I could hear something echoing in the pitch-black room to the rhythm of a pop song. Is that my phone? I groaned and rolled over, tangling myself further in the sheets as I groped blindly around the bed. Pushing myself up, I tried crawling towards the sound. Where’s that table?
Alex sighed and shifted. “Chloe, please baby, I’m begging you—”
“I’m trying find it,” I interrupted. “Where is—” I cut myself off with a sudden scream as I lost my balance and fell off the side of the bed. “Ow,” I whimpered.
My phone stopped ringing and Alex started to laugh as he moved to the edge of the bed. I could just make out his outline while he peered down at me, my eyes finally adjusting in the dark.
“Do you need a hand?”
“No, I want stay on the floor.”
“Alright, mouthy, stay down there.”
I rolled my eyes and held my arms out. “Help me up.”
“Can you say please?”
“Can you help me up?”
Alex scoffed and reached over the edge of the bed to haul me up with him. I laughed and scrambled off the floor, falling down beside him just as he wrapped his arms around my waist.
“What do you say?” he whispered against the shell of my ear.
“That you’re a jerk for laughing at me?” I offered sweetly.
He nipped at my earlobe and I squealed, twisting in his embrace while he tried to tickle me; rolling us over on the bed until I was laughing and struggling to pull away. The song started again, loudly interrupting us and making me huff in annoyance.
Reaching across the bed carefully this time, I got my phone off the nightstand. Mama. Fuck.
“Kalimèra, mama.” Good morning, I greeted, sitting up.
She sighed heavily into the receiver. “Chloe, thank God, I was beginning to think I’d never hear from you again…”
Talk about dramatic, but I guess I had to get that from somewhere. “Well, you got me now, what do you need at—” I broke off and checked the time on my phone, squinting at the too-bright screen. “Eight in the morning.”
“It’s nearly nine, why aren’t you up?”
“Because jetlag sucks?” I offered, confused at her shock.
“Jetlag from where?”
Ah, fuck. “Um…” I trailed off and leaned forward, pulling my pillow into my lap and sweeping my messy hair back. “Yeah,” I told her reluctantly. “It was a long trip.”
She tsked and pulled the phone away from her mouth while shouting something to Iva or Eleni in the background. Alex sat up beside me and kissed my bare shoulder as he went to get off the bed. I watched him go, hypnotized by the slow sway of his hips and the way his muscle shifted with each step. A second later and he tapped the panel on the wall, signalling the curtains to roll up.
“Hello?” Mom demanded loudly, pulling me out of my salivating state watching Alex nakedly strut across the room.
Boner-killer, ugh. “Sorry, still here.”
“Have you heard from Lena? Did she call you?”
My heart felt like it stuttered, I sucked in a sharp breath. What was I supposed to say? “Uh, maybe? What’s going on?”
“Chloe, she’s pregnant and she’s trying to tell everyone that it’s Peter’s!”
I closed my eyes and flopped back against the mattress. “Huh.”
“Did you know?”
I stayed silent.
“Chloe!”
“Ma—”
“What else are you keeping from me?” she snapped, losing all subtly.
“Nothing!” Well, almost nothing. “It wasn’t my place to talk about it!”
“Are you even in Athens, or Greece at all for that matter? Did I just come to this country to see you for nothing?”
“Don’t be like that, I’m going through a lot right now—”
“I haven’t heard from you in over a week!” she screamed into the receiver. “You haven’t answered a single text from me or papa and now you want to act like it’s completely fine?”
You know, it didn’t really matter how old I got, this woman still made me feel like I had to answer for a heinous crime, even if I didn’t do anything wrong. She could have called first! She could have told me she was coming here and I would have cleared my schedule for her, maybe dropped a quick note to Peter asking him not to cheat on me while my mom was in town.
“I’m in Athens,” I hissed. “I’m in the fucking city, I’ll be there in like, I don’t know, an hour.” I hung up, not waiting for her response.
Alex leaned against the doorway to the bathroom, a towel was wrapped around his waist and his eyebrows didn’t look like they could go any higher without hitting his hair line. “You speak to your mother like that?”
I shot him a withering look and went back to playing on my phone. “You want to lecture me about how I speak to family?”
He came towards the bed slowly, making sure that I knew he was trying to intimidate me. “Do you think you’re going to win a fight with me about this?” he asked, leaning down to almost whisper in my ear.
“I know I can win a fight against you, Mr.-I-fucked-my-sons-ex-girlfriend.”
