Page 47 of Love Among the Ruins
Maybe she’d been so drunk she’d fantasized and made the whole thing up. It wasn’t impossible. Her mother lived vicariously through the daytime soap operas, and maybe Eleni’s grief over Jonas had tipped her over the edge? So much had happened to her, it wasn’t only the grief, but more recently, the weight of her father’s words, a new job, a new city, the heat, and this celebratory weekend. Maybe she’d had a turn. “I met your girlfriend. Do you remember that?”
His mouth twitched. “Helen? She’s real, she’s definitely real. She was there.”
“She’s very pretty, and …”Stop right there. Her brittle voice sounded cheap and tinny. Heat crept along her cheeks. She didn’t know where to look. Or what he was thinking.
“I’ll just … go.” She pointed at the door behind her, putting it down to a bout of heatstroke. She and Stefanos had sat out in the sun for a long time yesterday and it was possible.
She retreated towards the door.
“I appreciate you telling me how much black suited me.”
She froze as her hand reached for the doorknob.
“And I don’t dance. I have no sense of rhythm. I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with you. Those were quite some moves you were making, up in the cages.”
Her body stiffened, and she could feel his gaze scorching her back. “Can I go?Please?” She couldn’t face him. Couldn’t bring herself to turn around.
“Do you not have anything more to add?” His voice was low. Intimate. Only for her. As if he might have said this to her over a candlelit dinner.
There she went again. Fantasizing like a maniac. “Are you going to fire me?”
He laughed. “For what?”
“You’re not going to fire me?”
“Again, for what?”
There was something different about him this morning. So different that she couldn’t at all reconcile him with the man she had first met.
“Please may I be excused? And please can we not talk about this ever?” Her voice sounded tinny and timid, but her insides were glowing with heat.
“Eleni. I would rather not address your back.” His voice sobered, an indirect order commanding her to turn around. She turned around slowly.
“It was your birthday. Happy belated birthday.”
A simple nod from him told her she could leave.
