Amar walked into the newly-renovated master suite early in the morning. Tobias had planned to take the week off with Tris to help her get acclimated to his home, so Amar wasn't expected. He knew his boss was anxious about making Tris comfortable, but something happened in the Asian markets, and business decisions had to be made.
Tobias was curled around Tris, sheltering her even in sleep. Amar smiled fondly as he put a hand on the younger man's shoulder.
"Tobias," he called in a whisper.
Conditioned by years of abuse, Tobias' eyes flew open.
"Më vjen keq që të zgjoj," Amar apologized. "Thereshtë një problem me tregun e aksioneve të Tokios. Më duhet që ju të kaloni disa minuta duke marrë disa vendime."
(I'm sorry to wake you up. There is a problem with the Tokyo stock market. I need you to spend a few minutes making some decisions.)
"Tokyo?" Tobias asked as he came around.
"Po," Amar confirmed. "Ju lutem, vini me mua për disa minuta?"
(Yes. Will you please come with me for a few minutes?)
"No," Tobias replied, switching to English as he became more alert. "I will not leave her to wake up alone."
"Tobias, this will only take a few minutes, and you can have the rest of the day with her as planned," Amar argued. "You need to hear what's going on and make a few decisions."
"No," Tobias said stubbornly. "She's going to be jetlagged and confused. I will not let her feel abandoned."
"She will be asleep for a while," Amar argued.
"No," Tobias repeated firmly. "I will not have a repeat of London. She cried, Amar. She woke up confused, and alone, and she cried."
Suddenly Tobias' reluctance made more sense.
"Let's just step into the dressing room for a moment," Amar suggested. "You'll hear if she starts to stir."
Tobias nodded and began to extricate himself from the bed. He made Amar stay near Tris while he quickly used the bathroom. Tris didn't stir, so the two men stepped into the dressing room.
Amar brought Tobias up to speed on the situation in the Asian markets, and together they made a few decisions. While Amar relayed those decisions to the right people, Tobias checked on his sleeping girlfriend. When the follow-up questions were answered and everyone was satisfied for the time being, Amar left and Tobias crawled back into bed.
"Mmm, Tobias," Tris mumbled sleepily.
Tobias kissed her bare shoulder, and Tris' eyes fluttered open. He saw the exact second when she realized that she was naked. Her eyes grew wide, and she blushed slightly as she wiggled deeper into the sheets.
Under the covers, Tobias let his big, warm hand caress the silky skin of Tris' hip and side. "You are so beautiful," he whispered huskily.
.
Breakfast was served on the back terrace. Roza made byrek, a traditional Albanian spinach and cheese pie that bore a strong resemblance to baklava at first glance. She also served strong coffee with a hint of sweetness.
"Is there already sugar in the coffee?" Tris asked.
"Yes," Tobias answered. "Turkish coffee is much different from what you have in America. It's very strong, and the sugar is part of the preparation. If you like it more or less sweet I can let Roza know."
"This is fine," Tris said. "I like it. But it is strong. Would it be rude to ask for cream?"
"Cream is not usually served with Turkish coffee, but here at home you can have it as you adjust."
Tobias tapped at his phone, and a minute later Roza appeared with a little pot of cream. Tobias said something to his housekeeper in Albanian, and she nodded as she set the creamer on the table.
"I think I've insulted her," Tris said after the housekeeper left. "She gave me the same look my mother used when I'd fidget in church."
Tobias laughed. "I told her that you don't have good coffee in America, so you would need a little cream to help you get used to it."
Tris added the smallest splash of cream to her coffee, just enough to take the edge off the bitterness.
Tobias warned Tris about the grounds at the bottom of her cup, explaining how fine-ground Turkish coffee is prepared. He entertained her with stories about fortune-tellers who read the leftover grounds in one's cup.
"Roza and my mother used to play at reading coffee grounds," Tobias said, sobering as the memory came back. "One day Roza saw death in Mother's coffee grounds. They joked about it, but later that week it came true. No one in our household ever spoke of it after that... I… I'd forgotten about that."
Tris reached for Tobias' hand. "How did your mother die?" she asked gently.
