Love is Lust but when Does Lust Become Love?

“Why don’t my Greek customers order the bottles of alcohol off of me?” I asked my bartender, in reference to my frustration to my V.I.P tables not ordering from me.
“Because I am Mykonian, and you are just a blonde bitch,” he said with a smile and a drag off his Marlboro Reds.
I was officially offended. Who did this tall, brown-eyed, sarcastic, boring, cousin-of-my-boss, half-Swedish/raised-on-Mykonos, chain smoking, sorry excuse for a Greek man think he was? My future boyfriend, that’s who.

I have omitted speaking about him, because I was not sure what to say. But I want you to introduce you to the love of my life, the man who I will never leave behind, Michael.

It sounds like a dream. Tall dark and handsome. Met on the island he was raised on. He is charming, sweet, thoughtful, silly, stubborn, witty, encouraging, loyal and totally everything I was not expecting to find.

He was my right hand man for most of the summer, and I hated him 70% of the time. He was the one who wasn’t working to make friends, and really did not care about anyone else. He helped me learn the ropes of the bar and being a waitress, and when I asked him how to say simple stuff in Greek, he’d say “Why? I speak English.” And walk away leaving me feeling dumb. He wouldn’t let me take pictures of him until one day, he said, “Lindsey, I think we are friends now.” That changed everything.

We began talking more and I started to find him very interesting. He had odd quirks that matched mine, and he transformed from someone I found rather boring, into a goofy, flirty and sweet man that I admired.

One night after work, we met up by mistake at a local Greek bar called Agyra (meaning Anchor). I was with my girlfriends dancing on the bar, and I looked down and saw him at my feet, smoking and drinking a rum and coke. I was so excited and surprised that he was at the bar that I knelt down and asked if he wanted to leave with me.

And that was a bit over 6 months ago. Michael and I have become very close and serious about each other. When I was living in Ireland, I flew down to Greece, and he risked being jailed to see me for New Years.

I am back in America now, and he is in the Greek army on Mykonos. I cannot imagine my life without such an amazing man. He has taught me so much and I cannot wait to see the man of my dreams in only a few more months.