Chapter Sixteen

 

Luca

 

"I don't know why she still refuses to talk to me."

"You have to understand how hurt she is," she said with a sigh.

"I know how much she's been hurt," I replied. "I am very aware of that. But I want to be the one who makes it go away. That's why I want to talk to her. I need to tell her everything. Make her understand how I feel about her."

"Why don't you just let me tell her? I could tell her exactly what you said. Maybe that would make her more willing to talk to you, if only to see if I was making it up."

"I appreciate it, Thea, but this is something I have to do. She needs to hear it from me, not from anyone else. It’s what she hears from other people, and what they say behind her back, that caused this situation in the first place. I don’t ever want that to happen again. No, she needs to hear it directly from me, but I’m not sure how that’s going to happen since she won’t even see me."

"Are you going to give up?"

"Absolutely not. Roxie is absolutely nothing like the type of woman I thought I would end up with, and that's exactly how I know we’re supposed to be together. I started falling in love with her as soon as I met her. Nothing is going to keep me from her. I don't care how long I have to try, or how hard I have to fight. I'm going to prove to her that this isn't fake. Not to me, at least."

I had stayed in contact with Thea since the wedding. She helped me keep track of Roxie and let me know that she was alright. She was also my sounding board as I tried to work through my feelings. Falling in love wasn't something I had ever considered before, especially not when I agreed to be Roxie's fake boyfriend for a week. But I hadn't just fallen for her, I had crashed head over heels, and now I didn't know how to move forward without her. In that one week we spent together, I felt like I had learned more about myself than in my previous thirty years of life. I discovered pieces of myself that had been missing, just waiting for her to find them. Now she was gone, and I had to find a way to get her back.

"I'll do anything I can to help you," she said. "I would love to see the two of you together. You were perfect for each other, even when it wasn't real."

"It always was. The stories might not have been real, but everything I felt for her, and said about her, was."

Suddenly, I knew exactly what I needed to do.

 

Roxie

 

"I need you to take this in the most professional way possible. Put your clothes back on, please."

Kevin was standing with his arms open in front of my desk, his little bird chest on display for the whole world to see. He blinked.

"Excuse me?"

I sighed, sending the email I had just finished typing before he stormed into my office and threw his shirt off.

"Look, Kevin. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I still don't think you have what we're looking for. If you could just put your clothes back on and head back to your cubicle, I would really appreciate it."

He was still taller than average, though I supposed that wasn't likely to change very much considering he was a full-grown adult. In the last year, he seemed to have stretched out more, however. He was even thinner now, and the effect was now less Silly Putty-esque and more pipe cleaner.

"A man willing to bare his soul and his body for the good of a meaningful and beneficial cause? A trained dancer and waiter?"

"Excuse me?"

My, this all seemed uncomfortably familiar.

"That's what the requirements on the job description said."

"What?"

"The job description for the position for the part in your next fundraising extravaganza."

"The job description didn't say any of that. Well, dancer and waiter were probably in there somewhere, but the rest of it was definitely not there."

"Yes, it was."

"No. I don't think so."

"Yes, it was."

"No, I don't think so."

"Yes, it was.”

"Kevin, I don't write job descriptions that talk about men baring their souls and their bodies. Even when I am planning a spectacularly ‘Under the Sea’ themed fundraiser and hope for mermen to serve the fish."

I was starting to think it was possible that I wasn't actually a fundraising specialist for a nonprofit, and was instead a highly specialized party planner that sat in a nonprofit office.

"I do."

"What?"

"I wrote the job description. That was part of my assignment a couple of weeks back. You were too busy with other projects, so Terri asked me if I would write the job description to get the hiring process started. She said it would be smoother and less stressful for you."

"And that's what you wrote?"

Kevin nodded, smiling proudly.

I rested my elbows on the desk in front of me and pressed my fingertips to my temples. I closed my eyes and envisioned that I was under the ocean, floating in an indestructible bubble that would protect me from sharks, but still let me admire the lovely mermen. Unfortunately for my hopes for calm, all the chiseled and beautifully be-tailed mermen in my fantasy looked exactly like Luca.

Ugh.

"You wrote that so you could apply for the position, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"And you've been taking dance lessons?"