"Ectopic pregnancy," he said. "I didn't even know she was pregnant. Amar came for me at school one day and told me she was gone. Apparently something ruptured, and she was dead just that fast. I don't remember it well. I was nine years old and in shock. I remember her urn at the funeral mass, but not much more."
Just inside the house, Roza wiped her eyes. Evelyn Eaton had been more than her employer; the two women had become close friends. Roza joined the household staff to help Evelyn adjust when her arranged marriage to Marcus brought her from Greece to Albania. She was with her through her pregnancy, and helped with Tobias' birth. She had treated Evelyn's injuries when Marcus began to hit her.
She remembered Evelyn's last day. Marcus was away on business, and the two women had laughed together as they played at reading each other's coffee grounds. Evelyn told Roza that her coffee foretold a new business venture in the near future, and children in her distant future. Roza had seen death in Evelyn's coffee, and the two had laughed about the silly superstitions.
The next morning, Roza was sent into town with Amar when he took Tobias to school. He drove her around as she ran errands for Evelyn. When they returned to the house several hours later, Marcus was there with local police. He informed Roza that Evelyn had died. According to Marcus, Evelyn was pregnant, though Evelyn had never mentioned it. The baby planted itself in her fallopian tube, Marcus said. It ruptured, and she died.
Roza was devastated. Amar and the nanny were sent to get Tobias from school, and Roza was immediately fired. She was not even allowed to see Tobias, just given an hour to pack her things, then tossed out like trash.
Roza saw Tobias from a distance at the funeral a few days later. Her eyes darted back and forth between her friend's son and her urn. She watched him for evidence that Marcus had hit him the way he used to hit Evelyn. All she saw was a grief-stricken nine-year-old who bore a striking resemblance to his mother, but with the blue eyes of his horrible father.
Life had been hard for Roza after Evelyn's death. Without a job, she was forced to stay with her sister in a village about an hour east of the Eaton estate. Her brother-in-law had died young in a drunken brawl, so Roza's sister was raising a son and daughter alone. Between the two women they barely kept the children fed as they both struggled to find meaningful work.
Roza's sister succumbed to cancer when her kids were teenagers. The nephew was a troubled kid who got involved in drugs and was in prison before his mother died. Roza was left to raise her niece, Yeta, who got pregnant at sixteen.
When Tobias found Roza after Marcus' death, she was living in a small apartment with eighteen-year-old Yeta, Yeta's boyfriend, and the couple's toddler son, Edon. Roza knew the young couple wanted her out of their home, but they put up with her because they loved her, she had nowhere else to go, and she had been providing free childcare for her great-nephew and cleaning houses to contribute to the household income. She jumped at the chance to go back to the Eaton estate so Yeta wouldn't have to take care of her anymore and could be free to have her own life and family.
The change was good. Yeta married her boyfriend, and they were expecting a second child. Edon was a healthy, sweet, and precocious almost four-year-old, who knew his great-aunt as his gjyshe (grandmother). Tobias generously allowed Roza to have him visit pretty much any time, and was quite fond of the little boy.
Edon was quite taken with his gjyshe's employer, as well. "Kemi të njëjtin emër!" (We have the same name!) Edon had said excitedly when he met Tobias. It took the adults a few minutes to figure out that the little boy didn't understand that Eaton was Tobias' surname. To him, it sounded a lot like Edon, so he believed that they shared the same name, making them instant friends in the preschooler's eyes.
Roza and Tobias rarely spoke of Evelyn, and never spoke of Marcus. Roza suspected that Tobias had experienced abuse just as his mother had. She watched him carefully when she first rejoined the household, terrified that he would be a harsh employer and angry man like Marcus. But Tobias was nothing like his tyrant of a father. He was quiet and distrustful of strangers, but genuinely kind. As she watched Tobias interact with others and begin to repair the broken relationships of Marcus' era, Roza felt nothing but pride and affection for the young man she'd helped to bring into the world.
