Mr. Blue Eyes: Wild Night Dreaming 1 Page 2

  She now stood with Thera beside the car, and her friend was looking up at the house with wonder.

  Chapter Four

  “Exactly as I remember it!” she said, like she was at the same time sinking herself into happy memories.

  “Well, we kind of like it the way it is so we decided not to tear it down to build another,” Carla teased.

  The house was standing on the top of a small hill, with the side facing the ocean descending on a beach. The house was big, built with colorful stone and red roof tiles, with wide-windowed rooms at different levels all the way down the hill. On the front facing the roads, the grounds and the upper floor were visible with the garage and the long circular driveway. The ground in front of the house is covered by green grass, with a big umbrella in a corner, by the edge of the flower garden. Under the umbrella were a table with glass cover and bamboo legs, and its four matching chairs.

  The estate was surrounded by a wall about two meters high, interrupted by the iron gates for vehicles and another smaller one on the side for pedestrians.

  Carla sensed Jake stopping very near her, and she immediately tensed. Never had she imagined, even in her wildest dreams of him, that she would witness him here, in her house, ever.

  “You have a wonderful home, Carla,” he said with sincere voice.

  “Thank you, Jake,” she replied. “This house was my father’s baby.”

  “I’m very sorry for your parents. Thera told me they died in an accident?”

  Her eyes suddenly got teary and for a moment, she couldn’t help but look up at him wildly as she stepped near Thera. She certainly did not want him to be there right then! “Yes, t-two years ago.”

  He touched her arm tenderly, almost involuntarily, and she froze. For a second, she drowned in the look on his eyes. For a second, time stopped and nothing seemed to move. They were alone in the world, even as she heard Thera saying something on the other side of her.

  It was another voice that woke her up from her preoccupation.

  “You’re here at last, little lady! We were worried!”

  The deep voice talking in Greek made all three of them jump. She snapped out of her dream state with a frown, and studiously avoided looking at Jake now that others were with them and would surely noticed something.

  The old man approached, looking a bit grim as he held Thera’s shoulders to look her over. Then he smiled and bent down to kiss the hair of her laughing friend.

  Carla couldn’t help but smile. “The flight was delayed, Mr. Gerou,” she said in Greek. Mr. Gerou was on his sixties, still well-built and strong. If it wasn’t for the white hair and moustache, he would have appeared much younger.

  Then another, female, person rushed from the house and immediately engulfed Thera in a tight embrace.

  “Oh, Thera! Thera!” the old woman was exclaiming, then greeted the young woman profusely in Greek.

  “Mr. Gerou is my caretaker-gardener and personal bodyguard,” she explained to Jake in English while they waited for the greetings to die down. “He is married to Mrs. Georgia, who takes care of the house and cooks. The house is big I have other people coming by to help them during the week, but these two live with me in a separate apartment at the back of the house, in a lower level. You’ll see when I give you a tour. They’ve been working for my family for thirty years and they are already on pension. But they still wanted to live here with me.”

  “That is understandable. They wouldn’t want to leave you alone. Unless… you’re married or living with someone?”

  She blinked at his perceptiveness. Not of her status but of why the old couple would not leave her. “I’m sure Thera has already mentioned I’m not married.”

  “Living with someone then.”

  This time, she looked at him. How dare he make assumptions? “I keep my wayward ways out of my personal life here,” she said. “I do not want the old couple scandalized. They are like parents to me. I don’t want them disillusioned, okay?”

  There. That should put him to his place.

  “They don’t speak English at all,” she said when she was facing the other three again. “So if you need something, I or Thera can translate. You can try signing, sometimes that works. But if Thera or I are around, better to let us translate for you, to avoid misunderstandings.”

  She heard that low, sensual laughter. She just managed to avoid a shiver. “I’m good with signs. Maybe we can turn it to a game. Much enjoyable,” he said before stepping forward and initiating himself into the group with hand signs. Which, indeed, made the introductions much more interesting. And yes, enjoyable, she hated to admit as the others laughed at Jake’s antics with his hands.

  After that, they entered the house, helping each other with the luggage.

  * * *

  IT was 6 PM and Carla laid on the comfortable couch in balcony of the ground floor’s sitting room, watching the beach and the sea below. This was her favorite part in the house, and she would be found here when she wanted to relax. Her father had chosen a perfect place to build this house.

  Her father was an architect, and she was right when she told Jake that this house was his baby. He had built it as he had dreamt it. It was his idea that the ground floor rooms should not be separated by walls and doors, but rather be built on different levels connected with steps. A lot of steps, from the main hall to the living room with comfortable couches, the fire place on the left wall, the huge plasma TV right beside it, and the right wall made of glass showing the back side of the house and the sea. There was a glass door there, too, that led out to the balcony much like this one where she was at.

  On the same level with the living room but at the left side of the building was the library that accommodated floor-to-ceiling shelves full of books. Books literally covered the walls, the big wooden desk with Carla’s computer, and the twin elegant black leather sofas with a small coffee table between them.

