Forever and a Day (12 page)

Halo came downstairs from her bedroom and walked into the kitchen. She quickly made some scrambled egg whites, plain oatmeal with some fresh strawberries. She made herself a cup of coffee, sat down and quickly ate her breakfast in silence. When she was done, she washed her dishes, dried them and put them away.

Grabbing a water bottle from the refrigerator, she headed downstairs to her exercise room, which was more like a small gym you would find in a small city. The vast room was equipped with the latest work out machinery: free weights, an elliptical, treadmill and three different exercise bikes.

Against one wall were various Pilates machines, she walked by them and decided on running instead. Getting up on the treadmill she picked up the remote and turned on the stereo, soon the expansive gym echoed with the beat of a high-energy song. “Not bad.” She muttered and soon was jogging at a fast clip.

She spent forty minutes on the treadmill and began a cool down walk when her phone rang. Picking it up from the cup holder and partially out of breath she answered, “Hey JJ! What’s up?”

“Halo, we have a small problem.”

Halo quickly hit the stop button on the treadmill, “What’s up?”

“Well, Blacktie called and no one is available to pick up Mystery man and take him to LAX. I’m too far away to make it on time. You think you can go pick him up?”

“Uh, well…” Halo quickly pushed aside her confusion, “Ok, I will go get ready! Give him a call and warn him please!” She was surprised at the excitement she heard in her own voice. Now I can ask him myself if we met, she thought cheerfully.

“Oh, hell. Uh Halo?” JJ laughed nervously.

“What?” She said excitedly looking at the clock on the wall, “I’ve got to get moving!”

“Oh shit…you are so gonna kill me. I was just messing with you! I’m so sorry! I thought you’d just tell me to call him a taxi. I feel awful.” JJ whined, “Are you mad at me?”

“Really? Uh… no, I’m not mad, but I am so going to pay you back.” She gave JJ a little laugh, “Jokes on me, so is that the only reason you called?”

“No, I called to tell you that the limo company called, I don’t know why… but they confirmed picking up Xander and they will be heading to the airport as scheduled. And, uh Doug and I are headed to the grocery store… you need anything?”

Halo heard the regret in JJ’s voice, “Uh sure, some fruit, yogurt and see if there is any fresh fish in. No Chinese farmed stuff please.”

“Of course Halo. Hey, you ok? You sound bummed. I’m so sorry…”

“You caught me off guard and I just got done running when you Punk’d me! I will get you back my pretty!” Halo heartily threatened.

“Oh I have no doubt! I deserve it!” JJ laughed, “I’ll pick you up a skinny latte, my treat ok?”

“Sounds nice, I’ll see you when you guys get here.”

“Ok, see you later.” JJ replied, and Halo ended the call.

Looking at the treadmill’s start button, she decided against continuing her cool down. Going over to her exercise ball, she began to half-heartedly stretch. Her thoughts went to the tingle of excitement she felt when the opportunity came up of talking directly to her Mystery man. She sat up, shook her head hard, and clenched her fists against her thighs, “For fucksake!” She blurted out. He is married, she reminded herself so why the hell were there warm fuzzies in her belly?

“It’s got to have something to do with slime ball Johnny.” She said aloud, trying hard to convince herself.

Xander was moving with the throng of people past the security checkpoint at Portland International Airport. Suddenly he saw Athena waving her arms at him. His heart warmed at the sight of her big smile, and waved back enthusiastically. He saw Evie give him a half smile and a nod as he made his way forward to them.

“Hey! I thought you were going to pick me up at arrivals?”

Evie shrugged, “Athena wanted to come in and surprise you.”

He looked to his daughter who reached over and gave his shoulder a hug, “Thank you! Let’s get going, I have a lot to tell you!” 

Evie gave him a hard smile as they took the escalator down to baggage claim. He retrieved his bag, last as usual, and they headed out to the parking area

“Did you have a good flight?” Evie asked.

“Yeah, it was cramped on the way up.” Xander replied.

“Ma, there’s the van!” Athena said pointing in the direction of their parked van.

“Xan, I’ll drive.” Evie dictated as they came up to the gray Dodge Grand Caravan. He nodded as she unlocked the doors, he opened the side door for Athena, she got in he handed her his bags. Soon they were on their way, headed home in the gray wet September weather.

“Dad! How did the audition go?” Athena asked cheerfully, “Too bad you didn’t get to meet Halo.”

Xander cringed at hearing Halo’s name in the proximity of Evie. No denying the elephant in the room now, he thought as he looked at Evie’s passive face watching the wet road, “No big deal, I’ll show you her letter when we get home. The audition went really well, it took a lot out of me though, when I got back my nerves were so shot I ended up tossing my cookies in the toilet.” Xander glanced back at Athena and gave her a pained look.

“Xan? You really got sick over a silly audition?”

Xander winced and frowned, “Uh, yeah. It was really intense; when I got back everything just hit me.”