She had been shocked when Tobias and Amar returned from America in January. Her kind but stoic employer had a brighter smile and a new spring to his step. At first she just thought that his business must have gone well. But when Tobias informed her that he wanted to redecorate the master bedroom and move into it, she knew that something more than a successful meeting happened while he was away. When she heard the cleaning girls gossiping about Mr. Eaton wandering around the estate on long video calls in English, she realized that he must have met someone.
The first time she heard about Tris specifically was when Tobias and Amar informed her that they would be going to London for the wedding of someone Roza had never heard of. Tobias grinned through the whole conversation, and when Amar offhandedly mentioned "Miss Tris," Roza couldn't stop herself.
"Miss Tris?" she'd asked.
"E dashura ime," (my girlfriend) Tobias had said proudly. "Emri i saj është Beatrice Prior. Ajo jeton në Chicago." (Her name is Beatrice Prior. She lives in Chicago.)
"Shpresojmë që Miss Prior do të vizitojë kur të mbarojnë mësimet në universitet," (Miss Prior will hopefully be visiting this summer when her classes at the university are finished,) Amar replied, and Tobias' grin grew even wider.
After the London trip Tobias busied the staff preparing for Miss Prior's visit. Amar had assured Roza that she would get along well with the American. He encouraged her to brush up on her English because Tris' Albanian was very limited. They talked about meals and menus, sleeping arrangements, and Amar had even confided in Roza that Tobias was looking at engagement rings. Roza could only hope that the strange girl was worthy of Evelyn's boy.
.
Tris' first days in Albania were laid back and relaxed. After breakfast on the terrace each morning, she and Tobias walked the grounds or explored the house. He pointed out the cottage where Amar and George lived, and its twin that housed Rraman and his wife. They relaxed on the beach. Tris called her parents, and texted pictures to her friends.
Tobias had taken the week off work, and he spent practically every minute at Tris' side. The couple ate together and slept together. They watched movies and made love. Pretty much the only time they weren't together was when one of them was in the bathroom. They enjoyed themselves, but Tris began to worry about Tobias. He was increasingly quiet, hovering, and neglected his business. When Amar tried to talk to him about work, Tobias was short with his assistant.
Tobias also firmly required Amar and Roza to speak only English in Tris' presence. He informed Roza that the housekeeping girls were not to speak to her unless there was someone there to translate. Alarmed, and not really understanding, Roza told the girls to stay away from Miss Prior unless she or Mr. Eaton were with them.
On their third afternoon at the Eaton estate, Amar insisted on a little time with Tobias for work-related issues. He had acted on his boss' instructions in regard to the Asian markets, but there were always more complications. Tobias was put out, because he had expressly told Amar that he wanted the week to help Tris adjust, and this was the second time his assistant had interrupted to take him away.
Tris was as sweet and understanding as ever, and suggested that she would enjoy a soak in the big tub, so it would be no trouble if Tobias needed to attend to other things. He showed her several times where to find the towels and how to operate the remote controls for the bedroom television, even though she already knew. He reminded her that she could text him or walk right into his home office if she needed him.
Tris kissed Tobias on the cheek. "Relax," she told him. "I know this house is big enough to get lost in, but I'm just going to take a bath. I'm not going to wander off."
Tobias reluctantly left with Amar, but he was still unhappy. "I thought I was quite clear about not being disturbed," he snapped at his assistant as they descended the stairs.
"I'm sorry," Amar repeated for at least the third time. "This won't wait, but it won't take long. It's not like you to be so bothered by an interruption. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Tobias snapped as he took a seat at his desk in the office just off the den.
Amar laid out the issue with the business, and Tobias lost himself in coming up with good solutions. While Amar was on the phone delegating the work, Tobias checked his email and did a little reading about events in the business world. Amar asked a few followup questions, and before they knew it, two hours had elapsed.
Tobias noticed the time on his computer screen and jumped to his feet. "I have to get back to Tris," he declared. "I'm getting tired of having to repeat myself, Amar. I don't want to be disturbed with work until Monday. I need to keep Tris comfortable and make sure she's happy here."
Amar wanted to object and find a way to calm the younger man, but his boss was gone before the assistant could form a sentence.
Tobias jogged upstairs to find Tris. When he first walked into the master suite, she was nowhere to be seen. He stuck his head in the bathroom, but the tub was empty and the wet towels hung up. He checked the dressing room, but she wasn't there either.
