The Letter

Chapter 10

I would imagine it's the kind of joy one gets from winning the lotto while simultaneously having the best sex of your life, not that I have ever experienced anything like that before, but that's what walking into the hotel room felt like anyway.

Everything was carved entirely into the rock face. It looked more like a cave than an actual hotel room. Painted white inside, the walls and ceiling were all curved. Even the cupboard space and shelves had been carved into the rock.

I put my bags down and sat on the bed. All the other décor was blue and everything looked so crisp and clean.

Perfect!

At the other end of the room there were two blue shutter doors. I felt compelled to go and open them, and when I did...

I stepped onto a private balcony and was met with a riot of colors. Bright pink Bougainvillea wrapped itself around the pillars and dangled from the overhang above my head, with pots of red flowers everywhere. A small rim flow pool stretched out in front of me and from where I was standing, you could barely see where the pool ended and the sea began.

From my private terrace I could gaze across the sea. It looked like it stretched out in front of me forever. I breathed in deeply, it was all so... and then I sneezed. I looked up, straight at a cat sitting on the wall. I made a hissing noise shook my hand at it until it disappeared.

Just when I thought this place was starting to grow on me, I was reminded of how allergic I was to Greece.

I hated cats. Cats are from the devil. Their eyes glow at night for heaven sake.

My phone rang and I went back into the room. I saw the word flashing on the screen from a few meters away and sighed.

"Mom. Mom, Mom."

I hadn't responded to her millions of messages yet. I'm actually impressed it took her this long to try and call me. Technology was just another weapon my mother added to her armor for meddling in my love life.

One of the worst days of my life was the day she got a smartphone. She'd mastered the art of texting, and that was still ok. But then she moved on to Whatsapp, emoji's and my life literally came to an end the day she got herself a Facebook profile. So I ditched my smart phone for an old, trusty Nokia that just makes calls and receives messages.

"Mom." I said into the phone.

"God Jane, where have you been? I've been sick with worry wondering whether you had been assaulted by some Greek man and dragged off to become someone's wife in a little rural village somewhere."

"That's a bit dramatic mother."

"Well, you never know. I mean look what happened to Lilly, basically kidnapped in Thailand and rustled away to some debaucherous party."

"Mom, she wasn't kidnapped, she and Damien are engaged."

"You really shouldn't have gone, it's not safe."

"Mom, I'm fine."

"Let me jump on the next plane and I'll see you there in the morning...."

"Mom. No! This is something I have to do alone."

"Fine. Fine." She gave a resigned sigh, as if she was giving up, but I knew better. "So what's it like there? Are the men as gorgeous as they say?"

"Um..." I started to stammer just thinking about him.

"Because, I've read so many romance books where some gorgeous Billionaire Greek oil tycoon sweeps the heroine off her feet..."

"Mom!" I chided her. "Stop."

"Fine, fine." She was very fond of saying fine, "But promise me that just in case you meet a gorgeous Greek Billionaire you will have a wax, you know how you can get, and a pedicure. You don't want him thinking you have hobbit feet."

"Mom, stop it!" I was very glad when my phone started beeping with another call coming in.

"Mom, hang one, I have another call"

"If it's your father please tell him that I put the roast on an hour ago I expect him home on time."

I glanced down at the screen. It was Dimitri..

"It's not dad."

"Who is it?"

"It's just... it's the tour guide, I'm sure he's just calling to check if the hotel's okay or something."

"He? Darling, please be careful of tour guides. Greek Gigolos, all of them. Remember what happened to your biological mother. But a shipping tycoon...."

"Mom, I'm not looking to bed– or whatever else you think I'm going to do with the tour guide and I doubt Greek shipping magnates would want to go out with me anyway."

"Maybe if you just put on a little lipstick sometimes."

"Maybe I don't want a boyfriend."

"Everyone wants to be loved Jane, even busy career girls like you."

Something about her statement ground me to a stop.

"I'll take it under advisement. I've got to go. OK. Bye."

I hung up quickly. This was a usual thing we did when she went off on one of her famous rants – a game we regularly played. The woman did stress me out though, everyone wants to be loved Jane.

I didn't answer Dimitri's call. All I wanted to do was have a bath. I peeled my clothes off, freed my mop of rebel hair and stood in front of the mirror too look at myself. There was nothing I liked about my body at all, and it was a feeling I carried around since my teenage years.

I'd long since given up any expectation that I may have some kind of dormant gene that would spring to life at some stage, making everything a little smaller (especially my thighs) and blonder and blue eyed. I had no idea what my biological parents looked like, but clearly I hadn't inherited very favorable genes. I had the waist of a walrus, and as for that 'signature' mole on my face. If I called it 'signature' like Cindy Crawford, it made it sound more purposeful. But the truth was that my mole looked like it had gotten lost and settled somewhere in the middle of my left check. It was as if it wasn't able to commit to a specific spot so just settled. It was neither here nor there. Non-committal mole.

My boobs were a large, good size, though. My mother was fond of pointing this out- they were my best assets, it's just such a pity you don't dress to accentuate them. And I hated to admit it again, but my mother was right, I could do with a little bikini wax.

Another beep on my phone made me turn around. I reached for it.

Check the side pocket of ur bag. Just in case you change your mind. Mom X

I reached in a pulled out a little package labeled, "Care package." Although, I doubted very much that this care package contained tins of canned beef and dehydrated food rations for war torn, starving millions. How the hell had she even managed to slip this in my bag?

I opened it.

1 x pink bikini (Way, way too push-uppy in the bust area for my liking and were those sequins?)

1 x home cold wax kit (I wasn't familiar with it's ilk)

1 x Romance book (Stranded on Santorini: The Greek Billionaire's virgin bride. Tamed by the hot Greek Tycoon series: book 8)

I turned the book over in my hands. I wasn't sure what was more disturbing, the fact that my mother had packed this for me, or there were eight books in the series. The man on the cover was hot, I grant you that. But he didn't hold a candle, nay a tiny flickering flame to Dimitri. My temperature rose at the sudden thought of him.

The plunge pool on my terrace was completely private, so no one would see the horrendous pink thing. A short dip would be nice; I'd just called room service for a salad so plenty of time for a quick dip.

I caught sight of myself in the mirror as I walked past. My boobs were practically sitting underneath my chin; it was a good thing that no one, ever, would see me in this bikini. 

Or so I thought.