Brooklyn looked disappointed at the picture and wanted to ask Saul to make another one with them when she realized that he was looking intently at Ana. 'Ana?' What was going on? Did the two of them know each other? She frowned at Leyla, who desperately tried to make her understand that she should leave Saul in peace, nodding towards Ana, moving her eyebrows meaningful. Finally, Brooklyn realized that there was probably something going on that she didn’t know. Interested she looked at Ana, and she was not the only one. Everybody in the box stared at Ana, and even Shane reluctantly looked away from the court. Ana had done her best to make herself invisible, at least as much as it had been possible under given circumstances, but unfortunately, it hadn't worked, and now she felt like being the main attraction in a zoo. All eyes were set on her, including Saul's eyes. God, how she hated when something like this happened. Defiantly she stared at him, why didn't he leave her alone? Why didn't he pretend not to see her? Why did he have to embarrass her in front of Leyla's friends? Besides, Brooklyn was apparently one of his biggest fans.
Well, she had to admit that he had probably not expected to see her in this box and was therefore legitimately surprised and it must have thrown him a bit off track. But, a simple hello and a nod would have been enough, and then he could have disappeared again, out of the booth and definitely out of her life. But no, he was, standing there, looking at her with a startled, guilty expression on his face. As if someone had caught him doing something awful he managed to put a wry smile on his face. All of a sudden, he beamed down on her, or was she just imagining things? He stopped in front of her looking silently at her for a while as if she was a chocolate cake that was not intended for him.
Finally, he cleared his throat, "Ana, I didn't see you. How long are you staying in the city?" Instead of waiting for her reply, he ran in a fidgety gesture through his hair. He seemed nervous, what was wrong with him? "I'm sorry that I haven't called you after the party, but I'm a little stressed out at the moment. I'm working on a new album and sometimes I don't know whether I am coming or going and I still have to prepare for my forthcoming European tour," Ana looked at him silently. She had no idea what to say. He looked thoughtful for a moment before he continued, "would you have time tomorrow to meet me?" All eyes were on him by now. No one had eyes for the game anymore. Even Aiden seemed to be of the opinion that this was a lot more entertaining than the game. Only Shane was constantly watching what was going on at the court. He was not as easily distracted. Ana wished the ground would swallow her. They all stared at her waiting for her to answer. How awful, and embarrassing. She raised her eyes, forcing herself to look at him. She gave her best to act as uninterested as possible, which was difficult.
The guilty look on his face was quite irresistible, and he looked at her, like one of those huge banana splits, they served at the Diner close to the hotel that she craved to swallow whole, but she wouldn’t do it.
“No problem, I was very busy, "You know my mom and her meetings keep me pretty busy," She laughed a little cheesy, "tomorrow, I have to pass. Unfortunately, I asked Leyla to come along, we’ll have dinner with my half-brother and my father." Saul didn't seem to give up that easily, "I could go with you. I remember you said they were a bit difficult to handle," he looked at her with a convincing smile on his face, "I could come along for moral support." Ana could hardly believe her ears, was he kidding? What kind of crap was that? He ditched her at the party after they made out for hours. No way, she would make it easy for him, "I think that is frankly not such a good idea," she said, frowning.
Saul didn't know quite what to do or say anymore. Apparently, she hated him now, after he had ditched her at the party. What the hell had gotten into him? Why did he urge her on eating with her family? Had he gone insanely mad? Yes, he probably had, because he wanted to see her again, he couldn't do anything about it, he needed to see her again, after he had left from that party, he couldn’t think of a valuable reason to convince her to see him again. He didn't know what to do, and soon she would leave and disappear from his life forever. He simply knew that it couldn’t end this way. He would not allow it to end like that. He thought about his upcoming European tour and a vague smile lit up his face. Maybe there was still hope to see her again. "Do you still have my phone number?" Ana shrugged, she couldn’t look into his eyes, and it was just too painful. So, she turned her gaze back to her phone, "I don’t know, probably," with one swift movement, he grabbed her phone, "hey," she said alarmed, "don’t panic, I'll just type my number and my address, and save it to your phone to make sure you got it. So call me if you need anything, anytime, ok?" he gave her phone back. She looked into the void, "Fine with me."
