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“Look,” I start. “I just told you the cities of the tour, they are all high-end, on another level…” I don’t know how to finish this without sounding like a complete a-hole.
But by the dark look on Spencer’s face, I don’t need to. He’s already mad.
“Greece too poor for you?” he asks.
“I didn’t say that.” But I thought it. I feel like a complete and utter douche.
“Might be, I don’t know. The thing is, I’m in love,” Wes says quietly.
“I know,” I reply, “with your stunt actor, Ari. People tell me it’s all over the internet. It happens. My deepest condolences.”
But Spence doesn’t even crack a smile.
“No. I mean, yes, but I’m in love with Greece as well. You’ve never seen such a place, Isaiah. It’s wild and untamed and so gentle at the same time. I can’t even describe it. And its people… They are going through hell, but they always have a kind word for a stranger, a meal to share. Even if they can hardly afford to put food on the table, they’ll offer half of their bread to a foreigner. I just… I changed there. I found something worth keeping.”
I fall silent, listening to him. What he describes seems unreal, like something out of a book.
“So I made myself a promise,” he says. “What’s the use of having money if you can’t spend it on something that needs it? People talk about Greece on the news, how it’s fallen on hard times, and then they turn around and make fun of its people in racist movies. But do you know what I see? Every time I visit, regardless of the month, it’s teeming with visitors and tourists. Do you know how many A-listers have actual homes built in Greece so they can soak up its sun in peace? But they don’t do anything to help. Well, I have a house there now, and I won’t be one of them. If I have to blackmail one of my friends to go and have a concert there, I’ll do it.”
He's still not smiling. But neither am I.
I totally get what he’s saying. So many people want an excuse to visit Greece in their lifetime. My show would give them that excuse. They would flock to it, I know it.
As soon as my team announced that I was taking the tour to Europe, cities fell over themselves trying to secure one appearance at least. We rejected freaking Paris for months on end, for crying out loud. But then we finally fit it in. And now I’m going to ask that we go to Greece?
“You’re not blackmailing me,” I say. “You’re making a lot of sense, that’s what you’re doing.”
A smile lightens up his whole face. “Not everyone gets it,” he says. “If you knew how many people I’ve talked to…” His brow darkens again. “But when was the last time you heard of someone actually going to the trouble of doing something to change the world?”
When was the last time I actually went to the trouble of doing something? Something good. Something that would make a difference.
Never, that’s when.
“Athens,” I say. “You’ve been there, right?”
He lets out a laugh. “I have. It’s… it’s something. There are ancient marble columns next to grocery stores. The temples, the sunshine, the markets, the art… Not to mention that Athen’s walls are usually covered in colors and obscene words in Greek. Also, quotes by Greek philosophers.”
‘The nightingales won’t let you sleep in Platres,’I quote.
“Well, not quite that literary,” he replies. I sit up in shock.
“You know the quote?”
“I do,” he shrugs.
Then I remember, the dude reads. He’s weird like that. And I guess, if he’s ‘fallen in love with Greece’, whatever that means, he reads Greek poets too.
“Athens, Thessaloniki, the Cyclades… I love it, man. All of it,” he says.
“Of course you do, but your judgement is clouded by all the sex.”
He bursts out laughing even harder. He opens the door and slips into his coat. Snowflakes land on his lapels. Suddenly, I can’t wait to get a breath off the blue, open sea of the Mediterranean.
“Look, we’ve decided on all the tour stops,” I tell him, “it’s too late. Plus, I doubt we’ll sell out.”
“Athens has one of the biggest stadiums in Europe. The Olympics took place in it a few decades ago… You know that this is the land where the Olympic games were born right?”
He’s one stubborn guy when he wants to.