"Yes, I have," he said proudly, puffing out all of his nonexistent chest. "Do you want to see some of my moves?"

I let out a long breath and leaned back in my chair.

"I don't think that will be necessary," I said.

At least this time, it was almost noon before the day had kicked my ass.

"Are you sure? I have been taking lessons three times a week."

That explains the increased stringiness.

"Roxie?"

Terri had entirely given up the pretense of being professional in the office.

"Yes?"

"You've got a call on line one."

"Is it…?"

"No. It's not Luca."

Well, at least I could count that as a victory. Maybe.

He hadn’t called in three weeks. And even though there was a sense of relief from not feeling my heart break more every time I knew he was on the other end of the line, there was now a sick, empty feeling in my belly. I still cared. I pushed him away but still craved his attention. I didn’t know what part of that was worse.

I picked up the phone and balanced it on my shoulder as I reached for the folder that contained the original job description for the fundraiser, along with my plans for the event. Kevin was so dedicated and convinced he had found his calling in the experiential art that was being a living prop, decoration, and/or waiter at fundraising events, that although I wasn’t currently in the market for a 12-pound, balding merman, I might be able to find something for him to do. An eel. Seaweed, maybe.

"Hello?"

Kevin had thrown his arms open again. I tried to gesture for him to put his clothes on and he burst into what I could only assume was the interpretive dance of his people.

I seriously needed to work on my hand gestures.

"Happy seeing my best friend for a sleepover day!" Thea sang cheerfully.

"Oh, son of a bitch!"

I smacked my forehead with my hand.

I also needed to learn how to use the fucking calendar feature on my cell phone.

"What?"

I opened my drawer and wrestled my purse out. This time I took the time to change out of my heels while I was still sitting at the desk.

Baby steps.

I started around the side of the desk and headed for the door. The upgraded phone in my office no longer had a twisty cord, but that meant that I was in the elevator before I realized that I was still holding it and had to jump out to bring it to Terri.

"I'm fine," I said. "I'm not working."

"I didn't ask if you were working. Are you OK?"

"I'm just keeping you up on the news."

"Did you forget I was coming in today? It's the first time since I got married! We're supposed to have a wild and crazy girls' weekend, remember?"

"I didn't forget."

"Then why am I standing at the airport waiting for you?"

"You're at the airport? I thought you didn't want me to pick you up."

"That was last time. You said you were going to be here."

"That totally slipped my mind. I'm so sorry. I'm on my way."

"Oh, good," Thea breathed. "I'm really looking forward to seeing you. I've missed you."

"I've missed you, too." I was standing beside Terri's desk, bouncing from foot to foot anxiously. "Is there anything I can bring you?"

"Maybe some coffee? The in-flight stuff was horrible."

"Absolutely. Still no pastry to go along with it?"

"No. I’ve put on a few pounds lately."

"You lost fifteen pounds for the wedding. You can’t have one pastry?"

"I’ve gained back some of that. I’m only ten pounds down now.”

"Okay..."

"Anyways, hurry up! I landed over thirty minutes ago and I'm starting to get the eye from people wanting me to join their cult."

Damn. Thea had been married for five months and I was still letting her down. Was it possible to be a maid of dishonor this long after the wedding?

I hung up and tossed the phone to Terri, not wanting to go back into my office where Kevin was, again, standing exactly where I had left him. I looked for the I-told-you-so expression on her face, but didn’t see it. Was Terri slipping?

"You didn't tell me I was forgetting something today. How am I supposed to know I'm forgetting something if you don't tell me?"

"I can't tell you that you are forgetting something if you don't tell me what it is you are going to forget before you have a chance to forget it. But you didn't tell me about this, so I couldn't tell you that you were forgetting it because I didn't know that there was anything for you to be forgetting about," she rambled incoherently.

I stared at her from in front of the elevator, trying to decipher what she had just said.

"Teach me how to use my phone calendar when I get back."

"You'll still forget things."

"That's why you'll remind me, too."

"The stairs are still faster."

