"Thanks for everything." when he finished, Teo gestured toward the food table.
"Let's taste it?"
For the next few minutes, the romance faded into the background, and the clatter of plates and spoons began, for both were terribly hungry. Teo looked at Anna with genuine happiness on his face, and she really did smile back at him sincerely.
This moment of quiet time, when they were together,tet-a-tet, just eating, talking about everything, Anna bore Teo's snide comments about "The Ghost Whisperer" and teased him about his favorite movie "The Notebook".
That dinner, even after so many years, Anna had replayed in her mind, remembering every detail, every smile, every look they had given each other that night before they had gone to bed and spent a long, passionate night in each other's arms.
Chapter 66
"Fucking bastard!"
Anna opened her eyes and looked at Teo anxiously. He had a phone in his hand.
"Teo? What's the matter?"
"Nothing. Randall texted me, that's the matter. He won't give up his stupid plan to see you!"
Anna rose from the bed.
"Why are you so nervous? I told you I wanted to see him to sort out our misunderstanding. It will bring me relief. Stop reacting like that. I'm lying in bed with him or with you, after all! What a "good morning"!"
"Sorry." Teo breathed out, looking down. "Randall is just vexing me. If it wasn't for you, I'd have killed him with a shovel."
"Stop talking nonsense, Teo." Anna closed his mouth a light kiss and stroking his cheek, added. "I'm with you, not with Randall. That should give you some reassurance."
"Yeah." Teo nodded and smiled to change the subject. "Coffee? I still can't get used to you sleeping so long, I'm all twisted up but I wanted to be sure to be there when you open your eyes."
"Oh, I did open them. With you swearing. I need to know more about your exes so I have something to be angry about, too!"
"Believe me, I know little about them myself." Teo drawled sarcastically as he was about to leave the room to make coffee.
"Bounce, lover boy!" Anna threw a pillow after him but missed it. They both laughed, and Teo hurried away.
Anna ran to the bathroom, made a special makeup and dressed up again. She felt special... After an hour of appearance magic, she finally was satisfied and went to look for Teo to be verbally appreciated for the efforts.
"Wow!" he exclaimed as she was turning several times in front of him. "And all this for Randall?"
"Huh? What the fuck, Teo!"
"He's expecting you at the railway station in the afternoon. Apparently, you have some shared memories there."
"You know what, Teo!" Anna pouted. "I dressed up for you but you ruined everything! What a man you are! And there are no memories on the station!"
Teo smiled sardonically and pulled her closer.
"I know it's for me, silly." he kissed her. "You didn't know you had your date today. But I'm still jealous. Your beauty belongs to me and this sly idiot will enjoy it for free."
"It's awful, Teo." Anna melted finally from flattering words. "Where's my coffee, anyway!"
Raising an eyebrow at the impertinence, Teo smiled and handed her a freshly brewed drink that smelled delicious.
They both had a hasty breakfast as Teo had to go to work, but he promised to take Anna to the train station and pick her up on his lunch break.
As they rode in the car, Anna started getting nervous. In the morning she had been almost irrefutable that if she met Randall, she would be perfectly tranquil and unemotional. She knew that deep down she still loved him but she determined to let go of those feelings and to do that she needed to see Randall.
Having met Teo, she started to let slip the thoughts of revenge. Being with Tho, she seemed to reconsider her pain, and would not want now to quarrel, nor to try by all means to hurt Randall. She knew she was deluding herself by cherishing that hope - that Randall was jealous of some feeling for her, and not of the usual ego and hunter instinct of all men.
But now, as she approached the station, she was practically drenched in a nervous sweat, her hands shaking and she tried to hide it from Teo. He was thinking somewhere already at work and was a relief, however, the real worries were just ahead.
Chapter 67
Anna got out of Teo's car and headed for the platform. She was almost physically ill. She wanted to turn and walk away before Randall saw her.
What was she even doing here? Why see him? What would she gain by it? Did she expect Randall to say he was sorry? What was Teo thinking now, driving to work, leaving her with her ex? Did she want Randall back, wanted to be with him no matter what? Or maybe she should throw it all away, maybe she was even pregnant, and the events of her life should be all about Teo and she needed not come to the platform to get something out of Randall...
All these thoughts were drowned out by the unmistakable recognition of Randall leaning against the huge palm tree that decorated the station hall and talking to someone on the phone, gesturing widely and smiling with all his charm.
He looked as stunning as ever. Other words just don't match and this opinion was not only of infatuated Anna but of a clear majority of those present at the station of the fair sex, who Ah-ed and Oh-ed when he accidentally fell into their field of vision.
