by Mandy Baggot
‘I don’t know whether to feel pleased or strangely curious as to why not.’
‘Let’s leave it as an enigma,’ Heidi said as they got moving again.
As the road straightened out into what was becoming a familiar ride round the countryside, Beth was surprised to see a dark Mercedes parked in their spot outside the cottage. Was it Stathis the builder come a day too early? He didn’t seem like the kind to have a Mercedes as a weekend/non-work tools car? She shook her head. She really must stop judging people by what they had or didn’t have. Why couldn’t Stathis have earned enough money to have a Merc? She suspected builders round here probably made quite the fortune if ceilings fell down regularly enough… Or maybe it was Alex. He could be driving one of his hire cars. She hadn’t heard from him all day and she really did want to…
‘Who’s the cheeky sod parked in our spot?’ Heidi voiced as Beth slowed their vehicle.
‘Maybe it’s Flo’s housing manager guy,’ Beth said as she was hit with another alternative. ‘Didn’t you say if the photos weren’t enough confirmation of the damage, he might pay a visit?’
‘I would have hoped he or Flo would have given me a heads up,’ Heidi said as Beth pulled to a stop next to the car. ‘I don’t really want some stranger wandering round when my knickers are hanging out to dry.’
‘What are we going to do if we can’t find anywhere else to stay while the building work is going on?’ Beth asked as she turned off the engine. ‘Elektra seemed less than hopeful… and so did Alex when I asked him yesterday.’ She took out the keys and got down from the 4x4, shutting the door behind her and heading for the cottage.
‘Well, my sense of adventure tells me if we really can’t find anywhere, we sleep on the beach, under the stars. It’s not exactly cold and if we slap jungle formula insect repellent on us then…’
‘My God! What on earth has happened to you two?!’
Beth’s mouth dropped open and she stopped walking, frozen to the spot, unable to move forwards or back.
‘Beth, you look an absolute fright! Is that mud on your face and in your hair? And straw in your shoes… Are they the Burberry ones I bought you?’
‘Fuck me,’ Heidi exclaimed, gripping hold of Beth’s arm, eyes on the new arrival. ‘Please tell me I’ve got sunstroke. Please tell me that isn’t Charles by our front door.’
Beth shook her head, her insides beginning intense rotations only usually associated with the Earth’s trip round the sun. What was her ex-husband doing here in Corfu? At her holiday home?
‘Well, I have to say, this little place wasn’t quite what I was expecting to find when I got here,’ Charles continued, perusing the exterior of Paralia View like it was something he didn’t quite understand. ‘It’s very bijou, shall we say?’
‘It’s cosy,’ Beth said, finally finding her voice. ‘And snug and… homely.’
Charles smiled then, taking a few steps towards them. ‘You didn’t have to holiday on a budget, Beth. You only had to ask.’
Beth gritted her teeth. ‘What are you doing here, Charles?’
‘I would have thought that was obvious.’ He spread his arms wide, sweat patches under the pits of his smart yet inappropriate shirt. ‘I’m having a holiday.’
*
‘We could just kick him out, you know,’ Heidi said a few minutes later as Beth poured bottled water into a jug and added some ice from the freezer and a few slices of a lemon she had pinched from a tree in Roda. ‘Well, you could, because he’s not your husband any more but he is my boss…’
‘I can’t believe he’s had the nerve to come here,’ Beth said. ‘After that phone conversation… and I emailed him. I told him in no uncertain terms that I was resigning and… he’s got on a plane and come here.’ It sounded ten times worse when she said it out loud. ‘And why didn’t Tilly let us know?’
‘I suspect he kept this idea well under her radar,’ Heidi answered. ‘But she did warn you he was acting odd and sitting in your chair.’
‘I still didn’t equate that to getting on a plane and coming here,’ Beth said, her breath catching in her throat. ‘Why is he here?’
‘Oh, Beth,’ Heidi said. ‘You know why he’s here. He hates to lose. When you told him you were resigning from Mountbatten Global you kicked him in the manhood all over again. We’ve been through this. He may have done the dirty on you, but you instigated the divorce in the end. You took control. And he doesn’t like to lose control, even when the battle is over.’
