few more days but I decided to come in now—”
“The doctor? So you have a sick note for your absence?”
He glared at her in silence, his mouth twisting as he seemed to struggle for words. “You want a sick note?”
“It’s customary when an employee has been off for more than a week. Unless you went to Greece, in which case, you probably don’t have a sick note. A postcard maybe.” She smiled, even knowing that this was too much, she had strayed too much over the line, and bordered onto the unprofessional. He looked at her as if she had gone mad, and for a moment she wondered if she had. This was too much, having such enjoyment at his expense.
His Adam’s apple moved as he stayed silent. “What makes you think I was in Greece?” he asked finally, a last attempt at denial.
“Your friend told me. He answered the phone when I called. Maybe he was your flat mate, I don’t know.”
“You called me?”
“I did.” She gloated. “I was concerned, and I wanted to know how you were.” She flashed him a wide smile and held it there. It seemed to piss him off even more.
“And my flat mate told you?”
She nodded.
“That dumbass,” mumbled Demetrio, loud enough for her to hear. He wiped his hand over his brow.
“He assumed I was a recruitment agent. I thought you had a job already lined up?” she asked, remembering the day he had handed in his resignation letter, and how he had been boasting about his new job.
He didn’t say anything for a while.
“Demetrio?” she prompted, adopting a more serious tone. “Don’t you have anything to say?”
“What are you going to do now?”
“What do you think I should do?”
“You’re going to tell Nico, aren’t you? You probably already have.”
“Is that all you have to say?”
“I was in Greece, okay?” He stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets. “So what if I was?” He moved to the side of the chair, and she sat there, part speechless, and watched his confident demeanor crack in front of her.
“You lied.” She would bring the matter to Nico’s attention when he returned.
“It’s alright for you,” snarled Demetrio. “You can tell Nico you want time off and he would let you take time off. That man would let you do whatever you wanted, only because of some stupid legacy him and his old man had.” He threw his hands into the air. “Maybe because you were here the longest, or they liked you, or they thought you were a great employee.”
She cocked her head.
“I expected this to be a meritocratic organization to work for. I expected the Cazale group to be a professional business.
“It is, on both accounts.”
“That’s what you think. Me, I’d rather work in a place where you’re judged on what you do and the results you get.”
“And what would that be exactly?” It was what she had suspected all along, the things that pissed him off, and the way he used to always boast about his college degree and how well suited he was for this job. She had long guessed that he had been angling to be Nico’s right-hand man and it irked him how Nico seemed to hold her in such high regard.
It was time to put that little rat straight.
She raised her chin, her hands clenched into fists and resting in her lap. “It’s not because of how long I’ve been here, it’s because I pulled my weight where and when it was needed. If Nico has given me more responsibility it’s not just because I’ve been here longer than you, it’s because I’ve proved myself in the past to be someone who gets the job done. I have always done over and above what was needed. I don’t need to justify anything to you, but you make the wrong assumptions then hold a grudge against me because you believe you have been wronged. You haven’t been wronged. You’ve been given plenty of leeway. It’s clear we have our differences and since you’re leaving soon, it’s better if we both stay out of each other’s way.”
He appeared taken aback, even though the look of defiance held firm in his eyes. “Have you finished?”
“I’ve said everything I needed to.”
He got up and moved towards the door and walked out without a word.
She slumped back in her chair and wondered why everything was such a struggle. Not everything, she reminded herself. Some things were working out just fine. Despite what Mimi or her mom, or even Ines thought about her moving in with Christian, she found herself not having any hesitation or regrets anymore. In fact, the only sunshine on her horizon was the weekend when she planned to move into Christian’s apartment.
With so much going on they hadn’t yet decided on a date. If Christian had his way he would have had her move in weeks ago but she didn’t want to get in the way of his race.
And when she did move in, she would still visit her mother on the weekend, but she was determined not to make this a weekly occurrence. She was determined to set reasonable expectations—ones that made sense for her. No more of putting herself last and fitting into the demands of what everyone else expected from her.
Ines poked her head through the slightly open door. “Is the meeting still on?” Gina stood up, and hastily gathered her leather folder and pen. “Yes.”
“What happened? Demetrio’s walked into the office and slammed the door. He hasn’t said a word but his face looks like thunder.”
“Ah.”
“Ah, what?”
“We had words.”
“I thought as much. What did you say to him?”
“It wasn’t one-way,” Gina said. “He said a lot of things to me.”
“Like what?”
“About what he thought of me and—” She glanced at her watch. “It doesn’t matter. He’s leaving soon. None of this is going to matter much.”
“But still, what did you say?”
“I confronted him about his so-called sickness.”
Ines looked at her puzzled. “So-called sickness? He seems fine now.”
“So would I if I’d gone to Greece for a vacation.” It slipped out of her mouth before she had time to stop.
“He went to Greece?”
Gina nodded. “I don’t want you to mention this to him, or anyone. Promise?”
“I promise…but…Greece? Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“And he pretended he was sick?”
Gina nodded again.
“He could get away with murder.”
“He most likely could,” Gina agreed.
“Nico will be furious, and he won’t even be able to fire him!”
“Nico will hit the roof,” said Gina. “He’s going to have a truckload of paper work and emails to catch up on when he returns and then this drama.”
“I won’t know how to look at him in the meeting,” said Ines.
“Then don’t look at him at all,” suggested Gina. “That’s what I do. Shall we go, otherwise our esteemed work colleague will be huffing and puffing in irritation all by himself?” She opened the door and let Ines pass.
“I’ve never been to Greece,” mused Ines as they walked down the hallway. “It’s on my list of places to visit one day.”
“Whatever you do, don’t ask Demetrio about it,” pleaded Gina.