Chapter Three

I was dreaming. I was standing in the middle of the forest at night wearing a white, spaghetti strap top with a long cotton skirt that flowed down over my feet like milk. My hair was pulled up into a pile of curls on the top of my head, leaving my neck bare. I was staring up at a full moon, hugging myself. Suddenly, Vasilios was standing behind me nuzzling my neck softly. I turned around and looked up into those silver eyes of his, and they were shining fiercely.

He was smiling at me then, and it was different. His canine teeth were longer than they should have been, yet I still stood there smiling at him with adoration. Vasilios whispered something to me and then the dream changed to show me running through the forest, but I was in slow motion. I never understood why you could never run fast enough in your dreams. Vasilios was chasing me for whatever reason and he lunged forward reaching for me. Before I could see what happened next, the dream was broken by the sound of my phone ringing.

I sat up in bed rubbing my eyes and yawning. I picked up the cordless phone from its charger on my night stand and managed to answer it on the fourth ring. My eyes were still half closed.

"...Hello?" I said in a voice heavy with sleep.

"It's Celeste, wake up lazy bones!" She chimed loudly on the other end. I moved the phone from my ear until she stopped yelling.

There was nothing like a loud wake up call.

"Celeste, what do you want at," I looked over at the digital clock on my nightstand.

"Eight o' clock in the morning?" I didn't hide the irritation in my voice.

"We were supposed to be meeting up at the Gardener's Market, did you forget?"

She asked, sounding disappointed. The truth was I did actually forget. It's been four days since the incident in the woods and I haven't had much sleep. I kept dreaming about the strangest things, they made me restless. And no, I hadn't called Vasilios.

"Sorry Celeste, I'll be down there shortly. Are you already there?"

"I'm on my way now. I'll be waiting for you in the parking lot. Don't forget a bag this time."

She said teasing me.

I never remembered to bring a bag; every time we went, I ended up sharing one with her.

Her good mood upset me a little because I wasn't exactly a morning person. Celeste was usually awake before the birds could catch their worms. I had a master bathroom in my room so I didn't have to go too far to get ready. I looked over at the bathroom and noticed that I had left the light on all night.

"All right I'm getting up right now, see you soon."

I hung up and set my phone back on the charger before I hopped out of the bed and went to the bathroom. I looked at my face in the mirror; I looked puffy. There was a certain degree of roundness to my face that was the signature of sleep. My gray eyes were a dull shadow of Vasilios's startling silver ones.

I reached into the shower and turned it on, all hot water. When I got out of the shower, I put on a blue jean baby doll skirt with a waist-length orange tank top that went over the waistline of the skirt. I added a blue jean half jacket over the tank top and threw on some orange, wedge-heel sandals that had a small orange bow at the ankles. I didn't bother styling my hair. I blow dried it to a frothy mass of fly away layers.

I grabbed my wallet out of my underwear drawer and my keys from my nightstand, I was ready for the world.

The Gardener's Market was downtown at the Colonial Nature Park. Long tables covered with all types of fresh produce were scattered in every part of the park. People were huddled around the tables with bags they had brought from home. I had a reusable grocery bag in my car so I grabbed it before I met Celeste by her car. Celeste and I were walking towards a table full of tropical fruits when she stopped suddenly. I stopped walking too, looking over at her.

"What?" I asked confused. She was looking across the park at one of the vendors' tables when she pointed.

"Astraia, isn't that the sexy guy who drove you home and played doctor with you a few days ago?"

She was whispering as if the person she was pointing at would hear her. I looked in the direction she was pointing to and sure enough, Vasilios was standing with Baltasar and a few others. I put Celeste's arm down and started walking in the opposite direction to another table. I could hear Celeste's heels clicking behind me trying to catch up. I stopped at a table where a vendor was selling artichokes, spinach and avocados.

I pretended to browse and at the same time hoped that Vasilios didn't notice us. After the dream I had this morning I was reluctant to speak to him. Silly I know, immature even. He had saved my life and here I was too scared to talk to him after a weird dream. That’s like having a dream that your boyfriend cheated on you and then waking up pissed off at him.

Celeste stood next to me and picked up a bundle of spinach that still had a few beads of water clinging to the leaves.

"Why are you avoiding him like this? You’re acting like he has a deadly virus or something."

She said, setting the spinach back on the table.

"Cute Celeste, very cute. Look, I'm grateful that he helped me. Really. But I know nothing about him." I said, still not meeting her eyes.

"It's because you haven't tried to get to know him, Astraia. You're afraid of getting hurt again because of Julian." She said, looking deeply into my eyes.

I frowned and looked over at her. Julian is an ex I hated to talk about more than any other. We dated for three years, and he mega-cheated. I found him in bed with not one, but three women. One of whom was my cousin. I never spoke to him or her again.

