That's Amore! - Janelle Denison [45]
Next came yet another party.
Efi helped her mother and her aunts put together a buffet-style meal in the kitchen, wondering if she could withstand yet another party, Greek or otherwise. Her head ached and she feared her feet were deformed for life, given the nonstop series of different heels she'd had to wear over the past week. But at least tonight was the official end of the festivities. At least until the wedding and reception on Sunday two days away. The only thing planned for Saturday was a quiet dinner with her and Nick and their parents. She found she was looking forward to it, especially once someone put a CD on and one of her uncles grabbed her hand and urged her to lead in the start of the dancing.
The size of a room didn't matter to her relatives. Give them a closet and they'd find a way to dance without anyone being seriously injured. While not as extravagant as the Constantinos party with the bouzouki band, the atmosphere emerged even more personal, what with the close confines and the more casual dress. "The ceremony is only two days away! Opa!" seemed to be exclamation of the night. And it could mean one of two things: it's almost over, thank God! Or our kids are beginning their life together, amen!
As she stumbled over a rug, Efi preferred to look upon it as the former rather than the latter.
"May I?"
She blinked up to see Nick holding out his hand for hers. Instantly all her weariness eased away, replaced by a burst of strong love and gratitude. If ever she forgot what all this was for, she had only to look into Nick's grinning face and remember.
He took her hand and led in the dance, Efi easily following, and taking the lead from him herself in a way that earned whistles and cheers from the family, their dance seeming to reflect their life to come. The struggles. The love. The fact that one of them would take the lead, but it wouldn't always be the same one. They were partners in this particular dance of life, and if their harmonic steps now were any indication, they would have a very sweet life indeed.
And Efi wanted Nick so badly she ached with it.
"May I?"
Aphrodite indicated she wanted to break in between them. Nick instantly moved to release Efi's hand to take her cousin's, but Efi held fast and instead reached to include her on her left side, between her and her uncle Spyros. Aphrodite didn't appear pleased, but Efi really didn't care. Nothing was going to come between her and her groom. Especially not a little attention-hogging tart like Aphrodite.
Almost immediately afterward Kiki cut in between her and Aphrodite, putting the other woman even farther away from Nick. Efi smiled at her best friend in gratitude. She hadn't chosen Kiki as her koumbara for nothing.
A little while later Efi was in the kitchen helping with some of the clean-up and the cutting of fruit to put out which would officially call the drinking to an end and thus the night. She peeled a banana then pushed her hair from her forehead with the back of her hand.
"I'm going to have a talk with that girl," she heard her mother mumble next to her.
Efi blinked at her. "Who?"
"Your cousin Aphrodite, that's who. She's going after Nick like she's a bitch in heat."
Efi gasped, surprised by her mother's comments. Penelope Panayotopoulou was usually level-headed and polite to a T. It wasn't like her to engage in kitchen gossip when the subject was in the other room.
Every bone in Efi's body relaxed. Up until that moment she'd been afraid she was experiencing a bout of jealousy she couldn't quite figure out how to handle. Something irrational and unreasonable that she would have to just