Aphrodite was bored. She had been sitting in this chair, watching the people walk past, listening to the steady babble of talk and laughter. The fawn-coloured sea streaked here and there with a brilliant splash of deep orange and yellow, tracing the path of the setting sun, blazing a bright shade of amber and gold. In the distance, she could make out the flapping wings of a lone seagull, squawking loudly in the air.
There were so many things that have changed since her last visit. The white architecture and the houses no longer held any trace of Ancient Greece she had grown to know and love. The people had abandoned the classical way of communicating and have entirely immersed themselves in the unrefined tone of the modern language.
Her spontaneous decision to visit the mortal land had even been a complete surprise for herself. The distinct changes did nothing to ease the sorrow and pain that she believed she had burned and buried. The occasional flashes of tenderness and love expressed by the humans who walked past her table fostered an indefinable yearning for days that were dead.
"Stop thinking," she chided under her breath as a few tears came to soften her vision of the darkening sky.
The rosy-hued sky had slowly faded off into the distance and was now covered with a deep glow of blue sprinkled with delicately emerging stars that winked at her.
Aphrodite turned to look at the sea, observing the gentle roar of the crashing waves against the pale white sand. She scanned the area, trying to find something that could focus on, something that could make her forget about the grief she thought she had buried.
Just as she was about to give up, she heard a shout.
"Why do you keep bringing this up?"
Aphrodite's eyes zeroed in on a man yelling at a woman. He was dressed rather immaculately for a stroll on the beach. The darkness made it hard for her to make out their faces. Luckily for her, the wind was taking it easy tonight, which allowed her to eavesdrop on the couple's conversation.
"Jack, you never listen, do you?"
The couple was getting closer, so much so that she could now identify their faces. The man, Jack, was looking straight ahead. While the woman was talking animatedly, her hands moved in sync with every word that left her lips.
"This trip was for us to spend time with each other, to fix the problems that we have ignored for months. I missed the times that we used to have, Jack." She reached out to place her hand on his arm. "I miss you."
Jack rubbed his forehead, sighing as he responded, "You could have spoken to me first before you booked the flight tickets, Vanessa." He turned to look at the woman. "You know I have been busy with the new launch of the app. It's important to me."
Vanessa looked hurt, "What about our marriage then? Is it not important?" Aphrodite's interest flagged upon detecting the pain and love in Vanessa's voice.
This is getting interesting, she thought, as Vanessa's lip hardened. For the first time in a long while, she had finally found something that could keep her mind occupied. New trouble was dawning on her thickening mental horizon.
With a grin, she looked at the couple once more. She was going to fix this breaking marriage once and for all.
♡
Vanessa hated the treacherous throb that accompanied her spoken words. She hated that it unveiled the note of desperation in her voice. She had been trying for months to find a chance for them to work out their differences. She put in all her heart and effort into bringing the topic up in their dinner conversions again and again. Her attempts were futile, and she had nearly lost all hope until she stumbled upon an ad. A trip to the beautiful Oia, Santorini. Just the two of them. An opportunity to try and mend the cracks in their relationship.
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Bits + Pieces
Short Storyshort stories ✓ rants ✓ an unhealthy amount of dreams coming true ✓