"For the last time I am telling you this, Nico, these things cannot exist. It's impossible."
"Then how do you explain her?"
"Who?"
"The godess across the street."
Phillip paused his laundry endeavor to look up and across the hotel balcony. Above the graffiti'd streets and the hollering of men below, he saw a woman step out into the breeze.
"She's just a lady." Back to folding. Nico, in the next bed over, sat like a child with his knees to his chest.
""You didn't look hard enough. See-look, the most beautiful woman I ever saw."
Obliging, once again, Phillip looked up. Even from a distance the woman was indeed pretty; Her hair seemed to be every shade of amber and brown at once, it glittered in the wind. He could see rosy cheeks and a full, smooth figure-but her eyes were constantly obscured, either by her hair or her long white robe.
Presently, another woman stepped out to join the first. Like night and day they were;She had rich dark skin, which was radiant against all the white Philip could see. She drew the eye naturally.There was no denying her beauty. She was radiant against the classical style hotel,with a sheen to her that overpowered the sun. Her long, bountiful hair fell on ropes around her head. However, her face was visible.
White teeth flashed behind an overpowering smile. Phillip had to catch his breath as their eyes caught. They seemed to be wrought from an archaic gold, timeless in their unyeilding glory.
"Do you know what this means, Phillip?"
Phillip ripped his gaze from the hotel balcony. Curtians fluttered and a breeze hit his beguiled face.
"She's the godess Aphrodite! I'm sure of it!"
"So?"
"So!? She's taken another female lover-" The two women embraced before going back inside. "What do you think that means for us, huh?" Nico waggled his eyebrows.
Phillip chucked a bundle of dirty socks Nico's way. Nico deftly dodged and chuckled. It was getting dark. "Come on now."
"You come on now! Aren't you the least bit exited to have seen a godess in the flesh? We have to make an offering , of something at least." Outside, a wandering accordian struck up a tune.
"If I pour my pommegranite tea in the sink, will it make you happy?" Phillip mocked. The socks were tossed back, hitting him in the forehead.
The night in Thessaloniki dwindled on as the two men exchanged banters every so often. The streets crawled with life below, even until the early hours between days. The two finally whished eachother a good night and went to bed.
******
The next morning was hectic, as all hotel mornings at 6AM are. Nico sleepily followed a bushy-tailed Phillip down to the front desk.
"I'm sorry we can't eat breakfast now, we have to be at the TED talk in two hours and, Ah, Yasas, Checking out of room 404, please."
Just as he was about to berate Nico for sneaking off to the kitchen, Phillip watched as the two women from the balcony walked in without a word. The Manager kept his nose down to the computer. Time stood still for Phillip.
Silently, the woman with gold eyes pressed a rose to Philip's chest. The pair kept on moving, but in those few seconds far and inbetween she whispered, "Good luck." All at once Phillip was reminded of his sister, his mother, his grandmother, and every single woman he'd ever met in his life. The rose, as he found out later, would never fade from it's magnimous beauty; Even when he dried and pressed it some years later, the red remained fully flushed.
Nico snaked his way back from the dining hall with a crunchy slice of pistomi in his mouth. He tried to down it all at once and talk to Phillip at the same time.
"Are we checked out yet? Oh! I stole some oranges for you." Two more objects were forced into Phillip's hand that day. Nico sniffed the rose. "Where'd you get this? How did you know I love roses?" He gently took the flower from the bewildered man and kissed him on the cheek. "I think out bus is here. Let's go." Nico walked off, leaving Phillip in a daze before snapping awake and running to catch up to him.
