A Scent of Greek: Out of Olympus (12 page)

Chapter Nineteen

Since falling asleep on Ariadne’s couch, Dio hadn’t seen her, and had spoken to her only briefly on the phone. Their schedules were clashing. Ariadne was tied to the shop, since it was Lisa’s day off, and Dio worked both the lunch and the evening shift at the restaurant. The next day hadn’t been any better.

When Dio woke late on the third day, his eyes fell on the wedding invitation he’d left on his nightstand as a reminder. He only had to work the evening shift at the restaurant, and as much as he wanted to see Ariadne and take her to lunch, he knew it was more important to talk to Triton and Sophia and find out what they knew about him. He sure hoped he wasn’t only an acquaintance they barely knew.

After a quick shower. Dio dressed in khakis and a polo shirt and headed out.

The sun was already high up in the sky. He’d left the restaurant past eleven and fallen into bed the moment he’d returned home, utterly exhausted and wiped out. If this was his life, he had to change things. Working as a waiter would eventually kill him. There had to be something else he was good at and could find a job in. He knew he was smart and spoke several languages. So why work as a waiter?

He was still contemplating his lot when he reached the Bed and Breakfast. He entered through the open door and walked upstairs, making his way to the reception area. When he heard steps behind him in the corridor, he swiveled.

A pretty, dark-haired young woman in her late twenties came out of the kitchen, a huge smile on her face. “Dionysus! What a nice surprise! You’re just in time for lunch.”

She gave him a bear hug and kissed him on the cheek.

Relieved that the woman recognized him, he guessed, “You must be Sophia then.”

She furrowed her forehead for a moment. Then her lips quirked with a smile. “Very funny. We weren’t gone for
that
long!” She turned toward the kitchen behind her. “Triton?”

“What do you need, agapi mou?” a man’s voice replied.

Dio didn’t recognize the voice, but he understood the endearment the man used. And he knew what it meant: my love. The man had spoken Greek—Dio’s mother tongue. This was good news. He bet his crappy job that he was close friends with this man.

“Dionysus is here.”

A tall blond man with sun-kissed skin and a toned body emerged from the kitchen a second later. He was clad in shorts and a t-shirt. “Hey, Dio, good to see you! Wanna join us for lunch? I was just gonna toss some seafood on the grill.”

Dio smiled. These were his friends, and close friends by the looks of it. “Love to.” Yet he still felt like a thief who’d infiltrated somewhere where he didn’t belong. He recognized neither Sophia nor Triton.

“I’ll get an extra plate. Can you grab a bottle of wine for me, Dio?” Sophia asked as she followed Triton.

Dio entered the large, industrial-size kitchen and perused it. If Sophia wanted him to get a bottle of wine, then clearly his friends weren’t concerned with his drinking the way Ariadne was. Frankly, that was a relief. He’d laid off wine for the last few days, ever since the AA meeting, but he missed it and knew it couldn’t be right for him to give up wine forever.

“Dio, the wine,” Triton reminded him as he piled shrimp, calamari and pieces of fish onto a large plate, while Sophia pulled out a plate and cutlery. Dio scanned the kitchen in search of the bottles.

“Something wrong?” Triton asked and gave him a curious look.

Dio rubbed the back of his neck. Maybe he should come out with the truth immediately and get it over with. “Maybe you could tell me where you keep your wine. I don’t remember.”

Triton raised an eyebrow, then he waved his hand toward a cabinet. The cabinet’s door sprung open, revealing a wine rack behind it. Dio jolted back, hitting his hip into the counter behind him.

“Shit!” How had that door magically opened when nobody had touched the handle? What the fuck was going on here?

Both Triton and Sophia stopped what they were doing and looked at him like he’d just gone off the deep end. Had he? Were the hallucinations he’d had a few days ago coming back? And, hell, he hadn’t even had any wine.

“Why are you so jumpy?” Triton asked.

Dio glanced back at the open cabinet and the wine bottles inside. Maybe there was a simple explanation to it. The hinges on the door could be faulty and open with the slightest draft in the room. That had to be it. “I was just startled when that door popped open without anybody touching it.”

“That’s because I opened it.”

Dio spun his head to Triton. “You didn’t touch the damn thing.”