  At the immediate upper level from the living room was the kitchen, with wooden cupboards and the fitted appliances on patina. Left from the kitchen, separated with a huge fish tank, was the dining room. There was a long dining table there that could easily sit a dozen people, even when there were only three of them in the family. They always had guests when her parents were still alive. Thera and her parents were often here – if she and her parents weren’t at theirs.

  The dining room of the house was one of the parts of it that carried many happy memories, she thought with a smile.

  Chapter Five

  Carla stopped with the memories at that. It was still painful sometimes, to remember her parents when they were most alive – with their loved ones and their friends. The people who had adopted her were very opposite her shy personality, but had managed to at least impart in her some of their vivaciousness and their love of friendship as she grew up. She didn’t have as many friends as they, but they were all genuine, with Thera as the longest. Distance and the ocean weren’t able to keep them apart.

  She took a sip of coffee and returned her eyes to the soothing sight. She had needed to relax since Thera came back with her scoundrel of a boyfriend. She was alone. Mrs. Georgia and her husband have already retired at their apartment like they did every day while Thera and Jake were relaxing in their rooms. They, of course, had to have separate rooms, as they were here on Greece, in respect to the elderly in the house. She didn’t know the arrangements when they visit other places, but as she led them to their rooms which were in the same level of the house, at least, there was no question about this.

  She enjoyed the silence.

  But a couple of minutes later, Thera came down the stairs and sat with her on the couch, holding a cup of coffee.

  “It’s so good to be here again!” she smiled, looking relaxed and well-rested.

  “I’m glad you’re here, girlfriend,” she said, smiling. “Where’s Jake?”

  “Probably still resting. I didn’t knock at his door. I want us to have a chance to chat, just the two of us.” Thera sai
d conspiringly. “By the way, thanks for the separate bedrooms. You know we haven’t been intimate yet so it would be a little uncomfortable to suddenly share the same bed.”

  She was surprised at this. “You’ve been travelling together for two weeks… and still nothing?”

  “Well… we’ve kissed and… did other things, of course… a few times… but nothing very intense.” Thera’s face was very flushed, so flushed she wanted to get a fan for her. “It was both our idea, actually. I don’t really want to rush things and he said he respected that. He said he also wants to take it slow and steady with a nice girl like me. He said he is tired of flings, you know.”

  Carla looked at her as if a second head has suddenly popped up from her neck. “Jake has said that? The one who sleeps upstairs? The tall guy with the blue eyes?”

  Her reaction amused Thera. “Yes silly. That one. He’s already thirty-five and it’s about time that he finds something more substantial in his relationships. He wants to start getting serious. Why do you find it so weird? Besides, now that we are here there’s nothing that’s stopping us from abolishing the second bedroom at any given time.”

  “No, of course… and it’s none of my business.” Carla was trying hard to abolish a bunch of not-so-serious images in her head wherein Mr. Blue eyes was the main player.

  “So, what do you think of him?” Thera asked in a curious tone.

  She has already decided not to reveal anything to Thera until she had cornered Mr. Blue Eyes and talked to him about what game he was playing here. On the other hand, she had thought about the situation and she eventually believed he did not mean for this to happen.

  They both had not disclosed their real names, she guessed, after being introduced to him in the airport. This meant that even if her friend had mentioned her name to him, he would not know it was actually her – unless Thera had shown a picture to him of her. She was going to confirm if this was true before she would decide on what to think.

  Although… even if she had done that, she honestly was not quite sure how she would handle such a discussion with him.

  “He seems very nice,” she answered on the side of caution.

  And Thera looked at her as if she was the one who had two heads on her shoulders. “Excuse me, are you blind? He is a hunk, charming, rich, tender, kind, and hot – and you call him very nice?”

  She was laughing before she finished. “Alright… alright. He could be all of those things… to you. But I am being careful. You are his girlfriend. And you know I don’t really pay that much attention to guys. I mean, when I look at them, I am not immediately seeing them in that context. That’s inviting trouble.”

  “You mean, you haven’t seriously fallen in love since I left?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You know I did. A couple of times.”

  “That’s not falling in love. Both relationships only lasted a week!”

  “It is falling in love,” she insisted, “as opposed to… that real, honest-to-goodness love.” She shrugged her shoulders. “And yes, it fizzled after a week,” she said regretfully.

  “Hmmm… I would imagine that it fizzled for you. Men always want to be near you. You, on the other hand, have always rather wanted being alone and lonesome. Did they fight to get you back?” When she didn’t answer, she threw her a smug smile. “I knew it.”

  Chapter Six

  “But I don’t want to do that again,” she said after a while, and guiltily. “I hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone. It took a while before they can speak to me civilly when I encountered them in town. And of course, after breaking the hearts of two men, I suddenly got the reputation of a play girl. So I started to take care.”

  Thera was looking at her with sympathy. “Both of these relationships happened after your parents’ death, right?”

  “Umm, yeah.” She looked at her with teasing in her eyes. “You are over-analyzing me. Maybe I used them to forget. But I’m glad that phase is finished.” She looked out at the sea. “It is still painful, and I miss them terribly. But I don’t wake up crying in bed now. And I know, wherever they are right now? They are very happy.”

