Counterpoints: Book 2 Page 13

  “That man, ‘Rocket man’, what’s his face came over a few hours ago” a voice said behind Isabella’s back and she turned quickly in its direction, startled.

  “Oh, hello Mrs. Williams” Isabella smiled, her heartbeat going back to normal.

  She hadn’t heard the old lady’s footsteps in the hallway. Isabella giggled to the nickname Mrs. Williams had just used to refer to Christopher.

  She didn’t just call him that.

  “Hello” she said, her voice a little hoarse. She cleared her throat “I let him in and then I saw him leave this near the door” she pointed at something on the floor, right next to Isabella’s door, something she had completely missed walking in.

  Her eyes gleamed to the sight of the familiar object.

  It was a bottle of Prosecco- one of the best Prosecco’s produced in Italy- and it had a small chain around it with a note and a gorgeous, velvet red, long stemmed rose.

  “He’s handsome and stubborn” Mrs. Williams said, walking back to her door.

  She disappeared before Isabella could say anything back, her eyes glued to the small note attached to the bottle.

  “Pick you up tonight? Say yes” the note read.

  The butterflies in her stomach were back, as her eyes lingered on Christopher’s name. She smiled cheekily and walked to her phone, which she had dropped on the small wooden table on her way in.

  “I love how you signed the note, as if I would have difficulties on figuring out who left the bottle there for me” she told him, as soon as he answered the phone- her tone light and playful despite the long plane ride.

  It was a chance to mock him impossible to resist.

  “Well, It might have been from someone else” he said and Isabella heard him smile on the other side. “Some secret admirer of yours”

  “I don’t have secret admirers. I just have one secret lover”

  “Secret lover sounds… so naughty” he said and Isabella could just imagine him smile to the side, in that sexy way of his.

  “No, it doesn’t” she said and giggled a little.

  “How about I come over and show you exactly how naughty ‘secret lover’ can get?” his voice was low.

  “Well, I don’t know” her voice trailed off “Can you come now?” Isabella bit her lip.

  “I can be there in five minutes” he said instantly and Isabella laughed, the phone tight in her hands.

  “You know, I was beginning to think that the old lady had nicked the bottle and drunk it all” Christopher smirked.

  “No, I just arrived home. She told me immediately how you lured yourself in the building” Isabella walked to the window and opened it, to let some fresh air in after so many days she hadn’t been home.

  “I know how to soften a woman’s heart. It took me a few minutes to convince her to open, she said something like ‘you have two minutes to walk in and out of the building or I’ll call the police’. She’s really sweet”

  Isabella laughed thinking about Mrs. Williams’s threats -her checking out Christopher from the window and being a little scared and thrilled at the same time that something exciting was happening, just outside her door.

  Isabella hadn’t been around much over the past weeks, she hadn’t even had a chance to speak to the lady for more than a few minutes, but the way Mrs. Williams spoke- jumping from one thing to another- the way she spied on her and Christopher, meant one thing and one thing only. She was very lonely.

  “You are sneaky” Isabella affirmed.

  “That I am. I know what I want and how to get it” he smiled “I hope you had a nice trip home” his voice deep and intense.

  “I did, thank you. Is everything okay?” Isabella asked while turning on the shower.

  She held her phone between her shoulder and her ear, eager to know if everything was okay, if Christopher had taken care of the things he had rushed back to London for.

  “Everything is good” he simply said “Is that the shower?”

  “Yes” Isabella mumbled softly.

  “I am seriously coming, right away”

  There was a sound, like chatter from Christopher’s side.

  “Where are you?” Isabella asked, as she took a clean towel from a drawer.

  “I’m on a terrace in Covent Garden, at a gallery opening”

  “Oh” Isabella blinked, a little surprised.

  Is he alone? The thought crossed her mind but she kept it to herself, even if her pulse had quickened.

