Chapter 7

It was a weird morning to wake up, receiving nothing from my landlady about my rent. I could've been kicked out, but she wasn't bugging me this morning was a little weird. I knew something was going on so I called her even though she might hate it.

"Hello," I started when she picked up the call. "Good morning!" It was like I was talking to air and she wasn't responding. "Uhm. . . I just wanted to ask if it would be possible to extend the payment for my rent. I just don't have enough money yet. . ."

"No," when she said it, I knew I couldn't sway her mind out of this. "But you don't have to worry about paying me anymore."

My forehead creased when she mentioned those words that were seemingly music to my ears. "Why? Just a few days ago, you've been wanting me to pay for it. What's the sudden change of heart?"

"There's no change of heart, Atissa," she said straightforwardly to me. "A beautiful man just came into me and paid your due."

My eyes widened as I expected someone would do that for me. I don't think I've made a good relationship with someone else that would pay my rent. I'd like to think that it was Giannis who paid them for me.

"Man? Did he tell you his name?"

"No. Just pay me on time next month's rent, Atissa, and you'll be fine."

I was about to question her even more, but she just hung up the call on me. I was still a little confused because I didn't know someone who would do this good deed for me. I don't think anyone would do it, to be honest. I grabbed a robe and put it on myself. I stood in front of the mirror, fixed my hair, and put a ponytail on it. As soon as I believed I looked good enough even though I hadn't taken a shower yet. I stepped out of my house and went to the next door in Gianni's house. 

I knocked on Giannis' door, but it was taking too long to respond. I started calling out his name as I thought he could be still asleep at that moment. 

"Giannis, come out, come out, wherever you are!" I sang as if that would make a change. "Dammit!"

"Hey, Atissa!" I was about to head back to my house when someone just called my name and there I heard Giannis' voice outside of the house. When I looked around, from the second floor of the building, I found him sitting at a table with someone else. When that person came looking over in my direction, I was so shocked to discover that it was Konstantin. "Come over here!"

I don't know what to do. If I should come over and see them or that I'll head back to my room as I don't want to see his face again. Giannis doesn't seem to be bothered by what happened to us last night. It was like, they were friends now and I hated to see them like this.

I didn't have a choice but to go downstairs to see them. I don't want to do it, but I have to know who paid for my rent. It could be Giannis and I don't want the slightest hint that it would be Konstantin my landlady calling him gorgeous. That was just a low standard of beauty I must say.

As soon as I got in their direction, he wasn't giving me enough emotion, but when I looked at Giannis, his smile never faltered. I didn't pay any attention to him so I just faced Giannis who was the one who deserved all of my attention. I smiled at him. In doing that, I know I would be pissing him off and that would make him leave us alone and his little dumb ass will go back to where he belongs.

"Good morning, Giannis? What are you doing here? What time is it anyway?"

He looked down to see his wrist where he checked the clock on his watch. "It's almost eight in the morning. . ." My jaw dropped as I didn't expect I would be waking up this early. "Did you just wake up?" he asked, giggling.

I nodded. "I did because I was wondering, well, this was a weird morning for me. . ."

"Oh, I love weird topics. Tell me all about it," he said, making me sit on the vacant chair next to him which was sitting across Konstantin. I still didn't pay attention to him even though I knew he was looking so intently at me. I felt like those stares he gave were piercing through me and if I got caught in his gazes, it would be the death of me. "What is it?"

"Well, my landlady just told me that I don't have to pay my rent anymore because it was already paid. How amazing that news is, right?" I told him and held his hand. "So, thank you for your kindness, Gian. I really appreciate your help to me. You know what, if there would be a chance for me to do the same thing, I—"

I was cut off from my sentence when Konstantin started smirking on our side.  As I put my eyes on him and cocked my brow at him, he wasn't stopping as if playing this image of a bad boy in front of me would intimidate me.

"But. . . Ati, I don't remember paying for your rent. If you remember what we discussed last night, I don't have enough money that I could let you borrow so I wouldn't be the one who paid for your rent. I don't have the extra money to do that, Ati. I'm sorry to tell you that, but I guess you should be glad because you don't have to worry about it anymore?"

"Sure. . . But who the fuck will do that to me? I don't think Vaia would pay my rent."

