Devon Hartford - Reckless

“Really? Wow! That’s totally cool.”

I sort of expected Madison to ask if Spiridon was okay with things, but I realized that was how my parents saw the world, not other people. Because I could totally imagine Madison’s parents inviting me to move in with them if I needed a place to stay without giving it a second thought. More and more, it seemed like my family was the strangest family that ever existed.

“Maybe now you can quit your Grab-n-Dash job,” Madison said. “I know how much you hated that place.”

“Yeah, it was not conducive to my sanity,” I smiled.

“So what about Valentine’s Day? Maybe Christos is going to throw you a surprise Valentine’s Day thing at the house! Like, a Moving In on Valentine’s Day celebration!” Madison’s eyes were wide with excitement. “You should totally do it! It would be so romantic!”

It would. But was any of it going to happen? The sudden knot in my stomach made me wonder. I’d turned in my 30-day notice already. Was it too late to cancel that, just in case?

Just in case my mom was right.

No, please no.

A wave of nausea rippled through me as Madison and I made it up to the cashier at the Mexican restaurant. Right now, not even fish tacos sounded good.

Hopefully, Christos would set my mind at ease over dinner later.

SAMANTHA

Christos surprised me by bringing sushi on the back of his motorcycle to my apartment at seven o’clock on the dot.

I hadn’t had sushi in forever. It was perfect. We sat at my dinner table in the kitchen, sitting next to each other.

“I’m so sorry about last night, agápi mou ,” Christos said. “Jake and I were out pretty late, and I was sauced. We had to wait it out till we got sober enough to drive home.” He chop-sticked a piece of dragon roll into his mouth.

“You should’ve called,” I said, setting down my bite of tuna sashimi. “I would’ve come and picked you guys up.”

“Nah,” he said, wiping his mouth with a napkin, “it was late. I didn’t want to wake you.” He smiled.

“Next time, call me. No matter how late,” I said forcefully.

“Will do,” he smiled and leaned over to give me a peck on the lips.

“I’m here for you too, you know,” I said seriously.

He gazed into my eyes for a long time. I expected a cocky response, but all he did was nod.

Fishing for information, I said, “So, Madison tells me Jake has some big surprise planned for Valentine’s Day.”

“I’m not surprised,” Christos smiled. “Jake is totally in love with her.”

Did he look uncomfortable when he’d said that, or was it just me? I wasn’t sure. Whatever it was, this was Christos’ cue to say suggestive but ambiguous things about how awesome our Valentine’s Day was going to be. Silence hung between us. I waited.

We looked at each other. He smiled and picked up another piece of dragon roll with his chopsticks and popped it in his mouth.

Okay, so Valentine’s Day for me and Christos was top secret? Did that mean it would be that much more awesome? Or was bad news brewing and I was going to be the last to know?

I needed a change of subject.

“Any more calls from your parents?” Christos asked.

Not the subject I was looking for.

“No,” I said. “I mean, they’ve left a bunch of voicemails I haven’t listened to and emails I haven’t read. They’re probably all death-threats. knowing my parents.”

“Sorry to hear that. Maybe you need to call them and clear the air. Let them know you’re okay. They’re probably worried about you.”

I huffed a laugh, “Yeah, they’re worried I’m not following orders.”

“Was it that bad?” Christos said while dipping tuna sashimi in soy sauce and wasabi with his chopsticks. He popped the raw tuna in his mouth and chewed.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I told you they’re evil.”

Christos set down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Look, agápi mou , I know it’s the last thing you want to hear from me, but maybe you just need to call them and set things straight. I’ll be right here for support, like when you told them you changed majors. What do you say?”

I wanted to say that last time my parents had thrown me to the lions with their decision to stop paying for my apartment and this time they might throw me to the tigers, bears, sharks, and carnivorous dinosaurs, oh my!

Which led me to my real concern. Now that I’d given a 30-day notice to my apartment manager, I needed to make absolutely sure I wasn’t walking a high wire without a net. “Christos, before I call them,” I said tentatively, “I have to ask you one thing.”

“Anything, agápi mou ,” he said before drinking some water.

I looked into his eyes. They were so sincere, it gave me the courage to press forward. “I feel silly for asking this, and please don’t hate me, but…are we moving in together?”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

Was I sensing doubt? Screw it, I needed to get this over with. “I mean, are you totally sure it’s cool for me to move in with you and Spiridon? Cuz if it’s not, I totally—”

He put a reassuring hand on my thigh. “ Agápi mou , I meant what I said. And so did my grandpa. You can move into the house for as long as you want.”

“You’re sure?” I asked hopefully. It really did seem too good an offer to be true.

“Yes.”

I was wrong. It was true. “Okay, good. I just needed to make sure. My mom said some nasty things that made me, I don’t know, nervous about the whole thing.”

“Like what?”

“You don’t want to know,” I chuckled nervously.

“Sounds to me like you need to call them, agápi mou . I can tell them myself that you have a place to live for as long as you want. I mean, I spent two weeks at their house. Why wouldn’t my family extend the same courtesy to you?”

“That’s right!” I smiled. “But, it’s for more than two weeks,” I winced.

“So what?” He’d said it with such confidence, I couldn’t possibly doubt him.

“Okay, I’ll call them!” I cleared our dinner plates from the table, wiped it down with a damp sponge, and washed my hands in the sink.

I was drying my hands on a dish towel when Christos grinned at me.

“Ready to rip that Band-Aid off?” he asked.

“Do you have to make it sound like this situation is a bloody wound?”

He chuckled. “Okay. Uh, are you ready to call your parents and tell them what they’ve won?”

“What, like a sweepstakes? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah it does. They have an awesome daughter who’s taking charge of her own life in admirable ways. Sounds like the big win to me.”

I giggled. “You always know the right things to say, agápi mou ,” I said.

“You keep talking with that sexy Greek accent you’ve picked up, and we won’t make it to the phone call,” he said suggestively.

“Fine by me!”

He laughed. “I knew you were trying to distract me. Call them, Samantha. Let’s get this over with. How bad can they be?”

I took a shaky breath. I didn’t want to make any predictions lest they come true. “Fine,” I said and grabbed my phone. I plopped down on the couch and Christos sat next to me.

“Here goes nothing,” I said as I dialed and set the phone to speaker.

“Hello?” my mom said.

I sighed, wishing my dad had answered. He would’ve given me a slight buffer before everything went nuts. “Hey, Mom.”

“To what do we owe this honor?” she said sarcastically. “Considering you didn’t bother to answer any of our previous messages.”

I rolled my eyes at Christos. He took my hand and held it.