Untie the Knot

Chapter 7

About two hours later, I sit in the dining room, a steaming mountain of moussaka piled up on the plate in front of me and a glass of red wine in my hand.

Triad has settled under the table and is crunching on what I believe is the bone from earlier, except that she has successfully reduced it to half its original size. Drool is oozing from her fangs onto the wooden floorboards.

Across the table, Haze raises his glass and so does Nemea's father Kronos, who's not only the groundkeeper but apparently an excellent cook. He's a jovial middle-aged man with a round face, horn-rimmed glasses and sandy blonde hair as his daughter's, even if he has a lot less. On the other hand, his well-trimmed beard must be the thickest I've ever seen. I'm actually surprised his name isn't Mufasa.

Nemea grabs her own glass of orange-juice and raises it too. She has changed into a flowery dress for the occasion and is beaming like the morning sun.

"Welcome to Starlit Hollow, Penny." Haze looks at me and the butterflies in my stomach take flight again. "I'm glad you're here and I hope you'll enjoy your stay."

"Thank you for inviting me." My cheeks are burning like the flickering candles on the table. Being flanked by Nemea and Kronos, I better keep my frivolous thoughts in check. I'm determined to make this first dinner in my temporary home as un-awkward as possible.

No babbling. No shooting innocent flowers. And definitely no mojitos.

We clink our glasses and then I take a polite sip of wine before placing the glass back on the table. I'm more inclined towards water or anything non-alcoholic today, so I pour myself a generous amount from the water pitcher.

Kronos insisted on serving me 'just a little bit extra' after I mentioned that I'd only had breakfast today. Although I haven't taken a single bite, the smell makes my mouth water.

"So, Penny," Kronos says while he loads salad onto his plate, "what brings a young lady from the city to our humble countryside abode?" His voice is deep and sonorous and somehow I can picture him perfectly in an oversized armchair, telling heroic tales of Odyssean proportions to a bunch of wide-eyed children sitting cross-legged at his feet.

I stare at my plate while I try to come up with an answer that will allow me to circumnavigate my questionable secret. Unfortunately, the moussaka isn't being very helpful.

"And why aren't you two together?" Nemea swings her knife from Haze to me like a miniature sword. 

"Nemea, that's not a very polite thing to ask." Kronos scolds his daughter.

"But you asked her something, too." The girl pouts, the knife clattering against her plate.

"Yes, but that's different."

"It's all right," I say, even though I'm not sure it is. "I...we..." I stutter. "We just met recently." Recently being the understatement of the century, but I can't say that we just met yesterday, can I? I grip my fork a little too tight while I throw Haze an imploring glance. "Right?"

"Yes, that's right, and that's as much as you need to know, Nemea." Haze cuts his moussaka into sizeable bits, the evaporating steam curling in front of his face like tiny wisps of smoke. "But what might interest you, Kronos, is that Penny is a florist and eager to know more about cultivating fruit trees, specifically Mediterranean fruit trees."

"Is she indeed?" Kronos looks up from his plate, his gaze darting from Haze to me.

Apparently I am.

"Yes — yes, Haze is right." I nod fervently, trying to follow along. I am a florist after all and fruit trees are great. Nothing wrong with that.