Page 86 of Love on the Rocks
I glanced at Nikos who shrugged but still looked shell-shocked. Reluctantly, I followed her to the table and ordered a plate of souvlaki, although my stomach had started to clench.This is it. Cue the other shoe to drop.
Nikos’s mother, Eleni, was talkative, much more so than her son. In her lightly accented English, she asked me about my job, how I found life on the island, what I thought of the camp at Kos. After the full day at the camp and now faced with Nikos’s weird reserve, I didn’t have the energy to reply in complex sentences. She must have thought I was either terribly rude or morbidly dull.
She made up for the lack of conversation on our end, however, by filling the silence with stories about her sons. The other two were both successful businessmen in New York. “Nikos was the only one to follow us into medicine. He always idolized my father. And according to Teresa, he has becomeso much like him that she sometimes mistakes him for his grandfather.”
As the evening wore on, Eleni warmed to me and I gradually found my voice again. Yet I still had the impression that my presence wasn’t entirely welcome. I’d heard that Greek mothers could be extra protective of their sons, so following Nikos’s lead, I pretended that there was nothing between us. It felt like a betrayal ofusto do so.
When Nikos excused himself, his mother went into full-on confession mode. As she poured me a glass of wine, she explained her fraught relationship with Lyra. “I grew up on this island and couldn’t wait to get out of here. You don’t want to stay here, do you?”
“I don’t know how long I’ll be here,” I admitted.
“It can be so dull here. You will hate it eventually. It still amazes me that my son is so attached to it when he had everything he could want back in New York.” She let out a deep sigh, shaking her head. “I thought maybe if I came out here, I could remind him of everything he’d left behind. I tried to convince Nathalie to come with me, but she didn’t want to leave New York.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I wanted to pretend like I hadn’t heard, like I didn’t know what was coming. But I couldn’t stop myself from asking in a squeaky voice I barely recognized, “Who is Nathalie?”
She raised her eyebrows in confusion. “His wife. Well, his estranged wife. He never mentioned her?”
For a second, I thought the souvlaki I’d just eaten might come rushing back up my throat. My hand shook as I took my glass of wine and downed it in one gulp, covering my nausea with the burn of alcohol.
His wife.
How could you be so stupid?And to think you had begun to trust him. You actually thought you might even be in love with him.
“Do you want dessert?” Eleni asked, gesturing at Maria.
“No, I think I should go now.” I pulled out my wallet, but Eleni waved it away.
“No, you can’t go yet. Wait, for Nikos. We’ll walk back together.” She grabbed at my arm and maybe my mind was playing tricks on me, but she almost looked apologetic.
“Sorry, I have to go. I forgot I have to make a call. Thank you for dinner.”
I needed to leave before I threw up said dinner. Or before I started to cry.
Chapter 34
She was tipsy. The wine had gone to her head. As had Angelos. In her slightly inebriated state, she could finally admit that he had come to mean something to her. Her body craved his. But it was more than that. She admired his intelligence, his stubborn belligerence. Even his cocky self-assurance charmed her.
Just then a shooting star zoomed through the sky. “Did you see that, asteri mou, I believe it is a sign that you’re falling for me.”
“Never,” she laughed, but wasn’t sure she meant it.
- One Week with the Greek
NIKOS
As soon as I came back to the table, I could tell by the guilty expression on my mother’s face that something had happened.
“Where’s Callie?” I asked, afraid I already knew the answer.
“She had to go.” My mother played with the outside of her glass as I stared at her. “I think I made a mistake.”
“What did you do?” I sank into the chair across from her and her dark eyes met mine. Normally, she didn’t drink and those two shots of raki she’d downed had made her eyes glassy.
“I may have brought up Nathalie.” Her brow furrowed. “I’m sorry,moro mou, I wasn’t sure there was anything between you and Callie. But her reaction confirmed it.”
I closed my eyes and ran my hand over my face. “It’s all right, Ma. It’s not your fault. I should have told her.”
She cocked her head at me. “And why didn’t you?”
