Seven Days of Friday (Women of Greece Book 1) (34 page)

T
he kid is alone
in the front yard, busy with a broom. Greek boys know if their mama says, “Sweep,” they better sweep.

“Hey, Thanasi.”

The sweeping stops. First reaction is fear. Kid doesn’t look so tough now, so adult, so cocksure. His inner child knows he fucked up big. He slaps on a smirk, but it’s wrapping paper; Vivi already caught a glimpse of what’s in the box.

“One day you might have a daughter,” she says. “Then you’ll know.”

S
o much change
in
the family.

Vivi was talk of the town for five whole minutes when Max moved in. Not to be outdone, Effie kicked her husband out, moved her girlfriend in, and lost fifty pounds. Max gave Vivi an engagement ring and Effie shaved her head.

When Vivi’s business grew wings, and began exporting olive products to gourmet markets in the United States, Effie was filming the first season of
Greece's Top Hoplite
. Thank you, Nitsa Lambeti.

Effie won.

They invited her back as a judge for Season Two. Greek viewers love to hate her. German viewers love to love her.

M
elissa offers
her wrists
to the sun, lets it see what’s left of the pale bracelets she carved there so many months ago.

“It’s funny, I can hardly see them, now.”

“The scars?”

Melissa nods. “I thought they’d always be there. Like an expensive souvenir from my first summer in Greece. It’s only been a year and a bit. Next September they’ll be all the way gone, Max told me.”

Dr Triantafillou says, “You almost sound sad. Will you miss them?”

“Not enough to make new ones.” Her smile comes easy. The girl doesn’t have to work at it, now. Things have changed, the way things inevitably do. “Olivia left – did I tell you?”

“No. What happened?”

“Her parents pulled her out of school last week and they went back to Canada. There’s a rumor going around that she’s pregnant.”

“What do you think?”

“I think people here talk a lot. And sometimes that’s good, and sometimes it’s really not.”

Melissa feels sad and glad Olivia is gone. It’s very Dr Seuss.

“That’s a healthy position to take,” the shrink says, smiling, smiling. Dr Triantafillou has changed, too. Same smile, same a-m-a-z-i-n-g style, but it’s all maternity clothes, now. She waddles to the door, sees Melissa out, and they hug the way they always do.

The T-shirt, the poster, the bumper sticker, the mug, they’ve all got it wrong, Melissa thinks. It’s not shit that happens, it’s change. And sometimes the change is shit and sometimes it’s flowers.

Like the flowers Vassili left for her.

Like the flowers Vassili brings her still.

A
man will do
anything
for a wife he adores. Remember that and do not judge him. Do not judge him when you see Vivi, see Nitsa, and notice the way both women stand, the way both women walk. Do not judge him when you see a picture of his own grandmother and see Nitsa all over her face.

Peace is expensive, eh? Peace is expensive, but it is good. Remember that.

T
he End

W
ait
! You don’t have to leave Greece yet. Stay in Agria with
One and Only Sunday
, where
a fake—and very convenient—coma, an arranged marriage, and a disappearing finger trick kick off the second book in the Women of Greece series.

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A
lex A. King
is an American author (by way of several countries, including Greece), who divides her time between writing, thinking about writing, and reading Seuss's HOP ON POP for the millionth time. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.

S
even Days
of Friday is Alex's first independent novel.

W
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