Page 18 of Faking Ever After

“Oh?”

He chuckled. “Imagine doing a school recital and seeing that in the middle of a quiet audience.”

I winced. “That’s gotta be rough for a kid.”

Percy shook his head in amusement.

“But hey, it’s better than if they passed out drunk after a day of shouting,” I suggested.

“Oh God. Were yours…?” He raised his eyebrows apologetically.

“No, not at all,” I said right away. “A friend of mine from school.” I inhaled a deep breath of air and held it for a moment. “I come from a pretty normal household. We played board games, ordered pizza on Saturdays, and they rarely embarrassed me at recitals.” We shared a laugh as we reached the top landing.The hallway between the suites was decorated like a very nice sitting room with chairs and coffee tables.

Who sat around the hallway?

The doors were rustic Greek and painted bright blue. Each had a nail in the middle with a wooden sign for the room.

“We’re in Apollo,” Percy explained. “Aphrodite is for my parents. Persephone is Emily’s room.”

“And Hermes is Aunt Judith?” I asked, assuming she might drill a hole in the wall between Hermes and Apollo to whisper at Percy until he dumped me for one of her handpicked men in tiny speedos.

“Aunt Judith doesn’t like climbing the stairs,” Percy said. “She’s staying on the ground floor.” He spoke with the same kind of relief I felt. The Apollo door swung open and Percy led me into his room.

My stomach felt hollow, butterflies filling in in an instant. The room had a view of the sea through its big, blue-framed windows, see-through white curtains filtered the flaming light of the sunset. A long ottoman was positioned under the row of windows on the right side and there was a large bed with a silk canopy and curtains straight ahead. The white curtains were tied to the large wooden bed posts with blue ribbons. Shades of blue and gray met the natural tones of wood. A desk was positioned to my right and a high-backed chair came with it. Nightstands flanked the bed on each side and a door on my far left opened to our en suite.

There was a bookcase sitting against the left wall and a dresser to my immediate left. On the dresser was a bright red vase with a dry flower arrangement. It was a surprising choice of color, but it elevated the space significantly. There were pots hanging from the ceiling and lush green plants with long vines and large leaves extended to the bed canopy and other corners of the room.

“Christ, I’ll never get used to this,” I whispered as Percy shut the door.

“I’m glad you like it,” he said.

“Like it? I want to marry this room and have its babies,” I said without thinking. His chuckle removed the momentary tension after saying such a silly thing.

I smirked at Percy when I discovered his cheeks were a little pink. That reminded me of the bed. “That’s…us?” I pointed at the bed. There was no chance either of us was sleeping on the long, narrow ottoman.

Percy walked into the en suite with a stride that spoke of an important mission and I followed. I now discovered that it was partially separated into two rooms. The further one was the actual bathroom and the nearer one was a closet. Percy pulled the accordion door to a side and revealed empty shelves for clothes as well as extra bedding. He grabbed a duvet and shot me a victorious smile. “We’ll sort everything out.”

Carrying the duvet to the bed, he quickly split our sleeping area into two equal parts. We each had a pillow and a duvet with a few inches of empty space between us.

I wondered if now was the right time to tell him what a messy sleeper I was. I bit my lip and decided to make it a surprise. “Perfect,” I exclaimed instead.

“Thanks for rescuing me,” Percy said softly.

“Rescuing? You seemed to be having a delightful time,” I teased.

Percy shuddered. “Finn, I saw things. Things you would never believe.”

“Things packed in very small speedos?” I asked.

Percy cringed in reply.

A gong—a real freaking gong—sounded and Percy casually explained that dinner was served. “Dimitrios likes adding a bit of flare.”

“You don’t say,” I muttered.

We returned downstairs for what was a very normal affair. Served on the dining table on the terrace, awash with the final rays of sunshine, the dinner consisted of every food known to man. From grilled squid to spinach pies to something fluffy, juicy, and smelling like orange with scoops of ice cream over it, there was enough food to feed a small army. Meat, seafood, cheese, vegetables, fruit, and three different kinds of bread cluttered the table. Carafes filled with blood-red wine were wet with condensation.

The dinner lasted for nearly two hours, but it started with Nektaria, a curly-haired woman in her forties and a sharp and commanding look in her eyes welcoming me to Naxos and the Davenport household. She was, as I gathered, the mastermind behind this entire operation. Where Dimitrios added the flare, Nektaria provided the sturdy bones for all things that happened around here.

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