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My smile widens at the sound of her angelic voice.
“Hello, Deanna,” I greet.
She pauses for a second before asking, “Yiorgos?”
“You remembered.”
Deanna giggles. “Since you are the only person I’ve met recently with an accent, you’re not hard to forget. Why didn’t you tell Lena your name instead of saying a close friend? I didn’t know we were close friends.”
Oh, we’re going to be close friends and so much more.
“I wanted to surprise you,” I tell her.
“This is definitely a surprise. I didn’t think you were going to call,” she confesses.
Curious, I ask, “Why would you think that?”
She giggles again. “Because some men don’t like it when a woman is so forward with them. I normally wouldn’t do that. Maybe it was the wine, I don’t know but I threw caution to wind.”
“I’m glad you did and to be honest, I thought it was very alluring the way you came up to our table.”
“Really?” she questions.
“Yes. Most women get intimidated in my presence but not you, Deanna. You walked up with confidence in you steps like a woman who’s not intimidated by any man or woman,” I reply. Moving on to why I called her, I say, “The reason why I’m calling is to see if you available to go out for a cup of coffee or dinner tonight.”
“I have coffee here at my bookstore,” she laughs.
“True, but if you’re like me, sometimes you want to get away from your business for a while. Plus, I don’t want our first outing to be at your bookstore. You might get the impulse to help a customer while we’re in deep conversation.”
“Sad but true. Okay, I haven’t had lunch yet, so how about you meet me at this little eatery that’s not too far from the bookstore,” she states. I write down the address when she gives it. “Okay, it’s almost one now and I don’t want to leave Lena with a store full of customers, so let’s meet there at two-thirty. Is that okay with you?”
“Two-thirty is perfect. That’ll give me enough time to finish up a few things here at the office. I look forward to seeing you.”
Somehow, I could hear her smile as she says, “I look forward to seeing you too. Bye, Yiorgos.”
“Bye, Deanna,” I return, ending the call.
Let me hurry up and go over these reports. I should hand them off to Basil, but I won’t because I like to stay up to date on how our businesses are going. He’ll look over them too, but I’m a hands-on kind of Boss. If one report is off, I want to fucking know why.
By one one-forty-five, the reports were done, and everything checked out. Basil came into the office earlier to see if I wanted to order lunch, but I told him I had made other arrangements. He seemed a little put out saying he didn’t see anything on my calendar for today. I said something came up, but I would give him the location of where I’ll be.
Basil and I usually do everything together but this meeting with Deanna, I wanted to spend some one-on-one time with her. Once I gave Basil the address, he seemed to calm down but not before stating he was going to have some of our men stationed around the restaurant. He was only looking out for me. Being the Head of the Greek Mafia family in Chicago and roaming around the city without his right-hand man, it’s his job to make sure no shit happens to me. Of course, Basil knew if any shit occurred while I was out, I had no problem handling it myself.
I gave the address to my driver when I got downstairs. After entering it into his GPS, he relayed we would be at the restaurant in twenty minutes. As he drove off, I sat back and appreciated the Windy City. Yes, the crime and death tally are high but it’s still a beautiful city. Chicago is like every major city I’ve visited before. It has it’s good and bad elements, but I’m equally impressed with all of it.
Riding through the scenic part of the city seemed to make time fly by as my driver pulled up to our destination. I smile looking at the name of the restaurant’s large window,Signature Gyro’s.Glancing at my watch, there’s still five minutes until our meet up time. I decide to get out and check the place out. Maybe Deanna has arrived early as well.
“Wait here,” I tell the driver.
“Yes, sir,” he returns as I get out, then close the door.
I’ve seen many little restaurants like this one around the city selling gyros and other fast-food items but never stopped to try them out. Mythos is my go-to place if I wanted a taste of home, not a one stop place for gyros and burgers.
Entering, chimes ring as I stop in my tracks. Delicious aromas that remind me of my mother’s kitchen hit me all at once. How have I not heard of this place?
“Welcome to Signature. Please sit wherever you like,” an older woman with a Greek accent greets from behind the counter. An older gentleman is behind her slicing gyro meat off the spit.
“Ευχαριστ? (Thank you),” I return with a warm smile. As she smiles back, the man turns around to get a good look at me. I give him a nod of respect. There are only eight tables in here and six of them are already occupied, so I go over to the table in the far-right corner and sit with my back to the wall. Plus, I’ll be able to see Deanna when she comes in.
