“Do you have anything to say about that, Mairi?”
I shrugged, keeping my sunglasses on because it was easier to lie that way. “I got into a fight with another girl in school. A really violent fight. So they expelled me.”
“That’s it?” Aunt Norah sounded doubtful.
“Yup.” I slowly resumed eating, just to convince them I was totally okay with what happened.
“Just tell it to me straight,” Aunt Vilma pleaded. “It’s not because you’re pregnant, is it?”
I spit out another spoonful again.
Aunt Norah added uneasily, “Or on drugs?”
My spoon dropped to my plate. “Aunt Norah! Aunt Vilma!” Were they seriously asking me those questions?
“Well, you can’t blame us! We didn’t raise you to be a hooligan,” Aunt Norah answered defensively.
Silence.
And then Aunt Vilma coughed, and when she did I had to cough, too.
Aunt Norah’s gaze narrowed.
I’m not going to laugh. This is not the time for laughter. Oh my God, Aunt Vilma is so unfair! Why are her shoulders shaking?
Aunt Norah burst out, “Oh, for God’s sake! My old-fashioned English is not the main point here.”
Aunt Vilma lost it and I started to giggle. “Hooligan, Aunt Vi. Did you hear her say it?”
Aunt Vilma chortled, “I so did!”
It was a reprieve, a temporary one, and we all knew and allowed it. Maybe later tonight, when it was time for us to settle down with our own copies of our group bedtime story, we would talk about it again.
But for now, we were going to enjoy some harmless, adorable bit of normalcy.
Aunt Vilma and Aunt Norah were still trading insults and I stayed in my seat, enjoying my dinner as I listened to them one-up each other with the wittiest barbs. How, I wondered sadly, could those narrow-minded idiots ever think that these two wonderful women were whores and gold diggers?
They had made me believe in true love in the form of Greek billionaires.
Was that so wrong?
“Are you okay, Mairi?”
I started, realizing that both my aunts had ill-concealed looks of worry in their gazes. The sight of it made my stomach queasy because I didn’t like seeing them like that. I wanted them to be happy – to stay happy because that was what they had succeeded in making me feel all these years, even if I had lost my parents too early.
Forcing a smile, I lied, “I was just wondering what book we’d be reading tonight.”
“Lynne Graham’s new one of course,” Aunt Vilma replied promptly.
“Oh, please. Not another one. Can we please switch to Sharon Kendrick for tonight?”
“Betty Neels would be good,” I piped in, just for the fun of it. I personally loved the author’s books, but my aunts found her work too “sweet”.
“There isn’t even a Greek billionaire in any of her books,” Aunt Vilma countered with a sniff. “She only writes about doctors and she’s not even part of Harlequin’s Medical Romance.”
“Plus, those men are too nice for my liking,” Aunt Norah grumbled. “They never act like jerks!”
Closing my eyes with a genuine smile this time, I let my mind drift once more while listening with half an ear to my aunts passionately enumerating the many reasons why they just weren’t the kind of women to fall in love with handsome, wealthy, and intelligent Dutch surgeons.
One day, I thought hazily. One day I was going to prove everyone wrong about my aunts. One day, I’d show the whole world that it was perfectly fine to dream about falling in love with a Greek billionaire because it could and would come true if you wanted it badly enough.
And I wanted it. Badly.
Lesson 1
To catch a Greek billionaire, you must first find a way to get in his line of sight.
She said: Find a way to stand beside him (model, actress, lottery winner)…or behind him (nanny, secretary, or just bump into him).
He said: You are making it too complicated, matakia mou. It is this simple - do you want to be on top or under me?
8 Years Later
Mairi’s heart started beating like crazy as the ornate gates of the Grecian Academy for Young Ladies finally opened. This was what she had been waiting for all her life – her very first possible encounter with Greek billionaires.
She opened her mouth to talk about how excited she was about today, felt her friends’ knowing gazes on her, and instead decided to shut up. She was not going to take the bait. She was a mature twenty-something woman with good self-control. She would totally show them she could act like an adult if she wanted to.
Mandy and Velvet crowded around her. They were her closest friends, the only ones whom Mairi knew right from the start that she could trust with her secret. Of course, being trustworthy did not mean they were above teasing her about it. They were not.
“Come on,” Mandy teased. She was a slim dark-haired woman with a practical streak that bordered on obsessive, a trait that served her well when teaching Economics. But as a friend to a dreamer like Mairi? Not fun were the first words that came to mind.
“Look at all those sports cars and limousines driving our way,” Velvet whispered enticingly. Tall and auburn-haired, she looked more like an exotic model than the Chemistry teacher with the rather acerbic wit that she was. “One of them could be the man you’ve been dreaming of meeting all your life. Isn’t this something worth celebrating?”
Don’t take the bait, don’t take---
“Come on, Mair. You know you want to say it. What if the first man who steps out of the car is tall, dark, and handsome with the most spectacular Greek accent---”
Her eyes glazed over as Mairi started to fantasize about how her first encounter with her future Greek billionaire husband would play out. A happy-crazy grin flitted over her lips as she exclaimed excitedly without thinking, “Yay me!”
Mandy and Velvet burst into laughter.
Oh, drat. She had taken the bait. Again!
Clutching her sides, Mandy gasped, “You are way too cute!”
Velvet waved imaginary pom-poms in the air. “Yay for Mairi finally getting to meet her first Greek billionaire!”
“Ha-ha. I know you guys are just making fun of me,” Mairi grumbled even though she couldn’t help sighing dreamily. She was that happy. And excited. And nervous. Today was the day she had been waiting for most of her life. The thought of meeting him was more than enough to have her silently gasping for breath.
Mandy snapped her fingers in front of Mairi’s face. “Your head’s in the clouds again!”