‘I should kick him out, right now, shouldn’t I? I mean, you don’t think he’s thinking he can stay here, do you?’ As if just the fact Charles was on their terrace wasn’t enough. ‘We know how property is hard to come by in Corfu in July. What if he doesn’t have his own accommodation?’
‘Then it will be him sleeping under the stars tonight… far away from here… and I’m not giving up any of our insect repellent.’ Heidi smiled. ‘Or sun cream… and if he hasn’t packed total sun block for his pallor he’s going to be heading back to the airport before tomorrow arrives.’
‘I shouldn’t panic, should I?’ Beth asked Heidi, sounding decidedly panicked. ‘Because I’m the one in control, aren’t I?’
‘And you don’t need to ask me,’ Heidi said. ‘Because you already know.’ She took hold of Beth’s hand and gave it a squeeze. Beth’s eyes went to their joined fingers. That bloody wedding ring still refused to budge.
‘We should have tried the horse poo to get this off,’ Beth stated in annoyance, holding up her left hand.
‘Stathis and his tools,’ Heidi reassured. ‘And if he can’t get the ring off with cutters, we can ask him to sever Charles’s…’
‘Did you say you were bringing water? It’s a little balmy out here, even in the shade,’ Charles called.
‘Take him the water,’ Heidi said. ‘Let him say his piece. Then banish him back to Blighty so we can get on with pretending we’re twenty-one.’
Beth nodded. She hadn’t been through all these months of misery to still be as weak as she was when Charles went looking elsewhere.
‘Coming,’ Beth called back.
Thirty-Nine
‘Beth, this isn’t easy for me at all,’ Charles said, taking another gulp of the iced water then replacing the glass on the terrace table. ‘But… I really do owe you an apology.’
Beth sat opposite her ex-husband, simply observing him. He really was out of his comfort zone here in so many ways. He had always been happiest in the thick of intense negotiations, a boardroom full of posturing and conjecture. Even though, mainly at weekends, he had tried to rock the relaxed millionaire in plaid and tweed, it was almost like he breathed a sigh of relief whenever Monday came around and he could slip back into his Tom Ford suit. In Corfu he looked sweaty and ill at ease and there were dark patches under his light-blue eyes. And then his words hit her brain. I really do owe you an apology.
‘For what?’ Beth asked him, suddenly feeling strangely detached from the situation. ‘Still trying to manipulate my decisions when we’re divorced? Turning up here, elbowing your way into mine and Heidi’s holiday without either invitation or forewarning?’
She hardened her gaze and made it stick, like she was goading him to contradict her. And for a second Charles looked deflated. But she couldn’t be taken in by a slight show of weakness. He was nothing if not excellent at using every psych tool there was to get what he wanted. The Charles who had wiped her eyes and rocked her in his arms telling her everything would be OK hadn’t lasted. He had got bored, her mum had died, he had needed a new project…
‘I was actually going to say… for everything,’ he replied, raising his eyes to hers. His look was soft, not confrontational. ‘For every stupid decision I have made over the last couple of years. For hurting you irreparably. For bringing chaos into our marriage. For being the force creating that chaos. For not being strong enough to fight for what I really wanted. For not being a better man.’
His tone was dramatic, like he was pl
aying a part in Hamlet. But in the last year of their marriage Beth had become an expert at knowing when he was lying. And this was, whether she liked it or not, completely sincere.
‘Charles, I appreciate you admitting those things and I believe you really are taking ownership of this now but I don’t see the point of going over all of it again.’
Suddenly Charles stood up. ‘I knew you would say that… and of course, you have every right to feel abandoned and betrayed and… completely let down by me.’ He put a hand to his head, wiping the beads of perspiration away. ‘I acted like a child. No.’ He put his hand in the air now. ‘No, do not tell me I did not.’
She hadn’t been about to say anything. She reached for her glass of water and took a sip, caught between wanting him to carry on and wanting him to shut up entirely and head back to the airport.