Triton exchanged a look with Sophia. Then he set down the plate he was holding. “Okay. Out with it. Now. What the fuck are you playing at? Nobody except the three of us are here to witness my powers. Not even Zeus would object to it. So you’d better tell me right now what’s going on.” He glanced at his wife. “You’re making Sophia worry.”

Triton’s words scrambled Dio’s brain. Powers? Zeus? What was he talking about? Was this man really his friend? What if he was some wacko? Could he really trust him with his secret and confess that he’d lost his memory? What if the guy just told him all kinds of crap because he knew that Dio couldn’t confirm or deny it?

“I’m waiting.”

Dio looked into the deep ocean blue of Triton’s eyes and saw his impatience. But just beyond it, there was something else: concern. It was that knowledge that made him speak.

“I have amnesia.”

There was a moment’s silence before Triton broke out in laughter. Sophia joined in, but Dio couldn’t see the humor in it. “I don’t know who I am.”

Triton suppressed his laughter. “Good one, Dio! You almost got me there. But as we both know, gods can’t lose their memories.”

“Even I knew that,” Sophia added with a smirk.

“Gods? I’m telling you, I lost my memory. I was beaten up one night and when I came to, I couldn’t remember anything that happened before that fight. Ask my fiancée. She’ll confirm it if you don’t believe me.”

Suddenly, both Triton and Sophia stopped their laughter and exchanged a concerned glance.

“Dio, unless you got engaged in the last five days, you don’t have a fiancée.”

Panic slammed into him. Triton had to be wrong. Maybe he wasn’t such a close friend after all. “You’re wrong. Ariadne is my fiancée. We’ve been engaged for several months.” And he wasn’t giving her up.

“And how would you know that if you really lost your memory? Do you see how your story doesn’t gel? Even Eros could come up with something better.”

Dio had no idea who Eros was, but it didn’t matter right now. “Ari told me. She said we’ve been engaged for a few months now.” Actually, Ariadne had said they’d been dating for seven months before getting engaged, and he had neglected to ask her how long ago the engagement had taken place.

Triton shook his head. “Give it up, Dio. Let’s eat. I’m starving.” He walked out of the kitchen. Dio was on his heels, following him down the outside stairs into the garden, where a table was set up under a large umbrella. A few feet away, a barbeque stood waiting.

“You’ve gotta believe me. The only reason I’m here now is because I found a wedding invitation from the two of you. I figured you can help me find out who I am.”

Triton placed the plate of raw seafood next to the grill and lifted the lid. “Fine. I’m going to play along for a few more minutes. You want to know who you are?”

Dio nodded eagerly. “Yes. All I know is what I found in my apartment. My driver’s license says Dionysus Theos.”

Triton grinned. “That’s a quite fitting name you’ve chosen for your mortal interactions: the god Dionysus.”

“What do you mean by mortal interactions? And what about this god?”

“You.” Triton jabbed his finger at Dio’s chest. “You are Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy. Happy now? Can we finish this ridiculous game?”

“I’m not playing a game.” Dio ran his hand through his hair. “How can I make it clear to you that I don’t understand any of what you’re telling me? Why would you make fun of me? If we’re really friends, why can’t you tell me the truth?”

Behind him, Sophia finished adding the extra place setting to the table. “He told you the truth, Dionysus. You should know better than to accuse Triton of lying.”

Dio turned to her and noticed her concerned look. Maybe she would take pity on him if he begged long enough. “Sophia, we’re friends, right?”

She nodded and took a seat. Dio joined her at the table and sat down.

“Then would you just hear me out?”

“I can do that.”

“Don’t indulge him,” Triton cautioned as he placed the fish on the barbeque.

“Let’s see what he’s got to say. Go on.”

“Thanks. So, as I said, I was in a bar fight—”

“Sounds about right,” Triton interrupted.

Sophia tossed him a mildly scolding look, eliciting a simple shrug from Triton.

“They beat me up, and I must have passed out and maybe fallen against something and hit my head, because when I woke up, I had no idea who I was or what had happened. Luckily, my fiancée was there, Ariadne. She patched me up and took me home. If she hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t even have known where I lived.”

Dio smiled to himself. Gods, he was so grateful to her for taking care of him.

“So everything I know about myself is because she helped me figure things out. She made sure that my boss knew that I wasn’t well. She called in sick for me.”