  Christopher was out, so what? He could do whatever he wanted, it wasn’t that that bothered Isabella. It unexpectedly dawned on her that she could never do that, accompany him to a public event like the one he was at that night and risk being seen together.

  I was the one who wanted our affair to be a secret, she kept reminding herself.

  It was true, it had been all her doing, but things had started to change and Isabella wasn’t sure what she wanted anymore.

  “So, can I see you tonight?”

  Isabella pursed her lips, his voice so inviting “I’d love to, but I can’t tonight. My sister and her boyfriend are in town for my birthday and we agreed to meet for a quick bite and drinks in an hour”

  “Oh, okay” he murmured.

  Isabella hesitated.

  Even if her body was begging for sleep, Isabella knew she would be restless and sleepless all night without Christopher. She wanted to see him.

  “Why don’t you join us?”

  “Are you sure?” Christopher asked and Isabella started to fidget, nervous all of a sudden.

  “Never mind, you are probably on your training schedule for the next race. I don’t want to keep you up late”

  “I am an athlete, not a prisoner on death row” Christopher said, interrupting Isabella’s rant. She could hear him smile on the other side “Text me the name of the place and I’ll meet you guys there, as soon as I can get out of this boring thing”

  “I am sure it isn’t boring. I bet there are a lot of interesting people there” Isabella told him and began to wonder, who would be the guests of a gallery opening.

  Hopefully no models, her mind suggested.

  “It’s the same people I see every time. All they talk about is investments and business. I’ll make my escape as soon as possible”

  “Okay, Mr. athlete” Isabella mocked “See you later”

  “Laters, signorina” she heard him smile and hung up.

  Isabella’s chest grew heavy.

  A night out with her sister and her boyfriend, stress and hassle free – if anything it was Emilia’s boyfriend who should have been tense and nervous to meet Isabella’s scrutinizing judgment- had suddenly turned out to be a critical situation for Isabella.

  What was she going to say to her sister about Christopher? Isabella bit her lip, thoughtful.

  She couldn’t say he was a friend, not with those cheeks going red and her shaky voice, not to mention because of her nonexistent ability to tell a lie, without getting caught.

  More importantly, what am I going to wear???

  Isabella rushed into the shower.

  Her hand cupped her chin, while her elbow rested on the table, in that dreamy, old fashioned way you only got to see in the movies. Isabella looked from Emilia to Giovanni and listened to their two day adventure in London.

  They had been all over the place. They had woken up so early and had gone from west to east, from north to south, touring the whole city in just forty-eight hours.

  “My feet were so soar, he had to give me a piggy back ride today from Trafalgar Square to the bus stop” Emilia grinned in his direction.

  “And you gave me permanent damage to my vertebras” Giovanni touched his lower back and made a face.

  Emilia gave him a dirty look and he laughed.

  It was right there, right there in Isabella’s face how much in love they were. It was all a flirt, a joke, a laugh. She watched them do their thing and every now and then Isabella would answer Giovanni’s questions about her job.


  It turned out, he was a fan of First Category Racing and he had been to two races so far, the one near London and the one in Rome.

  Giovanni was exactly the sort of guy that Emilia would fall for. He was tall, good looking with his short brown ‘good boy haircut’ and black, trendy nerd looking eye glasses. Maybe he was a little too skinny for Isabella’s taste, but he had that ‘cool -uncool look’ that suited his built, the one that involved All-stars shoes and jeans, with a more serious looking button up shirt as a contrast.

  Modern dandy.

  Two minutes into the conversation, Giovanni had scored high in Isabella’s ranking. This was her baby sister they were talking about. Isabella had to be severe in her judgment. Everyone back home had been blabbing about how wonderful Emilia’s boyfriend was- uncle Franco included, even if it was just to piss Isabella off with the whole boyfriend situation. So of course, expectations had been high for Isabella.

  But just ten minutes into the conversation and Isabella had him figured out.