Saul knew that for now, there was nothing he could do to get through to her, but it was not too late, he felt it. She was nervous. He could see how she bit her lower lip. She sure hadn’t forgotten the time they spent alone together in Geckos room. As much as he hadn’t forgotten a thing. He had the memory vividly on his mind and thought to often about her, but now it was time to disappear, that was also clear. He turned to the others, and it was a fact that none of them knew what was happening in the game, no wonder with the show he had just put on. Except for the dark-haired dude with the curly hair, he was still staring onto the court. He suddenly jumped up yelling, "Did you see that? There is something wrong." Aiden looked away immediately to see what was going on. Unfortunately, the girls seemed to care less about the game than relationship dramas. Crap, he thought to himself. Saul had to buzz off quickly. The whole thing was just too embarrassing, "I’ll see you around," was all he could say then he disappeared back to his booth. I’ll see you around?
What a lame exit, surely they probably thought he was nuts. Well technically, he didn’t have to worry about what they thought about him. Maybe he was crazy, about Ana. Anyway, he knew that he had behaved far from normal, but what could he do? After Saul had left the booth, everybody went silent for a while, and then chaos broke loose. Shane had observed how the ball was clearly manipulated when Jose Bautista could have turned the game in favor for the Toronto Blue Jays. Shane could hardly calm down. He claimed that a gust of wind had manipulated the ball. Aiden, Mila, Leyla and even Brooklyn, who didn’t care about baseball and had only come for Aiden’s sake, were briefly distracted from Ana’s relationship show.
It looked like some Vultures had messed up the game. Probably one of them was working for a gig or something. Those guys stopped at nothing, no wonder they compared to the Mafia. There was loud whistling from the crowd, and it looked like a mass brawl. It took a while until the game went on again. When at last there finally was the big break, and everyone had calmed down, Brooklyn followed Leyla, who was on her way to get some drinks, "Wow Leyla, what was that previously with Saul Marques and Ana? Did you know about it?" Leyla grinned, "Of course I knew! Don’t you remember? I told you that some guy invited her to a party and that she wanted me to be her minder and that I failed miserably at my job. Aiden and Mila have picked us up later, and Saul was behaving quite strange leaving Ana behind. That’s why we brought her to the Hotel."
"Oh that's right, now I remember. Then this guy is Saul. Wow. How did Ana manage to get to know him?" She seemed to pose the question rather rhetorical to herself in amazement. She laughed and punched Leyla on the upper arm, which made her rub her arm with a frown. "You're right, you truly are a deadbeat as a minder Leyla, and the two of them have something going on!"
"Well," Leyla grinned, "What can I say, except that you have a keen sense of observation."
Brooklyn tossed some popcorn they just bought at her. Leyla raised her hands, "But you have to admit that I have nothing to do with the fact that their relationship is somehow complicated."
"Well you see, that's why Aiden is my boyfriend and not some pop star. The competition out there would be too big don’t you think that’s why it is complicated?" Leyla sipped her Diet Coke shaking her head, "you're wrong Brooklyn, I think he is into her, and that scared him at first, but now he regrets ha
ving ditched her at that party. Then there’s the fact, that she'll leave soon and that she has some strange, mysterious connections.” Brooklyn looked blankly at her. "Oh forget about it, she has enough on her plate and don’t forget that I have no pop star to think about, but there are still a lot of problems.” Brooklyn nodded, "you had to fall in love with the Savior of the world," she made a sweeping gesture, "have you heard of him lately?"
Leyla’s eyes softened, and she sighed, "Yes, he called me, and we spoke on the phone a long time." “What did he say how he is proceeding with his research?"
