Page 11 of Love Among the Ruins
CHAPTERFOUR
ELENI
“You should leave,” she said, glancing nervously over her shoulder, wary and watching that Cassia might see them. “The party can’t be that bad.”
The American stared at her as if it killed him to make a move. “It is. Believe me.”
Guests were not supposed to be in here, and she was not supposed to fraternize with them. This man had walked in like he owned the place, so him being here wasn’t of her doing, but her boss wouldn’t see it like that.
“Then go home,” she begged, wishing he would vanish instantly. “You’ll get me in trouble.”
Stefanos walked in then and did a double take when he saw the American. “Oh, helloooo.” He sashayed over, the smile on his face widening. “We must stop meeting like this.”
The American looked at him suspiciously. Eleni hated the way her friend was insta-crushing on the American. “This gentleman was leaving.” She still didn’t know his name.
“I was?” asked the American.
“Let him stay,” cooed Stefanos, giving him a careful head-to-toe appraisal. “If he wants to hang out with us—”
“You should go.” Eleni urged her unwanted guest before moving to the other side of the kitchen. She busied herself in prepping another tray ready to serve to the guests. If Cassia saw them now, she would be furious, and Eleni had no desire to anger her boss. Stefanos joined her.
“Are you drunk?” she hissed at Stefanos who was prepping his own tray. “Stop flirting with that man.”
“He’s a dreamboat. Did he come with a partner? Did you see? I can’t get a vibe off him. He might just be—”
She shook her head, annoyed. “Your aunt would go ballistic if she heard you. Get a grip on yourself.”
“I’d like to get a grip on him.”
“Put your tongue back in your mouth and shut up.” She walked out, her tray at the ready, leaving the American and Stefanos in the kitchen.
“Hey! Over here.” A middle-aged man, also with an American accent, a heavily Botox’d face, and teeth that were so white they looked odd against his tanned skin, waved his hand at her. “Let me see what you got.” His eyes were glazed, and she was immediately on her guard, careful as ever around people who were drunk or high on drugs.
The man looked at her as if she were edible and an internal knowing—a small siren—sounded in her head as she slowly walked towards him. She’d dealt with drunken men before and was no stranger when it came to dealing with leeches like him who made disgusting advances and suggestions as easily as breathing.
She’d never encountered this when she’d been with Jonas. Her boyfriend had fended off unwanted interest by virtue of being by her side. It was a moral pity that this is what it took to deflect lewd attention away—the presence of another man. She noticed it more now, the sleaziness that some men directed at her. Wherever she went, men looked at her, appraised her, raked their lusty, greedy eyes up and down the length of her body. Maybe her guard was down more, and she was more introverted, the weight of her grief putting her at risk of imploding.
It was worse in this job which she sometimes regretted taking, but the opportunity had been hard to resist when Cassia had branched out in an attempt to diversify and run a small business of her own, leaving her husband to take care of the taverna. Stefanos had begged her to come on board. “It will keep you busy,” he’d said, hating the way she would often lock herself in her room for hours drowning in sadness.
But once she’d made the decision to climb the mountain, she needed a second source of income, and though the money was good, there were parts of the job she didn’t like. It wasn’t only the inappropriate advances, but the outfit she had to wear. Cassia was clever and shrewd. She wanted the female servers to wear figure hugging dresses. What they didn’t reveal in skin, they made up for in leaving little to the imagination. This dress fit Eleni like a second skin and now this man was staring at her as if she were naked.
Standing as far away from him as was feasible, she offered him the tray. He gave her a greedy grin.
He took a step back, forcing her to take another step towards him but she moved the tray as far towards him as she could without moving—something she could do because she was long limbed, tall and slender.
He took another step away, forcing her to advance towards him again.
She was about to swivel on her heels and get the hell away, but she needed this job, and so she had to force herself to be nice. “Would you like these or not,sir?” She spat the last word out like venom. He nodded, his eyes moving from the canapes and falling to her chest. “Idolike something. I like something very much.”
With a surprising agility she didn’t expect him to have, he was in her space, an inch or two in front of her, his hand sliding around her waist. Like an expert, she moved to the side, managing to escape. She had perfected the art of dodging eager hands and fingers as surely as if they were bullets.
The Botox’d man pouted, flashing her an ultra-white smile that momentarily dazzled her. “I’m only trying to be nice, sweetheart.”
Eleni’s muscles clenched. She glanced over her shoulder to check her exits. But this corner of the room had emptied, and people were gravitating towards the deck. Alarmed, she stepped back, hitting something soft and warm behind her. A man’s body. Big and fleshy.
“You losing your touch, eh, Evan?”
Goosebumps broke out on her skin at the sound of the mocking Greek voice behind her. Her body froze, paralysis setting in. Sandwiched between these two predatory men made her feel like a fly caught in a web.