Tobias felt his heart racing as his eyes darted around the room. When a breeze blew the curtains, he realized that one of the patio doors was open. He peeked his head out and saw Tris in a bright floral sundress, trying to take a selfie.
"There you are," he said, relief washing over him. "I was looking for you."
"It's beautiful out here," Tris replied. "I was trying to get some pictures."
"Can I help?" Tobias offered.
He took her phone, and captured several photos of his girlfriend on the balcony overlooking the turquoise water that matched her tropical sundress. He joined her near the railing and used his long arms to capture several selfies of them together.
"You have to send these to me," he said as he gave her phone back.
.
Thursday was warm and sunny, so Tris and Tobias went swimming. Tris carefully applied sunblock when she changed into her bikini, but underestimated the strength of the summer sun on the water and ended up with a modest sunburn.
After showering, she wrapped herself in her pink floral silk bathrobe and walked into the master bedroom, where Tobias was watching television.
"Looks like I got a bit too much sun," Tris said, pulling back her robe to show Tobias her burn line.
"Are you alright?" Tobias asked in alarm as he jumped off the chair to examine her skin.
"It's just a little sunburn," she said dismissively.
"Tris," Tobias said sadly. "I'm so sorry. Why didn't you say something?"
"Tobias, it's just a minor sunburn!"
"Let me get some lotion," Tobias said as he walked to the bathroom.
Tris sighed. The overprotective version of Tobias was worrying her more and more.
He returned to the bedroom and slathered burn ointment on Tris' back and shoulders. "Roza is bringing dinner up here so you can rest," Tobias said.
"Rest from what?" Tris asked in exasperation. "Tobias, you're being ridiculous!"
.
Tobias won and the couple ate dinner in the master suite. He insisted on putting more ointment on Tris' sunburn before they went to bed, then laid awake long after she was asleep. Every day Tobias fell more and more in love with Tris, and every day he became more and more anxious that she would leave him.
I can't expect her to leave her friends, family, and home just for me, he thought. She could do so much better than a damaged waste like me. I'm going to mess this up.
.
The next morning, Amar stopped by during breakfast. He gave Tobias an update on several business issues, and asked his boss to attend to a few other things.
"No," Tobias said firmly.
"Tobias!" Tris argued. "Please don't neglect your business to entertain me. I was just thinking of doing some reading by the pool this morning, anyway."
"No," Tobias repeated. "I don't want you to get sunburned again."
Tris looked at Amar imploringly.
"George was just asking this morning when I thought he could come say hello to Miss Tris," Amar offered. "Perhaps she would like a chance to visit with him while you get caught up on a few things."
"I'd love that," Tris said enthusiastically.
.
Roza let George into the house, and Tris hurried to the foyer to greet him with a hug.
"Miss Prior," George said with mock formality as he released her. "I like your outfit. Is it new?"
"Your man has good taste," Tris said cheekily. "When I arrived I found the dressing room full of new clothes. Tobias said that Amar did the shopping, and so far I've loved everything I've worn. Why haven't you been here before?"
"My sister is gone for six weeks, so I've been running the shop without her," George explained.
"I'm looking forward to meeting Tori," Tris said. "You'll introduce us when she gets back, right?"
"Of course," George said before changing the subject. "How do you like the Eaton house?"
"It's beautiful, but so big!" she exclaimed as she led George to the living room. "Tobias showed it to me in video when I was in Chicago, but it just didn't do it justice. The view of the sea is the best part, I think - other than Tobias, of course."
"And the staff is treating you well?" George pressed.
"The younger women were polite when we met," Tris said diplomatically as she sat on one of the sofas, "but I haven't really seen them around since then. Tobias said they don't speak English anyway. Roza is very nice, though we haven't really talked. She's an excellent cook, I do know that, and the house is very clean. We've walked around the grounds, too, and it seems like everything is very well-kept."
"Is there anything you need?" George asked, sensing that something was bothering the young woman.
"I've been here for less than a week," Tris said, "and Tobias has only worked for a few hours of that time. He's been spoiling me, and practically bending over backward to cater to me. I have everything I need and then some."
