Gate Deadlock (6 page)

‘Ouch!’ My thumbnail was broken, losing a big
piece of it.

‘Let me help you with this.’ he said, taking the
Cd case from my hands.

‘You’re just trying the wrong side.’ Great. I
was so pathetic!

He inserted the Cd in the computer and turned to
take my hand in his.

‘Now, whatever are we going to do about that?’
he smiled, examining the damage. My heart just stopped. I took my
hand away from his hastily, although it needed a lot of strength to
do so. His warm hand was attracting my skin like a magnet.
Christopher laughed loudly at my silly reaction.

‘There’s no need to be so edgy Emma, for God’s
sake!’

He stood up. ‘I’ll ask Tina to get us some
refreshments.’ he said, reaching for the phone. Tina was a pretty,
Greek brunet, who worked for the University as a secretariat clerk
and temporary secretary for Harry and Christopher.

‘Strange.
She’s
not here yet?’ he wondered, as no one answered the
phone.

‘She’s getting married in two weeks, so she’s
probably got a lot to do. I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t
show up at all.’ I told him, waiting for his reaction.

‘Is that so? Well, I should go to the canteen
and get the lemonades myself then.’ He hung up. ‘Do you need
anything else?’

‘No, lemonade is fine.’ I watched him leave the
room, amazed, wondering if I would ever find any defect to him.

There’s no such thing as the
perfect man, Emma, control yourself
! I reminded
myself.

By the time he came back, I had already been
able to regain control of myself. I was very absorbed in the
computer screen and had managed to distract myself with polishing
my paper. He put one glass of cool lemonade on the desk next to
me.

For the rest of the morning, I was busy turning
my paper to a presentation format, whereas he used the computer on
his desk to check the videos I wanted to include in it and put them
in order according to the relevant parts of the text. Then, he
examined the Project-Em files that I had left on his desk.

‘Damn!’ I cursed. I had tried for the third time
to copy-paste a long passage into the Power Point program, but it
turned out in the wrong format.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked from his desk and,
before I was able to assure him that everything was under control,
he was over me, his head almost next to mine. He looked at the
screen and put his hand over mine, covering the mouse.

‘Let’s see. Let’s try this, shall we? And now
this. See? It wasn’t so difficult.’

He moved the mouse with my hand still under his.
I could not even look at the screen anymore. All I could see was
jumping letters in front of my eyes. Just the feeling of his hair
touching mine, just smelling his masculine scent blended with a
deep woods perfume, put me in a daze. The warmth of his body on my
back was urging me to lean on his chest and let myself loose.

‘It should be okay now.’ He had turned his head
towards mine, his lips only a few inches away. I craved for his
lips, I desperately wanted to taste them. I closed my eyes and
tried to hold my breath.

‘I don’t think I can do this anymore.’ I
muttered.

He drew back immediately. ‘You don’t feel well?
We’ve been on the computer for more than two hours. That’s too
much. We’ll finish it off tomorrow.’ He checked his watch. ‘It’s
time to meet Suzan anyway.’

I stood up. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’ I
said and almost ran to the bathroom.
Pull
yourself together Emma. What’s wrong with you?
I told
the image of myself in the mirror. I washed my blushed face and the
cool water felt soothing on my cheeks.

When I got back, I saw that he had put my things
back in my briefcase and was waiting for me by the door.

‘Are you any better?’ he asked, obviously
concerned.

‘I’m fine. Let’s go.’ I said quickly, avoiding
his stare.

I prayed not to be alone with him in the lift
again and for the first time I was happy to see Rose standing in
front of it. She held the door for us.

‘Thank you Rose.’ he smiled. Ignoring my
presence, Rose started talking to Christopher in her usual fast
manner. I was not able to follow their conversation as I was trying
to think of Colin again to distract myself.

‘Dr Auburn?’ Tina called him as we were about to
leave the building.

‘Yes Tina?’ he turned to her.