“Right, it’s not like you were the one calling me Daddy and telling me you wanted him to see us together,” he replied dryly.
I shrugged and tried to hide my growing smile. Instead of saying anything, I took his momentarily distracted state to turn and kiss his cheek. His face went a little red and I laughed, reaching out to kiss him again.
“Are you blushing? That’s adorable.”
He sighed. “You’re too much some days.” He kissed the top of my head and turned towards the bathroom. “Be nice to your mom,” he called back. “Your mama, she loves you even if she’s difficult sometimes.”
I rolled my eyes but smiled at his pointed look. Getting up from the bed, I followed the sound of the running shower. I couldn’t let him pull me in or we’d be in there all morning. I didn’t know if he wanted to talk about the night before either; I’d spent the night crying and wishing I was as far as I could get from this country, but then I’d be away from him too. He hadn’t even brought up what I said on the plane again. This is what adult conversations and arguments are like, we actually forgive each other and acknowledge our mistakes.
I peeked around the bathroom door; Alex was standing in the shower stall with his back to me. It was a completely open stall; with only one pane of frosted glass separating it from the rest of the bathroom and blocking the person using it from having to see themselves in the vanity mirror. Across the room, framed perfectly against the giant window, was the beautiful extra-deep bathtub. From the tub you could see out the entirety of the island down to the southern shore. A swoon worthy bathroom, I thought as I made my way to the dual vanity. I was stalling, I knew I was, but I didn’t know how to ask Alex to come meet my mama. She’d never met Peter in person, only over Skype, and I could already feel her keeling over when she caught sight of the ring.
While I was brushing my teeth, I could see the glint of the lights off my rings. It felt so good to wear them, to know that the man that gave them to me loved me more than anything else. Looking in the mirror, I watched Alex’s silhouette in the frosted divider and grinned to myself. I rinsed my mouth out and went to lean against the glass, watching the water cascade over his back and down his perfect ass…
I decided the best way to break the ice on the question was to make a bad joke. “Promise me you won’t fall in love with my mom and leave me.”
His shoulders shook with silent laughter and he glanced back at me. “I would ask where that idea came from, but I guess it’s not that outlandish. Am I coming with you to see her?”
“Do you want to?” I asked casually, trying not to let him know how badly I did want him to come.
He turned and strode toward me, paying no mind to my wandering eyes and heated cheeks. Reaching out with wet hands, he held my face and gave me two quick kisses. “I love you, S’ agapó.”
He pulled away but his hands lingered a moment and I felt frozen under his gaze. “I love you too,” I replied quietly.
“That means yes, by the way,” he assured.
He pulled me into the shower, I don’t know why I let him, but I did. I was still wearing his shirt and boxers and now I was getting soaked. Pushing me against the wall, he kissed my breasts through the wet and clingy material, my hair was still mostly dry but I could feel it sticking to my skin and the tile.
“I promised her I’d be there in an hour,” I whispered, closing my eyes. “The ferry alone takes twenty minutes.”
Alex scoffed and stood back up, pressing himself to me. I could feel his cock against my thigh, and when I finally let myself look up at him, I knew I was a goner no matter what else he had to say.
“You’re Greek,” he said, taking hold of my chin. “Stop worrying about punctuality, I assure you that she won’t even notice.”
“Oh, so that’s why you never picked me up on time for our dates on time. Talk about a dick move.”
He laughed and picked me up effortlessly. “Tell me off some more, you know that always gets me going.”
I giggled and tangled my fingers in his hair, grinding against him desperately. “Have I told you how much I love you?” I whispered, brushing my lips across his shoulder.
“Even though I’m a dick?”
“The best kind.”
***
I promised my mother that I would be there an hour after we got off the phone, it ended up being closer to two. I mean what could I say, my husband made a very convincing argument. I smirked to myself and looked over the water as we approached the pier. Husband. That was never going to get old for me, not in a million years.
I turned my attention to Alex, watching as he typed away on his phone with a furrowed brow. He had to go back to work soon and I knew that would be a hard pill to swallow when he finally left for a few days, but it wasn’t something that could be changed. I knew he would still take me to parties and other sort of events for networking, but I couldn’t be there while he oversaw his realty office or showed houses in the Caribbean.
Without thinking, I stepped closer and laid my forehead against his shoulder. I felt so different with him; like my centre of gravity had shifted and I wasn’t spiralling out of control anymore, no longer looking for a place to go.
