Counterpoints (Counterpoints #1) Page 26

  Isabella still couldn’t make up her mind if not hearing from him was positive or negative thing. Sure, she didn’t have to stress while reading his corrections, but she couldn’t help but feel she was getting further and further away from being accepted and trusted by Mr. Jenkins.

  Anyway, the posts had been viewed by millions of people, both on the blog and on social networks. Nevertheless, Mr. Jenkins had provided Hillary with a long list of does and don’ts, to use for the future posts.

  Some were negotiable, some weren’t even acceptable.

  Hillary had told Isabella not to worry about it. She was going to personally deal with it later, after it was all over. And something told Isabella that Hillary was starting to get really annoyed at Mr. Jenkins. Race weekends were very busy as they were, nobody had time to listen to a whining, grown baby. As a matter of fact those had been Hillary’s exact words.

  As she sat in the Exclusive VIP Lounge at the airport, trying to work and post a couple of more pictures, she looked around and saw that Hillary and the rest of the gang were all busy either resting, eating, drinking or just doing their own business.

  While the pictures taken by Phil loaded on her laptop, Isabella peaked at the ones she had on her little camera, the one she always took with her.

  She had saved the most beautiful pictures taken over the weekend, the ones about her and Christopher, then ones they had taken alone, far from curious eyes.

  The first picture had been taken after the race, in her hotel room, when they were getting ready to go out with the others from the team.

  Christopher had done anything but help her get dressed. He had actually tried to unzip her blue dress a couple of times. It was a picture of them heading out the door, with a very happy expression on their faces.

  The second was more intimate and Isabella couldn’t help but blush a little, just looking at it. She was in fact blushing, as she checked it out in the airport lounge. She looked around again, to make sure nobody was looking at her.

  The picture had been taken by Isabella, she had caught Christopher by surprise and it was just beautiful. He was the one that made it so beautiful. He was smiling, a smile of pure happiness – despite his tired face after an intense week. It had been taken in the streets of Beijing, at the crack of dawn, after they had gone clubbing with the others and had managed to escape and have a private tour of the city.

  They had ended up in the biggest food market of Beijing and at that time the merchants had just begun opening for business. It was the city that was coming to life, for another busy day and Christopher and Isabella were celebrating the new day walking together, his arms around her, holding her tight against his chest and laughing about something she couldn’t quite remember. It was the image of perfection.

  When she looked up, after switching off the camera, her eyes met Christopher’s, who was now at the bar asking for something to eat. He smiled and signaled her if she was hungry. She shook her head, jet lag was really getting to her. It’s not food I am actually craving Christopher, she wished she could tease him.

  But she couldn’t, she actually avoided -when possible- being in his company in front of everyone, too scared that her feelings for him would give her away.

  “Want to play a game?” Christopher said, his voice low as he took a seat next to her.

  Isabella straightened up in her chair and put away her camera and laptop. She felt her cheeks warm, but did her best to ignore the feeling. She was blushing -damn it- and was annoyed at her own body. How could it be, she was over thirty and still couldn’t control it.

  “What kind of game, Christopher?” she smirked, despite her good sense not to draw attention to themselves. She watched him smile to the side.

  “If only I could have my way…” his voice trailed off.

  Isabella cleared her throat and looked down, then up again and saw Christopher still looking at her.

  “Stop it” she murmured and smiled back at him.

  “The game is this: we pick a couple of strangers and make up their conversation”

  “Seriously?” she looked puzzled.

  “That woman sitting there” he looked to his left and Isabella’s stare followed his.

  There was a tall, blonde, thirty something woman, sitting on a couch next to a sixty something, bald headed business man. They were talking, their faces neutral, his arm rested on the top of the couch, brushing her shoulders.

  “What do you think they are talking about?” he asked Isabella.

  “What game is this?” she raised an eyebrow at him.

  “It’s game a used to play when I was little, when I was always travelling and bored to death. It’s fun. I like to figure people out” he gave her a sly smile “I think he’s saying something like ‘Would you like something to drink?’ and she is saying ‘Yes, something with no sugar, no fat, no additives, no colorings and gluten free’…now it’s your turn. What is he saying to her?”

  Isabella’s stare went from Christopher to the couple sitting in the lounge. She watched the man touch her left shoulder and Isabella thought she saw the woman flinch. He had a soft, sweet smile on his lips.

  “Anything you want darling. How about you eat something, you skinny little thing?” Isabella made a deep, manly voice and then giggled.

  Christopher stepped in, looking amused at Isabella as always. He had to suppress a laugh, hearing her funny voice.

  “Eat? What are you nuts? I had THREE olives two days ago!!!” Christopher said, trying to sound irritated.

  Isabella watched the woman’s upset face: her lips were sealed in a thin line now, as she shook her head, watching her man leave the couch –with the same sweet smile on his lips- to go and fetch them drinks. He was headed to the bar. She couldn’t believe it, how the hell did Christopher know they were talking about drinks?

  “I told you they were talking about drinks” Christopher grinned.

  “How?” Isabella was shocked.