‘Hi Emma!’ she greeted me and then
turned to him. ‘I’m terribly sorry for being so late today…’ she
said in the most sincere manner. ‘You know I’m….’ ‘Yes, I know.
Emma has told me about your wedding. Congratulations! Don’t worry,
we didn’t need anything. You can take tomorrow off too, as far as
I’m concerned.’ Tina was amazed by his generous, undemanding
attitude, and so was I.

‘Thank you, Dr Auburn. I’d like to give you this
invitation. It’s for my wedding. Nikos and I will be really happy
if you can come.’

‘Thank you Tina. Of course I’ll come.’ he said
excitedly.

She turned to me. ‘I’ m certainly expecting you
Emma, right?’

‘Well, I…’

‘Of course she’s coming.’ Christopher
interfered. ‘You will escort me Emma, won’t you?’ he smiled
innocently, completely regardless of my disinclination.

‘Great!’ Tina said before I could speak. ‘I’ll
arrange the two of you to be seated together at the wedding
reception.’

‘You do that Tina!’ Christopher said, enjoying
his triumph.

As we walked to the car, Christopher seemed
overexcited about the wedding. As for me, I was really frustrated,
as I had just started to realize what had just happened.
Christopher got into the car whistling but I frowned.

‘Christopher, I don’t think I should go… to the
wedding. I mean… I was planning not to.’

‘Why?’

‘Well, Tina’s fiancé is a friend of my
ex-boyfriend’s and…’

‘Nonsense. If he’s your ex, why worry about him?
Is he going to be there after all?’

‘No, I don’t think so. From what I hear, he’s
still in London.’

‘See then? Don’t worry. We’ll have a
great time. It’s my first Greek wedding. You won’t just let me go
by myself, will you?’ He knew I could not refuse him, not only out
of courtesy. I was too predictable.

‘No, of course not.’ I replied, so easily
defeated. ‘So where are we going?’

‘Suzan’s hotel, the Poseidon.’

The most expensive hotel in the
area. It is so like her kind!
I thought.

It occurred to me that it had been a good idea
to put on my long, white, cotton dress that morning. I had also
chosen a pair of dull-gold sandals and a matching bag. I might have
been overdressed for the tutorial but it was certainly the right
dress to wear for lunch at the pool bar of an expensive hotel.

Suzan was not at all as I had expected. She
seemed really excited about meeting me and throughout lunch she
expressed genuine interest in my studies and Project-Em.

‘I’m so excited the two of you are going to work
together! You really make a good couple.’ Christopher cast her a
warning look and she went on apologetically.

‘Professionally talking, of course.’ She took a
sip of wine.

‘I have to warn you though, Emma. Once his mind
is set on something he can be very persuasive. So be careful.’
Christopher frowned and gave her another angry look.

‘I think I’ve already found that out.’ I said,
playing with my food, avoiding his mystified look.

I found Susan to be a very interesting person
apart from being a beauty. Even though I had initially been
prejudiced towards her, I could not but like her company. We talked
about the attractions of Greece, which, for Suzan, would be mostly
found in Greek men. I felt very comfortable with her and I had
managed to keep myself well under control during the whole
time.

‘Well? Are you convinced now?’ Christopher asked
on the way back.

‘About what?’

‘That Suzan and I are just friends.’

‘Why is that so important to you?’ I teased
him.

He smiled. ‘In case you haven’t realized yet,
I’ve been trying to make a good impression on you.’

‘You don’t have to try hard for that, believe
me.’

‘Well, that’s encouraging.’ His breathtaking
smile dazzled me again.

‘So, are we meeting tomorrow, same time?’ he
asked, pulling over outside my apartment. I thought about it for a
minute.

‘I have a morning class tomorrow. How about
later in the evening? At about six? But I’ll drive there. You don’t
have to come and get me again.’

‘I see your point.’ he smiled widely. He waited
for me to unlock the front door before he sped off.

The following two weeks continued like that. I
met him every evening for two or three hours until every detail of
the presentation was covered and I had rehearsed it more times than
necessary. That was the good part. The worst part was that each
time I met him I had to fight against myself in order to remain
composed, as the attraction I felt for him was growing day by day.
I practically experienced physical pain every time he came close to
me and I had to restrain my strong urge to touch him. I would have
thought that, by time, I would have become more immune to him, but
this was only a wishful aspiration. Of course, I was always careful
enough to keep a safe distance between us and I drove my car to the
university everyday instead of having him pick me up. I also made
sure I would not be into the lift alone with him again.

