Page 62 of Love Among the Ruins
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
DOMINIC
The dinner with Galatis and a few other business associates was bearable.
Of course, they hadn’t had time to discuss the particular deal that Dominic was after, but at least it had given him time to catch up with Helen while they were shown around Galati’s impressive multi-million-dollar home.
Helen had returned from her meeting in Aegina earlier than expected, which was why, when they’d spoken earlier in the day and he’d mentioned the dinner with Galatis, she’d offered to come, even though he hadn’t asked her. She said she needed to run something by Galatis, and because it made sense, he’d agreed.
But it still niggled him that he’d had to turn Eleni down at the last minute. It had been far easier to cancel on Eleni, than to explain to Helen that he was bringing a young and relatively new employee with him.
It had been a lousy thing to do to Eleni and were it not for the call from his father that he’d had to absolutely take, he would have called her much earlier.
But he wasn’t prepared for the cold shoulder at work the next day. Feeling bad, a sensation new to him, he wandered into the office she shared with the two ogres, a place he hardly ever ventured into, but as soon as he appeared, the two women inside were all smiles. Eleni glanced up, nodded at him and then went back to her work.
He opened his mouth to ask her something then became aware of the women staring at him, waiting and watching. Eleni kept her head down, a steely determination in her posture.
She didn’t want to talk to him.
He thought better of it and marched back out.
* * *
ELENI
Eleni was still stinging with the pain of humiliation at being left behind, being replaced by the elegant Helen, when Dominic entered the office.
The sight of him, looking subdued, wearing a sheepish expression instead of his usual hard-set expression unnerved her.
She wasn’t used to seeing him look so … meek.
Agnes and Isidora greeted him with an enthusiasm she had never before seen in them. But he wasn’t looking at them. He was staring at her as if he had something to say, but she wasn’t interested in listening.
She didn’t even look at him much, and when he unexpectedly left in the same silent manner in which he’d turned up, she released a long breath.
It shouldn’t have felt like a let-down, but it did. It shouldn’t have hurt, but it did. It shouldn’t have meant anything, but it did.
It was nothing to do with Dominic, and everything to do with where she was at in her life right now.
Almost a year and a half after Jonas’ accident and she was still trying to move on. Mount Kilimanjaro was a milestone she felt she needed to reach, but lately, a sliver of guilt had started to seep into her soul. Was it what she really wanted?
Being in Athens was helping to sever the ties to Spetses and her first love. With so much going and adjustments to be made, new ideas and possibilities were filtering through her walled-up defenses.
Dominic, for one, had crept into her thoughts, unwelcome and unexpected.
Dominic calling her to say he was taking Helen instead, had hurt. But it shouldn’t have.
She toyed around with flimsy explanations as to the reason why. Maybe it reinforced the idea that she didn’t matter; a message which her parents, individually, had imbued her with.
Maybe there was another reason. But she dared not dwell on those thoughts, because it didn’t matter that Dominic was nice to her, and that he was being polite to Miranda because of her intervention. It didn’t matter that he’d given her an opportunity to change her life, to reach a goal he had no idea about. It didn’t matter that he was the type of man she had previously detested.
Dominic had every right to go to the dinner with his girlfriend. It was nice that he had someone.
With a start and a jolt, she realized thatthat’swhat needled her.
She didn’t see much of him for the next few days. Linus returned to work. She’d seen him in the hallway once, and he’d given her an unfriendly smile which she’d tossed right back at him.
Linus returning meant that she would no longer be required to accompany Dominic to his business meetings.