"He-who-shall-not-be-named has a lot to do with it, but I have other reasons too."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" She said, crossing her arms.

"I have this strong attraction to him when I'm around him. I feel frozen, compelled to touch him, I can't explain it. Not just him, his friends too. It's too weird Celeste." I said, looking away from her again.

"Did you just say “friends”? Can you introduce me to the cute ones?" She said suddenly excited.

I rolled my eyes, coming to the realization that she wasn't listening to a word I had been saying. I felt a light poke on my shoulder and Celeste was stepping away from me with a huge, cheesy grin on her face. I turned around and looked ever so slowly up the length of a well toned body.

Vasilios was standing in front of me, smiling that devastating smile. His curly black hair was free and flowing around his face. He was wearing a red and white plaid, long sleeve shirt with four of the buttons undone. I could see a triangular peek of his muscular chest. I allowed my eyes to linger a little lower down towards his stomach which appeared to be the start of a six pack. He wore khaki pants with the same white Nike Airs I had seen him in before.

Baltasar, Kyra, and two other people I didn't recognize were standing off to the side conversing with each other. One of them was a woman with chocolate brown hair and pink highlights that was cut short. She was staring at me; and even though I was sure I'd never met her before, she was giving me a very unfriendly look.

"You haven't called. I can assume you're doing well then?" He said, putting his hands into his pockets.

I nodded yes before I spoke.

"I'm fine, great actually. H-how are you?"

My voice sounded nervous and shaky, what was wrong with me?

"I'm good. I've been busy with work lately. I finally got a chance to take my vacation so I decided to visit the Gardener's Market today. I'm glad that I did." He said, raising his dark eyebrows. I shied away from him, smiling. It was nice to know that he was happy to see me again.

Admittedly, I was glad to see him again as well despite my cowardice.

"Listen, I was wondering if you would allow me to cook for you sometime. Maybe we could have dinner at your place this weekend?"

He asked with an undertone of hope in his voice.

I forced myself to look up at him again. I was NOT going to chicken out damn it.

"I think I would like that very much, Lio."

Phew, see? I can be brave.

"Great, what day is best for you?"

Before I had the chance to answer, the woman of the chocolate brown hair and pink highlights came up behind him and hopped onto Vasilios's back. She wrapped her slender, pale arms around his waists and looked around his shoulder at me. Both of our smiles faded and I looked away from them. Awkward didn’t come close to describing this situation.

"Lio come on, I'm tired of waiting in this heat. Can't this wait?"

The girl said in a sensual, flirty, purr of a voice to him. I assumed she was his woman or 'special friend', you know the kind.

"Lisette, go back to the others please."

He said, sounding suddenly tired.

Lisette pouted with her full glossy lips.

"But aren't you going to introduce me to your little friend, love?" She said with a certain chime in her voice.

‘Little friend?’ I was taller than her by at least two inches without heels and I was five foot four. She was putting on quite a show for me, protecting what was hers I guess. Vasilios took her hands from around his waist and stood next to her. This Lisette chick was staring at me; I could feel the weight of her gaze and it was almost too much. I gave her a blank stare. I wouldn't let her see how uncomfortable I really was. Celeste had left me to talk to Baltasar and the others long ago. Some friend.

Lisette's big green eyes stared at me with a look that bluntly said, 'if you touch him, I'll kill you'.

"Astraia, this is Lisette. Lisette, this is Astraia." Lio finally said.

She offered her hand to me but something told me not to take it, I listened to that something.

"It's nice to meet you, Lisette." I said.

Lisette let her hand fall back to her side but continued smiling at me.

"Charmed, I'm sure. I heard about your…Encounter, so sorry. It's a good thing my Lio is the heroic type." She said, smiling up at him.

I wanted to knock the smile right off of her face. Her little possessive display was completely unnecessary and quite honestly wasted on me. Instead of losing my cool, I ignored her little comment and walked past her to go and get Celeste. It was past time to go at this point.

"Astraia wait!"

Lio's voice called behind me. I ignored him and walked up to Celeste who was still chatting away with Baltasar and his friends. I was too pissed to turn around and look at him.

"Celeste we have to go, now."

"Why? What's the matter?" She asked.

Vasilios came over to me with the saddest expression on his face.

"Astraia I apologize for her rudeness, she's a sourpuss to everyone. We're not an item and I'm sorry if you got that impression." He said. I shook my head.

"It looked like you two were an item to me Lio. Actually, I think you two make a fine couple."

I said bitterly as I started to walk away. Celeste didn't say anything but followed me towards the parking lot.

Vasilios grabbed my hand and I snatched away from him.

"Don't touch me! Don't ever touch me again Lio..." I said walking off for the last time.

I'll never forget the pained expression on his face when I said those words. But so what? People will say anything when they get caught in a lie and I refuse to be lied to again.