Chapter Four

Lily’s In The Park, Athens

The car stopped at a tiny bistro two blocks away in the National Gardens. Six tables set out under trellises. Purple wisteria flowered overhead. Bees buzzed. There were butterflies. Stefanos already sat at a table. Newspaper in his hand. As she was seated he reached over to caress her cheek. Her girl scent was on his fingers. She smiled at the thought. “I’ve ordered,” were his first words, looking back at his paper. Self-conscious pink tinged her cheeks.

She looked around. The other five tables were full. More May-September couples. Eyes cast her way. Interested. She pondered this thought as he looked up, putting his newspaper to one side. “Fuck. My beautiful Lu. Begging your pardon. I have been rude. I am unaccustomed to having company at lunch,” his explanation. Their wine was served. A plate of meze arrived.

“Tell me about your morning,” she began. Trying to engage him.

“Nothing much to tell. I have given this lecture hundreds of times to the same bored faces. It is a required course. Very little interest on their part.” He was precise in how he spoke. Cutting the words to a minimum. Was that the way of anthropologists? Preferring to deal with ancient tangibles. How could such an interesting dynamic man have so little to say? Less talking, more fucking is usually what Lu wanted. Sitting there in the silence, in the sunlight, she now understood the downside.

He was tucking into his salad, fork upside down. Napkin under his chin. The light shown on the beautiful silvery strands in his hair. Just a man. Still, he humbled her. His phone rang, “I have to take this.” He walked away from her through the dusky dappled sunlight.

She never saw him again.

An hour later she was finishing the last of the wine. Waiting. A note arrived. “We couldn’t help but notice. Please join us.” She looked around. A couple waved from a table across the way. A third seat was being added. As she sat, the man apologized, “A crime. To abandon you.” Shaking his head with regret.

His lunch date, a girl similar to Lu’s own age, said, “Hey babe!”

The gentleman, older, pressed Lu to stay. A bottle of bubbly appeared. In the trunk of a Bentley parked nearby orchids were dying. “My niece and I live up there,” the man explained, pointing to a rise in the landscape. “Lycabettus Hill.”

Lu let out a loud guffaw. She couldn’t help herself. By this point she didn’t care.

“Ah,” the gentleman said. Understanding. “Because of that,” nodding to her former table. “I get it.”

“No. Really. We are,” the girl clarified. “I am Dimitra. And this is my Uncle Leonitus.”

“We would invite you up but I fear you might think it improper.” The niece tittered. The uncle did not. His eyes linked with Lu’s. And held.

“Powder your nose?” the niece suggested. His eyes followed their bouncing asses across the courtyard to the loo. Once inside, the niece hopped up onto the counter and lit a cigarette. Leveling with her, “Not my uncle, just to be clear.”

“I know.” Lu did. “It doesn’t matter to me. I can see the lure. He seems like a nice man.”

“You don’t know the half of it. What do you think his last name is?”

Lu couldn’t guess.

“Agathangelos. That big ship builder. Like Onassis,” Dimitra explained. “Former Prime Minister. You could do worse.” Lu’s eyebrows shot up in question. “Very deep pockets. And other big things, too.”

Lu added knowingly, “Size does seem to matter here in Greece.”

Leo could hear the niece’s laughter all the way out at their table. Wondering what on earth those two had gotten up to.

“Actually I also have an apartment off Ermou if you need a place to crash for the night. I don’t think that guy is coming back. The jerk.”

Lu was interested. “You don’t stay there?”

Dimi explained, “When Leo is in town I need to be ‘available,’ if you know what I mean. So I stay at his place.” She added, “Plus he is on some kind of kick now where we have really been enjoying the sex. Things seem extra spicy. He bought me some erotic stuff.” She pulled up her top. Pierced nipples with small diamond loops. “You ought to try some. It makes him crazy. This is the first time we have been out of the bed in two days. No lie.” Adding, “Lu you could do worse. He’s a nice lay. And very generous.”

Before heading back out they shared numbers and info.

Georgios was standing in the courtyard. Waiting. “Please excuse me, Miss Lu. We need to go.”

She waved back over her shoulder as they headed to the car. And gave the address on Ermou to Georgios. Five minutes later she was being dropped off at the beginning of the pedestrian area. She sat in the car, unable to leave. “I am not getting out until you tell me what happened. Please. What did I do wrong?”

He shot her a look back over the seat, eyes wide with surprise. “Nothing Miss Lu. He adores you.”

“Then what?” She wanted answers.

“He got a phone call, correct?” Georgios asked. She nodded. “Word was reaching him about the discovery of an ancient tomb in Pylos.” Lu sucked in air. “A once-in-a-lifetime discovery.” He paused. Then added, “If you are lucky.”

Now realizing the importance, Lu sat in shocked silence. Georgios added, “He is enroute. Going there via a government helicopter. Extraordinary ancient royal tombs. Huge cultural significance.”

“Amazing!” She didn’t know what else to say.

“This is confidential, of course. Due to looters, the discovery won’t be announced for years.”

Tomorrow Lu would be arriving in Hydra on the ferry at this very time.