"I did," Konstantin said, raising his hand.

Giannis and I's heads quickly turned to him. I wouldn't like to believe it because he could probably be playing on me again. I don't want to his ego up because of what he did for me. I don't want it. It didn't seem so genuine and just made me look helpless as he might've called it a donation to me. I don't want to feed his ego. 

"Why would you do that?" I questioned him. I tried to sound ungrateful, but deep inside me, I was still thankful that I didn't have to worry about paying my rent, but it didn't have to be this man. "I don't think you shouldn't have done that. I don't need your help. I didn't ask for it. I think you should mind your own business from now on."

"Why can't you just be grateful about it?" he countered the question back to me. "I don't think you should question me."

"Why not? I didn't ask for you to do it though."

He shrugged off his shoulder. "Well, it's been done and I don't think you could change what was made already. If you can pay me today, that would be fine for me. Just to tell you, I am not asking for you to pay me back."

I crossed my arms together with my brow rising from the statement he gave. "I don't believe every word you said, Mister." I stood and grunted that I just wanted to flip the table off and went rogue. "I know what you're doing and you're coming back to me just because of what I did."

"Yup, at least you remembered that," he said, calm and kept his composure even though I was mad as hell. Giannis could probably be running away by now, but he stayed just to see what would happen. "Well, you should learn that stealing from other people shouldn't be what you were doing. Don't you think the people who cared for you would be proud of you just because you stole from a rich person? That was such a disappointment."

"That's it. You're done. . ."

I stormed out of the spot and walked back to my apartment. Giannis started calling me and I knew he would follow me back to my room.  I don't know about the other guy, but the only thing I cared about was to get away from the face of that devil human being.

I wasn't wrong when Giannis followed me to my apartment. I got inside the room and he stepped inside as well. He quickly grabbed my arm and turned to see his face even though I was so over with it.

"What are you going to tell me now?" I asked, rolling my eyes. "Are you just going to tell me that I should be grateful for what he did? I don't think so. . ."

He sighed and let go of his hand on my arm. "Well, what I can say more? Well, what he did could maybe be out of the line for you. He should've asked you first if you needed some help or whatever. . .But to his argument, what you did to him was also way out of line. You stole from him, but he still did something great to you in return."

"I don't think it was just that, Gian," I said. "No one would do such a thing and make a good thing out of it. He is up to something and I should figure that out."

"Maybe I guess you should. . ."

"And how I will do that?"

He shrugged his shoulder off. "Maybe ask him what he wants? I don't know, Ati. I strongly believe he came here for you. When I saw him earlier, I knew he was looking for you. Talk to him, but first, calm yourself down. You can do this. I also think you should benefit from whatever he would do. First off, he already paid your rent so that's a check on the box. . . What could be next, right?"

My eyes squinted as I thought about what would he want for me. "What if he wanted me to become his personal sex slave?"

"What?" he was surprised. "There are other things you could be thinking right now, Ati, I just don't think that would be the one you would be saying."

I shrugged off. "I don't know his intentions. Really. He could be a bad guy. Or a good guy. He's rich. His family is. He could be part of a gang or if the mafia group was even real, he could be the leader. What did I get myself into, Gian?"

"Well, you were the one who put yourself up in this situation. It would be up to you if you're going to leave it as it is or suffer from the consequences."

I let out a sharp sigh. "Tell me honestly, if I let this man be a part of my life, would you be there with me?"

He smiled and nodded at me. "Of course, I would be there for you. And to correct you, I guess, Konstantin is already a part of your life now because Mykonos is just a small island, you can't get away from someone else you already know where you live."

"Yeah, that's suck. . . Whatever. . . Would you please call him so I could get this done already?"

"Are you sure?"

I glared at him. "Gian, you were—"

"Yeah, yeah, calm down. . . Have a seat first and I'll call him, alright?" He put me down on the chair and as soon as he thought that I was calm enough, he left the room and stepped outside the house to call Konstantin.

I took a deep breath and slowly let it go. Well, I thought this morning would be different, but I guess it was just like any other day. I hope whatever his intentions were for me were all good because there's nothing in life I wanted more, but a life I could be happy and contented.

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