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‘Will you let me know?’
He nodded. ‘Nico wouldnotmake a good doula.’
Roula found that she was smiling, and not her corporate one. There were unfamiliar muscles stretching her lips as they parted over her teeth, and she could actually feel the edge of the top row on her mouth.
As they looked through the menus his gaze fell on the plaster on her middle finger. She’d worn one last week, but it had been on her thumb, and that was still there too. Galen noticed such things.
He guessed she was biting her nails.
‘The calamari is amazing here...’ Galen suggested.
‘I hate fish.’
‘Not brilliant if your husband’s a fisherman...’ Galen stopped. He really was awful at jokes and that had been a dreadful attempt.
‘Risotto,’ she said, and then added, ‘Please.’
They were awkward. Impossibly so.
She had gone through her contract for the retreat with Costa, in the retreat’s restaurant. And Leo always treated her to a lovely lunch whenever they caught up. What was this? Roula asked herself.
But she knew...
She’d never dined with a man she was attracted to.
Had never known this feeling at all.
‘How are you, Roula?’ he asked when their meals had been served. ‘Really?’
She looked up. ‘I thought we weren’t going to engage in idle conversation.’
‘You haven’t signed the contract,’ Galen pointed out. ‘Maybe, just for tonight, we can catch up? How were your family about you leaving?’
‘A little upset,’ Roula admitted. ‘They don’t believe it’s just for six weeks.’
‘Is it?’
Gosh, a real conversation—it had been a long time since she’d had one of those. ‘I don’t know,’ Roula admitted. ‘For now, I’m on leave from the retreat. Yolanda was a little cross at first. She said I’d given no indication...’ She shrugged. ‘You know what it can be like when staff leave.’
‘Not really.’ He tore some bread. ‘I can’t get rid of mine.’ He gave her a half-smile, a little sad that she clearly felt unable to tell him about her brother. ‘We might seem cold at first, but you should give us a chance.’
‘Yes,’ Roula agreed, for this job really was a serious opportunity. ‘I should.’ But first... ‘How areyou, Galen?’
‘I’m trying to make you feel welcome, Roula.’
‘So tell me how you’ve been.’
‘I’ve been well.’
‘How was the military?’
‘That was years ago.’ He cast his mind back. ‘It was good. I liked the training, and I got to fix computers instead of mopping and cleaning. After that I settled in Athens. I went back to Anapliró a couple of times to visit myyaya.’
‘I heard.’ She looked at him then, and Galen found that he was frowning at her expression, for she looked a little cross.
‘She often spoke about you.’
He didn’t want to visit the past. ‘Right, shall we do this?’ He opened the file he had brought along and pushed it across the table. He took out his pen and Roula looked at the contract.