"He said that I should never forget that we both sleep under the same stars, even if we are apart. That we always have to remember that when we miss each other." Brooklyn crossed her hands over her heart, "God, Leyla. That is so romantic and so cute." Leyla smiled, "It truly is. I miss him so much that it hurts." They arrived back into their booth, and Leyla had no more time to tell Brooklyn about the possible betrayal. When she got back into the box, a big discussion was on. Shane had seen that Jose Bautista's home run was thwarted by a gust of wind, as the ball suddenly turned into an unnatural angle and had taken a strange path. Besides, he felt that something was wrong because Mila observed some Vultures during the break. However, since the element of air was rare to find and they didn't know about any experienced newcomer within the Vultures, the wildest guesses were in the air.
Aiden thought it had to do with fraud in connection with betting and indeed, a lot of money was made this way. Maybe even his father was behind it or Carmine himself. He pulled a face, "Bloody Mafia gang," he muttered angrily "they had to ruin the game. Can't we even enjoy a game anymore without their dirty tricks?" Leyla gave him a reproachful look and looked uncertainly at Ana. It was not necessary that she knew about the Akando story. But, her concern was definitely out of line, because Ana sat quietly in her seat and seemed to be miles away with her thoughts. No, that was probably not right. Her thoughts were just one booth away. Leyla brought her a Diet Coke, "Is everything ok with you?" Ana nodded, "Yes, I am all right, thank you."
"Are you going to call him?" Ana sighed, "I don t know yet, maybe. He ditched me at that party. If you and your friends didn't bring me to the hotel, I would have stayed behind with all those drunks. What would you do?" Mila, who had previously been sitting silently in front of her, whirled around, apparently she had been listening to them, "With all the respect, he knew you were not alone there and apologizing in front of us takes a lot of guts, because he made a complete fool out of himself. Trust me, and he knows it. No one does such a thing that is not interested in someone," she turned around 180 degrees in her chair looking Ana in the eye.
Leyla chuckled, "Uh, oh. Dating advice from Mila usually takes a wild end." She earned a bumpy blow against her upper arm for her remark. "So come on girl cough it up, what do you have up your sleeve? What is your next move?" Ana looked startled. Mila had never noticed or spoken to her until now. She shrugged helplessly, "He said I should call if I need something. How the hell should I understand that? What could I possibly need from him?"
"Aha," Mila patted her knee triumphantly, "I knew that you wanted to call him." Meanwhile, Ana smiled uncertainly, "Ok, I admit that I would like to call him, but I need a damn good excuse for it." Mila jumped up, "I have an idea, and it is a very good one indeed," Mila’s idea was a bit strange. She wanted Ana intentionally to lose an object and then ask Saul's help to find the lost object again. Unfortunately, there was a fierce debate about the selection of the object. Brooklyn started mingling, and it even got worst. Shane and Aiden, who were frustrated about the game and the fraud silently staring to the court, looked up frowning at each other, both shaking their heads. Girls were sometimes a bit frightening. Perhaps someone should warn Saul seriously, so he would know what he was getting himself into.
Dinner with unpleasant surprises and the planning of a Date
Leyla had a dull feeling when she was standing with Ana in front of the building. Ana’s father owned a penthouse where her half-brother lived now by himself. Until now she had tried to stifle the feeling that Ana tried to find out where Gregory was, and seeing the elegant building made all her fears come to the surface again. Ana's dad seemed to be some rich guy if he could afford a penthouse in this area of the city. On the way, Ana had been talking about her problems with Saul and went through the pros and cons of calling him, which she considered in the meantime." Now that they were on the way up in the elevator to Ana's father's apartment Leyla was brooding who was that weird half-brother. She hoped not to be confronted with Greyson eventually.
The elevator led straight into a luxurious apartment overlooking the skyscrapers. It had a huge terrace, which was bigger than Ana's apartment in Switzerland, she thought disgusted. A big, elegant table set for four, but no one seemed to be in the apartment. Ana looked around searchingly, "Funny, where are these two?" she walked through the living room, standing at the bottom of the stairs leading to the upper floor, "hello?" when no one answered, Ana shrugged, "apparently they want to make a big entrance to impress you. On the other hand, maybe they won't come at all, which would be completely fine with me. Would you like a drink?" Leyla nodded, and Ana opened the fridge, "oh, there is even champagne 'Don Perignon' how noble, the old man wants to make a good impression as it looks. Would you like to try some of it?"