He wore bright blue jeans, a cotton shirt with an oriental pattern and a stylish man's handkerchief, intricately tied around his neck. He was using the phone with one hand, and the other one was... in a cast.
"Randall!" Anna called timidly, and he turned, interrupting his phone conversation.
A genuine smile lit his face, and Anna's heart sank. All her efforts to forget him, to hurt him, to love another man, were shattered at the same moment when Randall, recognizing Anna at once, hung up and walked over to her, giving her a warm hug.
"Beautiful!" he whispered. "Hello, my beautiful."
Automatically, she returned his embrace, her common sense forgotten. She wanted to strangle him in that embrace, to cover his pretty face with kisses, to cry out how she loved him, how she missed him, and how hard it was for her to live without him.
"What happened to your arm, Randall?" she asked instead.
"Oh, that? It's nothing special. Broke a wall chatting with you." he laughed. "And smashed the phone. Look, I have a new one!"
He proudly showed Anna the latest model of an I-Phone.
"Impressive." the girl smirked.
"Walk?" he suggested, holding out his sane hand.
"Sure."
They left the station and Anna asked why he decided to meet here.
"You'll see."
Having crossed the road, they turned the corner of a high-rise building and found themselves in the same charming landscape park called Sempione—the attraction, which began their adventures together.
"I can't believe it." Anna gasped, tears welling in her eyes.- "We..."
"Yes!" Randall smiled, wiping away her tears. "Yes!"
Again they walked the familiar paths and Randall again came up with historical dates and humorous memories of the famous places of Milan, forcing Anna to continuously laugh and be distracted from the only feeling that hunted her which was the pain.
They went to the same cafe with the surly Arab proprietor where they had eaten on the very first day of her arrival, strolled through Milan's quiet and main streets, talked about Italy, local customs, Randall's favorite politics topics and other moments of life. She found out that Randall took time to see his family in Austria, that he had returned to university. Asking about Bernardo, she learned that he was also studying and that in a couple of months they planned to go to China to travel.
Dusked. They walked for a long time and the girl just had no strength anymore to gaze at all these painfully familiar places.
"Shall we sit down?" she suggested, seeing a vacant bench in a deserted playground.
Randall, glancing at her, saw that the time came to change the subject, and reluctantly sat down on the bench
, inviting Anna to sit on his lap, assuring her that the bench was freezing, and that was the only reason she should be in his arms.
"Randall," she began. "we need to talk."
"Yes, Anna, I know, I know we do. But I don't know how to talk about anything exactly, or what the right phrases are."
"Neither do I." Anna admitted. "But I didn't come to fight. I came to ask you."
"What do you want to ask?" his face drooped, and he began to draw intricate patterns in the sand with the toe of his sneaker to hide his nerves.
"How could you?"
"Uff. I wish you wouldn't put it that way. But what can I say? I thought we were friends, Anna. I didn't think we were a couple. I understand that you're asking me specifically about having sex with that girl but I didn't feel like I was doing anything bad."
"Bad?"
"Something that could hurt you. I never meant to hurt you, Anna. You're a wonderful girl, smart, beautiful, honest, sophisticated, and an amazing friend."
Anna cringed at the last sentence but said nothing. Her eyes glistened with tears and he stroked her hair, trying to calm her.
"How was it?" Anna asked suddenly.
"How was what?"
"That sex. Did you enjoy it? Was she pretty? Better than me? What's wrong with me, Randall?"
"Shhh, shut up, beauty, calm down now and don't talk nonsense. You're gorgeous. In everything. It was just sex. I just slept with some girl at a party, that's all."
"How was it?" Anna insisted.
Randall shivered but answered:
"There was a random party. We danced, she started kissing my neck, harassing me. We found a room, and we fucked. That's all, Anna. End of history. No, I don't love her, anticipating your stupid thoughts, and yes, she was beautiful but not as perfectly beautiful as you."
"Then why? I don't understand, Randall. You're a hypocrite. You knew I loved you, I told you that! Why did you do that? We weren't friends, Randall! Friends don't fuck each other, Randall!"
Traitorous tears flowed a stream and pride left her. She clung to Randall and cried on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry, beautiful. Please forgive me." he whispered, trying in vain to calm her.
He managed with difficulty to soothe her sobs, and to lighten the mood, he suggested going to the pastry shop to buy some nice vegetarian dessert to smile finally.
Sniffling, Anna went into the tiny pastry shop near the playground where they had been all this time, and Randall bought two freshly squeezed orange juices and two veggie cakes.
