“It’s a little underseasoned,” Alex finally observed, knowing that in her current mood, anything would have probably gone tasteless in her mouth.

“I’d love to add some salt, but I can’t afford to retain any more water right now,” Paul said, a sarcastic little smirk on his face as he handed her the shaker.

She grabbed it and immediately set it down, along with her fork.

“Come on,” she corrected, turning to face him fully. “You look amazing, and you know it.”

He paused, holding his utensils just inches above his plate, waiting to cut himself another bite.

“I don’t, actually,” he said, his typically impish voice sounding small and anxious. “But thank you for saying so.”

At this, she was quiet, unsure of what more she could offer in light of such a heartbreaking statement. And as if reading her mind, he set his hand, palm up, on the table, and she immediately placed hers within it. The two of them remained that way, loosely holding hands and barely talking, for the rest of the meal.

21. Corfu Town, Greece

21

CORFU TOWN, GREECE

Now

Alex shut the door of her hotel room behind her, slinging her purse onto the chair of the writing desk. Her whole body seemed to sigh, to expel the concentrated energy of the day in one long motion. Paul had finally gone back to the Verseau after lunch and a long walk, drawing out the delay as long as he plausibly could. But when her eyes darted to the small digital clock on her nightstand, it read 3:27 PM, far too early to start thinking about dinner. There was a full afternoon stretching out in front of her with nothing planned and no one to distract her.

Instinctively, she lifted her dress up and over her head, tossing it on the bed and working to unhook the precarious bra it had required. She rubbed the red indentation along her ribcage from where the underwire had pressed against her skin, remembering all at once why she didn’t usually wear that kind of thing. From the tiny armoire near the door, she grabbed an old Columbia tee shirt and a soft pair of running shorts, slipping them on and pulling her curls into an elastic band at the nape of her neck.