  “I just did. Shh, listen he’s going to ask for a diet soda or something like that”

  “Oh come on” Isabella shook her head. One thing was guessing the subject of their conversation, the other was to actually figure out the exact content of it. Impossible.

  He had been lucky, that was that. Isabella crossed her arms over her chest and listened out.

  “Could I have a skinny latte, with no sugar please?” she overheard the man say at the bar.

  Isabella looked at Christopher, mouth wide open, as if she was sitting next to a wizard.

  “How in the…?”

  “I know people. I get them, my instinct never fails” he sat back, relaxed and in control as usual.

  “Really?” Isabella raised her eyebrow at him.

  He nodded and put his hands behind his head.

  Isabella’s eyes went to the rest of the group. Hillary was working, Mr. Jenkins was nowhere to be seen, the technical team was spread all over the airport in little groups and Noah was sitting a few couches away, reading but his eyes –Isabella noticed- would linger their way every now and then.

  “Then what am I thinking? Uh? What do I want, Mr. Know It All?” she pouted a little.

  “First of all, stop pouting… if you want me to behave” he gave her a wicked smile “And It works on others but not on you. I have no idea what goes in that head of yours”

  “Ditto” she smiled.

  “Oh, I am an open book. What you see is what you get. But you… you are hard for me to figure most of the time” he smiled to the side. “But I do know one thing” he moved closer then and lowered his voice, his eyes scanning the room to make sure nobody could hear him speak.

  “You want me to kiss you, hard. You want my hands all over you and you want me to push you on a wall or on the floor somewhere”

  She cleared her voice, ignoring her red cheeks.

  “I am actually thinking you are pretty cocky”

  “You are right, I am” he smiled to the side “Do you want to know why I know all of this?”


  Isabella nodded.

  “Because I want you too, but I know you’ll kill me if I try to touch you in public” he smiled, knowing that for a fact.

  Isabella had been very clear about that. She already had Mr. Jenkins on her back as it was, not trusting her to just work with Christopher, let alone be involved with him in any way.

  “Hey, Chris” Fred came charging towards them, with Christopher’s engineer Mark, both smiling and nodding to each other. “Sorry, if we interrupted”

  “That’s okay. No more work for today” Christopher said to Isabella, while getting up from the couch. “What’s up?”

  “Want to go out tonight? There’s this incredible party, have you heard of the Cube? We’ve got to check out this club. It’s full of cute girls”

  “Sure. Let’s do it” Christopher said and continued his conversation walking to the bar with his team mates. He looked sideways to Isabella and mouthed ‘Later’.

  Isabella stared at them for a few seconds, unable to swallow or even breathe.

  Deep down she knew why Christopher had said those words to his friends, to protect her and their secret. If he stopped going out and picking up girls, it would only be a matter of time before someone would figure it all out.

  Then why does it feel like I’ve died and gone to hell?

  Chapter 23

  Hillary’s expression when she walked into Isabella’s studio apartment said it all. Her eyes went wide and she let out a gasp.

  Isabella knew what was coming. ‘It’s so small’ or ‘how much are you paying again?’ all things her mother had said, when she had told her about the flat. And she still hadn’t seen it. Hillary was the very first person to step inside Isabella’s new house.

  “You weren’t kidding when you said it was small” she said entering with two bottles of champagne in her hands. “Still it is pretty damn good for Bayswater. I like it” she handed her the bottles with a wink and looked around the room.

  “Thanks” It was now Isabella’s turn to look stunned.

  She was not expecting that from her very first guest. Then again, Hillary had been living in London for years now, she must have seen her share of horrible accommodations around town. Her verdict was definitely worth something. “Wow, two bottles. I did tell you that it was just us, right?”

  It wasn’t exactly a house warming. To start with, she didn’t know that many people in London and secondly, the studio was really too small to host guests. It was quite cozy as it was in there with just the two of them.

  “So? We need these two bottles. We earned them. We just had three crazy weeks, we are off to Malaysia in two days’ time and then back here and then Valencia, again. I think we deserve two bottles of champagne” she grinned, looking proud and exhausted at the same time.

  “Well, you convinced me” Isabella nodded, enthused.

  They sat at the little table next to the bay window, that overlooked a small but busy street in the area of Bayswater. Just below Isabella’s flat was a nice little pub, not the touristy kind, but a real British pub, with flowers outside and mainly local customers.

  On a busy night, one could hear people talking on the sidewalk. Isabella had to admit that it did get a little noisy at times, but the few nights she had spent there, she had been too tired to actually care. And mostly she had to thank Christopher for that.

  “What have you been up to over the past few days? Did you fly to Rome at all?” Hillary asked while unscrewing the first bottle.

  She crossed her legs and filled up the glasses.

  “No, I didn’t. To be honest I didn’t feel like travelling again. We’ll have sometime between Malaysia and Valencia, so I was thinking of going then. I just wanted to do a little settling in” they cheered and then she asked “What did you do?”