"Such a strange phrase, 'bending backward'. I know what it means, but it always strikes me as odd," George commented.
"I suppose it's because bending backward is unnecessary and a lot of work," Tris said. "It fits Tobias' behavior, though. He's going to a lot of trouble for me, taking time away from his business and catering to my every whim. When Amar comes looking for him he seems upset about it. It's like he doesn't want to let me out of his sight. I'm actually getting kind of worried. He seems stressed, and kind of anxious."
"Hmm," George mused. "It sounds like Tobias is afraid."
"What would he be afraid of?" Tris asked. "Does he think I'm going to get lost in this giant house or fall off a balcony?"
"Maybe he's afraid you'll leave," George offered. "You have to remember what his parents put him through. It breaks my heart, but sometimes Tobias is… well, it's like he's afraid to be happy. Like he's waiting to be abandoned or hurt. Maybe he thinks you'll be unhappy and want to leave. He knows his life is very different from yours. He worries about the language barrier, and the differences in culture. In Tobias' eyes, there is a lot to fear."
"But George," Tris argued, "even if I love it here - and so far I do... Even if things go well and we start planning for a future together... I will get homesick. I will miss my parents, and my friends. It doesn't mean I'm not happy here, it's just how it is. Change is hard even when it's good."
"Perhaps you and Tobias should talk about that," George suggested.
Tris shook her head. "He's so excited that I'm here," she said. "I don't want to hurt him."
"Tris?"
Tris turned to see Tobias standing just inside the living room. The look on his face was pure anguish, so she leapt from the sofa and ran to him. "What happened?" she asked, throwing her arms around Tobias' middle. Tobias didn't hug her back. "Talk to me," Tris pleaded. "What happened?"
"Do… Do you want to leave?" he choked out.
"No!" Tris exclaimed, taking a step back to see Tobias' stricken face. "Why would you think that?"
"I heard you," he said.
"Tobias," George said in a warning tone. "Don't jump to conclusions, son. Tris is not looking to leave you. You need to listen to her - hear her out."
Tobias swallowed hard.
"Tobias," Tris said gently. "I'm concerned about the anxiety I've seen from you. You haven't been working, you snap at Amar, and you seem afraid to let me out of your sight. What are you worried about? What's bothering you?"
"I don't know," Tobias said. "It's just… There's so much to lose! I brought you to a strange country where you don't know anyone and can't speak the language. I can't just go to work and leave you here alone all day! I don't want to mess up. I don't want you to be lonely or sad. I don't… I don't want you to leave me!"
"Oh Sweetheart," Tris said gently. "I'm really happy to be here. I love you, and I'm excited to spend the summer with you. Your world is far different from mine - you know that - but I'm excited about experiencing this. Sure, I might get bored, or homesick for my parents and friends, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm happy here with you. I'm not leaving unless you send me away. You need to go to work, Tobias. Relax. Have a little faith in yourself, and in us."
"She's right," George added. "She came here because she loves you. She wants to be here. But you are going to push her away if you can't relax. I'm going to leave you two to talk this out. Bring her by the shop sometime, okay?"
"Yeah," Tobias said. "Thanks George."
When George was gone, Tobias held out his arms, and Tris stepped back into his embrace. "I'm sorry," he said. "I love you so much, and I just want you to be happy here. I… I can't imagine life without you, Tris, and I'm scared I'm not enough for you."
Tris squeezed him tight. "I hate when you say things like that," she said as tears filled her eyes. "I hate that you don't know how amazing you are. I love you! I'm not leaving you. You don't have to do anything but be yourself! That's more than enough! Why don't you understand that? You don't have to earn my love, and you can't buy it!"
"I'm sorry," Tobias repeated into Tris' hair as she began to cry against his chest. "I'll work on having more faith in us. I love you, Tris. I love you so much!"
"I love you, too," Tris said earnestly. "Tobias, you need to take care of your businesses. You need to stop scolding Amar and hovering over me. I won't leave you if I get bored or lonely. I love you, and I'm here until August unless you send me away. Please stop worrying."