THE destination | the Rebel & the Seeker

Chapter 11

Τι να το κάνω

που σου κλέβω μια αγκαλιά, στα κλεφτά

τι να το κάνω

To his surprise, Dian found Nikos sitting in the empty dining room of the hotel. The young Greek was enjoying his strong (Greek) morning coffee with fresh chaux pastry and was browsing YouTube videos.
Dian waved in his direction and had a cappuccino prepared for him on the bar. For now he took just some fruits although he would prefer congee...

"Hello, how are you? When did you arrive?" Dian sit down and accomplished this bizarre scene when only two of them were sitting in this huge room at this late morning time.
The rest of the guests did not wake up yet.

"I took the first plane from Athens this morning and came just to say greetings to the owner and his family."
Dian felt relieved somehow although there would be no need to be stressed out. There was no chance of any "witnesses" of the last night's events...

"And anyway, we did not do anything wrong. So no stress, right?" Dian made up his mind.

"And no regrets." His inner voice added.

"I understood that there was a cancelled flight yesterday?" Dian tried to start a harmless conversation. He was not very comfortable around people he does not know well but with Thanos' "little" brother it was somehow different. One could even say that Nikos was radiating some kind of aura that made people want to talk and open up to him.

"Well..." he smiled like a small child that cannot wait to tell you a secret, "I actually had an important contract for yesterday's evening, a performance on a big event so I could not come. It was supposed to happen a week earlier but there were some changes, whatever, they had to postpone it. When I found out, I asked Thanos to help me out. I could not tell it openly since our grandfather ordered us to come to the wedding. The dance was even his idea and he promised it without asking me. I know there is no way to oppose him in advance. It is easier to face his anger after you have set and done what you want. How did it come out anyway?"

"The performance was great, all three of them were perfect..." Dian fell into thoughts.
"So, you say that you arranged it with Thanos all in advance?"

"About a week ago, yes."

Dian remained silent. His head was overthinking again: "It almost looks like Thanos planned it all in advance as well..." Some other small details from that night sparkled in his memory...

"Did Thanos already have his breakfast? Where is he?"

"I think he is still sleeping," Dian replied automatically.

"Hmmm...?" Nikos was startled: "Is he feeling sick?"

Dian just looked up from his cup with a puzzled face.

"He gets up with the sunrise. Since he was a boy," Nikos was explaining, "he cannot help himself, it is a kind of biological alarm clock."

They both thought silently about calling him to check, but some distant melody broke up the good intention.

"I think it is your phone," Nikos smiled on the indifferent boy that was clearly not noticing his phone ringing in his back pocket.

Dian was pretty sure this is not a ringtone of his phone and took it out to prove it.

Well...it was not his ringtone. But it was ringtone for somebody calling him... At a phone that was obviously not his.

Dian was looking confused on the screen that was showing his name while a slow melody was playing gently yet clearly. Nikos was observing this scene with rising interest. His intuition was already on the track of something.