The same upgrade that had brought me a phone from the 21st century had also secured a new light for the stairwell, meaning it wasn't quite as terrifying as it used to be. Still scary, but not enough to make me fling myself to the ground. Just enough that I was breathless by the time I reached the bottom. Of course, when they added in the light, the powers that be also thought it would be a good idea to increase building security and add a keypad to enter and exit the stairwell. It made no sense to me, but meant that even if I could keep myself from panicking while running down the stairs, I had to stop, stand with my back to said stairs, and put in a code to escape.

I got the code right the first time, which almost never happened, because apparently my mind was only able to hold a finite set of numbers. If I was to keep my address, six phone numbers, eight birthdays, and my social security number in there, there was no room for anything else in immediate memory recall. So, this was nothing short of a miracle.

What the hell was wrong with me? How could I forget I was supposed to pick her up at the airport?

I hopped into my car and shot out of the parking garage, only to be immediately stopped in traffic. I really needed to consider getting rid of my car and just walking or using a taxi everywhere I went. The image of Thea standing in the airport, her luggage stacked around her like a retention wall to protect her from the strange people slowly descending on her, flashed into my mind. I threw my car into reverse and headed right back to the same parking spot I had just pulled out of. My arms were already raised above my head as I ran out onto the street, flailing for a cab.

One stopped in front of me, and I made myself a mental note to do a quick rosary to the taxi gods on the beaded seat cover.

"Drive!" I shouted when I leaped into the back seat. "I need to get to the airport."

"I hope you aren't trying to get on a flight. Traffic's backed up for miles."

"Are you serious?"

"It's taken me an hour to get three blocks."

"That's very helpful. Thank you." I looked around frantically. The taxi was creeping down the street slower than the leaves sliding by in the wind. "What am I supposed to do?"

"I heard that the traffic is only jammed up right around this area. It's possible if you go about twenty blocks up, you could grab another cab and be on your way."

"Oh, just twenty blocks or so. No big deal. I'll just jog it."

"You could take the subway."

"The subway?"

"Yeah. That big tube that runs around under the city? It brings you to places you need to go?"

"You are just full of interesting information."

"Just get on the subway and head a few stations up. You'll be fine."

I tossed the driver a few crumpled bills and got out of the car. My heart was pounding in my chest as I rushed down the sidewalk towards the nearest subway station. People were moving in and out of it like it was no big deal, so I told myself that I was probably going to survive. I had to. Thea was waiting for me. I took a steeling breath and rushed down the stairs into the station. As soon as I got down there, however, I noticed none of the people who had walked down the stairs in front of me were actually going through the turnstile to get to the waiting train. Instead, they were milling around the open space, consulting the map on the wall, and then walking back up the stairs onto the street. I watched them for a few seconds, confused, before trying to orient myself, thinking back on the first time I had used the subway.

"Do you realize that I called you on your office phone earlier?"

I shrieked and whirled around. Thea was standing a few feet away, her arms crossed over her chest.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked. "I thought you were at the airport."

"And I thought you weren't working. As a side note, you never told me you were going to pick me up at the airport."

"That is a horrible thing to do to me. Why would you do that?"

"She did it for me."

The voice made my stomach shiver and heart skip a beat.

"Thea, what did you do?" I asked under my breath.

"I didn't do anything," she said. "This was all his idea."

"Why would you go along with it?"

"Because the two of you need to talk. This is ridiculous. Roxie, I love you, but you can be so overdramatic and insufferable sometimes. Especially since the two of you broke up."

"We didn't break up," I said. "Luca and I were never together. Didn’t he tell you that, too?"

"He did," she said. "He also told me some other things. And you need to let him tell you, too. I'll be at your apartment when you're done."

She started for the steps and I called after her.

"Don't you need a key?"

"I stole yours and had it copied during the wedding," she said. "I figured you would forget me again. This way, at least I’m prepared for it."

"That was smart," I called after her as she disappeared up the stairs with everyone else in the station. It's slightly unnerving and possibly illegal, but it was smart.

"Look at me, Roxie."

I didn't want to turn around. I didn't want to see his face. I knew that if I did, the remaining few strings holding my heart together would snap. I realized there wasn't anybody else in the subway station anymore and I felt confused.

"What is going on?" I asked.

"You were lost," he said. "I'm here to find you."

I felt his hand touch mine as he gently turned me around to face him. I lifted my eyes to his and drew in a painful breath.