Saturday was the conference day. Christopher had
insisted on driving me to Athens, where the conference was taking
place. I had realized that during all this time he had been such a
distraction for me that I was not experiencing any stress at all.
Normally, I would rather die than speak in front of an audience of
ten people, let alone a full auditorium. Come to think of it, if it
hadn’t been for Christopher, I would most certainly have cancelled
the presentation, under the pretext of having been unwillingly
driven into this by Daugh. That, of course, would displease Daugh
and my mum but it would also make a point: I did not want to be
manipulated.

However, I had eventually decided to
go along with this and spare myself the rebuke. Christopher had
played a major role in my resolution to get this over with.

My presentation was scheduled for late in the
evening. When it was my turn to speak, I felt strangely confident
about myself. My voice remained steady during the whole time but I
was not brave enough to look at my audience. Mainly, I was looking
at the computer screen, handling carefully the wireless mouse, so
that the reflection of my work would be displayed on the board next
to me. It was all done very featly and I was glad to hear the warm
applause after I had finished.

When the session was over, I chatted along with
some of the other speakers, as mutual congratulations were in
order. There was some more typical chatting with the
representatives of the organizing committee, and that was it.

All this time, I had not been able to locate
Christopher. I went out of the auditorium to look for him. I found
him waiting for me in the lobby and I couldn’t help thinking how
wonderfully he was contrasting that boring setting.

‘Were you out here the whole time?’ I asked
him.

‘I was only interested in your presentation. I
should congratulate you. You were great! So brave and under
control! You’ve impressed me!’ he said, and I could detect genuine
admiration on his face.

‘Well, much of it I owe it to you.’ I
said.
Much more than you realize,
I thought. Christopher shook his head and put his arm around
my waist to walk me out.

He suggested a late dinner but I was not up to
it. I asked him to take me back to Corinth and he accepted my
request unquestioningly. As much as I wanted to be with him, I had
enough for one day. Under the circumstances, I could not endure the
torture of being with him without being able to touch him the way I
so often touched him in my mind. Sooner or later, I knew I had to
work out this dilemma that was driving me crazy: longing for him
desperately and being tortured by his presence at the same time.
How long would I be able to go on like this?

What I was about to discover in the next few
minutes, was that Christopher would soon unravel the situation with
his usual, breathtaking manner.

On the way back, none of us spoke much. The soft
music that was coming from his stereo kept us both at ease.

Suddenly I realized he had taken a wrong
exit from the highway.
It is very soon for
the exit to Corinth
, I thought.

‘Where are we going?’ I asked him, slightly
alarmed.

‘I just need to stop for a few minutes. Nothing
to worry about.’ His voice was soft and reassuring.

He pulled over into a parking lot and stopped
the car. The lights went out and revealed the darkness and the
emptiness of the place, making me shiver. The only light was the
dim, silver light of the moon, gazing us from among the
tree-tops.

‘You look scared.’ he teased me.

‘I’m not scared. I’m just… worried. I don’t like
dark… deserted places.’

‘You’re totally safe with me, Emma.’ he
reassured me.

He leaned to the back seat trying to get hold of
something. The next moment he was holding a blue box, which I
recognized to be a small portable freezer.

‘I almost forgot. Suzan could kill me for that.’
he said, making me really curious to see what Suzan had done this
time.

He opened the freezer to take out a small bottle
of wine that he put next to him along with two crystal glasses,
which sparkled momentarily under the moonlight.

‘I don’t believe this!’ I shook my head.

‘I know. This is so…Suzan. It’s her present to
you, for tonight. It’s better to get over with this now. I guess
you wouldn’t want any of your friends to see us doing this outside
your house!’ Totally abashed, I chuckled nervously as I held the
glasses and he poured the wine in. I noticed he had poured only a
little in one of the glasses.