Page 77 of His Secret Gift

She smiles and wiggles next to me. Today, instead of being all dolled up, she’s wearing a black and white turtleneck t-shirt with black pants and a straw hat on her head. Of course, she has her signature red lipstick on, though.

“Okay, this one is, ‘Den ixera oti afti I hora ehi toso spudea logotehnia,’” she says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

I laugh. “Slower, please.”

She repeats it, and I try to follow along.

“And what does that mean again?” I flip it over. “Right. ‘I didn’t know this country has so much great literature.’ Seriously?”

She shrugs and holds her hand out. “He told me all of this would impress a local speaker.”

“Alright.” If anyone should know, it’s him, and I want to pull out all the stops for Yannis.

“What next?”

I shuffle through them and find another. “This one.”

“’Mu aresi pos akuyete I glosa.’Maybe it would help if I added the accents, I don’t know why he didn’t.”

She takes the pen out of my hand and makes little tick marks over certain letters.

“Is that better?” She hands it back and I examine it.

Chuckling again, I confess, “Not really.”

“Try,” she encourages.

“Okay.” I clear my throat.“Mu arési to pós akúyete i glósa.”

“See? Better!” She claps.

I pretend to bow. “Thank you, thank you.”

All in all, other than helping me out with Yannis, this morning reminded me what I loved about her. She can be very funny, and she’s very smart.

But still, I can never experience the heartache that she caused me again. So, if she wants to be anything more than friends, I am not interested.

With all ofthat in mind, I coax Bryant into going out with me again later that night.

“Seriously?”

“Please? We’ll have fun, I promise.”

He huffs. “I highly doubt that.”

“Come on! Jenkins, you’re in, right?”

“Hell yeah!”

His enthusiasm does not sit well with me, but it does aid in helping get Bryant hyped.

“I got the four-one-one from Denver that everyone is going to a club called Diwan Menara, and it opens at 7:30, so we don’t have to be out super late.”

The bottom of his nose flares out, and his lips get taut. “Fine.”

“My man!”

With that, I shower and pick out my outfit. As much as I hate to admit it, I desperately want to catch Kayla’s eye, so I take a note from Amine and dress somewhat like he was last night.

---