Sophia’s mouth gaped open. “Your boss? Dio, you don’t work.”

“Of course I work. I’m a waiter at this little restaurant downtown. It’s called the—”

“A waiter?” Triton approached the table, BBQ tongues in hand. “You’re working as a waiter?”

Dio nodded but felt embarrassed at the same time. He felt like a nobody, admitting it. “Right now, yeah. But I figure, maybe I can do better and find something different, you know, maybe some management job. I don’t know.”

“Tell me something. What did you do the last few days?” Triton asked, a curious expression on his face.

“Mostly work. I had to do both the lunch and the dinner shift the last couple of days. I’m only doing the dinner shift today, that’s why I was able to stop by.”

Triton nodded toward Sophia. “I think he’s telling the truth.”

“I’m afraid so,” she agreed.

“That’s bad.”

Dio held up his hands. “What’s bad about me telling the truth?”

“Are you gonna tell him or shall I?” Sophia asked.

“Agapi mou, I think this needs more finesse than I possess,” Triton conceded and returned to the barbeque to remove the fish from the grill.

Sophia reached for Dio’s hand and squeezed it. “If what you’re saying is true, then I think we’re facing a big problem, because what Triton told you is the truth: you are the god of wine and ecstasy, and if you have lost your memory and can’t perform your duties as a god, there’ll be an imbalance in this world. The grapes will die, and the wine will turn into vinegar. We need to get you to remember who you are.”

Triton placed the plate with grilled seafood in the middle of the table and sat down. “I couldn’t have said it any better.”

Dio shook his head. He was a god? Impossible. “Gods don’t exist.” What kind of new age junkies were those two?

“They do. But mortals don’t know.”

“Then what are you two?” Dio challenged, still not able to digest the information. There had to be another explanation.

“Sophia is mortal, but I’m the god of seafarers and sailors. My father is Poseidon.”

The name sounded familiar, but Dio attributed it to the fact that he’d probably studied mythology or history, and considering that he spoke Greek, it wasn’t unusual that he recognized the name. “Sorry, Triton, but I can’t believe anything you’re telling me. It’s impossible. I was beaten up pretty bad and lost my memory. That’s all I know. But I’m no god.”

Triton heaved a few pieces of fish and shrimp onto his plate and loaded up on the mixed salad. “Dig in.”

Dio filled his plate and started eating. Just because he didn’t believe the stories the two were telling him didn’t mean he had to go hungry.

“When you got beaten up, did your face look pretty bashed in?” Triton asked.

Dio found the question odd but answered it nevertheless. “My eye was swollen; I had a split lip and some bruises.”

“And the next morning?” Triton winked at his wife. “Let me guess: your face looked perfect.”

Dio pushed back in his chair and dropped his fork onto the plate. “How did you know?” Then he leaned forward and picked up his fork again. “I suppose it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought at first. I probably heal fast.” That’s what he’d told himself that day, even though he had found the situation odd.

“Gods heal any injury within hours. At least that tells me your godly powers are still intact and unimpaired by your amnesia.”

It would explain it, but no, it wasn’t proof enough for Dio. “Maybe. But I could be just some regular person that heals fast.”

“So you want proof?”

“Do you really expect me to believe your fantastical story without evidence?” Dio shoved another piece of calamari into his mouth and chewed. “Good food, by the way.”

“Caught it myself this morning.”

“You fish?”

Triton grinned. “I dive.”

Sophia chuckled. “Triton loves to catch fish by hand.”

Another tall tale, Dio was sure. This couple was getting more brazen with their claims by the minute. “Sure.”

“Oh, we forgot the wine,” Sophia suddenly said. “Triton, would you?”

“Dio was supposed to bring it,” Triton deflected.

Dio pushed his chair back. Wasn’t it considered rude for the host to let a guest fetch things? He was about to get up when Triton clamped his hand over his arm, holding him back.

“No need to get up. Just get the bottle.”

Confused, Dio stared at him. “That’s what I was about to do. So, if you don’t mind.” He gave a pointed look at Triton’s hand, which was still gripping Dio’s forearm.

“Use your powers.” Triton quickly glanced around the garden. “We’re alone. It’s safe.”

“What fucking powers?” Dio had enough of this charade.

“You can conjure up the bottle. Just imagine it being here, and it will.”