The car pulled up outside his headquarters.
He rolled his neck.
Flanked by his lawyer and PA, Thanasis swept through the door and took the elevator to the top floor. Every employee he came across he greeted with his usual courtesy. He would not have anyone think he was concerned his world was about to be destroyed.
Besides, you couldn’t destroy something that was already wrecked, and Thanasis’s life was as wrecked as wrecked could be. If not for his family and thousands of employees, he would tell the investors to do whatever the hell they wanted to his business and then walk away from it all. There was nothing left for him. There was no life for him without Lucie. Only existence. All a man needed to exist were a roof over his head and three square meals a day.
But he would play the game one last time for his family and employees’ sakes.
The walls of the boardroom were glass and he could see them already in there, plotting over good coffee and fresh pastrieshe’dprovided.
He shook their hands and took his seat.
The moment Craig opened his mouth, Thanasis knew it was game over.
Words were bandied around. English word salads. Corporate jargon to justify the cowardice. He tuned most of the words out, only the odd ones floating into his consciousness. Reputational Management were his favourites. Especially coming from a man Thanasis knew for a fact was cheating on his wife with their children’s nanny.
He made a half-hearted attempt to fight his corner but it was like a boxer already down on points in the final round with his opponent still fresh and bouncing in the ring.
He wondered if Lucie had found her bounce again yet. He hoped so. He prayed for her to have found her bounce again. The Lucie bounce…
The investors had stopped talking, their necks craned to a commotion occurring outside the boardroom.
Thanasis might be dead inside but he could still manage to raise one eyebrow as a sop to curiosity.
He started. Sat up straighter.
He could have sworn he’d just seen a curly black pineapple…
Just as he was blinking to clear his eyes, a tiny waif in a long flowing black dress, black jacket with crystals studded into it and chunky black boots ducked out from the crowd and, before anyone could stop her, flung the boardroom door wide open.
‘Apologies, gentlemen…lady.’ She smiled widely around the room. ‘I just need a quick word with my fiancé.’ Then, to Thanasis, she said, ‘Can you believe I forgot my security pass again? I’m so sorry. Honestly, I swear I’d forget my head if it wasn’t screwed on.’ Attention back on the investors, she tapped the side of her head. ‘Brain injury. I donotrecommend. But on the mend now, so all good.’
Everyone’s mouth had fallen open, none wider than Thanasis’s. He’d lost control of his body. He couldn’t even raise his hands to rub his eyes.
Was he hallucinating?
At a speed that threatened to give everyone in the room whiplash, she turned back to Thanasis. ‘The medical team have just declared me fit to travel again, so can I borrow a helicopter to meet Griselda and get the wedding rebooked?’
‘Excuse me, miss,’ Craig, the Canadian investor, said, ‘but you’re Thanasis’sfiancée?’
‘Yes, for my sins. I’m so sorry we had to postpone the wedding but I’m sure Thanasis told you all about my relapse. Thank you all so much for not tipping the press off about it—he’s been under enough pressure as it is without having to answer constant questions about whether the woman he loves is going to live or die. I really hope you’ll all be able to make the rebooked date—I promise we won’t make you wait too long. If I had my way we’d sneak off now and marry but my fiancé’s a traditionalist and insists on marrying me properly. Anyway, I’ve taken enough of all your time, so is it okay for me to borrow a helicopter, my love?’
But Thanasis was incapable of speaking. He was watching Lucie bounce around his boardroom, charming and amusing his investors, and was almost completely certain he was dreaming.
He was still almost completely certain he was dreaming when the meeting came to an abrupt halt, files were shuffled together, laptops closed, hands shaken, murmured awkward apologies for all his ‘troubles’ and then, in what felt like the time it took to blink, the boardroom was empty of everyone but himself and Lucie.
She glided past him.
He caught a waft of her perfume.
She must have pressed the button for all the wall blinds lowered. A lock clicked.
‘That’s better,’ she said happily, perching herself on the table beside him. ‘Some privacy.’
He just stared at her.
She slid her bottom over so she was facing him, and reached down to loosen his tie. ‘I think the words you’re looking for arethank you.’
