movement caused her additional pain. It hadn’t been a dream. He’d been here, in her house while she’d been too inebriated to filter her thoughts and words. What had she said? Had she embarrassed herself beyond redemption? She couldn’t remember and the effort to remember was causing more pain to slash through her head.
“Yep. Are you out of bed yet?” he asked cheerfully.
Helen opened one eye, not sure how to answer him. Was she in bed? She didn’t remember walking to bed last night. But then she didn’t remember much of anything except answering the door and letting him in. Everything after that was a blank. “Um…yes,” she lied.
Dimitri wasn’t fooled and chuckled at her attempted fabrication. “No you’re not. Hop up Helen. Take some aspirin, drink lots of water and meet me at the office when you feel better. We have a lot to discuss today.”
“Discuss?” she squeeked. “What do we need to talk about?” She wished her mind would focus so she could remember what she’d said last night.
“Greece, for one.”
“Greece?” she parroted. “What’s in Greece?”
Dimitri laughed again. “Many things. Including you by this time next week. Get dressed and meet me at the office.”
“Um…okay,” she said softly, very confused.
Hanging up the phone, she was finally able to pull herself to a sitting position without wanting to chop off her head. But that was as far as she got. The towel fell down and she gasped as she pulled the towel and blanket back up to cover her chest. She was naked? Why in the world hadn’t she put on her nightgown? She had a vague idea that Dimitri had put her to bed, but that wasn’t impossible. Was it?
Only one way to find out, she said to herself. She got up and stumbled to the bathroom, downed two aspirin with a large glass of water and then stepped into a hot shower. A half hour later, she was feeling somewhat better now that she was showered and dressed. The entire trip to the office, she worried about what Dimitri wanted to discuss with her. Why would she be in Greece? She lived in London. The idea of living in Greece was only a fantasy. She’d always wanted to visit the country where the sun shined down on the beautiful coastal towns, escaping the dreary, wet winters of London.
Finally entering the office that morning, only fifteen minutes late, she was still feeling the effects of the night before. And for some reason, when she first saw Dimitri, her face turned bright red. “Good morning, Mr. Theopolis,” she said primly, quickly looking away and down at her desk.
“Nope. Can’t call me that anymore,” Dimitri said, leaning over her desk with his hands flat on her desk. His eyes were green lights of fire as he watched her face turn an even more becoming shade of red. “You called me Dimitri last night. So it’s just going to have to continue.”
Helen pulled some papers out of a file folder and shuffled them needlessly, nervously. “Well…about last night Mr….I mean Dimitri. What did I say?”
She happened to glance up at his face at the right moment and caught the amusement that lit his eyes. “You don’t remember?” he asked.
Helen swallowed, worried now. There was something very wrong here. “Not really,” she said.
The smile moved from his eyes to his mouth as his lips curled up at the edges. “That’s interesting.”
He moved off into his office, leaving Helen to wonder what he was thinking, what he was remembering about the previous night.
She followed him, too worried about the possible comments she might have revealed to stay away. Standing in his doorway, she asked, “Aren’t you going to tell me?”
He smiled at her worried expression but wouldn’t relent. “Yes. But not today. Bring your notebook in and let’s talk,” he said and disappeared behind the mahogany doors of his office.
Helen went back to her desk, picked up her pen and notebook, then followed in his wake. Her eyes were worried but she tried to appear confident and unconcerned. Taking the seat as she normally would, she sat down and waited expectantly for him to begin.
“How is your mother doing?” he started off.
This definitely wasn’t the conversation she’d been expecting. Usually, when he called her into his office he started shooting off instructions at rapid speed, and Helen hurried to keep up with him. His question threw her momentarily. “Great,” Helen replied immediately, wanting to reassure him. “The apartment you found was wonderful. She