Page 28 of Arrogant Arrival

“I’ll have to wear the skirt from my uniform. I didn’t pack any long dresses or skirts,” she tells the room. “Will this be alright?”

“You look very pretty, koritsi.” Ma beams. Yia-Yia shrugs and goes back to peeling potatoes.

“Beautiful. Come on, let’s go ahead and get going.”

Ma, Yia-Yia, Jolene, and I walk outside. I jog over to knock on Bianca’s condo door. They come out and we start walking toward the church. Jolene leans closer to me, “Shouldn’t we take the car so Yia-Yia doesn’t have to walk to the church.”

I whisper back, “Don’t let her hear you say that. If we’re walking, she’s walking. Besides, she’ll argue that there’s no need to waste gas for such a short distance. She may have a walker, but she could probably outlast all of us. It’s only a block.”

When we arrive at the church, I tell Jolene that women and men sit on different sides. Her eyes widen, but Bianca takes her hand. “You can sit next to me. I don’t speak Greek, either, but don’t worry. We’ll just stand and sit whenever everyone else does.”

“I really like Bianca,” Jolene whispers to me.

Jolene

When the service has ended, everyone scatters. I scan for Jimmy, but turn to find I’ve now lost Bianca. A beautiful woman approaches me and makes a point of looking me up and down. She speaks a few words in Greek. I smile and shake my head, “I’m sorry. I don’t speak Greek.”

She laughs, but it’s not sweet at all. It’s definitely a bitch laugh, and she continues to speak in Greek. Two other women join her and now they are all laughing. They nod in agreement to whatever it is she’s saying.

I don’t have to take this shit.I turn to walk around her, but she side steps in front of me. I’m about to slap the bitch out of my way when Jimmy runs up. “Jolene.”

The Greek bitch in front of me plasters the most ridiculous smile on her face. “Yia, Dimitrios.”

“Yia sou, Pamela.”

She begins speaking toDimitriosin a completely different tone than the one she used for me. Oh, so the bitch just leveled up. Now I’m pissed. I cross my arms and narrow my eyes. So she thinks she can use Greek to exclude me. Well, let’s see how she likes it when I use English to excludeher.

“Jimmy, I’m not too crazy about thiswomanand would like to leave.”

“I’m not too crazy about you either, American,” Pamela now speaks in perfect English. Like proper English. She raises her chin and smirks.

“If you know English, then why did you speak to me only in Greek? Too much of a coward to say it to my face so I’d understand you?”

“No. I’ll tell you.” She takes a step closer, invading my space. “I was just saying how it’s ridiculous that you don’t even know the language of your people. That is, if you really are Greek. And how is someone like Dimitrios slumming it with the likes of you? He could do so much better.”

Jimmy shakes his head, “Stop. Let’s go.” He takes my hand, but I jerk free.

“You think you’re good enough?” I look her up and down exactly how she did to me.

She smiles wider. “His family seems to think so. I already have the approval of his mother—something you obviously do not have.”

Jimmy steps between us, “But I don’t. Pamela, just because Thea Maria and Ma are trying to play Cupid doesn’t mean anything. IchoseJolene. I brought her here to be with me. Not to be set up with anyone else here.”

I peek my head from around him and smirk. “Looks like the only approval I need is his. And I’ve got it. Face it,Pamela…I doubt he’ll be inviting your kolo to America.”

Jimmy looks up to the ceiling and makes a cross. “Jolene, we’re still in church.”

I look up to see Jesus’s face looking down on me. I make the cross like I’ve seen everyone else doing and say a silent prayer for forgiveness. When in Rome, right? Or, should I say, when in Greece. Jimmy tugs my hand and mumbles, “Let’s go, Jo, before we get kicked out of the church or lightning strikes us down.”

I turn and give Pamela a wave, making sure my engagement ring is in clear view before we exit the building.

As we’re walking to the house with the others, Jimmy has us hang at the back of the group. “I’m sorry about Pamela.”

“That was what you were worried about, wasn’t it? Why you asked me to accompany you here? I mean, we were kind of expecting it.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t like seeing her talk to you that way.”

“It’s okay.”

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