“So, do I tell my parents that I’m a housewife or a trophy wife?” I asked casually.
He smirked and cast me a sideways look. “We usually just call them wives around here since taking care of the house is implied.”
I snorted and shoved him, he barely even budged. “What if I don’t want to run a house?”
He shrugged and tucked his phone away, turning around he leaned up on the railing and pulled me closer to his side. “What would you like to do? Because I can’t imagine that spending all day everyday inside is going to thrill you to bits.”
“Well, I want to have sex with my husband and go jewellery shopping at least twice a week, but I doubt that’s realistic.”
He hummed thoughtfully and looked up at the roof. “I think I could work out having sex a few times a month, I could even be persuaded to a couple of times a week, but I think we’ll have to keep the jewellery purchases to once a month. Twice if you’ve been nice enough.”
“Is ‘nice’ code for how many blowjobs I’ve given?”
“I didn’t want to be too crass.”
“Oh, my mother is going to be so proud of me.”
“I think there might be greater issues with your family if you’re telling your mitéra how often you’re having sex,” he said dryly.
I smirked and leaned up to kiss his cheek. “Maybe I’ll learn Greek while you’re gone.”
“You know,” he began slowly. “If you wanted to go back to school, I would support you all the way...”
I stayed quiet but nodded. I think I was always going to regret dropping out after that first semester, but now it was intimidating to go back and face so many people that would be fresh from high school while I was twenty-two and newly married. What else am I going to do though? Sighing, I pushed it out of my mind and closed my eyes, just trying to relax against Alex as we continued to the city.
I noticed people doing double takes as we moved through the streets, right from the moment the ferry docked it felt like people were watching us. I didn’t know if it was paranoia or just general anxiety, but whatever it was, I wished we didn’t look so out of place together. He didn’t seem to notice, instead just casually taking my hand in his while we moved through the throngs of people.
The house wasn’t far from the docks, which thank god for because Alex and I decided to walk and going up and down hills in heels was not the best way to travel. I went out of my way to dress in things my mama bought me; a rustic yellow dress with billowy sheer sleeves, a longer than usual skirt, and strappy cork heels, all of which she had bought for me to take to Greece. Hopefully she wouldn’t think I was trying to butter her up.
The house came into view and my palms immediately went clammy, I squeezed his hand hard and I heard him laugh quietly before squeezing back.
“It’ll be alright, glykia mou.”
“Promise me you aren’t still mad?” I whispered as we climbed the steps.
He pulled his hand from mine and laid it on the small of my back. “Chloe, I’m about to meet your mother – this is not the time or the place for me to be upset with you and we can talk about it more later.”
“I know, but if you said you were then we could run in the other direction and try this again some other time. Over Skype maybe, when she can’t kill me in person.”
Alex chuckled and gave me a little push towards the door. I smoothed out the front of my dress and opened the door. The tile entry way opened with the kitchen to the right, the living room to the left, and the hallway to the back stairs right in front. The living room windows were open, carrying a nice cross breeze through the house and making the orange gauzy curtains flutter. The old folio doors to the kitchen were open and I could hear voices through the doorway. I slipped my hand into Alex’s and pulled him along behind me.
“Ya, mama!” Hey, I called.
Chairs scrapped against the floor and I heard one of them say something excitedly. “Chloe, koritsi mou, in here!” she called back.
I followed the sound of her voice despite the way my stomach went into a free fall. Mom, Iva, and Eleni were sitting at the table playing bastra – a card game that I couldn’t stand. Iva and Eleni were older than my mama; both in their mid and early-fifties compared to my mom in her mid-forties. While the age difference wasn’t too stark, their appearance was the same type of tall, willowy figures with long brown hair, nicely tanned skin, and golden-brown eyes that Lena had, but mama looked like me with her dark blonde hair, hazel eyes, and shorter, curvy figure. We stood out but I rarely found that to be a good thing.
Eleni glanced up at me in the doorway and did a double take before giving her sisters both a hard nudge. Her eyes were wide and I figured I had a good idea of who she was looking at. Mom looked over and I watched her eyes widen and lips part as she got to her feet. She came towards us slowly, as if she wasn’t certain that she wanted to.
“Alex, this is my mom, Konstantina,” I said as confidently as I could. “Mama, this is Alexander, my husband.” I reached up to touch his arm as I said it, letting her see my ring while they shook hands.
The women all exclaimed something in Greek and I felt my face getting hot. Pressing myself against him I let my nails dig into the soft cotton of his light blue button-up.
