Surrender: The Greek Affair Series Book One (24 page)

“
Papoú, nόna, páme mésa
.” (Grandad, grandmother let’s go inside.) Jason carries his bag inside and goes straight into the only spare room in the humble house where he leaves his bag. Yes the house itself is humble, but the yard in front with hanging trellises of grape vines is pure architecture, with the green hills surrounding the home and the cultivated fields, it is part of Jason’s paradise. His grandmother is in the kitchen and he goes to see what was cooking. He stands over the pans and lifts up the lids and smells each one by dipping his head in and coming up again and sighing. “Mmmm, artichokes with broad beans (always in Greek)

Nόna
looks at him with a smile. “with avgolémono (egg lemon sauce) your favourite. Go sit with
papoú
.

And Jason goes and sits outside with his grandfather, under the trellis. The grape bunches are covered with plastic to keep the birds away. There is a homely Formica table with chairs around it and in the summer this is where they always sit.
Nόna
brings out a plate of home made olives from their trees, cheese made from their sheep, very red and firm tomatoes, cut into triangles and fresh cucumber slices, both grown on their land. It is accompanied by fresh bread made in the stone oven outside the house and a small carafe of home made wine made by
papoú
from their own grapes, as well as the mandatory cold water.

Nόna
goes back into the house to continue cooking and Jason pours the wine into the small glasses. They clink glasses.
“Kalosόrises pedí mou.”
(Welcome my child.) They take their first swig and fall comfortably into conversation.
Papoú
wants to know about Jason’s future and his stay in the army. He wants to know where Jason intends to live, what job he is hoping to get and most of all, what he is hoping to achieve from his career, once he establishes one. Jason replies to as many of the questions that he can, as he is still searching, regarding where he is going to live.

Time has flown with the conversation. It is about 2pm when
nόna
eventually comes out with the meal in a big bowl, accompanied with more fresh bread and a chicken pita (chicken pie). She puts the plates in front of everyone, sits down and begins to serve her grandson. Jason grabs her arm, as she is trying to spoon out the food from the bowl and tells her with a stern loving voice, that he is not a child anymore, and that she should sit down, and she does.

Jason stands up and serves
nόna and papoú
, before he serves himself. He also pours a glass of wine for his
nόna
, with water, as that was the way she likes to drink it. His heart is bursting with love and contentment, and he knows that he wants to give this to Hope. He never stops thinking of Hope. He is trying to imagine his life without her, and it is not a situation he wants to even think about. He needs her and he knows she needs him.

It was at this moment his grandmother chooses to ask him about his love life. It is every grandparent’s dream to see their grandchildren settled and happy. For a minute he toys with the idea of not mentioning Hope, but he knows he has to tell them at some stage, and this is as a good time as any, when both his grandparents are together, when they are all relaxed and a family once again.

He begins to tell them of the woman he loves. He unravels the story of the woman he saw alone on The Island and how this woman has become a part of him. He then tells his grandparents that she is older than him and he expects to hear disapproval, but it does not come. There is a silence at the table, but it was not an uncomfortable silence. Rather, it is one of introspective thinking from both grandparents. And he waits to hear what they have to say.

Nόna looks up at him. “Tin agapás?” (Do you love her) Jason looks into her eyes.

“A lot,. I don’t think I can live without her.” Always in Greek.

He explains that the obstacle is Hope herself: her problem with their age difference; her notion of what he should have; the issue of children, as she did not want to have anymore; and that he could not make her understand that these things were not high on his agenda, where their love was concerned.

His
nόna
tut tutts, and says that she understands that Hope has every right to feel insecure, and it was up to Jason to dispel these insecurities of hers. But both grandparents warn him of the pitfalls that might arise from a relationship like this. Hope has already started her adult life, whereas he was just at the beginning of his, and they warn Jason that it would be up to him to make most of the sacrifices.

They then ask him about having children, and his reply to that is very precise.

“Do I marry a woman I don’t love, just to have children?” He looks from one to the other, waiting for a reaction. He knows that they had married for love, much against everyone’s wishes (back in the day one did not marry out of their class.
Nόna
was from a landowner family, whilst
Papou
was a working class boy.)

Jason knows that they had run away together, got married, had a child and only after that event did her family accept the marriage, but they never accepted
papo
ú completely. They have lived in poverty for many years, until
nόna’s
parents repented and gave them some land, and they were able to live out their lives with love. But they never wavered, they often talk about the days when it was not sure where the next meal was coming from, because you either had to have money to buy it, or you had to have land to cultivate it.

Jason knows that he is lucky to have been brought up by these two people. He understands the love they have for each other and he wants the same. He is determined that he will not allow Hope to ruin what they have.

***

A week has already flown by. In this week, Hope has toyed with the idea of telling her son about Jason, but she decides against it at this stage. She thinks it best to work it out with Jason first. To know where they are headed, before she opens up to the family (as her son is her only family) and she values this more than anything else in her life.

She has lived alone for a while now, and she has gotten used to silence. Then Jason storms into her life like a tornado, and the tornado is still blowing! She knows she is in the vortex of this storm, and is not sure how to get out.