  Giovanni was the sort of young man who was always well informed about everything, who liked to read, liked to go out, who had goals and was mostly serious about what he believed in. And he was funny.

  The best part though, Isabella reckoned, was that he was nice to Emilia. Not in the way that would actually piss Isabella off, not the corny sort of nice. His caring for Emilia was more about what he did for her, than what he said.

  The way he checked if Emilia was cold, if Emilia and Isabella wanted another drink. The way he spoke about Emilia, talking during her sleep and how it actually didn’t annoy him but made him laugh during the night.

  It was the way he looked at her. They were partners in crime.

  “You guys are in love” Isabella smiled wide, when Giovanni had gone to get them another drink.

  They were sitting outside a pub near Notting Hill gate. It had stopped raining as soon as Isabella had gotten home.

  Even the weather likes to make fun of me.

  “Is it that obvious?” Emilia’s eyes were bright and shiny.

  Isabella nodded and then turned to grab her drink and thanked Giovanni, who had been super quick with their orders.

  “We have something to tell you” Emilia said, her face serious now and that change of atmosphere gave Isabella the shivers.

  “What’s up?” she looked from Giovanni to Emilia again.

  Pregnant? Is she pregnant? Isabella’s eyes were the perfect portrait of worry.

  “You have to promise not to tell mom and dad” Emilia demanded.

  “What is it?” Isabella waved it off, encouraging her to speak, to tell her what was going on. Of course Isabella wouldn’t say something to their parents, without Emilia’s consent.

  “Okay” Emilia cleared her throat and looked at Giovanni, for an extra dose of courage. He simply smiled at her “We decided we want to get married next year”

  Isabella’s mouth dropped open. If it wasn’t for her elbow on the table, she might as well have fallen off her chair.

  Marriage? She gaped and stared at her sister, the words failing to make their way to her mouth.

  “Marriage? You guys are thinking about marriage?” Isabella said, recovering from the shock “How long have you been dating? Four months?”

  “We have been together for a year now”

  “A YEAR??????” Isabella’s voice grew louder, but nobody noticed.

  The place was packed inside and outside.

  Apparently, Isabella wasn’t the only person keeping secrets, Emilia had been doing the same thing and for a whole year.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t tell you” she started to say “we met a year ago and you and Salvo were already a little, you know. You guys were fighting and we were always talking about you two” Emilia shifted in her seat. “It was never the right time to talk about Giovanni”

  Isabella stared at her sister, again she had lost the ability to speak.

  Had she been so self-absorbed with Salvo and then the job application, not to ask her sister if she had had any news? Had she been such a terrible sister, without even noticing?

  “You could have told me” she said, her voice softer now.

  “It’s okay, I didn’t want to brag about me and Giovanni, when you were so sad and nervous all the time” Emilia reached for her sister’s hand and added “Anyway it doesn’t matter. There is more”

  “There is more?” Isabella raised her eyebrows in wonder. “You mean besides being engaged?”

  Oh my God, pregnant, pregnant, pregnant, pregnant, my twenty two year old sister is pregnant I can feel it!

  “We have been living together for four months now” Emilia smiled wide.

  “Living together?” Isabella said “Guys, seriously I am an oldy here, you are killing me today” she laughed a little. “Why don’t you want me to tell mom and dad?”

  “Because I know they will say that we are too young…”

  “They’ll say that anyway, once you’ll tell them you are going to get married” Isabella made a point. Why was Emilia freaking out?

  “I know but living together, you know mom, how she’s not that open minded about these things…”

  “You are too young, there I said it. Who cares what anyone says” Isabella raised her hands and began to gesticulate.

  It was such an Italian thing to do, in a moment so emotional like that one. Isabella couldn’t help it.

  “What do you think?” Giovanni asked.

  “I think you are crazy” Isabella gave them a serious look and then laughed a little, making sure they knew she was just playing around “No, seriously. You hardly know each other. Can’t you live together a little longer?”