“Husband?” she demanded incredulously. Grabbing me by the arm, she jerked me through the threshold and Iva and Eleni slammed the folio doors shut.
“Hey!” I yelled, trying to turn and see Alex. The slats on the doors were far enough apart that I could see him rubbing his beard and looking out the window. Please don’t leave me here, she might kidnap me.
“Did you know about Lena?” Iva demanded after pushing me down into the chair.
“What happened with you and Peter?” Eleni asked more calmly.
“Is that Peter’s father?” Mom pressed, leaning forward in her seat.
I blinked and knotted my fingers together in my lap. “Um, I don’t—I just wanted—” I broke off again and gestured helplessly. “Can Alex come sit in here? Please?”
Mama shook her head. “He can wait.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I muttered, laying my head in my hands. “This is ridiculous, he’s my husband, not someone waiting for an interview with three psycho aunties.”
Eleni perched herself against the counter and threw her hands up as she spoke, “You keep calling him your husband but where on God’s green earth did you find a priest to marry you so soon?”
When the sisters were together like this, you could see the hierarchy; Eleni, the oldest and the leader, Iva, the middle child of seven and extra theatrical just for attention, and Mama, the baby of the family, the most emotional. Eleni stood, as if trying to make her position more dominant, Iva sat across from me at the head of the table, and mama sat beside me with her arms folded and foot tapping loudly.
They all got married in our church, in the same order they were born, after properly getting their sacraments and following the guidance and counselling of the priests. And I eloped in Vegas, with a non-religious ceremony, going against every tradition they had tried to instill.
“We didn’t get married in the church.”
The horror on the women’s faces was exactly what I was expecting.
“You took all your first sacraments here,” mama cried. “Every year until you were thirteen, we came back reacquaint you with the church where you and Dimitris were baptised. Papa and I have a fund set aside so that you could get married here—” she broke off and sniffled loudly. Her sisters rushed to her side with tissues and a glass of iced tea.
I sighed and sat back in my chair. “I’m letting Alex come sit with us,” I warned them before opening up the doors.
Alex was leaning against the windowsill chatting to someone on the street. I came up beside him and glanced out at the neighbours, giving them a small wave as I pulled him away. “Are you trying to have me viciously murdered by your aunties?” he whispered.
I giggled and patted his arm, trying to offer some semblance of reassurance despite the fact that I was certain they had their pitchforks out already. In the kitchen, Mama and Iva had switched spots, making it impossible for Alex and I to sit together.
“You sit here,” she instructed me coldly. “He can sit here.”
Alex sat between them looking not too pleased but still calm, they glared at him angrily; eyes laser focused on his as if to try and make him look away or flinch.
“What did you do to my daughter?” mama demanded.
“Mama!” I snapped. “Seriously? He’s here for ten minutes and you already want to grill him?”
She cut me an icy glance and turned her attention back to him, opting to speak Greek instead. I hated when she did this shit, there were only so many members of the family that spoke English, I didn’t want to feel like an outsider with my husband as well. The other women started chattering at him too and I noticed the subtle way he seemed to pale as they bickered.
“I flew her to another country and married her,” Alex interrupted, clearly in the mood to pick his own battles. “No one said that we couldn’t have another wedding here, with the church and family around.”
A murmur passed between Eleni and Iva who crossed their arms after a moment and went back to glaring at him. Mama kept prattling on in Greek, gesturing between Alex and I but only speaking to him. He sighed and leaned forward on the table.
“Chloe can’t speak Greek, it’s only fair that we speak English while she’s here,” he said calmly.
I knew he struggled to go back and forth, he wasn’t a translator and asking him to be one put undue stress on everyone else involved. I caught his eye and mouthed ‘thank you’, a ghost of a smile crossed his face before Iva decided to cut in.
“Where was my Lena? What has been going on at that horrible island that these are the jokes you play?”
What do you mean? “Lena never left Athens,” I answered. “She didn’t come with us; we aren’t even speaking right now. And this isn’t a joke, not one that I’m in on anyway.”
“What happened with you and Peter?” Eleni asked this time, much more calmly than either of her sisters.
I met Iva’s gaze and watched her lips just barely part. We already had words, it wasn’t my place to dig the knife in anymore. “Iva and I talked about it,” I told them finally. “Peter and I broke up, it was messy and that’s all I want to say about it.”