‘As much as I adored your mother… and I did adore Rosa, Beth.’ He swallowed, as if seeking the right words. ‘She was so warm and light and… so much less angular than my mother… but all that time you spent with her, I can admit it now, I was jealous.’
Jealous. Now her insides felt like a piping hot bowl of curry, freshly microwaved. He had been jealous of her dying mother!
‘Please,’ Charles said, holding his hand up again, this time like he was a cop directing traffic. ‘I know how pitiful that sounds. How utterly selfish and pathetic even—’
‘If I’m honest, Charles, it sounds disgusting,’ Beth finally spoke up. ‘It sounds ugly and horrible and one of the worst things I have ever heard. My mother was dying when we met. We might not have officially known it then. We might have clung on to some small semblance of hope, but really, truly, she was always dying from the very beginning.’
‘I know,’ Charles breathed. ‘That lovely, lovely woman who had been a single mother to you throughout her marriage, with your father being away from home and then… well, we all know what happens in wars…’
‘Charles,’ Beth said, anger and distress at him bringing all this back up mixing like one of the potent cocktails she and Heidi used to make. ‘What is the point of all this? I thought I made myself clear on the phone and in my email. I want an end to this. I deserve an end to this. Don’t I, Charles? Even you must surely admit that I deserve an end to this.’
‘You do,’ Charles said, sitting back down again and reaching for her hands. ‘But not like this.’
Before Beth knew it, he was cupping her fingers in his, squeezing her hands, his face super-close across the table.
‘The ending you deserve, Beth, is a happy one. A happy-ever-after with someone who will cherish you the way you deserve to be cherished. I just hope it isn’t too late for that someone to still be me.’
What had he just said? Everything in her mind had suddenly gone into freefall. She couldn’t think. All she could focus on was the crashing of the waves on Almyros beach and the chirruping of the insects coming from the grass.
‘Don’t say anything,’ Charles begged, still holding her hands. ‘Please don’t say anything yet.’
‘Hello! Are you here, ladies?’
It was Stathis’s voice coming from inside. Where was Heidi? She had said she was going to leave her and Charles to talk, she hadn’t said she was going to abandon the cottage completely. Beth got up, wrenching away her hands.
‘It’s the builder. We’re having some work done on the cottage.’
‘I did notice half of one ceiling was gone when I came in,’ Charles remarked. ‘I know Greece is rustic but there’s a difference between unsophisticated and inhabitable, is there not?’
‘Beth? Are you here?’ This time it was a different voice. Not Stathis but… Alex. Now she felt a bit sick. Charles was about to meet the man she had often imagined having sex with when she was having sex with him. The man she had wanted to have sex with last night…
‘I’m here… I’m…’ She prepared to rush into the house to head the situation off, but it was too late. Alex appeared on the terrace, dressed in his handyman clothes of ripped jeans and a torn T-shirt, Stathis behind him, chewing on a pita gyros he was feeding himself with his right hand, his left hand holding a plastic bucket of tools.
*
‘Hey,’ Alex greeted, stepping forward and moving to kiss her.
‘Hello… there… Mr Hallas and… hello, Stathis,’ Beth greeted, ducking out of his orbit like nothing they had shared together the night before had taken place. He knew he had left her too quickly when he had to look for his mother, but he had explained all he could, and she had said she understood.
‘Kalispera,’ Stathis greeted through pork and onion. ‘I come to start on the ceilings.’
‘What?’ Beth exclaimed. ‘We thought we had until tomorrow at least. And… Flo hasn’t said anything to Heidi.’
‘What’s occurring with this situation?’ a man’s voice questioned.
It was then Alex noticed there was someone else on the terrace, sat behind the patio doors where he wasn’t immediately visible. It was the tall, blond-haired man he had hired a car to earlier. He had recognised the vehicle next to Beth and Heidi’s Jimny but presumed it was simply parked there because there was space, not because he was a guest…
‘I told you, Charles,’ Beth said, eyes anywhere but on Alex it seemed. ‘There’s some work being done on the cottage so…’
‘So?’ Charles asked, moving into the centre of things. He looked Alex and Stathis up and down as if they might be thieves about to steal the beach towels, mis-matched crockery and citronella candles.
