A Greek God In Harlem (13 page)

She sobbed, "Eric... what happened to me? Why didn't you tell me?!"

All this as the two held each other in front of curious passer-bys. Eric feigned some tears and replied slowly,

"I was told to give you some space for your treatment. Plus, I wasn't supposed to talk about it to you. Sweetheart, I'm here and that's all that matters. I'm gonna tell you everything,"

Tanya nodded and looked earnestly into Eric's eyes. He stroked her cheek and whispered in her ear, "c'mon, let me take you to dinner." 

Tanya sighed and let him lead the way.

Percy removed his glasses and stared at himself in the mirror. Percy the Greek god. 

He replaced his glasses. Percy the doctor.
He couldn't dare to look at his reflection for another second. He flung his glasses across the room. They seemed to be a symbol of his deceit. He had never once worn them in Tanya's presence.

He looked up at his bookshelf filled with medical philosophies, textbooks from med school and all sorts of literature on mental hysteria.

Tanya's condition. That's what he had labeled that section of his library when he was still doing research on his patient.

He then looked up at his wall adorned with accolades and medical awards. One of these was for a paper he had written entitled

Why the moral dilemma of our 'mental hysteria treatment' does not count.

By Dr Percy Theodosiou, of The Zarefsky Institute.

He had written this before he had met Tanya.
He looked away from the wall guiltily and placed his knuckles on his desk, where his stethoscope lay.

He flexed his muscles in anger. Anger at himself. How could he defend such a practice? Such an institute?

He hung his head in shame. He then took his hand and violently swept it across his desk, clearing it of all its contents.

Chapter Twelve

Eric kissed Tanya's cheek for what seemed to be the hundredth time before they both settled down to eat an Italian dinner.

He stared at her intently and held her hand as he told her how she had gotten shot by some drive-by shooter, how she had lost her memory and how her recovery treatment required him to be away. 

All of which was true.

Then the lies began.

Tanya leaned forward and asked, "So all my thoughts about you... they were messed up. You never really used to cheat and all that?"

Eric took a sip of his wine and sighed. He held her hand,

"Tanya. I need you to remember just how great I am to you."

Tanya smiled slightly. She tried to get her mind to think of Eric as this great guy, but it couldn't for some reason.

Eric squeezed her hand, "Baby... tomorrow we visit your doctor, Mr. Theodosiou. He has to give the final word on your mental state. I'm sure he has helped you in many ways,"

Tanya looked up at her boyfriend. She didn't really know how to respond to that.
She had 
slept
 with Percy.

With Dr Theodosiou. The liar.

She squeezed Eric's hand back and brought it to her lips, kissing it. How could she have done that to Eric?

When their expensive dinner was done, Eric clutched Tanya's hand tightly as they walked back to her..no... their apartment.

Eric had told Tanya over dinner that he would move back as soon as his business out of state was done.

Tanya didn't know how she felt about this. How she felt about 
him
.

Once inside the apartment, the old landlady opened her door enthusiastically hoping to see Percy. Her face changed when she saw Tanya holding hands with Eric.

Tanya gave her a blank look and the landlady smiled and told both of them goodnight, trying to hide her disappointment at this sudden change in things. Where was Percy? She wondered. Had he and Tanya broken up? Once the lady was out of sight, Eric chuckled, "I always did find that old chick weird." He expected Tanya to laugh, but she didn't.

This just didn't feel right. Him in the corridor with her. Where she had often made love with Percy.

This was Eric's apartment as well, sure.... but... but...

He sensed her quiet and he imagined it to be sexual tension. He leaned in for a kiss, but Tanya didn't. When he tried to bring his lips to hers, she turned and he caught her cheek instead.

He chuckled. So she was now playing 'hard to get' huh?

He cupped her face and roughly turned her face towards him. Tanya let out a faint 'ow' as Eric crushed her lips with his. More out of lust than any tender feeling. 

His hands started to roam all over her curvy body and she could feel he was greatly aroused. She tried to keep her lips shut but his tongue forced them open and he was now practically mauling her.

Tanya didn't know why but she felt like puking. She pushed him off and wiped her mouth.

Eric had an angry look on his face, "Tanya what the hell's your problem?"

What
was
her problem? She asked herself the same question. This was her boyfriend after all. Her
real
boyfriend.

She smoothed his shirt as she said tenderly, "Look Eric. I can't do this right now, with you. It's been so long..."

Eric started to kiss her neck, "All the more reason for us to make up for lost time,"

Tanya sighed and pushed him away again, this time more gently.

"Eric..."

He ran his hands over his fade cut and looked to the side, his ego crushed. He then walked away from her up to their room.

When Tanya didn't follow him up the stairs he stopped in his tracks and turned towards her, "Oh... are we not gonna sleep in the same bed 
either
?"

Tanya shook her head slowly, wanting to avoid his eyes. Eric chuckled, this time out of amusement.

Angry amusement. He stood at the bottom of the stairs and didn't go up. Instead he made a left turn to the living room.

"Pass me a blanket from upstairs then. I'm going to bed," he said curtly. He kicked off his shoes and landed on the couch.

Tanya sighed at herself. She needed to act better towards Eric or else he would suspect something happened between her and another man.

She ran upstairs and got her boyfriend a warm blanket. While she was covering him with it, he pulled it roughly and covered himself.

Her goodnight to him was met with silence. Women never snubbed him, especially not his girlfriend. He fell asleep wondering why she was acting this way. She fell asleep wondering how she was going to face Percy the doctor tomorrow, hand in hand with Eric.

In the middle of the night, Tanya woke up for some reason. She turned on the lamp and opened the book
Perseus
. The Reader's Digest. That's all it really was, A Reader's Digest. Not some mythical book. And she was only finding that out now.

She turned to the last pages, and all the text was there, it had never disappeared. Also, in the story Zeus never told Perseus to go down to Earth to look for Andromeda. 

She had imagined everything. It was just a stupid little magazine with Greek mythology.

And everything about Doctor Percy that had seemed mystical before, had just been coincidences. He is a human being not a god, like the rest of us.

I really am mentally deranged... she thought.

She then grabbed her pillow and imagined it to be Percy, not Eric. She imagined his kisses all over her body, his gentle touch... and the things they did on their passionate nights. The memories burned through her mind and went straight to her heart.

But it was over between them, he had lied to her, claiming to be a teacher, when in fact he was her doctor. He knew she was crazy and never told her. He had taken advantage of her. Of her attraction to him.

An attraction that still burned strong.

She ran her hand over the familiar, animated cover of the Reader's Digest. Perseus and Andromeda's love story meant nothing to her now.
It meant nothing.

Perseus, the Greek god was not real. Never had been.

Chapter Thirteen

"Dr Theodosiou? A couple is here to see you," the secretary said in the intercom. Percy's heart felt like it wanted to stop. He replied slowly, "Yes. Yes. Yet let them in."

Eric and Tanya walked into the room, hand in hand. The moment Tanya saw Percy sitting at his office desk, she dropped Eric's hand, much to her boyfriend's confusion.

Percy stood up, and shook each of their hands professionally. He and Tanya's eyes bore into each other, neither one looking away.

Neither of them was ready for this encounter, but it had to happen sometime. Tanya's diagnosis.

Percy gestured for them to sit and they did. Tanya's eyes immediately traversed his office, which he had never showed her and which he had never mentioned. Right there in New York.

It was full of medical posters, awards and there was a model of the human brain on his desk. He really was a mental health doctor. It showed completely. And he was wearing glasses.