"The stuff is pricey, believe me," Leyla shrugged. She was not necessarily in the mood for alcohol, and besides it was not even 12 o'clock at noon. Nevertheless, if there were something as noble, she would not refuse it, "I think a sip of this stuff won't hurt. If it is so expensive, this isn't likely to happen again." Ana laughed and filled the sparkling golden liquid into two elegant champagne glasses. The bubbly stuff got the two girls suddenly to their head and Leyla felt hot, her cheeks flushed. They both drank a second glass and were quite tipsy considered, that it was not even 12 o'clock. Incredible Leyla thought, feeling somewhat dizzy. Half an hour had passed, and no one had come. They had gotten to their third glass and giggled to themselves.
As Leyla strolled through the living room, her eyes fell on two framed pictures, placed on a sideboard. It showed a handsome Mediterranean-looking man who had his arm around a child on each of the pictures. On one picture he was standing next to, a little girl and the other picture he was with a little boy. "Is this your father with you and your half-brother?"
"Yes, what can I say, it was probably the only time that he came to see me," she said mockingly. Now he tries to play perfect world, but he has never done anything for me. My half-brother, however, was always his favorite and still is, even if his mother wanted the divorce and died lately." Leyla looked at the pictures, "Your half-brother was sweet when he was a little boy. Does he still look that cute?"
"Sure, he still looks good, but he is an ass believe me, with whom you don’t want nothing to do with if you don’t necessarily have to. A damned plotter that's what he is." She looked at the watch, "I think we’ll forget the whole thing and are hitting the road if it is ok with you?" Leyla was still looking at the picture with the little boy, and somehow he looked familiar. "What is your half-brother's name?"
Ana coughed, she couldn't stand it any longer, and she had to tell Leyla that her brother wanted Ana to spy on her. "I think you must know him from somewhere." Leyla's head snapped around alarmed, "Why are you saying that?" Ana looked imploringly at her, "Actually I have to make a confession," she hemmed, and hawed, "I don't know how to tell you this. Please don’t get mad, he sent me to the BJJ, because he was aware that you were training there. He wanted me to meet you there," she looked at Leyla with a guilty look on her face. Leyla stared back at her in horror and Ana continued quickly, "but I swear, I liked you from the start and didn’t spy on you as he asked me to. I told you he is an idiot," she looked at Leyla with pleading eyes, "I'm really sorry, can you forgive me?" Leyla was instantly completely sober, staring at Ana with narrowed eyes, "I knew something was wrong, Gregory was right, and you had to find out where he is, right?
” She grabbed Ana's shoulder shaking her slightly, "Who the hell is your half-brother?" Ana murmured unhappily, "I am very sorry you have to believe me. You have become a true friend to me, and I didn't tell him anything about Gregory and you."
Behind them the door opened, Leyla and Ana turned around. The bitter truth that everything was far worse than expected hit Leyla like a blow with full force, because there was this older guy, that she believed to recognize from the picture and beside him was a boy with green eyes and an angelic face. She froze, "Gabe," was all she was able to say, and then she turned around and ran for the exit. Ana followed her, "Leyla, please wait for me I need to explain, it is not as bad as it may look." Gabe grinned diabolically and called after her, "Don’t listen, Leyla, it is as it looks, thanks to my baby sister here, I know exactly where your hero is," his voice was rising and Ana taking a frightened look back noticed his horrible distorted crazy facial expression. "I'm going to kill him, believe me, and if it is the last thing I'll ever do. I am going to kill your beloved Gregory!"
What had she gotten herself into? Leyla had already disappeared, and Gabe laughed sardonically. Ana stood there petrified. He scared the shit out of her. Obviously, he had gone mad. It took a moment until she recovered. Then she snapped at him, "What crap are you saying, I didn't tell you where he is. You are such a liar!"
Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy Page 13