Page 24 of Arrogant Arrival

Martha gasps. “Voula. V – V –oula.”

I grin and feign shock. “That’s not how I said it?”

Jimmy saunters toward me and smiles. “Koritsi mou.” He kisses me on the forehead and then turns to Voula. “I’m sorry. This is a bad time. Maybe you can come visit us again, or we all can go out for coffee some time. I did promise my koritsi here a night out.”

Martha rushes toward us and claps her hands. “Maybe Voula can join! She was so sweet to already invite Jo out.”

That’s not exactly how it played out…

“I’d love to!” Voula smiles widely at Jim.

Jim hesitates, and I can see the panic in his eyes. “Really, Jo and I need a night alone, just the two of us. I’m sure you understand. In fact, we need to get going.” Jimmy walks over a grabs a pair of shoes by the door and starts putting them on.

“Jimmy mou, where are you going? Voula just got here.” Martha then starts speaking quickly to Jimmy in Greek. Voula smirks at me. I stand up and walk over to Jimmy. I wrap my arms around his waist and kiss his neck.

“I’m ready when you are.”

Martha’s eyes go wide, while Voula crosses her arms and pouts. Jimmy places his arm around my waist and leads me toward the door. “We’ll be back later tonight, Ma.”

Jimmy drives us to an area of the island with lots of little restaurants and cafés by the water. He parks the car and we begin walking. He reaches for my hand, but I avoid his by crossing my arms as we walk. I’m still angry with him, and I want to stay that way. If I let my guard down and start believing in this fantasy, I’ll only get hurt again.

We walk by an ice cream shop, and Jim nods his head toward it. “Let’s get some.”

I never turn down ice cream, so I agree. Because—duh—it’s ice cream. The place is very modern and open. The room is bright colors with bright lights. A little Greek elderly man smiles at us. I read all the flavors and struggle to decide.

“You can choose more than one flavor.” Jim smiles.

“That’s true.” I decide on vanilla, pistachio, and lemon. Jim gets chocolate and butter pecan caramel.

We take our cups of ice cream and begin walking. Every now and then Jim reaches over and quickly swipes a bite from my ice cream. We come to an old wooden bridge that reminds me of a Venetian style. Jim stops in the center of the bridge and looks out into the blue water.

I lick my spoon and then pop my lips. “You’ve grown quiet.”

“I’m thinking,” Jim says while not looking at me.

“Well, that can’t be good.”

He gives a humorless chuckle. “Are you ever going to loosen your guard with me?”

“Nope.” I go back to focusing on my ice cream.

“You know I have a right to be angry as well. You didn’t even give me a chance to explain.”

With ice cream still in my mouth, I say, “I asked you twice what you did, and you never answered. I said I didn’t want a relationship with a pilot, and you remained quiet. Yet this is my fault?”

Jim takes a bite of his ice cream and continues to stare out into the water. People walk by us laughing, I can hear a soccer game on a television off in the distance at one of the cafés, and there’s the sound of waves. Jim finally turns to me. “I was scared you’d immediately reject me. I wanted a chance to prove myself, at least.”

“Prove what? We only had sex.”

“It wasn’t only sex. It started out that way…but you felt something. We both felt something. Either way, I just wanted a chance.”

“Well, you got it, and you blew it.”

“Yeah, I did, didn’t I?”

We go back to eating our ice cream and looking out over the water. Off in the distance, I see a cruise ship. I can’t help but wonder what stories are aboard that ship. Where is it going? Where has it been? How many couples are on board living their best lives?

“We are going to have to up our game.”

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