  Thera reached out for her hand. “Hey, of course they are,” she said.

  “I just wish I was able to tell them how grateful I am for everything that they had given me,” she said, a single tear rolling down her left cheek. “That way, it wouldn’t have been so hard.”

  Thera slid herself towards her, and her bestfriend of all gave her a big hug. “Don’t worry, I’m sure they already know. And one day, you will not need a man to forget the pain. And one day, you will really fall in love. I mean real love here.”

  “Pffff…” Carla laughed playfully as she pushed from her and wiped at her cheek with one hand. “Love is for nice girls like yourself and serious boys like your Jake.” She almost choked on the word. “I’m on the other side of the river. And no matter how attractive your boyfriend is, he is not my cookie. Sorry.”

  She caught movement on the glass, a reflection telling her that someone was standing at their backs. She turned her head, looking up to the kitchen.

  And of course, Jake was standing on top of the steps and was staring at her with a mocking grin on his face, which he hid when Thera turned also.

  But it had done its job. Her heart was pounding like a harassed drum. He looked fresh and hot in another t-shirt and blue shorts, and all she suddenly wanted to do was… oh, how was she going to hide her secret from Thera if she was always thinking of him like this?

  How long is he up there and what has he heard, she wondered as they watched him descend. He might not speak Greek, but she suspected that he understood much of what he heard. He might play dumb, but she knew he really was not.

  She averted her gaze when Thera raised her chin because she knew he was going to kiss her. And he did, and she was grateful because he did it longer than necessary. She wondered if he had been listening from the very start and heard her inquire about their sex life. But of course he didn’t, she thought. She might have noticed him sooner if he had.

  To her dismay, Thera suddenly stood up. “Sit here,” she said, leading Jake down to where she was sitting a moment ago, on the other half of the couch where Carla sat – and just a reach away. “You chat for a while and I’ll get both of you coffee. I will not be long.”

  “How about juice, honey?” Jake asked easily and in a loving tone that would make any woman fetch him anything he asked. “It’s very… hot.”

  She almost kicked him at the suggestive tone. Instead, she looked at Thera. “I can do the fetch—I mean, the juice,” she said.

  “Oh no, no. Sit. I’ve been in the kitchen and I know everything still sits where they were ten years ago. No problem.” And off she went, humming.

  There was a moment of silence before she spoke. “It’s seems you’re making her very happy.”

  “Thera is always happy. She lets nothing deter her from her positivity, and it’s really refreshing.”

  “I find it quite a surprise. You haven’t found a conquest like her?”

  “I, generally, used to avoid women like her. I’m afraid that I find it hard to break the heart of a cheerful person. I don’t want someone like Thera to find a reason not to speak to me when I meet them in town. That’s disheartening.”

  She blushed. “Eavesdropper!” she accused.

  “I did not mean to,” he said with a laugh on his voice. “Though I can imagine that any man will be upset with just a week or two in your company. I would have wanted more.”

  This time, she was blushing so furiously that she knew not even her olive skin could hide it. “Will you stop? Thera might hear you!”

  He laughed, low in his throat, that sensual sound. And then they were quiet for a moment.

  “I honestly never thought it’s you,” he said.

  “I had guessed that.”

  “You did? Oh well, I’ll confess though that if I had realized this before now, I would have been more excited to come here.”

>   She blinked at this and turned to him. “Why?”

  He was looking out at the sea before he turned to her. “I went back to Mykonos to find you again. But the caretaker of the house said you do not really live there. That you only rented that house where we’ve… spent our nights and days together. And that you’d left and hadn’t come back ever since I left. I should have known, you know, given the situation of my… visit.”

  Her breath caught at her throat. And again, she was caught, drowning on those blue eyes, before the door-bell distracted her enough to swim back to the surface.

  “Excuse me,” she said, and ran to the video-intercom stationed by the main door so she could see from the cameras at the iron-gate whoever it was that was leaning on the doorbell.

  And she groaned when she recognized who it was.

  “Oh boy… let the music begin,” she whispered to herself as she frantically tried to think of a way to avoid the incoming disaster.

  Chapter Seven

  Gia came running.

  Gia was one of her childhood friends and part of the group that also used to hold Thera. She was a very good friend to Thera, too.

  As soon as she was within hearing distance, Gia began peppering her with questions. “Where is she? Inside? And her guy? Is he handsome? Or just cute?”

  She tried to grab Gia before she could rush inside, and she quickly whispered because she could already hear Thera walking down the steps.

  “Whatever you see, not a word – or I will slaughter you!”

  Gia’s eyes widened. But before she could explain, Thera was there and the two women were screaming and hugging and kissing and doing all the noisy things women friends do when they had not seen each other for ten years.

  Thera and Gia were both tiny, but their resemblance stopped there. Gia, who was 24 years old, was quite chubby and Thera literally disappeared in her embrace. Her long red hair bounced as she jumped over and over like a cute ball.