Good Greek Girls Don't by Georgia Tsialtas Page B

work, so don’t keep me any dinner, okay.’ That’s just enough to drive my mother insane. She’s getting ready to fire off a series of attacks. I can feel it; she’s formulating everything in her mind. I better head for my room before she figures out which burning question she wants to ask first.
    Too late. She corners me and starts firing. ‘Where you meet him? No tell me one them damn bars you go.’
    Mum’s ultimate nightmare is that I get serious with a guy that I meet at a bar. That’s where I met Denny. I can’t figure my mother out, she so desperately wants me to get married and settle down that she would let Thia Maria try to proxy me off with Ape Man but it would be a fate worse than death for me to meet someone at the bars. I wish she would figure out what she wants. I need make her happy, at least a little bit.
    â€˜He’s Katerina’s koumbaro , Ma.’ That is all I am telling her – just enough to allay her fears. I can already see her relief that Chris is not a bar bum. I don’t want to sit here and have a deep and meaningful with my mother about Chris. I don’t think she would appreciate a detailed description of his kisses.
    â€˜I gotta get ready to go, Ma. I’m going shopping before work.’ Ah, the joys of starting work at midday. I get to make an emergency dash to the shopping centre in search of something fabulous to wear tonight. We haven’t made definite plans about what we’re doing, but I know that I’m seeing Chris again and I have to look good. Actually, I have to look downright amazing.
    â€˜Wait a minute.’ Great, my mother wants to get all maternal on me. It’s not a good time right now. ‘Tell me something about him. What do you know about this boy?’
    I know he’s got the best lips I have ever tasted, okay mother? Somehow I don’t think that’s what she wants to hear.
    â€˜Not much, Ma. I’m finding out more about him tonight.’
    Can I go now? There are only a few shopping hours left before I have to start work.
    â€˜Slow, slow, eh, Desi.’
    Hang on, I’m now officially confused. My mother, who has been hassling me to meet a guy and settle down since I turned twenty-one, is now telling me to take things slowly. Okay, who is this woman standing before me and what has she done with my mother? And can I keep her?
    â€˜Relax, Ma. I’m not running off to elope with the guy. I’m just getting to know him.’ I don’t understand my mother and I don’t think I ever will. ‘Can I go now, Ma? I’ll call you from work, okay?’
    I’m about to rush out the door when I glance at my mother and realise that she doesn’t look herself. The kids are screaming around the backyard and she looks so exhausted as she runs after them. She looks like she hasn’t slept in days. I wish Effie would just decide to raise her own children. I think I might have a chat with Mum about it tomorrow. Then I remember – tomorrow is the day my darling yiayia is coming home! Cool, not only have I got the day off work but I get my yiayia back again. Life is definitely on the up for Desi Delagiannis.

    â€˜Desi? Earth to Desi?’
    Who said that? What’s going on? Who was rude enough to bring me back to reality and disrupt that wonderful fantasy that I was in the middle of, where Chris was kissing me and slowly laying me down? Okay, given that I have only been out with this guy once, maybe it’s a good thing someone interrupted me, especially given that I am at work trying to arrange my team’s upcoming training. I don’t think they need training in the ups and downs of Desi Delagiannis’s love life
    â€˜What?’ I think I just bit someone’s head off. Well, they shouldn’t have interrupted me when I was deep in thought. ‘Sorry, Elaine, what’s up?’
    â€˜Phone call – he sounds