Why Can't It Just Be You?

~ Six ~

Why Are You Like An Apricot?

"Oh, there's Zarkos!" Mrs. Rozena exclaimed, seeing her son coming towards the group.

"Your son has really grown up so handsome, file mou," Julie, Phoebe's American mother, commented excitedly, "and he's graduating from university this year?"

"Yes, file mou. I'm really proud of my son," the other woman replied, extending a welcoming hand to embrace Zarkos.

Phoebe was standing with her mother and Mrs. Rozena as the two friends chatted. It was Hector Perkos' birthday and it was held on the ballroom of one of their cruise ships named Heiress docked at the Port of Piraeus. It was a splendid night attended by close friends and business associates.

Usually, in the past, every time Phoebe saw the handsome son of the Rozenas, she would feel excited. He had been her crush for years. She could feel he liked her as well but he was just into his studies that they didn't have much time to spend time together.

Tonight, however, as Phoebe saw the coming of Zarkos, she didn't feel as excited as before. She was hoping she would still feel the same in order to get rid of the hopeless admiration she had for her tutor. But, sadly, she felt nothing anymore. She wondered how her feelings for her childhood crush which she kept for years just suddenly faded!

She was supposed to feel happy now especially when Zarkos immediately noticed her when he reached the group, but she felt empty.

"Hi, Phoebe!" The guy greeted her.

"Hi!" she answered timidly, with her eyes roaming around the room to look for someone.

She wondered if Evandros Xenakis was attending tonight. She was a bit sad because it was the weekend and she hadn't seen his tutor this afternoon. If before she hated the idea of studying especially maths, now everything seemed so opposite. She always looked forward to going home after classes and seeing the hot tutor, even sitting next to him on the carpet. She looked forward to studying maths with him. It had become a weekday routine; hence, weekends now annoyed her... like annoyed her to death... because weekends meant no tutorial sessions and no hot tutor around.

"How's Lykeion?" Zarkos' voice brought back Phoebe's absent mind.

"Great," she said, very briefly. Once again, her eyes tried to scrutinize every guy she saw in the room, hoping that she'd see Evandros. Not seeing a glimpse of him, she dropped her shoulders hopelessly and decided to entertain Zarkos. "How about university?" she asked, starting now a conversation with him.

"Great as well."

They talked for some time and, then, Zarkos offered a dance.

The whole ballroom where the birthday celebration was held spanned the full width of the ship and featured a massive oval-shaped dance floor. One look at the whole area and one would immediately perceived its breathtaking elegance. Magnificent crystal chandeliers hang from the two-deck-high ceiling. It had a resident orchestra which played music for the guests dancing on the floor. The ship provided multi-tiered seating that offered great sight lines of the dance floor and the sea. This cruise ship also contained cantilevered balconies overlooking the floor. At both sides, elevators with transparent glass walls were present. These were provided for fast access to the lower decks as well as the uppermost deck which was the sun deck that contained the pools and the serenity area.

♢♢♢♢♢♢♢

Evandros was standing beside Hector Perkos and was watching secretly the young Phoebe dancing with some unknown guy. Hector was talking to Mr. Rozena whom Evan learned as a close friend of his master. While the two older men talked, Evan unintentionally heard the conversation going on.