Chapter 9
Nikos’ day had beenas stressful as it had been long. He woke up intent on writing his final report on the hotel, running numbers, checking the finances, and inspecting the hotel from top to bottom. However, his inspection had made him less and less enthusiastic about the idea of selling.
But he had to sell, right? Yeah, he had to. Everything was already on track, and there was no reason to stop now.
Still, that did not improve his mood one bit, making a long day even longer as the good mood he’d woken up with waned until he couldn’t remember why he’d even woken up happy and feeling lighter than he had in days. So, by the time he made it back into his house late in the evening, he was beat and just about ready to turn in, even if the sun had only just gone over the horizon.
A melancholy melody seemed to echo within the very walls of his house greeted him. If he didn’t know any better, he would think his house was haunted, but his night out with Olivia yesterday had clued him into the fact that she loved to sing.
To be honest, when she told him she loved to sing, Nikos had pictured music we get lost in every once in a while in the privacy of our bathrooms as we had an impromptu one-person concert.
But, no, this was not that. It was way beyond that.
This music transported you to places you’ve been before, places you’ve never been, and those you’ve never even thought about being. Suddenly, the weariness in his bones seemed to slip away as he followed the sound of her singing, like a siren beckoning a sailor into the darkest depths of the ocean.
He found Olivia in the entertainment room he had pointedly ignored for most of his life. The memories of him and his parents in the room never let him stay in there for long. And yet, he couldn’t stop his feet from dragging him into the cozy room, mesmerized by the picture before him.
Olivia sat at the grand piano, singing a song he didn’t know as her hands strummed the keys with expert precision. She looked quite spectacular as she was in a shirt he recognized as his, her hair pulled into a bun on top of her head, giving him the perfect view of her silhouette.
Yet, his attention was more drawn to her words. Her song was sorrowful, full of regret and pain. He felt a powerful urge to go hug her and protect her from everything that had ever hurt her. She had her head tilted back like she hoped the heavens could hear her pain. It was when he saw the tears slip out that he could no longer stand the fact that she was in pain. So Nikos moved with purpose toward her.
Maybe he made a noise, he wasn’t sure, but Olivia let out a gasp as she stopped singing and playing the piano, her head whipping back in time to see him bend down and engulf her in his arms. She let out a second gasp, and he expected her to pull away, except that she put her arms around him and let out a sob.
Nikos held her tightly, hoping to comfort her as she let out all the pain he had heard. He shifted, so he sat on the bench she had vacated, pulling her to straddle him. Her hair was falling out of the bun, so he released it and ran his fingers through it instead, stroking her hair in the same gentle manner he rubbed her back.
It might have been a minute or an hour later when she finally stopped, but it could have also been longer since the sun was now gone and the moon made her appearance.
“Sorry,” Olivia crooned as she leaned back from him, rubbing her face. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“Hey,” he called when she refused to make eye contact with him. “It’s okay.”
“You don’t have to say that,” she whispered as she tried to get off him, but Nikos held her tighter until she stopped moving.
“Olivia,” he called, but she refused to look at him. “Liv,” he tried again, gently, as he tilted her face until she was looking at him, “it’s okay.” He emphasized every word to ensure she understood he didn’t fault her for crying. His fingers moved back to rub her hair and back as he tried to give her as much comfort as possible.
Her face was blotched and red, and maybe she thought it was off-putting because she tried to hide away again, but he wouldn’t let her. She had never looked more beautiful.
Earlier in the day, he might have caved and made a quick Google search about her. She definitely looked more put together in the pictures he saw than he had ever seen her in person. She looked almost too perfect and untouchable. But here, with him now, Olivia seemed to have let her guard down and show her authentic self without the makeup that hid her freckles and, somehow, always red face, fake smiles that didn’t reach her beautiful green eyes, and forced emotions. It was a beautiful thing.
His search had taken him to two articles that had given him a general idea of why she might have been hiding at his hotel. He could only imagine how it felt having people say what they were saying about her.
“Thank you,” Olivia said eventually as another tear fell down her already tear-blotched face.
He cupped her face again and rubbed the errant tear away, then leaned in and kissed where he had just rubbed. When he felt Olivia practically melting into him, he turned her face so he could kiss the other side, and then he kissed her cheek and the other. She let out a soft giggle when he kissed her forehead, so he leaned down and kissed her cute button nose, at which point she truly laughed.
Maybe it was the effects of the singing, but her laughter sounded so musical that Nikos wanted to hear it again. So he leaned over and repeated his movements until she was squirming with laughter.
His long and exhausting day had melted away, and in its place was the pleasantness of this moment. He’d never been one to spend “quality time” with women like this—with people, really. Always on the move, wanting to move from one task to the next, and yet Olivia made him want to stop and take in the moment. He wanted to enjoy it with her.
She looked radiant now, where she had looked broken and exhausted before. He had never noticed, but when she truly smiled, she squinted her nose, and at the top of her lips were two tiny holes that added to the beauty of her smile. Being this close to her, he also noticed the tiny dusting of freckles on her face, which weren’t as visible from a distance and turned darker when she blushed as hard as she was right now.