In the beginning she was sure she would get out, but now she is feeling more trapped every day. She does not like this silence she is experiencing. She wants to hear Jason’s voice again, to hear him sing when he is showering, and sometimes sing in her ear. She wants to listen to music with him, and not on her own again. She needs to curl up in his warm and strong body, and feel protected. But she also knows that he is in his home town with his family, and she is aware he could come back and tell her that his family would not accept the relationship, and he would then leave her.

And suddenly it hits her. She does not want to leave him. Nor does she want to be left!

She knows now that if he still wants her, she will allow them to be together. That is, if he still wants her… and now she is nervous. The shoe is on the other foot. She now has to patiently wait for his return.

Chapter Twenty

The phone rings and Hope jumps. She jumps for several reasons. Was this him? If it is, does he still want to be with her? And she also jumps because now she has no idea what she is about to do with her new state of mind about her relationship with Jason. She knows what her heart is saying, but that logic still keeps getting in the way.

“Hello”

“Can I see you?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be over soon.” He says in his smooth, liqueur voice with the posh English accent where the Greek sound seeps through so slightly. He is always economical with his words over the phone.

Hope hangs up and decides to change what she is wearing, as if he has not seen her at her worst. As if she is meeting him for a date. It’s the end of August and it’s still hot, the downstairs security buzzer buzzes within the hour after their phone conversation, and she looks at the screen, and opens the door for him.

She opens her front door and waits. She waits to see him before he knocks on her apartment door. She sees him get out of the lift and her heart reacts, like a traffic pile-up accident.

“Goddess help me,” he is beyond perfect, and she knows how much she has missed him.

He is wearing cotton grey slacks and a white T-shirt. His very short hair is starting to grow, bringing out the warm, dark blond hair colour. Not seeing him for a whole week makes all of his features more accentuated as she sees him now, with his eyes greener, his lips more sensual and he even seems taller, but she knew all was the same.

They look at each other and all she can get out is,

“Hi.”

He says “hi” in return and as he approaches, he gives her a friendly, light kiss on the lips.

Hope steps aside.

“Welcome.” And he steps in not looking at her, but only observing the surroundings.

“It is just as I imagined, lots of white and lots of art.” He looks at her and smiles and she smiles back. They are both a little nervous, Jason can sense her nervousness and he is very careful with what he says next. She becomes aware that he does not come too near her, but then again she thinks she could be letting her imagination run away with her at this moment. She has missed him so much, and she wants him to touch her, embrace her, kiss her, and he does none of these things, but rather, moves in the apartment in his quite stealthy gait, as she walks behind him. He finds the lounge room and stands at the window looking at the view of the Acropolis.

Hope has a comfortable apartment in the centre of Athens, with one of the most sought-after views. He turns and sits on the couch. She’s standing nearby with her arms folded, as if defending herself and she guesses she is doing just that from her disorganized emotions. He looks up at her and pats the space next to him for her to sit.

She sits and he puts his arm around her, while still looking around. She tries to understand why he wants to look so hard at the space she lives in. It is simply furnished with a soft couch and white covers. The floors are floorboards without carpets, as all Greek homes are, carpets only come out when the weather gets cooler. She has art work, most are her own works, a few acquired. The only thing she brought away from her marriage was her son and some art. After a while, he turns to her.

“How are you?”

She looks at his face.

“I’m ok, although very tired most of the time. Anyway, I have an appointment with my doctor after my next period.” She looks up at him and continues, “I’m glad to be back home. I need to go to see some music and theatre again. There is so much I can take of sitting on the beach.”

He runs his hand over the side of her face while looking into her eyes. “You look better, more rested, I think.” She waits for him to kiss her, but he does not and she gets that jittery feeling of not knowing where they are after his visit with his family.

Hope moves towards him placing her lips firmly on his. He pulls back and for a moment, Hope panics as she thinks her lips are not welcome. He looks deeply into her eyes, wraps his arms around her, hugs her tightly, and holds her there for a few minutes without saying anything. Then, he moves his mouth to her ear, nibbling the shell and he whispers softly,

“You smell exquisite. I have missed that smell so much.” Moving to her mouth, searching for her tongue, she gives it to him without hesitation.

“I missed you too.” It comes out of her mouth, and he is taken by surprise, stops his kissing and pulls back looking at her.

“Did you?”

She looks at him touching the frown between his eyes,

“You don’t believe me? Is that because I don’t tell you how important you are to me?”

“Am I important to you?”

“Just hug me and let’s not get too tangled in our problems today. Just know that I did miss you and you mean a lot to me, more than I would like. Hold me, please. I need your arms around me.” And he holds her.

Wrapped around each other with closed eyes, they lie there on the couch, entangled in each other, and savoring each other’s smell and feel. They are not being sexual, they are being loving, discovering one another’s soul, after the days apart. They missed each other’s love more than they missed the sex. The relationship has moved on to a more spiritual, upper echelon.

They have lost track of time. They are not sure how long they are like this, but they just know that it feels good, both of them becoming aware that this is where they belong; it feels like home. Hope moves, reaching out for the remote, and turns on the music with Miles Davis and the haunting “Siesta” digging more into their already fractured feelings. And they stay there until Miles blows his last note.

“Have you come to any conclusion about us yet?” He has to ask, but he gets no reply.

They stay in each other’s embrace and have no eye contact. They are in a place of great intimacy, which is about emotions, without the sex. This is mind cleansing and not to be encumbered with the lust that their relationship has been marked with.