Evie shook her head and shot him a look, “I don’t know about you, Xan.”

He ignored Evie’s comment and turned to Athena with a smile, “Hey, I got help from a veteran actress on the way down!”

“Who was it?” Athena asked.

“Well, you have all seen her,” he paused and looked at Evie, “She’s about five feet tall, about Athena’s age with blue eyes and dark hair. She lives here too.”

“Come on dad! That could be anybody!” Athena replied and gave her father’s shoulder a little push.

“Ok, ok! You remember the detergent commercial with the little girl and her messy dog? Her!” He laughed.

Evie shrugged at them, while Athena stared at her father with her mouth hanging open, “Dad! That’s Christina Ascher!”

“No duh, I met her father too!” Xander chuckled.

“No dad you don’t know! You know that Disney show I used to watch all the time as a kid?”

Xander groaned, “Yeah, how can I forget! That’s all you watched!”

“Well she was one of the main characters! She played the rock star singer! Why didn’t you get her autograph for me?” Athena pouted.

“I didn’t know. My bad.” Xander frowned at his daughter.

“You know about her father, right?”

“Yes of course. Nice guy.” Xander replied nonchalantly. 

Athena rolled her eyes at her father and shook her head in disapproval, “Hey, Ma said you got a check from Halo! Why’s that?”

Xander quickly glanced back at Athena with his eyes wide open, and gestured with them towards Evie. Athena nodded back as he answered, “She doesn’t like Johnny Stone. She wants to keep me on the backburner just in case it doesn’t go well with him.”

Athena wrinkled her nose, “Eww! Johnny Stone, what a creeper… so you might get his part?”

“What’s so bad about Johnny Stone?” Evie butted in, “He’s a good looking actor.”

“Oh, Ma! If you knew about him you would turn green as your Spanakopita!” Xander chuckled at Athena’s analogy.

“Well why is he so bad?”

“Dad, you tell her please!” Athena laughed.

“Koukla, he goes through women like most people change underwear. He’s a good actor, but it’s been said that he is difficult to work with. Last year, he was arrested for running down a busy Hollywood street totally naked and high.”

Athena puckered her face up, “Eww… yeah Ma, I can YouTube it for you if you wanna see it!”

Evie shook her head, “No thanks, he sounds like another Malaka, nea?”

“Big time!” Nodded Xander, “Big time.”
 

“Oh, Xan. I forgot to mention that Nola needs you tomorrow.”

Xander smiled, recalling his favorite client, who was the closest thing to an aunt to him. She was such a firecracker of a lady, he thought with a smile. Nola always put him in a good mood during his visits, “So what am I fixing this week?” He asked Evie.

“Something electronic is broken. I think she breaks things on purpose so you can come fix them. If she wasn’t so old I might be suspicious.” Evie turned to Xander and gave him a raised eyebrow, “For being so rich, she at least pays you good.”

Xander nodded and smiled. “I’ll take care of it. Can you handle the staff and get them on the road in the morning?”

Evie shot him a miffed look, “Isn’t that what I usually do?”

“Hey, just checking.” Xander replied. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, “I better text Eric and let him know I’ll chat with him later.”

“Another Malaka…” Evie muttered.

Xander met Athena’s eyes and they both shook their head in unison at Evie’s remark. Xander noticed a missed call as he put his phone away.

The talking petered out as they drove the rest of the way home. Evie pulled up to their two story Craftsman style home in West Linn, ‘up on the hill’ as locals called it. Their neighborhood was your typical middle class home, the area was well kept and the schools were great. Overall, a great place to raise kids. Evie pulled into the driveway and waited for the garage door to open fully before she pulled in.

They all got out of the van and headed into the house through the garage’s laundry room entrance. Xander stepped in the laundry, stopped and took in a deep inhale through his nose, “Wow! Giouvesti!” Xander dropped his bags, turned around, and gave Evie a bear hug, “Thank you!”

“Stop it now.” Evie exclaimed trying to push Xander away playfully. Athena gave them a disgusted look as she scooted past them. He kissed his wife’s cheek and did not let go until she returned the gesture.

“Alright already, let’s get out of the laundry room.” Evie replied and extricated herself from her husband’s embrace, “Let me get your dirties out of your bag, you did put them in the bags I gave you, nea?”

“Sure thing.” He replied, left Evie to her self-appointed task and headed into the kitchen. He went to the stove, took the lid off the pot, and took in the deep, rich and sweet aroma of Evie’s Giouvesti.

Her style of Giouvesti was the best: it consisted of braised chunks of lamb added to a light tomato broth seasoned with cinnamon, allspice, cloves, dried orange peel and tarragon. When the sauce was ready, Evie would remove the lamb, drop in Orzo pasta, and cook it until tender. It was a savory, sweet extravaganza and Xander’s most favorite dish Evie made. It was better than his own was, and Evie was not one to let him forget it.