MOAB

Chapter 7i

Chapter 7i

“I wanna call Nikos. Give me my phone,” Yanni demanded.

Ourania tried to distract him but he was fixated.

“This is not a discussion. Just give me my phone, gamoto!” He turned over pillows and rifled through the drawers.

“You are upset, this will mess with our schedule…” she tried to say but he grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Give me my phone. Now.”

“Okay.” She went to the kitchen and brought it out from the drawer.

He called his friend.

The female voice on the other end simply said, “Yes?”

“Hello… Sorry. I never got your name. I’m Yanni, give me Niko, please.”

“Ashley. Nikos is working right now, I’d prefer not to disturb him. Tell me what you need and I’ll pass it on when he is done.”

Yanni froze.

“You are called Ashley? That’s not very muse-y a name.”

Ashley giggled. “Indeed! That’s what Nikos calls me. I’ll make sure to tell him you…”

Yanni hung up and instinctively took a step away from Ourania.

Ashley.

He called his muse Ashley.

As in the crazy, lost-all her marbles b***h who had clung onto Nikos after a one-night stand in Mykonos.

As in the girl who followed him home, showed up on his doorstep and threatened to cut open her veins right then and there if he didn’t love her back.

There were many stories to tell with women Nikos had dumped one way or the other, but Ashley had been the cherry on top. She had sold all her belongings in Los Angeles and had come back to Athens to stay with Nikos. When he refused, she rented a place across the street and stalked him 24/7.

Nikos was in a somewhat serious on and off relationship with Maria at that time, but he had gone on that trip to Mykonos and reveled in a bit of summer-time infidelity. To his mind it was nothing bad because Maria knew deep down the kind of bastard he was, and he never claimed to be anything but.

Then Maria announced the pregnancy. Yanni could remember the expression on his friend’s face perfectly. The regret. The determination to do good, to change. The tears.

Then Ashley stabbed the pregnant Maria around the block next to his house.

It had been a mess of international proportions. Ashley had spun a tale at the American embassy claiming to be a victim, that she was the one Nikos was abandoning for the other woman, that he had been beating her for months and that he had forced her to sell her property and give the money to him.

They mobilized every person even remotely related to Nikos to testify for him and thankfully they managed to find a doctor in LA that proved Ashley was certified crazy.

She got deported. Maria survived. The baby didn’t. They never spoke again.

Nikos would not use the name lightly.

That name alone could send him on a depressed week-long alcohol marathon.

It was meant as a warning message to Yanni. Alarm bells rang in his mind and he looked around the house as if emerging from a haze.

It looked emptier.

“Everything okay?” asked Ourania with a smile.