“I could lie down right here and sleep for ten hours,” I said to Kiki.
“Jet lag,” she said. “It takes about a week, I think, to feel like you’re in your own skin.”
“You know, I can’t just stay here forever. I wish I could, but I can’t.”
“We wish you could stay too! I feel like I’ve found the sister I never had.”
“Oh, Kiki! Me too!”
And I don’t know what got into me at that moment, but I burst into tears. The next thing I knew, Aunt Anna had her arms around me, making sssh, sssh sounds to console me, and Kiki was giving me tissues to blow my nose.
“It’s about your husband, isn’t it?” Kiki said.
I nodded my head and the whole story came tumbling out. Kiki interpreted as I blurted out the facts, and by the end of it, we were all quiet.
“It’s okay,” Kiki said after a minute. “He’s worried about getting old and dying. But I don’t think he loves her. He loves the memory of being young and the memory of her.”
“Maybe.” I hadn’t thought of it that way.
“Your life with him is reality. Not this silliness of pretending. Your Adam wouldn’t trade one of you for a thousand of her. Wait. You’ll see.”
Aunt Anna said something in rapid-fire Greek to Kiki.
“What’d I miss?” I said.
“Old Greek saying,” Kiki said and giggled, covering her mouth with her hand.
“What is it?” I said.
“My mother says, when it comes to love all men are idiots.”
I had stopped crying long enough to laugh.
“They don’t just say that in Greece. It’s a universal truth.”
chapter 16
adam’s snake in the garden
It was only seven thirty in the morning when Dad knocked on my door. The bed was unmade, but I had showered and shaved and dressed for work.
“You got coffee?” he said.
“Of course I do. I’ll pour you a cup.”
“Thanks,” he said.
I went to the kitchen and saw him walk down the hall toward the bedrooms. Why was he doing that? Maybe he needed to use the bathroom. I filled a mug for him, gave it a splash of creamer, and put it on the counter. Then I threw some bread in the toaster and took the butter out of the refrigerator. He reappeared and took a long drink.
“You want some toast?” I said.
“Okay, sure. Listen, son, I have to talk to you.”
He climbed up on a barstool and I leaned back against the sink, steadying myself for some unsolicited advice.
“Okay. Talk to me.”
The toast popped up and I removed it, quickly dropping it on the cutting board. It was hot. I began to scrape butter across it and put a slice on a paper napkin for him. Now that I was maybe a bachelor, my goal was to never need to run the dishwasher more than once a week. I was going to conserve energy and save a little money.
“It’s about last night,” he said.
“What about it?”
“Well, look, you’re a grown man and what you do is your own business.”
“Thank you for that,” I said.
“Eve didn’t stay here last night, did she?”
“That’s a helluva question to ask. Didn’t you always tell me that discretion was the better part of valor? But no, she didn’t. Do you think I’m completely crazy?”
He sighed heavily and said, “Women.” He folded his toast in half and took a big bite.
“Agreed, but which women?”
“Well, Eve was supposed to be staying with Cookie and she never came home last night. And when Cookie called her she didn’t pick up.”
“She probably didn’t feel like getting read the riot act again. Maybe she drove herself over to Wild Dunes. Oh wait, she said she was going to check to see if Charleston Place had a room.”
“So, you left her at the hotel then?”
“I left her in the bar of the restaurant. Dad, please. What do you think?”
“I think you have the wrong attitude, son . . .”
“Oh, come on! I have not done anything wrong here. What the hell is the matter with everyone?”
“Since when are you such a knucklehead? I am still your father and I want you to listen to me.”
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“Perception is everything. Finding you two together at Charleston Place and knowing the story about last Friday night, it looked like monkey business. No matter what you say you were or weren’t doing, it still looked like some monkey business was going on. I can tell you Clarabeth wouldn’t like it if I took Cookie out to some fancy restaurant without her.”
“And from my vantage point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cookie would pick up the check just to have you to herself for a few hours. Want a refill?”
“Sure,” he said and granted me a sort of half smirk. “Thanks.”
I filled his mug again and pushed the carton of half-and-half toward him.
“I just don’t want to see you do something stupid and mess up your whole life, that’s all. Eve is a pretty girl and all that, but between us? Not much between the ears. She can’t even begin to measure up to a woman like Eliza. I think you know that.”
I didn’t disagree with him.
“Eliza thinks I lied to her.”
“Well, if you did, then you need to do something to make it up to her. Lying is very bad for business.”
I remembered then that Eliza had let me tell her the story of Friday night and I had left out the part about sleeping on the sofa. She had set me up knowing I would reveal the story only on a need-to-know basis. Omission of unnecessary facts was not the same thing as flat-out lying, in my book. When she nailed me on that detail I fessed up, didn’t I? And I apologized, didn’t I?
“Dad? My conscience is clear.”
I put my cup in the sink and looked at my watch. It was past time for me to go to work. Then I realized I’d need someone to do payroll for the week, because Eliza wasn’t here. Great. Thanks, Eliza.
“Well, that’s good, Adam. One other thing. I hope you and your clear conscience will be happy together. If I were you, I’d be on a plane to Corfu. But that’s just me. If you want to have dinner this week, let me know.”
He put his mug in the sink next to mine, turned around, and walked out.