  “Sleep, darling. I can hardly sleep while we are working. Too busy thinking”

  Isabella understood perfectly where she was coming from. It was hard for her to sleep properly, too. Maybe it was the jet lag, maybe it was the stress of being under Mr. Jenkins spyglass all the time but still, resting before the race was really difficult.

  After the first bottle of champagne and delicious canapés Isabella had made all by herself, the conversation started to become a little less formal and circumstantial.

  “What’s the story with the ex-boyfriend?!” Hillary asked, after taking a long sip from her glass.

  During the last race weekends, as they all started living more closely together, someone – maybe it had been Fred or Mark, she couldn’t quite remember- had gone and opened the ex-files.

  “It’s not that interesting…You sure you want to hear it?” Isabella wanted to make sure Hillary was ready to hear her personal, little drama.

  Her supervisor nodded interested and so Isabella begun. She told her how she had met Salvo three years before, how they had been good friends, until Salvo had wanted a proper date. For a while they had been the perfect little couple, everyone thought they would get married and have cute babies. Then the great opportunity had arrived for her, to go work for MB and travel the world and it had all seemed so fantastic, even for Salvo. Until he had asked her not to go and she had decided to break it off with him.

  “I realized later that when I got this job, he wasn’t happy at all. He was trying to be happy for me, but he just couldn’t. One evening he actually asked me not to sign the contract and stay where I was”

  “That’s unfair” she mumbled.

  “That’s exactly what I said to him” Isabella nodded.

  The champagne was getting to her head a little, resentment was building up in her veins.

  “I mean, I would never of asked him to do that for me. You know how many times we had conversations like this, about our future…I was going to follow him, if he was going to get a job somewhere in Italy or abroad. I was going to be happy for him. I thought he liked the idea of travelling with me…”

  “What does he do?” Hillary interrupted her.

  “He’s a consultant for computer companies. Anyway, his work is mostly freelance and works mainly with his father’s company, so he could have traveled with me if he really had wanted to”

  “Men like that resent the fact that it’s the woman in the relationship who has the cool job. It’s alright if they do it, but if we go around the world, chasing cars…ahah chasing cars, literally!” Hillary sounded a little tipsy, as she popped open bottle number two.

  Had they gone through bottle number one already? Isabella’s eyes went wide. How many glasses had Hillary had?

  “Maybe…” Isabella had never thought of it like that. She had never imagined it could have been all about envy.

  Had that been it? Did Salvo envy her job? Was Salvo being all macho-watcho about it? It didn’t make sense how a young man like him, could still think in that absurd, ancient, discriminating manner. And yet it fitted the profile of a young man from a small town. From Isabella’s small town.

  “Well, forget the twat and cheers. To men with balls” she raised her glass and giggled.

  Their glasses clanged and they both drank the fuzzy drink, which Isabella had learned to appreciate – even though she still thought Prosecco tasted a lot better.

  Then Isabella dropped the bomb.

  “If you think he’s a twat now, wait till I’m finished with the story” she made a disgusted face.

  “What? There’s more?”

  “Oh yeah” Isabella nodded vigorously. She told Hillary how her suspects, since her last visit home, had been proven right: he was now dating her best friend Angela. No, no, no. Her ex-boyfriend was now dating her ex best friend Angela.

  Isabella hadn’t been sure about their relationship. After all, she had just seen them talk to each other in the pub. Right after you left, what a coincidence.

  But then Maria had called her up last week and had spilled her the news. Salvo and Angela were officially a couple. They had been seen around town, going to the cinema together, over dinner, hand in hand, k
issing in the bar.

  It hadn’t been Isabella’s imagination after all. The fact that Angela had waited for her to leave – she had probably been hiding, like the back stabbing whore that she was, somewhere in the crowded pub, not wanting to bump into her- before approaching Salvo, had rang a bell in her head.

  Isabella flinched at the thought. The whole town was probably gossiping behind her back. She could just hear them say ‘the carrier girl, too busy thinking about her job to figure out her boyfriend had met someone else, probably weeks before they had broken off their engagement’

  No, it couldn’t be. Salvo would have never done something like that to her. Still, he was going out with one of her best friends. Ex Best friend!

  Isabella ran a hand through her hair, not dreading the idea of going back home and having to face that sort of situation.

  “They were seeing each other before you guys broke up?” Hillary was shocked. No, disgusted was what she was.

  “I don’t think so” Isabella shook her head but flinched at the thought.

  “Did you confront them?”

  “I just saw them a few weeks back and that’s when I suspected there was something going on. Now my friends home told me they are in fact a couple” Isabella paused. “They had looked so intimate, so into one another” No kidding, probably literally into one another behind my back.

  “So that’s it? No hitting? No breaking glass?” Hillary looked disappointed, outraged more like it.

  Isabella shook her head. It wasn’t like her to do something like that, besides she hadn’t had the certainty of what was going on.

  Talking about it, made all the feelings she had been trying to push back over the past few days resurface. It wasn’t about Salvo. She wasn’t in love with him, not at all. It was about betrayal. Just as she couldn’t even look at her dad anymore, she couldn’t even look at her friend or Salvo without feeling hurt and disappointed.