Chapter 8
Maria turned to face Peyton when she heard her step into the room.
"You know he told you right?" Peyton asked, sitting on the edge of the foot of the couch.
"What do you mean?" Maria asked, sitting up.
"At the market. He said Stavros was his friend, his hero." Peyton said.
"I yelled at him for nothing." Maria sniffed, wiping a tear from her face. "I was just so upset at the market I didn't hear anything."
"I know," Peyton said, hugging her friend as she sat up. "David will understand."
"What if he doesn't?" Maria asked. "What if he wants to go back in the lamp. What if he wants to find a new mistress? One that will sleep with him?"
"Why won't you sleep with him?" Peyton asked. "I know you love him."
"I do love him. But I don't want to use him. That's all those other women are to him. I want to be more. When we have sex I want him to feel as good as me." Maria said with a sigh.
"What makes you think he won't?" Peyton asked.
"Because he told me...he told me he can't...can't...you know." Maria said, blushing.
"He can't have an orgasm!" Peyton said, loudly. "That must suck. 2,000 years without cumming."
Maria couldn't help but laugh a little at her friend.
"I'm going to go find David." Maria said, standing from the couch. "Hopefully he won't hate me."
When she got to the study heard her father and David's voices. Neither were speaking in English. She assumed they were speaking Greek.
"My daughter deserves better than you!" She heard her father yell.
"You daughter is old enough to take care of herself!" She heard David yell back. "Besides you've been gone for years, who are you to dictate her life."
"Stop!" Maria yelled, as she opened the door.
She still had tears streaming down her cheeks from her breakdown with Peyton and she couldn't stand that her father and David were standing here fighting over her.
"Father, you should go in the kitchen and talk to my mother." Maria said. "I need to talk to David. Peyton can show you to the guest room, I'll see you tomorrow."
Her father left the study and she saw David come closer, wiping some tears off her face.
"Why are you crying?" David asked.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you." Maria said, turning to leave the room.
She got to the doorway and noticed David wasn't following her. She returned grabbing his hand and dragging him to her bedroom. She went into her bathroom, dressed in her shorts and a tank top and lay on the bed.
"Peyton said you told me that you knew my father. I was just so upset at the market I must not have heard you." Maria sniffed.
"It's okay. Don't cry." David said, turning her to him and holding her in his arms. "I can't stand to see you cry. In the bottle you cried for your father and all I wanted to do was hold you and make you feel better."
"You can always make me feel better." Maria said, wrapping her arms around him. "You always know how to make me all better. I love you."
David looked down and saw she was asleep. He knew he felt strongly about her but could it be love. Everyone had always said he was incapable. But could it be possible that this was it? Sadness suddenly washed over him. Her father was right. She deserved better. She would find someone she wanted more, someone that could feel complete with her, someone who could give her a family. He should be back in the bottle, moving on to the next nameless woman who needed him to please her.
How could he make her hate him? And how could he live with himself for doing it?
Downstairs
"Stavros." Aracely said, bitterly.
"I know you don't like me but we need to find a way to get our daughter away from David." Stavros said. "I talked to David I think I've planted a seed of doubt in there. If it worked he'll start pushing her away. And once she feels unwanted she'll send him back."
"We can't just wait and hope that some greek love slave will do the right thing. We need to find a way to break them up on our own just in case." Aracely said.
"Finally we agree for once." Stavros said, leaning against the wall. "Do you know any young men who could make David jealous? He has a very bad case of jealousy about eveyrthing, he's very competitive AND he doesn't trust very easily. So he'll most likely not believe her about anything."
"I know a few." Aracely said, smiling. "But Maria is innocent so we'd have a better chance of playing off her. I know she's very jealous of ANY woman near him. I know a few women who would make Maria feel a bit inferior."
"Good we'll start tomorrow." Stavros said. "You find somebody to invite to dinner tomorrow night and I'll spend the morning getting to know my daughter again. If she doesn't spend as much time with David and more with me, he'll think he's not needed or wanted."
The two disappeared in their own directions and the person in the shadows quickly stepped out. How could they tell Maria or David? It would break their hearts.