  “We’ll have another year together before the wedding. We were thinking next spring, after I graduate in February” Emilia replied.

  “Don’t you guys want to settle down a little, look for a job before getting married?”

  “What difference does it make? Married or living together? Anyway, Giovanni started working two months ago”

  “I guess it makes no difference…” Isabella shrugged, not knowing what to say. “It just feels like marriage makes it all so definite, you know and you are young…”

  “Are you against marriage?” Emilia asked, interrupting Isabella.

  “I’m not” she said quickly and shook her head.

  Her eyes went from Emilia to Giovanni, then back to Emilia again.

  She really wasn’t, it just felt strange to see her sister so sure about something so important like marriage. Spending the rest of your life with someone was serious business and Emilia was young and impetuous.

  She’s getting married so young, just like mom did. The thought gave Isabella the shivers.

  But Emilia’s face said it all. She was determined. She wasn’t asking Isabella for her opinion, she was informing her of their decision.

  “I’m sorry. It’s really wonderful news” Isabella smiled, trying to reset the mood of the table “I’m really happy for you guys”

  “Thanks” Giovanni smiled and took Emilia’s hand.

  “Really?” Emilia smiled too and Isabella nodded.

  “Did you guys set an official date?”

  “Not yet. I wanted you to be the first to know. We are going to tell mom and dad and the rest of the family next weekend over lunch”

  “Make sure you tell them when grandma is sitting down at the table and not standing with a heavy bowl of pasta” Isabella said, her hand holding up her glass.

  “Cheers” Giovanni said and their glasses clanged.

  They were busy talking about the wedding and where they were going to live once they got married, when Isabella’s phone rang. It was a text from Christopher.

  “Almost there, luv” it said.

  Oh God.

  “Uhm…Guys, I invited someone to join us” Isabella said and began to look around.

  There were a few people standing on the sidewalk, next to the pub and it was hard to spot anyone walking by.
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  “Really? Who?” Emilia and Giovanni exchanged glances.

  “He’s…” a small laugh escaped her lips.

  She put her hair behind her ears and looked up again. Christopher was walking towards them in his black jacket and fitted jeans, one helmet in his hand and the other under his arm.

  He has a motorbike, too? Isabella watched him stride towards her, that confident smile permanently glued on his lips.

  “He’s… here” Isabella grinned nervously and stood up.

  Giovanni and Emilia did the same and turned.

  They stood there, motionless and surprised, until Christopher kissed Isabella on the cheek and turned their way.

  “Hi” he shook hands with both of them and then took off his jacket and placed it on the chair next to Isabella

  “This is Christopher, Christopher this is my sister Emilia and her boyfriend soon to be husband- I’ve just been informed- Giovanni”

  “Nice to meet you both and congratulations” Christopher said and smiled warmly.

  Isabella watched his lips curl up and her eyes set on the scar above his lip.

  He was looking sexy as ever in tight jeans and a simple white shirt. It was just a little tight around his shoulders, his muscles easy for Isabella to imagine under the thin fabric. It was lose around his abs and his sexy tattooed arms were bare.

  “Christopher, you mean Christopher Taylor?” Giovanni lowered his voice and stared blankly at him.

  “Yes” Christopher kept smiling and Emilia’s cheeks turned red.

  And another one bites the dust, Isabella thought.

  “That Christopher Taylor, two times First Category Racing champion, three times Second Category racing champion, the one racing for MB?”

  “Favorite food?” Isabella mocked him and then nodded.

  “Oh my God, this is such an honor” Giovanni shook Christopher’s hand again, holding it tight between his hands. With both hands “This is… unbelievable”

  “I think he wants to marry him now” Emilia said to Isabella, pointing at her future husband.

  They were all laughing at that point, but Giovanni wouldn’t hear of it.

  He made his point how Christopher was the best driver in First Category Racing and that he had once stood outside an autograph session in Rome a few years ago, for two hours to try and get his autograph, but he hadn’t made it to the front.