Page 70 of Love Among the Ruins
“I heard you saysomething, otherwise I wouldn’t have ... come ... in”. Her voice trailed off at the end. “I … I just …”
Wanted to see if you were okay.
Faced with this angry man, with all traces of the person she’d confided in earlier, gone, she hesitated. “Good day?”
“Fucking ridiculous.”
She stepped back, as if he’d dealt her a physical blow. He so rarely swore, that when he did, she took it as an accurate barometer of his rage level. But there was something else heating and winding its way inside her belly, twisting and snaking at the juncture of her thighs, a simmering heat, that he seemed to be suffering from but which she now felt herself.
She was going to ask how he was, and mention something about Alexander, but it didn’t seem the sensible thing to do anymore.
She rushed out, made her escape to freedom. It wasn’t healthy that Dominic’s moods, that angry look, one stern word, could raise her blood pressure, turn her white with anger, and clammy with desire all at the same time.
“Do you want to go to lunch again today?” she asked Miranda.
Thirty minutes later, she and Miranda were sitting outside having lunch again and Eleni was thankful for Miranda’s company. She seemed to need it more with each passing week, as her interactions with Dominic grew, and her emotions dipped high and low.
Miranda sat across from her, eating a salad. Around them the traffic rolled by, cars roaring, horns honking in the searing heat.
Eleni was too pent up to eat.
“What happened in there?” Miranda asked.
“Where?”
“You know where. You know what I’m asking. Your face was so red I thought I was looking in the mirror.”
Eleni couldn’t help but giggle at her friend’s self-awareness. “Do Dominic and his brother not get on at all?” Eleni was curious to know.
“They are like a messed up rich family. Think of all the drama and then multiply it by ten.”
“Will he come here do you think? Alexander, I mean.”
“I heard Dominic on the phone with him earlier. Dominic was angry that his brother spoke to Hector Galatis without telling him. That’s all I could make out before Dominic stormed out for a meeting.”
No wonder Dominic was annoyed. “That’s a low blow. Dominic is working on a deal, or trying to.”
“It’s not good,” Miranda agreed.
“He had a meeting,” Eleni remarked, hoping to glean some information. Maybe he’d gone back to taking Linus with him again.
“He was meeting some other people from another company, and Helen went with him.”
Eleni tipped her head to the side. “She was here?”
“Earlier this morning.”
“Does she come here a lot?”
“She’s the company lawyer, so she’s here sometimes, and then all the time, and then we don’t see her. It depends on whatever deal is going on.”
Eleni sank back against the chair in relief.
“But,” Miranda shrugged. “I don’t know if that is all there is between them. I’ve made dinner reservations for them on weekends.”
Maybe not.
A knot tied inside Eleni’s stomach. It might even have been her colon. Dominic had expressly told her that Helen was his lawyer. As if he’d wanted to clarify that point. But Miranda seemed to have other ideas. “It is possible to have business meetings outside of work,” said Eleni.”
