Katerina parked the car in the parking lot of Clarence’s new home. They were only a couple of blocks away from the city centre and only a few minutes’ walk to the university. The man had picked a premium location for the duration of his stay. Although, considering how rent had plummeted in the city and outside of it in the past few years, it was probably breadcrumbs to Ren’s standards.

Jimmy wished he had the money and opportunity to live in the city centre. Everything was much more accessible. Not that he could complain. Ano Touba, the area east of the city centre where he resided, had a life of its own, with enough bars, newsagents, gyros shops, and tavernas around to satisfy a glutton.

Katerina opened the door for Clarence, and he grabbed his rucksack and luggage from the boot before approaching the main entrance of the building. He scanned the intercom buttons. Jimmy checked Ren from top to bottom. He was a tall man, a head taller than Jimmy, and thin. His locks of hair were unruly. The T-shirt he was wearing was baggy on his back, and the jeans rested somewhere in the middle of his behind, which was small and round. Without realizing it, Jimmy bit his lip as Ren turned around. Jimmy met his eyes hastily feeling slightly anxious he had been caught. His cheeks felt warm and his heart picked up a pace.

‘Are you okay?’ Jimmy asked him.

‘I can’t find the name.’

‘I can help with that,’ he told Ren.

Ren unlocked the screen of his phone and looked for something. He turned the phone to Jimmy, and he read the email he’d received from the university. He was looking for Patakidis, which was spelled in Latin characters in the email, but a quick read-through of the names on the intercom proved the name was written in Greek letters only.

Jimmy pressed the button and waited for a response. Ren stared at Jimmy. Jimmy gazed at the intercom instead. The silence was followed by a rumbling noise and a growl that responded.

‘Ne?’ he said in Greek.

Jimmy announced who they were in Greek to make the conversation easier and heard Patakidis respond with irritation before he buzzed them in and told them what floor to find him on.

All four of them squeezed into a tiny, square elevator that had wooden-textured wallpaper, seven numbers, and a couple of emergency buttons to choose from. Everyone looked away from the mirror and awaited their arrival on the fourth floor.

Jimmy was the first to get out. There was a small hallway with two doors. The one straight ahead was labelled with the landlord’s name on the bell button next to the door. The other one was labelled with three names.

The door of Ren’s new apartment opened wide, and a bulky, dark man with grey sideburns and hair stood in front of it. He had a beard and a moustache shaped around his mouth that made his face look menacing. He was what Jimmy would think of as a typical Greek man. He turned around to look at his new friend who must have come to that same conclusion. Ren stood still, taking in the sight of his new landlord with large, unblinking eyes.

‘You’re late, guys. We said 2 o’ clock. I’ve got other business,’ he said to all of them in Greek.

Ren looked confused. Jimmy was startled by the unfriendly welcome and the lack of manners.

‘Sorry, the flight was delayed and we had to stop for food,’ Jimmy answered. It hadn’t been, of course, but Jimmy wasn’t going to tell him that.

The man huffed and stepped out of the way to let them in. ‘Come in. I haven’t got all day.’

Jimmy had to translate for Ren to make him feel included and he gave his hand to his new landlord.

‘I’m Clarence. Nice to meet you,’ Ren told Patakidis.

The man grumbled. ‘Yeah, yeah, this is house. This is keys,’ Patakidis answered and gave Ren a set of keys.

Everyone walked into the apartment. It was a studio with a sofa bed, a dining table, and a kitchen that consisted of a couple of cabinets. The fridge was a square white blob on top of one surface, and next to it was a gas-operated cooking unit above an electrical oven. The bathroom was located on the other side of the square room and the door for it was closed.

‘Who are you?’ he asked Jimmy and the guys. ‘One person only live here. No four,’ he said in broken English.

Jimmy decided to reply in Greek since the man seemed to have little grasp of English. ‘I go to the same university with Clarence. We are just friends. We won’t live here,’ he explained.

‘Well, you better not.’ He turned around to Ren. ‘No party, no guest. Okay? No chaos. If chaos, you out,’ he told him.

Ren’s face was an open book, his eyes squinting as he tried to understand the crappiest English he had probably ever heard. Once he finally digested the meaning, his mouth dropped open.

‘None of that was in the renting agreement, but all right,’ Ren said to Patakidis.

The landlord turned to Jimmy. ‘What did he say?’ he asked in Greek.

Jimmy explained, but the man seemed more concerned that Ren was criticizing him than the fact he didn’t have a problem with this new set of rules.

Patakidis was a man of a few words, especially when it came to English. So after a couple more comments in Greek, he left the apartment and left them all alone at last.

‘What a dick!’ Antonis pointed out the elephant in the room.

Katerina cut in. ‘No, no. The word you’re looking for is Malakas, with a capital M,’ she said.

Ren eyed her. ‘I’m sure I’ve heard this word before,’ he said.

Jimmy and Antonis laughed.

‘Trust me, friend. You will hear it very much! Especially if we talking about your new landlord. It’s asshole in Greek,’ she said with the most serious face she had ever made.

Ren put his bags on the floor at long last and took a test seat on the sofa bed. He bounced on it a couple times and decided it was good enough. He took a few steps to the kitchen and opened the fridge.

‘I need to fill that,’ he said.

Katerina perked up. ‘Do you want to go shopping?’

Katerina was an avid shopper. She could tell you where the best and nearest deal was in town without batting an eyelid or searching it online. It was a skill she had acquired over years of recession.

Ren looked at all of them and cocked his head. ‘Maybe later,’ he said.

Jimmy elbowed Katerina and moved for the door. ‘Come on, guys. Let the man rest.’

Ren lifted his arm and shook his head. ‘You don’t have to go. I didn’t mean to be rude.’

Jimmy laughed. ‘Relax, dude. We’re not offended. You’ve had a long day.’

Antonis took his phone out and pointed to Ren. ‘Do you want to exchange numbers so we can get in touch?’

Ren took his own phone out and wrote Antonis’s number. ‘I still haven’t got a Greek number, though.’

‘We can do that tomorrow if you want?’ Jimmy suggested.

Ren nodded.

‘See you tomorrow, pal?’ Antonis said and patted Ren’s shoulder.

Ren looked from Antonis to Jimmy to Katerina. ‘I guess.’

They left Ren’s apartment and got in Katerina’s car.

‘Did he look a bit sad to you?’ Jimmy asked the rest.

‘He’s probably just tired. We’ll call him later, see if he wants to come out,’ Antonis said.

‘Also, he’s probably having a cultural shock after meeting that malakas Patakidis,’ Katerina added.

Jimmy nodded. He hoped that was it. He’d only known Clarence for two hours, but he seemed like a cool guy, and Jimmy would hate to see him sad, considering he was meant to be having a great experience in a foreign city. His stomach clenched up and the butterfly born earlier was now struggling for air. He wanted to go back and hug Ren. Protect him from the world, his world, the one he knew so well but to which Ren was a stranger. To hold his miniature arms and brush his wild hair until Ren settled and became happy.

Jimmy blinked, watching the world zoom past outside the car window.

He couldn’t possibly like Ren, could he?

The butterfly in his stomach fluttered its wings a couple of times, but Jimmy ignored it. Ren was just a nice guy. That was it.