New York City, 1930
Percy P.O.V
The Lotus Hotel was one of the swankiest joints in the entire city. Those who were in the know would give the password "Mount Saint Helen" at the front desk and a bellhop would show you to the top floor, which held the Lotus Hotel's biggest attraction.
A man called Dionysus ran a number of speakeasies across Manhattan but the jewel in his crown was the Ogygia which was hidden on the top floor of the Lotus Hotel. My friends and I often went there since my buddy Leo was sweet on a girl named Calypso, who worked there as a waitress, and my other buddy Jason was seeing a jazz singer named Piper, who was the club's headliner.
Dionysus himself was there that night, mingling among his guests.
"Peter Johnson," he shouted when he saw me walk through the door.
"It's Percy Jackson," I corrected him with a scowl.
Dionysus was short and chubby with thinning dark, curly hair, and a ruddy complexion. He looked like a cherub from a Renaissance painting, who had a beer gut, an alcoholic nose, and an annoying habit of getting people's names wrong. The bastard didn't scare me, even though he was an Olympian, a member of the gang that ran this part of the city. Zeus, the head of the Olympian outfit, practically owned Manhattan.
The Ogygia was decorated to look something like an Ancient Greek temple with marble Corinthian columns, potted palms, and mosaics that told the stories of mythological heroes. My usual table was by the one about Perseus, who I had been named after.
Calypso, the waitress, came over to the table. She was a gorgeous girl with caramel colored hair and almond shaped brown eyes. Waitresses at the Ogygia wore revealing, Egyptian inspired outfits and she looked like a million golden drachmas.
Calypso was famous for the bad luck she had in her love life. She fell in love with practically every guy who showed up at the Ogygia but they were usually uninterested or eventually went back to their wives. We'd had a brief fling a couple of summers ago but things didn't work out between us. Luckily Calypso never had any hard feelings towards the men who left her. She gracefully accepted that her lovers would leave her in the end as an unfortunate fact of life.
"What'll it be tonight, Percy?" she asked me.
I ordered a cocktail called a "moonlace," a mixture of nectar and moonshine, which was the house special.
"Leo and the gang not with you?"
A word about what I do for a living. My friends Jason, Leo, and Frank, and I smuggle in illegal booze in from the Canadian border. Frank has connections in Canada, being from there originally, who give us our booze. The four of us drive to the Montreal warehouse where we pick up our supply then bring it back into New York City. Leo's day job is being a grease monkey at the Hephaestus Garage, which we use to store crates of beer, whiskey, and gin until we can hand them over to the Stoll brothers, who distributed to the Olympian speakeasies.
"Jason should be here later," I said to Calypso, "He's meeting up with Piper after she performs tonight. Frank is visiting his girl Hazel and who knows what Leo is up to."
The band began to play Red Lips Kiss My Blues Away. Piper appeared on stage and seductively crooned the lyrics.
"Red lips, kiss my blues away. Red lips, kiss the night to day. Any old-time that you come cud-dl'-ing near, isn't it strange the way that blues disappear. Red lips, hold them close to mine. Sweetheart don't de-lay. Come make a dozen trips, let your ruby red lips, kiss my blues away."
Piper was a dazzlingly beautiful girl with chocolate brown hair cut into a choppy bob.
Her eyes changed color like a kaleidoscope: brown, green, then blue and she wore a slinky black evening dress
Piper's singing caused every man in the room to fall in love with her but I knew that her heart belonged only to Jason.
Then She walked into the Ogygia. Her arrival was later than I had expected but Annabeth Chase was a girl worth waiting for.
She was wearing a seafoam colored silk evening dress and red satin shoes which suited her blond hair and porcelain skin perfectly.
Her hair was worn up in soft waves and ringlets and wispy bangs and her lips and cheeks were rouged a bright red.
With her pale skin, exaggeratedly rosy lips and cheeks, and pretty, delicate features, Annabeth looked like a doll. The only thing that took away from this effect was her grey eyes which were stormy and intimidating.
"Seaweed Brain," she called over to me as she walked towards my table.
"Good evening Wise Girl," I replied.
Annabeth and I had known each other since we were twelve. We both used to summer in Montauk. My ma and I in a run-down cottage that we would save all year to be able to rent. It was the only time of the year that we could get away from Gabe Ugliano, my useless pig of a stepfather. That summer, Gabe had gotten on the wrong side of some Titans, members of the gang that fought with the Olympians for control of New York, and was found floating face down in the Hudson. I guess I had to be grateful to the Titans for that.
Annabeth's family stayed in a giant white birthday cake of a mansion that her parents had designed. Frederick and Athena Chase owned the most successful architecture firm in the state and Annabeth's dream was to follow in their footsteps. She was being groomed to take over the company someday.
The nickname "Seaweed Brain" came from when we would go swimming and I would get seaweed in my hair. I started calling her "Wise Girl" because she was always armed with some smart-ass comment.
"May I have this dance, Wise Girl?" I asked when the band began to play a slow, romantic foxtrot.
She took my hand and I lead her to the dance floor. We danced until the early hours of the morning. Time flew by quickly at the Ogygia and passed without you knowing it. Dancing with Annabeth, I knew that everyone was looking at me and thinking "lucky guy."
"Sure you're not afraid to be seen with someone like me?" I asked her as we walked back to the room I had rented for the night.
Annabeth made the little smirk that always drove me crazy.
"You're not as tough as you think you are, Seaweed Brain," she replied, standing on her tippy toes to try to kiss me.
"I'm a dangerous man, Annabeth. Every guy in the Titans wants to kill me."
In my line of work, saying I'd made a few enemies would be putting it mildly.
"Do you think I give a damn about the Titans?"
She gave me a kiss that was sweeter than nectar, so sweet that I felt myself coming down with a toothache. None of the girls I'd ever kissed before had that effect on me. It had taken me years to figure out that Annabeth loved me and that I loved her. Gods, how stupid I was.
"The guys and I are leaving on another rum run tomorrow night."
"Be careful, you how I'm scared to death whenever you go off on a job."
"I'll be back by the end of the weekend; I'll call you to let you know I'm safe."
"I'm spending the weekend in Montauk with my parents. Call me at their house there."
"What would your parents think of me calling you?"
"They don't have to know, just like they don't have to know I was here tonight."
She pulled me close into another kiss and I lead her into the room I had rented for the night.
That night was the first time we went to bed together. When the sun rose in the morning, I awoke to the sight of its rays dancing among Annabeth's golden hair which was spread across the pillow next to me. Her pale skin glowed in the dawn and her face had a blissful, serene expression with a slight flush to her cheeks.
If anything could be more beautiful then I couldn't imagine it.
The morning had come and I knew I had to go. Later that day, I would meet up with Jason, Leo, and Frank and we would drive across the border once again and smuggle back more crates of booze. I all wanted to do was stay in that hotel room and let the rest of the world go to Hell.
Annabeth stirred on the bed beside me and began to wake up.
"Good morning, Wise Girl," I said to her.
"Good morning, Seaweed Brain," she replied.
"How are you feeling?"
The night before had been her first time and I was afraid I might have hurt her.
"I'm just wonderful."
She lay back against the pillows and let out an ecstatic sigh. Looking into each other's eyes, we both wondered what we had been doing with our lives before we loved each other.
"Promise me you'll be safe," she said, "Promise me you won't do anything too reckless. Promise me you'll come back."
"Nothing could keep me away from you, Wise Girl," I answered, kissing her forehead, "I will always come back."
A/N thanks to homielonglegs_ for inspiring me to write. I'm not sure if I should continue with this story or just keep it a one chapter thing. Are there any plot threads I set up that you wish me to continue with?