Page 116 of Love Among the Ruins
“For your time and inconvenience.”
She stepped closer to his desk. “This will be like a vacation for me. I’ve never been to Santorini, I told you.”
“Iwillpay you for your time and effort. It’s not negotiable, Eleni.”
“If it makes you feel better.” More money? She’d never had so much money in her life.
“It would.”
If he wanted to throw money at her, she wasn’t going to argue too much about it. She glanced around the room. “It would help with the expedition.”
“The what?”
“The ... uh.” She chewed the inside of her cheek, buying time and a way out of this conversation.
“Did you sayexpedition?”
She hadn’t wanted to talk about this. Not to Dominic of all people, but his eyes were on her, a mixture of surprise and awe. She couldn’t very well lie. “I ... I’ve been saving up for ...” She didn’t want to tell Dominic about Jonas because the guilt was overwhelming. These days she didn’t think about Jonas unless something prompted her to, and here she was in her boss’s office agreeing to go away with him for a weekend and be his fake date.
“A friend of mine died, tragically.”He wasn’t just a friend …That was the item of information to not hold back on, surely? “My boyfriend, actually.” She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. Noticing a paper clip on the floor, she picked it up.
Dominic mumbled an apology or something.
“We were going to climb a mountain. Kilimanjaro, would you believe.” She put the paperclip back into his desk tidy, and still she couldn’t look him in the face. “He, my boyfriend, Jonas ... it was his dream. We’d been planning it and ... and then he ... he was ... he died.”
Her heart sagged and sunk lower in her chest cavity. The remembrance of that time weighed on her heavily each time she thought about it.
“I’m so sorry for your loss.”
She picked at something on her skirt. “I’ve been saving for it because it costs a lot, but I’m not so sure now.” She looked up at him.
“Of what?”
“Of still going through with it. It won’t be the same without him.”
“I’m so sorry, Eleni.”
She tried to regain her composure because she hadn’t been prepared for this. She had kept Jonas’ memory close to her heart. Telling Dominic had just seemed so … wrong. “I should get back to … to work.”
Her legs couldn’t move fast enough out of Dominic’s office.
* * *
DOMINIC
He swiveled around on his executive chair and huffed out a sigh.
She was still grieving the tragic passing of her boyfriend.
Now he finally understood her need to earn money. The two jobs, and the reason she couldn’t afford to lose her income.
She was doing it all for an expedition that she and her boyfriend had planned. She was still in love with him.
He had to focus on his own goals. Galatis and the wedding. If he could close the deal, his mission here would be accomplished. Nikolaos was due to return next month and Dominic’s job here would be done.
The only other upside of attending the wedding with Eleni was that Demi would see that he had a plus one.
Even if she was just a fake date.
