As Nicasio settled in to his room for the evening to wait for Daniela's call, he considered what her plight might currently be, some fifty nautical miles to the east of him on the island of Andros. He quickly thumbed through his Greek guide book learning that it was a prominently historical island in the Cycladic chain. It was also among the ten percent of those two hundred some islands in the central Aegean Sea which were actually populated. This fact, coupled with his memory of the Greek professor's house being quite impossible to find within the labyrinthine village of Stenies, only added to his worries.

After a brief and tepid shower, he put on some minimally presentable clothing so as to be respectable if seen in the institute's cafeteria. It was there he planned to visit shortly, possibly to bring back to his room a sandwich and soft drink. Clicking on the TV for the first time since their arrival to the dormitory, he could find no English speaking channels. All the Greek mass media seemed to be showing the same live gathering of Athenian protesters nearby in Syntagma Square. Tensions apparently were mounting once again concerning the countries years-long economic crises and the austere conditions the Greek people were having to endure. A line of helmeted and shield bearing policemen had amassed themselves as a barrier in front of the Neo-Classical Parliament building, already brightly lit against the early evening sky. An angry crowd was growing and moving forward with banners in Greek, while young males and what seemed to be fleet footed teens in hooded sweatshirts were taunting the line of governmental defenders with rocks and debris.

Nicasio tried to take his mind off the civil turbulence which ostensibly was happening concurrently only blocks away from where he watched. He flipped through the twenty some channels looking for some miraculous basketball game, which, with a cold beer in hand, used to give him solace from his academic pressures back at Cal. At least the beer would be nice, he thought, as the channels began to repeat for the second time. He had already noticed days before that no alcoholic beverages were sold at the facility's cafeteria. He looked at his Blackberry, as he had done all day, hoping there would be a message or call from Daniela. What could she be doing there in the midst of an all-female cell group, now being investigated internationally for criminal activities? The helplessness of waiting by the phone and wondering such things was too disturbing for him to remain idle.

As Nicasio went into the bathroom and mechanically brushed his teeth as a prelude to going out briefly, there was a soft knock on his door. He paused and thought of who it might be. Could Daniela have found her way back to Athens alone?

Opening the door slowly and peering out into the dim hallway, he was confronted by a radiantly made up and slightly nervous, Stacie-the grad student from St. Louis. The flirtatious girl he had spent the evening with at the Gennadius celebration. She smiled at him cordially, albeit somewhat self-consciously. She also seemed to be carrying something.

"Y'all aren't busy, I hope." She said timidly, looking with interest beyond Nicasio into the room.

"Oh. . . Stacie! Hello. Yeah. Well . . . no."

She stood motionless with an open-faced expression, waiting for him to invite her in or reject the offer of company.

"I brought ya'll a little somethin. It just might remind you of home," she added, looking down at the small ice chest she carried with some difficulty.

"Yeah? . . . well yes . . . come in!"

Nicasio could smell a floral fragrance as she passed by him into the room. It was the essence of fresh shampoo and some expensive-smelling perfume. She walked over and placed the portable chest on the small table in the corner. He could not help but notice her tight jeans and heals which gave her walk and delivery a consciously sexy attitude. Facing him fully now, he could also not miss the cleavage of her breasts, displayed through the choice of a low-cut, yellow, summer top. It complimented the color of her blond hair perfectly.

As Stacie paused and allowed him to further peruse her, she waited for the signal to stay and be seated somewhere. He quickly located the two chairs, which had been used to hang clothing on, and slid them noisily back to their rightful position at the table. He smiled invitingly, and then motioned for her to sit down.

"Daniela?" Stacie breached the question cautiously before becoming too comfortable.

"Um . . . yeah. She's . . . working on a project . . . outside of Athens. Completely outside, you might say."

"OK then. See? I kinda thought maybe y'all weren't really together. I mean as a couple and stuff. My supervisor? Well. . . she and I had this argument about that. She thought y'all might be . . . you know. But I just never thought so."

Stacie smiled more confidently, displaying her impeccable while teeth. "There. Ya see, Nicasio? Sometimes we just know better than our professors." She laughed to herself proudly.

"Well Stacie . . . actually we've been . . ."

"So by now you're prolly getting pretty tired of that ole cafeteria stuff, right?"

Nicasio smiled. "Yeah. How'd you guess?"

"And see I just had this crazy notion that you might be a beer drinker . . .like me."

Stacie proceeded to open the ice chest and take out two frosty cans of Amstel. The red label variety which Theo had introduced to him to on the ferryboat.

