Jeffrey Siger - An Aegean Prophecy

It was two thirty in the morning and Lila was text messaging furiously. Reading, writing, reading, writing.

‘What’s going on?’ Andreas asked.

‘It’s Barbara. You can’t believe what she’s telling me.’

His heart stopped. Deny, deny, deny. No, not this time. He thought to beat her to the punch. ‘Lila-’

She burst out laughing. ‘I don’t believe her. She’s one of a kind.’ Lila turned to Andreas, all smiles. ‘First of all, she said to send you her love and that you gave a “tremendous performance.”’

I wonder if Maggie has talked to her yet, Andreas thought.

‘I had invited her to join us for dinner, she should have been here hours ago.’

Maggie better have, but if she had she’d have told me.

‘But she can’t make it.’

Thank God.

‘Because she’s in Moscow.’

You’ve got to be kidding me!

‘She was at the airport waiting to catch the last plane back to Athens, and guess who she ran into?’

Good thing she didn’t know more than that I needed an escort.

‘Your Russian from last night. He convinced her it would be a lot more fun to celebrate Easter in Moscow than Athens. She said to tell you she decided to go. “So it wouldn’t be a total loss.” What does that mean?’

‘Got me. She’s a bit wacky.’

‘I’ll say.’ Lila laughed again. ‘Barbara, Barbara, you never fail to amaze me.’

I’ll say.

‘Thanks for inviting me. You were right, Easter dinner alone on Mykonos would have been a downer.’

Tassos patted Kouros on the arm. ‘Hey, you’re family. Besides, I didn’t have to cook. He did.’ Kouros pointed to a man hurrying toward them with plates stacked along his left arm from fingertips to elbow. He was the vision of a Greek leprechaun with a round, rosy-cheeked face, twinkling eyes, and a Greek fisherman’s moustache.

‘Steline,’ the leprechaun shouted, ‘hurry with the rest of the plates before this old bastard from Syros arrests me.’

‘I see he knows you.’

Tassos smiled and nodded. ‘Yeah, we’ve spent many a night together here behind city hall, closing up his place and exchanging lies. It started out as a locals’ place, now it’s the most famous taverna on the island. Everybody comes here.’

Kouros looked over Tassos’ shoulder at someone aimed straight for their table. ‘Oh, boy. Were you ever right.’

‘What are you talking-’

‘You miserable fucking piece of shit!’ And thus began a thirty-second string of expletives delivered at disco club volume. Tourist heads jerked around to see who was about to be murdered. Locals just shrugged and continued on with Easter dinner; it was only Katerina doing her warpath thing.

Tassos braced himself, then came a smack to the back of his head.

Kouros smiled. ‘I see you’ve been through this before.’

Tassos stayed braced. ‘She’s not done yet.’

Smack. She did it again, then another.

Tassos relaxed. ‘I think she’s done.’

‘I heard that, asshole,’ and gave him another slap.

Tassos turned to face her. ‘Christos Anesti, Katerina mou. Please, join us.’

She was shaking her fist in his face and stopped only long enough to say, ‘ Alithos Anesti,’ before starting in on him again. ‘How could you have done that to me? Set me up so badly.’ Tassos pulled out a chair as she raged on. Katerina sat down without missing a beat in her diatribe. ‘I have never been so embarrassed in all my life.’

‘I assume you know all of my cousins.’ Tassos pointed to the people around the table. ‘And, of course, Yianni Kouros.’

Katerina nodded and smiled to all the cousins, then looked at Kouros. ‘You’re as bad as this one,’ pointing to Tassos.

Kouros decided to follow Tassos’ lead. ‘ Christos Anesti.’

‘ Alithos Anesti.’ She turned back to Tassos and repeated, ‘How could you have done that to me?’

Tassos sighed. ‘Katerina, what did I do to you?’

‘You set me up. You knew I would tell Vladimir.’

Tassos leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. ‘I love you, really I do. You’re one of a kind. Here, have a drink.’ He handed her a glass of wine. ‘ Yamas.’

Katerina, Tassos, and Kouros clinked glasses and drank.

‘Miserable bastards,’ she said. Then she poured the three of them more wine. ‘I feel almost as stupid as some of my dumb-ass clients, the ones who think they’re so smart and end up getting conned. Like you did me!’ She didn’t smack this time, just shouted.

They sat together for about an hour, mostly letting Katerina vent but having fun as well. She was terrific company.

‘And that bitch who was making a play for Vladimir.’

‘What bitch?’ said Tassos.

‘Baarrrrbarrraaa.’ Katerina drew out the name as a child would in a schoolyard taunt.

‘She was hitting on him?’ asked Kouros.

‘Fellas, please. How blind and naive are you men? Believe me, I know how to hit on a man and I can tell you, that bitch is a master.’

‘What are you talking about?’ said Tassos.

‘That’s right, you weren’t there to watch the show. No woman would allow a man to stroke her back as she did if she weren’t interested. And then she’d make just enough of a subtle push back against Vladimir’s hand to let him know he had a shot at her. He was so hard I thought he’d come on the spot.’

Neither cop bothered to ask how she knew that.

‘But Andreas better be careful. Vladimir is no one to fuck around with. Don’t forget where or how he made his money. It took a body count as well as brains to make what he made in Russia. People tend to die who get in his way. I never forget that, and Andreas better not either.’

Tassos shrugged. ‘Thanks, but Andreas has nothing to worry about.’ He didn’t bother to say there would be no competition for the woman.

Katerina poured more wine into their glasses. ‘Let’s hope Vladimir sees it that way. For all our sakes.’

‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.’ As Barbara moaned she thrust her hips up to meet his, her legs wrapped around his back, squeezing and touching wherever she could.

I can’t believe this woman, thought Vladimir. It’s our third time since the plane landed. And that one time in the air. His mind was lost in her completely and without warning he was on the verge again. My God, how does she know how to do this? As if on cue, she touched him in just the right place at just the right moment, and from that instant on it was nothing but, ‘Barbara, Barbara, Barbaraaaahhhhhhhh.’ They came together. Again.

They lay together in the dark without moving. Then she gently stroked her fingers along his spine.

‘Where have you been all my life?’

‘Athens.’

He laughed. ‘I hope you like Moscow.’

‘A nice place to visit.’

‘But you wouldn’t want to live here?’

‘Vladimir, are you proposing?’

He laughed. ‘You have too many boyfriends for me.’

She patted him on the back. ‘Don’t start getting jealous on me.’

He cringed. She probably was right about that. ‘Well, I can’t help remembering what that policeman said.’

‘Andreas?’

‘Yes. I bumped into him the day after we met and he said, “Obviously, you’ve never slept with Barbara.”’

‘I have no idea how that subject ever came up, but one thing’s for sure, we both know he’d be wrong now, darling.’

‘Yeah, but it still bothers me.’

She grabbed his dick and squeezed it. Then pulled at it twice. ‘My love, that’s the most Andreas ever got from me, and he was out cold when I did it. All I did was rub some lubricant on his dick so when he woke up he’d think he’d had me, and could have me again. I wanted to see if he was like every other man chasing after my girlfriend, Lila. He’s not. Darling, he’s my best friend’s almost-husband, I’d never screw him. He just needed me for company for the night.’ She kissed his cheek. ‘There, that’s the truth. So, now, do you feel better?’