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‘You are dangerous, Mary Jones,’ he said, but he smiled along with saying it. ‘When you go for something, you really go for it, don’t you?’
‘It would seem so...’ She sighed.
‘Well, I have told Coral that I am still deciding whether or not to pursue a course of legal ac—’
‘Pursue what?’
‘Her treatment of you was so wrong, Mary, and believe me she has been told. Oh, and I can tell you the reason you’re getting nowhere with your references. I had Roula call her, and it would seem dear Coral takes less than a minute to discredit you. I thought it would be hard to find out where your father was imprisoned, but Coral sang like a bird.’
‘I knew it,’ Mary muttered. ‘So whatareyou doing here? Apart from making trouble at my old salon.’
‘A number of things. But first off I came to apologise.’
‘For what?
‘For not believing in you. For believing the worst.’
‘Costa...’ She wanted to interrupt him, to pause, to think over what her father had said, but he shook his head.
‘Not here.’
She was shaking as he led her to a car, and bewildered as they were driven to the hotel where they had first met.
Back where they’d started.
They were sitting in gorgeous chesterfields, he with a cognac and she with a hot chocolate, she looking at the purple orchid in its glass jar while he closed his eyes.
But then he pulled himself out of his reverie and opened his eyes, and there was the Costa she knew.
‘So, what have you been up to, besides trying to get over me?’ he asked.
‘Oh, I’ve been trying to get over you, have I?’ He really wassoarrogant. ‘Actually, I’ve been busy looking for work. And I’ve got interviews—not just for work. I’m looking into a flat-share with some lovely Belgian people I met in the hostel I’m staying at.’
She deliberately didn’t let on about the rather dire status of her emergency fund.
‘I owe you some money...’ Costa said. ‘Kristina said you never gave her your bank details...’
Ah, sothatwas why he was here.
‘I don’t want your money, Costa. Most of our time together was wonderful. It would cheapen it for me if I was paid. Anyway, you’ve already given me enough...’
‘What?’
‘I’ve got nice clothes for interviews and I’ve got a phone...’ She took a breath. ‘I know better now how things should be, how I should expect to be treated. You did that for me, and it’s worth a whole lot more than a bundle of cash. I want to think of our weekend as...’
She shrugged and tried to come up with a word that downplayed the true depth of her feelings. Certainly a man like Costa would be bored with women declaring their love for him.
‘As a fling.’
‘Oh, I think you can do better than that,’ Costa said.
She flushed. ‘Okay, aromancerather than a paid date...’
‘Better.’ He gave her a small smile. ‘Mary, it was a romance.’
‘Thank you.’ With her father’s words still spinning in her head, she knew there was something else that needed to be said. ‘And thank you for forgiving me. I’m still furious that you felt you needed to, but I understand what it cost you to do it.’
Costa frowned. ‘I don’t forgive easily, Mary, but I figured you had your reasons...’