This was Beth’s ex-husband. The man she had loved enough to marry. Alex couldn’t quite believe it. She had explained a little of how things had been but still Alex had not thought he would be quite this way…
‘You just loaned me a hire car,’ Charles said, pointing at Alex. ‘And now you’re a builder? How does that work?’
‘We rip down all the ceilings and my team come and make good again. Only a few days,’ Stathis informed with a burp.
‘Some of us have many jobs,’ Alex answered.
‘Well, Beth, what are you going to do?’ Charles asked, getting a lot closer to Beth than Alex had been able to. ‘Where are you going to stay?’
‘I… don’t know yet,’ Beth answered. ‘But that’s probably where Heidi is, you know, finding us an apartment or something.’
‘Beth,’ Alex began. ‘If you have found nowhere, I will make room at my place. It is only small, but I can make it work.’
Finally, she looked up at him and he didn’t know what to make of what he could see in her eyes. Diminished was the sparkle and dream-conquering Beth of the night before, picking glass from the sand, dancing hot in The Vault. This Beth looked tired and conflicted.
‘I can’t ask you to do that,’ she answered him.
‘No,’ Charles jumped in. ‘And why on Earth would you think she would want to stay at your “place”? That’s a little presumptuous, don’t you think? A woman on her own in foreign lands needing assistance and all you can think of is—’
‘Charles, he was only being nice. And… I know Alex,’ Beth said softly. ‘He… he…’
Alex waited to hear what she was going to say. He was someone she should have kept in contact with? Someone she wished she had made a life with? Someone she could see a new future with?
‘He gave us a very good deal on our hire car too,’ Beth finished.
‘Well, I don’t need to hear any more,’ Charles said, picking his jacket up from the back of the wooden chair. ‘You and Heidi can stay with me. I’ve got a villa a few miles from here, in Agni.’
‘Charles, you don’t need to do that,’ Beth told him. ‘Heidi and I made a pact this morning. If we don’t find accommodation, we have other plans.’
‘What other plans?’ Charles asked, staring at her.
‘Well,’ Beth said, ‘we’re going to sleep on the beach.’
There was the Beth Alex knew. A tingle ran down his spine as he again remembered all their times together, limbs in t
he warm sand, laying under the stars, connected in body and in soul…
Charles laughed out loud, clutching his chest, his shirt damp with perspiration. ‘I’ve never heard anything so preposterous in all my life! Sleeping outside with goodness-knows-who or goodness-knows-what marauding round in the darkness. No air-conditioning. The sea keeping you awake. It sounds like hell. No, come on, get your luggage together, I’m taking you to my villa.’ Charles looked at Stathis. ‘And you, I hope you have all the relevant accreditations because I will be checking.’ He turned to Beth. ‘I’ll meet you at the car. And call Heidi, find out where she has got to.’ He moved past Stathis, knocking into his bucket and heading into the house.
‘Beth,’ Alex said, reaching for her hand.
‘Alex, please,’ Beth begged. ‘I can’t explain now.’
‘I get it,’ Alex answered. ‘Everything has got complicated for you right now and you are doubting your future again.’
‘No,’ Beth answered. ‘I’m not doubting it at all. I know who I want to be. I just still have to lay some ghosts to rest with Charles. And he won’t see finality until he’s given everything he’s got, and it still hasn’t worked. That’s just how he is.’ She took a breath. ‘I don’t know, I think I knew something like this was going to happen before it was truly over.’
‘I don’t want to make things harder for you,’ Alex told her, holding her hand in his and toying with her fingers.
‘I know you don’t,’ Beth answered. ‘But, if what we have is as special as we both think it could be, it isn’t going to disappear in a few days. Especially if it’s still there after ten years.’
‘What do you want me to do?’ Alex asked her.
‘Be patient with me,’ Beth begged him. ‘Let me deal with this my way.’
He didn’t like this. He didn’t like her husband. When Charles had hired the car, he had been condescending and arrogant. Here, with Beth, he was controlling, oozing cool ownership he had no right to…
Alex shook his head. ‘I want only what is good for you, Beth, and… that man…’