No, not at all.”
Elena gave her a puzzled look. Olivia didn’t blame her. They had the same name, and legally they were still married. Should Olivia have to explain why she was separated from Jack? Why they’d drifted apart? Surely it happened everywhere, even in Greece. Not everyone lived happily ever after. Not every couple with the same last name wanted to share a room.
“I’m sorry, someone in your group mentioned that you were married and said you wouldn’t mind sharing. I’d like to help you,” Elena said, “but we’re overbooked tonight because of the ferry boat accident. Some people are still missing. Everyone is sharing, making sacrifices. The students have been placed with families in town, but we just don’t have enough rooms for everyone. We’re trying to accommodate you all. I hope you understand,” she added stiffly.
“Of course,” Olivia said, quickly chastened. She felt as if she’d behaved like a pampered American tourist.
“It’s a very nice room. With a large bath. The hot springs on the edge of town have been routed to several hotels including ours. But if you don’t want the room…”
The thought of a large hot bath made Olivia’s skin break out in goose bumps. “No, of course we’ll take it. Thank you. I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful.” For one night she could put up with anything. Anything for a hot bath. Tomorrow she’d find a room for herself if she had to move out of the hotel. She took the room key, and when she turned to go Jack was standing behind her.
He was so close she got a good look at a long scratch on his cheek and a bruise under one eye. She had to clench her hands into fists to keep from reaching up to touch his face. To smooth the skin, to reassure herself he was really all right. The way an ordinary wife might. One who lived under the same roof as her husband, saw him every day, taught at the same university in the same town.
“I…They’ve put us in the same room by mistake, but it’s just for tonight,” she said, wishing her voice was more steady. How many times was he going to surprise her and catch her off guard?
“I heard,” he said. He wasn’t grinning anymore. In fact, he looked beat. He probably didn’t want to room with her, either. Lines of fatigue creased his face, and his eyes were half-closed.
“Jack, you look terrible. Why don’t you…we go upstairs? At least you have to get out of those clothes.”
It occurred to her he didn’t have any other clothes. Neither did she. Neither did anyone who was on the boat. The luggage had all sunk or had burned up. A shared room. No clothes. It sounded like a recipe for a personal disaster. At least a very personal embarrassment. She straightened her shoulders. If Jack could face it, so could she. Thank God they’d shipped all their equipment ahead.
The room was small with hardwood floors, a hand-painted dresser, a closet and the promised large porcelain tub in the adjoining bathroom. And a double bed covered with a hand-sewn quilt. Well, what did she expect? Greeks didn’t know about king-size beds. They didn’t know any married couples who didn’t sleep together, either.
After a quick look around, Olivia opened the doors to the balcony and inhaled the smell of the sea in the distance and the scent of thyme growing wild below them and tried to put the image of the bed out of her mind. She told herself to calm down. Not an easy thing to do with Jack standing next to her. He was too close. Way too close.
“Go ahead, take a bath,” she told Jack. “It’s a beautiful night. I’ll sit out here.” Sit out there and pretend he was in another room, another hotel, even another country. That way he wouldn’t be able to torture her with the memories of happier times. Of bathtubs big enough for two. Of beds so small they slept in each other’s arms, even their breathing in perfect sync.
“We’ll both sit out here,” he said, dragging two deck chairs toward the railing.
“Aren’t you tired?” she asked desperately. Go to bed, please go to bed.
“Are you?”
“Yes.” She was tired of pretending she didn’t care about him. Tired of pretending she wasn’t worried about spending the night in the same room, in the same bed as Jack.
“Enjoy this luxury while you can. We’ll soon be back in our tents at the site.”
“Will we? I thought…”
“Yeah, I know. Staying here at the hotel was Robbins’s plan. He likes to be comfortable and it’s his dig. But I want to be out there in the field like last time. Otherwise we lose too much time going back and forth. You’re with me on this, aren’t you?”
Like last time. The words echoed in her brain. It wasn’t going to be like last time. Last time they’d shared a tent as well as their hopes and dreams. Those times were gone for good.
Did she really have a choice of accommodations? Sure, she could stay at the hotel with the oldsters, taking hot baths every night and letting Jack get first crack at the contents of the tomb, maybe even discovering whose it was.
Or she could even board with a family in town the way the students did. That way there would be a large distance between them. It would definitely be easier on her psyche. But that would be counterproductive. It didn’t make sense. She’d come all this way to take part in a major discovery. She wasn’t going to let her emotions get in her way. Jack didn’t. This was work. It wasn’t supposed to be a vacation.
“Of course I want to be out there. It won’t be just you and me, will it?” She gnawed at a broken fingernail.
“What are you afraid of?”
“I’m not afraid of anything.” Except being alone with Jack out on a grassy field, under a blazing sun by day and a starry sky by night. Afraid wasn’t the word for it. She was terrified. She’d have to pray others would give up their comfortable beds here and choose the field option, too. Of course, this time she’d have her own tent and sleeping bag that had been sent on ahead. How hard could it be to keep her emotions under wraps?
“The only thing I’m afraid of is gossip,” she said. “Already people are talking about our relationship.”
“That doesn’t bother me,” he said. “As long as we’re clear on us.”
“I’m clear. We’re not a couple anymore. We just have to be sure everyone else knows it, too.”
He sent her a sharp look. Obviously, their muddled status didn’t bother Jack. He never had cared much what people thought. And still he didn’t bring up the divorce.
“Anyway, tonight the bed’s all yours,” he said, quickly dropping the subject of them.
He was resting his head on the back of the chair and he just looked extremely tired, while she was tied up in knots. For him, he was merely sharing a room with a fellow scientist. It was the way things were. Perfectly normal procedure. Except when the fellow scientist was your wife.
“After what you’ve been through, you deserve the bed,” she said. If she let Jack make all the decisions, even the small ones, she was in for a long summer of frustration. He loved being in charge. She did, too.
“I’m taking the floor,” he said firmly.
It was clear she’d have to pick her battles. This was one that wasn’t worth fighting, and she