Eleni scoffed. “Was that before or after you eloped with his patéras?”
I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t know the translated word, but there was something especially venomous about her hissing patéras like it was a weapon.
“You didn’t even call me,” mama whispered.
I turned to her and her hazel eyes were wide and watery. My heart hurt but I didn’t know what I could say to make up for it now. She turned around to face Alex and spoke quietly to him, a shadow crossed his face but I had no idea what she could have said, or what he replied with. A few silent minutes passed and I picked at my manicure anxiously.
“Mama, Alex and I have somewhere we need to be shortly, why don’t you come for dinner tomorrow and we can talk?” When your sisters won’t be here to get in on this.
She pursed her lips and kept glancing between us before huffing. “I want to come stay with you, like we talked about when I first got here.” She craned her neck to address Alex directly, “Do I ask your permission or is my daughter’s good enough?”
I smirked and looked away, covering my mouth as I looked out the window.
Alex cleared his throat. “I think Chloe is capable of inviting people to our home – I trust her to do that.”
I rolled my eyes and glanced at him sideways; he damn well better trust me to do that.
“Tomorrow then,” Mama replied, suddenly very chipper as she slammed her hands down on the table with a wide smile.
“I’ll give you the number for my driver and have him pick you up when you’re ready,” Alex agreed eagerly.
Iva and Eleni didn’t look too pleased as we left but mama was beaming and waving excitedly from the front stoop. I waved back at her, urging Alex to do the same while he pulled me along.
“Was it terrible?” I whispered to him once we were out of their line of sight.
“They threatened to turn me into a eunuch, but I didn’t want to translate that in front of them.”
I half groaned half laughed and kissed his shoulder. “I’m sorry I invited her over…”
Alex shook his head and smiled at me, wrapping his arm around my waist we wove through the streets together, making way to his lawyer’s office. “Don’t be sorry, it might be nice for the three of us to sit down together.”
The rest of our day went much smoother; a postnup was in the works, not yet agreed upon by my lawyer, but everything else was settled – my name was on the accounts, the house, and anything else that it needed to be. We got dinner in the city on a rooftop diner, surrounded by a million candles and looking out over the water. I kept the last of my questions until we got home, the place where I felt he would finally answer me.
“We’re in a place where we can talk about it now,” I said quietly while he closed the door.
Alex sighed and took me by the hand, leading us to the back of the house without pausing to take his shoes off. We came out onto the deck and he gestured to the plush chair while he sat on the ottoman. “I’m not mad at you,” he promised.
I pulled my legs up under me and toyed with the hem of my dress. “I’d understand if you were though.”
He leaned forward and watched me intently. “Chloe, I’m not mad at you. I’m not holding a grudge; I’m not even going to ask you to apologize again.”
I nodded and looked out over the property; the fire pit sat in the clearing and off further in the distance was the old greenhouse that Marie used to filled to the brim with roses and other more exotic plants. I wondered if he was ever mad at the women in his life.
“Chloe.”
I jumped and turned to him, blushing hotly. “Sorry,” I said sheepishly.
He smiled and half laughed as he reached for my hands. “Love, I have no idea what I said or did to make you think that I was going to hold this over you – but I’m not. I know that you are still reeling from what happened, I know the wounds are still fresh, and I’m letting this slide because I know that you don’t always think before you speak.”
I blotted under my eyes at the rogue tears. “I’m sorry if I hurt you, I don’t know why I had to say that.”
Alex shifted to my chair, wrapped his arm protectively around my shoulders and pressed a soft kiss to my temple. “I’m not mad,” he repeated. “You can irritate the shit out of me some days, but I’m never going to be mad at you.”
I laughed and leaned into his embrace. “Don’t be so quick to say that; I’m sure I’ll really piss you off one of these days.” It’s only a matter of time.
“Good, that will keep us fresh and on our toes,” he murmured, running his nose through my hair. “And how else are supposed to have angry sex?”
“I could slap you, but I don’t know how far that would go to getting you hard.”
“As long as it’s with your ring hand so that I know it was done with love.”
“It’s only fitting that I slap you with the same hand I jerk you off with.”
Alex rolled his eyes and pulled my legs over his, I looped my arms around his neck and flexed my toes. “Are you cold?” he asked while rubbing my side.
I shrugged. “I could be warmer if you want to go to bed.”
“What if I got a nice fire going for us and we could cuddle up out here for a while?”
Cuddling under the stars in front of a bonfire after a day like today? How could I resist.