Page 20 of Love Among the Ruins
The woman blinked at her. Disbelief spreading over her face like a mask. “He told you that?”
“Can I go in? I spoke to him last night.”
“Last night?”
“He called me.”
“Hecalledyou?”
“I’ve come a long way. I know you don’t believe me, but can you please tell him I’m here?” Eleni tipped her chin up in defiance and inhaled a long, deep breath.
“But he’s not expecting you.”
He was obviously important given that she couldn’t get past two women to see him, but she’d had enough. She moved away and eyed the few doors that she saw. Then she caught sight of an office slightly around the corner and behind the PA. She started to move in that direction when the secretary came tottering after her in her heels making a clacking sound on the wooden floor. “Y-you can’t do that.”
“Oh, but I can.”
“He’s… he’s not here. Please go.” The PA was flustered, her cheeks red, and clearly looking uncomfortable. “Please don’t get me in trouble,” she cried, when Eleni ignored her and wrestled with the doorknob. She opened the door to find a large dark wooden table and a big empty leather chair. There was no one there.
Had he played her? Was this some kind of sick joke with him and his rich friends aboard the yacht? It had taken a huge leap of faith, and desperation for her to come all the way here.
The poor PA looked as if her day had suddenly gotten worse. Eleni decided to put her out of her misery. “I’m going. You can pretend this never happened.” She got into the elevator, her heated cheeks an indication of her anger. It had been a waste coming here, and she’d lost out on a day’s wages from the taverna.
But as the elevator reached the ground floor, the thought of getting back on the ferry and returning to the island, the taverna and Stefanos, didn’t appeal. Something steely and resilient hardened inside her. She couldn’t face the further humiliation of going home a failure, of not having even tried.
She would wait. She took a seat in the lobby to try again, but this time, the other receptionist, the one in the main lobby area, stared at her as if she didn’t belong. As if she were a fake.
Eleni braced herself. She hadn’t come all this way for nothing, and now she was more determined than ever to wait it out even though the receptionist periodically looked at her and gave her the death stare.
But as the minutes ticked by, it was becoming slowly and painfully obvious to her that Dominic Steele was having a joke at her expense. He was exactly who she had pegged him out to be: a self-assured, smarmy, businessman who had slipped her his business card. She’d come here on a whim believing the words and promises of a man she barely knew.
She didn’t belong here.
But she didn’t belong on the island either, or at home where she was an extra in the romantic soap opera drama that was her mother’s life.
She called the American’s number again, to tell him she was sorry, but she had changed her mind, but it went straight to his voicemail. A few seconds later, her cell phone rang, and when she saw Stefanos’ name, something warm and comforting swept over her, settling her nerves.
“Leni,” he shrieked. “He’s a billionaire!” Stefanos sounded excited, as if this news might somehow impact his life for the better.
She looked around, checking to see if anyone else had heard Stefanos’ high squeak, and turned the sound down on her phone. “I know.”
“You know?”
“He told me.”
“And you’re still okay about working for him? I thought you hated—”
“I need the money.”
“Good. I’m glad you changed your mind because that’s going to be your best shot.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“It’s a shipping company.”
“What is?”
“That address where you’re at.”