"Wow! Your hunch was right on, girl!" Nicasio eagerly took the icy, wet can and waited for Stacie to do the same. "Glasses?" he asked.

"No need, really," she said. "Not in the town where I'm from," and proceeded to pop the tops for both of them. They lifted the cans across the table and tapped them together.

Stacie took a small sip. "Well . . . it ain't Bud, like we drink back home, but she'll do, I guess."

Nicasio drank voraciously, downing half the can in one swallow.

"Stacie . . . Bravo. You don't know how long I've waited for that."

"Yeah, I do know. See . . . there's a few great things a girl can miss being so far from home."

In order not to obviously react to the seductive invitation, Nicasio took another long drink of his beer. He placed the empty can onto the table.

"So. Well you must miss your guy back in St' Louis, I suppose. Huh?"

"Yeah," she answered, in a surprisingly genuine tone. "And there's some things in that department I really miss . . . a few you might say . . . I could use right now."

Nicasio knew the ball was now in his court if he was ever to play the game.

"Is there . . . another beer in that chest?" he asked. Coyly, as another detour.

"Sure, hon. Here ya go."

Nicasio opened the can and began drinking the cold beer slower than before-thinking of his current options. He had honestly not been sexually unfaithful to Daniela during their five years together, though there had been a few of his freshmen girls he had fantasies about during his lectures. His temperance was partly due to his frenetic schedule, how he had focused his life on his studies the past years. But it was mostly how compatible he and Daniela at least used to be. Now, however, he thought about how things were changing between them. How Daniela had certainly been cold to him of late. And especially on this trip. He too could savor what Stacie was so boldly alluding to. It would not be difficult to initiate what they both would obviously enjoy, he thought. And the timing could not be better.

"Oh my gosh." Stacie suddenly said, leaning over the table, her face coming closer to his. "I just noticed those precious little green flecks you got in your brown eyes. I hadn't seen them before. Wow, honey . . . you got some pretty sexy eyes there."

Nicasio, not impervious to Stacie's powers of passive seduction, finally made his choice.

"Well then," he said playfully. "So let's see those eyes of yours up a little closer." He knew the comment if well-received would pretty much dictate how the evening was going to proceed.

Stacie took his equally flirtatious remark as the green light she had been waiting for. She got out of her chair and walked around the table to him. Gingerly, she bent down and looked closely into his eyes, bringing their faces only inches apart.

"Well . . . what do you see?"

Their so blue . . . like the Aegean," he acknowledged stupidly.

Neither of them even heard the hollow compliment as Stacie used the opportunity to sit on Nicasio's lap while he put his arm around her waist. As she brought her mouth down close to his, they kissed softly at first-then more eagerly, while Nicasio caressed her back and eventually around to her full breasts. Stacie's breathing was pronounced as she ran her fingers through is long hair. He proceeded to unbutton her blouse completely as they both confirmed with their lips and tongues their sudden voracious resolve to make love.

Both now standing up, Nicasio embraced her tightly. While kissing her again deeply, he ran his hands down her curvaceous hips and thighs, then lingered with his fingertips lightly on the cleavage her buttocks. This brought more heaving breaths from Stacie as she pressed against him. Her sensations of his close body confirmed that he was fully erect now and willing to move their impending union to a more intense level in the next room.

Like-mindedly, Nicasio suddenly lifted her up in his arms and carried her into the bedroom. He leaned her back onto the unmade bed while still half kissing and caressing her. Stacie broke away long enough to quickly undressed herself. From somewhere, as if magically, she produced a little square plastic package and put it into Nicasio's hand. Recognizing its shape and purpose, Nicasio opened it. While at the same time removing his jeans, underwear and shirt, he fitted the condom deftly onto himself. They then both resumed their forward progress onto the mattress. Soon he was covering Stacie's smooth and eager body with his own muscular physique. He held her hands pinned down to both of her sides of her head as he kissed and teased her breasts and hardened nipples with his mouth. She was moaning softly at first. Then as he released her hands, he kissed down her chest and stomach to her thighs. At this, the buxom girl from St. Louis began to whisper deliriously how she had wanted him since they had first met. Slowly and purposefully, Nicasio's mouth moved lower to a place where it began to confirm the young woman's wishes delightfully, and beyond her imaginings.

"Now! Now! Take me now!" she shouted out breathlessly, her shapely legs yielding open to his whole body. With her knees now in the air, and Nicasio's body arching and thrusting, they both savored for a few glorious moments the quintessential truce between the sexes-which in the course of a lifetime is infinitesimally brief and proportionately almost as insignificant.

* * *