The Greek Billionair's Marriage Matchmaker(7)

"A little bit of both," Stelios laughed. "My mother loved showing me how  to cook her food. I remember her saying, ‘You may be in America now,  but you should always have something from your country'. She used to  make the most wonderful tirokroketes. You'd happily fight people to get  to them."



"And tirokroketes are … ?" Zoey asked, as she fetched butter and ground beef from the fridge.



"Basically, they're fried cheese balls."



"That sounds delicious. My mother and I never really did any cooking  together, except once, when I needed to make brownies for a school  fundraiser. We got all the ingredients together and my mom dug up a  cookbook she'd bought when I was about four. For some reason, she'd  never used it. We put everything in the bowl, but we didn't have a  mixer, so I volunteered. The stuff was so thick I thought my arms would  fall off, but I wanted to do it myself. My mom kept cheering me on as I  stirred, and in the end, it came together."



"I hope your brownies turned out better than my first attempt," he said, shaking his head and tossing onions into the pan.



Zoey didn't have the heart to tell him that they had. Instead, she asked him about the restaurant.



"I bought the place about four years ago. I was feeling kind of  homesick, and I wanted something that would remind me of Greece and my  family. I had to work really hard to get it to where it is now-the  previous owner was a terrible manager, and did a lot of skimping to save  money. The guy wasn't big on upkeep, and it's taken me a long this time  to deal with the damage from that. I used to think I'd never get  everything fixed. But now," he said as Zoey introduced the ground beef  to the pan, "nearly everything's been handled, and the restaurant has  been a success."



"That's wonderful," said Zoey over the hissing of the oil. "I couldn't  help noticing how beautiful everything looked on the way in here."



"Thanks. I was very enthusiastic about the design. I'm glad the décor impressed you, even if I couldn't."



"Oh, you're a very impressive person, Stelios," Zoey said. "You just needed to slow things down a bit."



"I think you're right," the Greek replied, as he started on a reduction. Thanks to you, we'll soon have a meal we can stomach."

         

     



 

"Thanks to us, you mean, "Zoey insisted with a smile. "I was having trouble cutting an onion five minutes ago, remember?"



Over the next forty-five minutes, the two worked together, cutting the  phyllo to fit a baking pan. Following Stelios' instructions, Zoey  buttered eight sheets of the stuff and layered it in the pan. Stelios  topped that with the meat, and Zoey added eight more sheets. They popped  their creation into the oven, sure this time that the effort would  succeed. When it did, they congratulated each other as a rich, warm  scent wafted through the air.



It had barely been an hour, but Zoey was beginning to feel at home. She  was surprised to find a soft little smile wouldn't leave her face.  Stelios was just starting to tell her about the first time he made  kreatopita when every light in the kitchen flickered violently.



"Shit," Stelios exclaimed, just a loud whirring noise filled the air.



It was the familiar sound that Zoey knew indicated a power drain. The  room was suddenly plunged into darkness. Every device in the kitchen  went dead, except the gas burners. Stelios turned a few more of them on.



"Well, the joys of living in New York huh?" Zoey said, fishing her phone out of her pocket and turning on the flashlight app.



"It seems so, Zoey. There's a little supply closet in the corner over there. Could you grab a few candles?"



"Sure. No problem." Zoey moved to the right-hand corner of the kitchen and fished a handful of candles out of a small cupboard.



Taking several candleholders and a box of matches, she went into the  main restaurant and began creating pools of light. In moments, the  entire area had a cozy glow, and Zoey placed a candlestick in the center  of the table nearest to the kitchen, ready for them to sit down.



A few minutes later, Stelios came out of the kitchen with a tray that  bore two decently-plated helpings of kreatopita, a bright, green salad, a  chilled bottle of wine, and two glasses. Setting everything on the  table, he made a place setting for Zoey and filled her glass. Once he  had done the same for himself, he took a seat beside her, and for a  moment, he watched the reflected candlelight flicker in her eyes.



"Not quite what you were expecting, huh?" Stelios remarked, handing Zoey a cloth napkin."



"Not at all," she admitted, "but when you think about it, it really isn't that bad. In a way, it's kind of romantic."



"Great. Then my master plan has succeeded," he joked. "I hope you enjoy the food," he added.



"I'm sure I will," Zoey replied, cutting herself a piece of the meat  pie. She put it in her mouth and her face lit up. Savory spices combined  pleasantly with a flaky, buttery crust, and the rich flavor of the  ground beef brought the whole thing together. True, she thought the  crust was a little harder than it probably should have been, but it was a  good effort and a very tasty one.



"This is excellent, Stelios. You did a great job."



"We did a great job, remember?" he reminded her, sipping some of his wine.



Zoey gave a little laugh and nodded in agreement before taking another  bite. "This really is good, though," she said as Stelios followed her  lead. "I think I taste oregano and … I can't make out the other spice.  What else did you put in?"



"Dill. I've been told it helps to balance the flavors. This turned out  well but it doesn't hold a candle to my mother's cooking. No pun  intended."



Zoey giggled, even as she rolled her eyes.



"Whenever my mother made anything, it felt like an event. People were  always telling her she should open a restaurant. I believe she wanted  to, but she never found the time. That's part of why this place means so  much to me. In a way, it feels like I helped her accomplish one of her  dreams."



Zoey put her fork down for a moment. She was looking at Stelios' face,  and though he was valiantly trying to hide it, she saw that his features  had drawn tight, the corners of his lips had turned down, and his eyes  looked suddenly heavy with the weight of tears he refused to shed. A  profound sadness had covered his face like a fog, and it sprang into  Zoey's heart and took root.         

     



 



"What happened to your mother," she asked quietly, though she was almost certain what the answer would be.



"She and my father left the world eight years ago. They were coming back  from visiting our family in Greece. The authorities still aren't  entirely sure how it happened, but the plane … " He paused. "It crashed on  its way back here."



"That's awful," Zoey replied soberly. "I'm sorry for your loss."



"Thank you," Stelios replied with a brave smile, doing his best to  lighten the mood a little. "I miss them every day, but I try to remember  that they led rich lives. I wanted to go to Greece with them, but I  felt like someone had to stay here and look after the business. It's  older than I am, and I wouldn't have trusted anyone outside of the  family to run it. Ever since they died, I've just been working as hard  as I can to make it better. It's really all I have left of them."



"Well, I'm sure they would be extremely proud of you," said Zoey.  "You've been a fantastic success in real estate, and you're a wonderful  person. You're even a half decent cook," she added with a bit of a  smirk, patting him affectionately on the shoulder.



The Greek felt the muscles in his face relax. "That's nice of you to  say, Zoey. Thank you," he returned. "Originally, I'd planned to keep up  the pace permanently, but then a couple of weeks ago, I turned  thirty-two."



"Happy belated."



"Thanks. My father was the same age when I was born, and that starting  me thinking seriously about a lot of things that hadn't crossed my mind  before. What I realized was that I was all alone, with no one to share  everything I've been building with. It suddenly occurred to me that it  was time to find a good person to settle down with. I saw that the best  way to remember my parents was with a family of my own. And that's why I  decided to pay a visit to your mother."



What a nice thought, Zoey thought to herself, feeling moved and a little  intimidated at the same time. The fact that he had put so much effort  into their date was a clear indication that he was considering her as  someone to share his life with. Zoey thought his intentions were sweet,  but she also wondered what Stelios wanted with her. She was a normal  woman, with an overbearing mother, and a desk job. What was a handsome,  famous billionaire going to do with her?