Le Pirate Écarlate.

Le Pirate Écarlate. It was modest-sized, and one in a long chain of pirate themed hotels in Europe.

Nadia was a chef. She wore a black chef’s garb with ruffles on the shoulder and a red bandana. No eye patch — that would make it hard to cook.

Work was fine. There hadn’t been any problems. The staff was reasonably nice. Spoke English well. And then management was reasonable. They didn’t try to stiff you or bully you. And boundaries were big — nobody was trying to fuck you.

The only thing Nadia disliked was the pay. It wasn’t a lot; it was barely above minimum wage. And the way things were going, she was becoming more serious with Leon and wanted to build a life with him, maybe a family, even though they hadn’t talked about that stuff.

It was like her marriage with Greg and living all the way across the world as a housewife was a complete lifetime ago, or maybe a past life.