“Do you want to play again?” Nikos asked as he gestured to the piano, hoping that she would say yes. He really wanted to hear her sing once again.
“I’ve never really played for anyone before,” she said as she looked away, her ears reddening.
“Tell you what,” he said as he shifted them so she had her back to his front. “If you sing, I’ll play.” He turned them around, so they were both facing the piano.
This angle was a tight fit, and yet Nikos was determined to make it work, not wanting to leave this moment just yet. She smelled like apples and cinnamon, a very heady combination. He had an incredible urge to keep her in his arms as long as possible, and he wasn’t going to fight it. Didn’t want to fight it.
Before Olivia could protest, he started to play the only song he knew how to play on the piano—Jingle Bells. Olivia let out a delightful giggle that settled right into his erratic heart. He closed his eyes to soak in the sound as he continued to play, unaware of the big smile that split his lips.
Thankfully, she humored him by singing the whole song, and maybe, just maybe, Jingle Bells was now Nikos’ favorite song. The ridiculousness of the song had brought a lightheartedness to the moment, making Nikos grateful to his Yiayia for insisting he learn how to play the song way back when they’d needed someone to play the piano for a Christmas thing.
Oliva turned back to him like she wanted to say something to him, but Nikos was suddenly overcome with the need to kiss her. He leaned in, cradled her head, and kissed her in a manner that was meant to bruise and leave the memory of him with her for a while.
She pulled back after a few hot seconds, gasping for breath, eyes frantically searching his. “What was that for?” she asked as she touched her red lips with her fingers.
“You are very beautiful, Liv,” he whispered, feeling the need to let her know what he felt.
Her widened eyes made him feel like, maybe, he shouldn’t have said that, and yet it was the truth. She was beautiful.
“Thank you,” she whispered, but looked away from him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as he noticed the tension that had suddenly built up in her shoulders.
“Nothing,” she rushed out, but he could feel her pull away mentally, as if his comment had unsettled her.
“Talk to me, baby.” He maneuvered them until she was now straddling him. With one hand gently supporting her, he caressed her face and waited for her to make eye contact. “What’s the problem? Did I say something wrong?”
“It’s not you,” she eventually sighed, her gaze dropping for a moment before meeting his again. “It’s just... everyone who has ever called me ‘beautiful’ has always ended it, with ‘just like your mother’.”
An array of emotions ran across her eyes too fast for Nikos to identify all of them. But more central to all was disdain, longing, and deep sadness. It drained all the color she had a few minutes ago when she was happy, and he hated that look on her.
“You’re more than just a reflection of your mother,” Nikos said, knowing that he had never once thought of her as anything but Olivia Clarke, a woman who he thought was a nuisance just a few days ago but also turned out to be his greatest source of comfort.
“You probably don’t know much about my mother then,” she shrugged off his comment as she looked away.
“Hey, I mean it,” he made sure she was looking at him, “you might look like her, but that doesn’t mean you are not your own person. You’re not bound by her shadow.”
Nikos wished he could say more about her, but he knew he didn’t know her enough to say anything more than what he had seen. And yet, based on what he knew, there was no way a woman like Olivia faded into anyone’s shadow.
She was brilliant. Everything about her captivated him, and he had noticed the same thing yesterday when they were out. She had an aura about her that drew you in when she was truly happy and free. He had only seen glimpses of the real her here and there, and she was truly electric. Just that was enough to let him know she was a woman of her own caliber. No matter how much the world was beating her up, she shined when she let herself.
“But, I am.” She shook her head. “Everywhere I go, it’s always about my mother and whether or not I can live up to her legacy. I just want to be seen for who I am, not just as an extension of her.”
“Then, show them, baby,” he said. “Show them you are not just your mother’s daughter.”
“It’s not that easy,” she claimed, shaking her head.
“Why not?”
She kept quiet for a while, biting her lip and looking deep in thought. Nikos waited patiently. “I don’t think people want to see me for me. I’ve... I’ve done things. Bad things,” she whispered.
“So bad that you can’t fix them?” he asked gently, rubbing her hair from her face when she tried to hide behind it.
“So bad that I had to hide out here,” she sighed, a mixture of regret and frustration in her voice as she grabbed and pulled at her hair instead of hiding behind it.
“What happened?” He gently pulled her hands away and held them on their sides so she wasn’t pulling her hair.
She hesitated, looking at him hopefully with a hint of fear. Before he could tell her she didn’t have to tell him, she started talking.
“I was so stupid,” she stated. “I was hanging out with this group. The bad kind, I guess you could say. My best friend, Ava, had warned me about them, but they had said some things that made me want to prove them wrong.”
“What did they say?” he asked, trying to encourage her to keep talking. He rubbed her hands with smooth circles, noticing that this made her stiff shoulders relax just a little bit.
“They called me a goody-two-shoes—like my mother,” Olivia confessed, letting out a bitter laugh that was so unlike her. “They said I was too sheltered, and I didn’t have a worry in the world because everything I had has always been handed to me.” Nikos listened intently, allowing her to tell her story without interruptions. “I was stupid—so stupid. Ava tried to tell me that they just wanted a reaction out of me, but I didn’t listen. I was mad, Nikos, so freaking mad. No one sees me,” her voice broke. “They all think I’m just this spoiled person who had it easy and was too stuck up. And I wanted to show them that I wasn’t. So, I did and said some things I shouldn’t have.”
Nikos waited patiently as she gathered herself. He watched her trying to fight her breakdown, wanting to give her more comfort than what he did, but he knew she had to work through this on her own.
“I didn’t know that they were recording me. They dared me to do all kinds of things and I did without hesitation—until I realized that they had been live streaming the entire night. I panicked and said some more things, because I thought it would divert their attention, but it did the opposite. Ava tried to get me to stop, but I couldn’t. I was panicking and then I turned my attention to her.”
“She’s the daughter of a major producer, you see. But his movies have been struggling and their family is broke, but they had been parading around like nothing was wrong. Her father is all about his image and he just kept sinking his family into heavy debt because he wants everyone to think he’s still this rich person. I let it all out.” She hung her head in shame as the gravity of what she had done sank in for Nikos.
“You exposed your best friend?”
“That’s not even the worst part,” she whispered, as if she was afraid of the words she was saying. This time, he let her hang her head, as she clearly needed a minute.
“What’s worse than that?” Nikos held his breath.
“Our family publicist released a statement saying that Ava had drugged me and was the reason for my ‘erratic behavior’.”
“Oh, Liv.”
“I tried to fix it,” she cried. “I really did. But, my father won’t let me. He had people monitor everything I did for a while before he shipped me off here. And now, he acts like nothing’s happening. Ava took all the brunt of this scandal when she shouldn’t have.” The vulnerability in her voice exposed the wounds that still festered beneath the surface. “I’m a coward, Nikos. I’m such a coward. I ran away when I should have stayed and faced the backlash alongside my best friend.”
“You are not a coward,” he said. “You made a mistake. A terrible mistake that, maybe, you couldn’t handle or fix at the moment. But you will, won’t you?”
“I want to.” She grabbed at his shirt desperately, like she needed him to believe she wasn’t the person she appeared to be. “I want to fix it, but my father—”
“Screw your father,” he interrupted her. “What do you want, Liv? Do you want this to be held against you for the rest of your life?”
“No, I want this to be fixed. I want my best friend back.” The death grip on his shirt lessened, but she didn’t let go.
“Then you’ll figure it out. I know you will. You need to believe in yourself, not in the expectations or judgment of others. It won’t be easy. Trust me, I know. But you’ll find a way to make amends.”
For some reason, Nikos felt the need to tell her he understood a thing or two about familiar obligations and how suffocating they can be. He told her about his own issues, like how he had been burdened with expectations of running the hotel and how hard he had tried to run away from that by making an entirely new life for himself in America. It felt good to let it all out and tell someone who could understand how much expectations weighed on someone, especially when it didn’t feel like you were given a choice in the matter.
“I can’t decide if selling is the best option,” he said, surprising himself with this declaration. He was pretty solid about selling a few days ago, but now he wasn’t so sure. The heaviness that had been weighing on him since his last conversation with Papous was still there, and it was enough to have him try to reconsider this decision.
Even if he tried not to, Nikos had been hit by memories of his good time at the hotel, and revisiting everything with Olivia right now helped give him a clarity he hadn’t had in a while. He now knew he was making a rushed decision because he had always craved something more than the hotel, and yet, this craving had blinded him from making the right choices when it came to The Atlantis.
“You need to make a decision too, baby,” he said gently. “At some point, you’ll have to face the consequences. Do you want your reputation to be someone who runs and brushes things under the rug?” Knowing a bit about Olivia’s family and their tendency to avoid public confrontations, Nikos posed a pointed question. “Is that the person you want to be?”
She hesitated once again, but admitted, “No. I want to be better. This whole thing has been eating me up for weeks since I can’t talk to anyone about it. I just want it to stop.”
Nikos offered a piece of advice born from his slowly blooming clarity. “Maybe this is where you need to pave your own path, even if it’s from your family. It’s not easy, but it might be what you need to do for yourself.”
And maybe Nikos had to take his own advice and actually tell Papous that he was not ready to take on the burden of managing the hotel. Maybe they could talk and come up with a solution that works for both of them because the decision to sell had been born out of a need to find liberation from managing The Atlantis. However, he wasn’t sure that was something Papous would welcome, as it definitely was not the right move for the hotel.
“I see you for you, Liv,” he told her, cupping her face. “Beautiful, not because of anyone else. Beautiful because of who you are. You need to believe that you can be your own woman outside your family name and legacy.” He leaned in and kissed her on her forehead.