They perched on high chairs and sat close together so they could talk over the unbearable noise the other visitors made with their animated conversations and discussions in Italian.
"So, you're with Teo now." Randall stated, chewing on his cake.
Anna glanced at him, trying to read his mood. He looked calm. She'd imagined this moment so many times - when she'd thrown Randall in the face that she was now with Teo, the one he hated, that she was sleeping with him and would always be with him. But in reality, all her emotions were turned upside down, she wished she'd never met Teo, wished she'd never slept with him so she could say she'd just been alone all along and never wanted to hurt him. All her plans for retaliation had vanished the moment she saw Randall, and she didn't want to rewrite the story with him, she wanted to delete the story with Teo.
"I suppose so." she answered.
"Mm."
"He's a good guy, he's very kind to me, and..."
"Did you sleep with him?"
"What?"
"Did you sleep with him?"
Anna gulped. Randall looked into her eyes and grasped the answer.
Chapter 68
"Jesus, Anna..." he muttered, shaking his head as if he could not believe it. "I'm speechless. What for? Why, Anna???"
"I... I don't know."
"Do you love him?"
"No, I..."
"Then why are you sleeping with him? Why are you with him, Anna? Teo's a dangerous guy, he's a bastard, Anna, you know nothing about him."
Anticipating the conversation, Anna decided that she would lose in trying to cover what Teo had said about their mutual aversion and how she was on his side anyway, so she decided that they should ask for the bill because it was too late.
When they had paid, they went out into the street and stopped. Anna looked at Randall, but there was no pain in his face, only a kind of disappointment.
"He'll pick you up?" he asked coldly.
"Yeah." Anna replied. "Teo asked you to call him when we're done..."
"... sorting things out." he finished her sentence sadly. "Anna, don't go back to that asshole. Call him, tell him you're not coming back."
"What? Randall, are you out of your mind? I have everything in Teo's house. Why shouldn't I come back? Where should I be?"
"You will stay in my place. I'll pick you up. Don't go back to him, Anna. He's a bad man, and he's deceiving you."
"In what way is he deceiving me, Randall? In all the time I've known Teo, he's never lied to me. He treats me well, and he loves me!"
"Loves you! Teo never loved anyone. He is an unfeeling machine, focused only on making money!"
It seemed that this conversation would not be avoided after all.
"Randall, enough. I don't think so, and I don't want to discuss Teo behind his back."
"What did he tell you? That I'm bad and he's the good one? Right?"
"He didn't say that."
"What did he tell you?"
"That you abhorred him after you lost a music contest and your girlfriend ran over to him."
Randall snorted.
"Ran over? He literally forced her! He needs to get his hands on everything that should belong to me!"
"Randall, you're being immature."
"Really? Did he mention how he drugged Liz, how she ended up in the hospital? How he never even visited her and never even talked to her again?"
"I don't know the details of the story. It's all very sad and I honestly don't want to go into all this."
"How can you say that? How can you be around a man like that, knowing what he's done to my life??"
"What do you want me to do, Randall??"
"I want you to take your things and leave the bastard once and for all."
"Why would I do that?"
Anna waited for him to say that her relationship with Teo was a mistake, that Randall knew he loved her, that he wanted to start over. She prayed he would say something like that.
"Because Teo's a bird of bad omen, and I fret about you, Anna. I'll call him right now and tell him to return your things because you're not going back to this villa." with a quick movement of his free hand, Randall pulled the phone out of his pocket to dial Teo's number.
"Randall, don't be presumptuous! Don't call him." she swallowed, realizing that her forlorn hope had vanished. "I'm going to Teo's."
"Anna!" shouted Randall in rage. "Why are you doing this?! You want to hurt me by being with a man I hate for everything he's done to me in my life! He took the life that was meant for me. He's not the one who should be flinging money in all directions, I am! Lizzie wasn't supposed to be with him, she was supposed to be with me!"
The phone rang. It was Teo. Randall passed it to Anna, and she answered. He asked if he and Randall had finished their "date" because he was passing the station and wanted to take her home.
"Yes, we're done." Anna mumbled, trying to calm down. "I'm ready to go home."
There was so much pain on Randall's face at that moment that Anna's heart sank. But she realized that his pain had nothing to do with her, that it was not his feelings for her that hurt him, but because, despite his entreaties, she was going with Teo and that was the only thing that hurt him.
"I'll walk you out." Randall said angrily, turning toward the station.
Chapter 69
They had to stand in silence for about ten minutes before Teo's car finally appeared on the horizon.
Teo got out of the BMW and dashed to
ward the couple. At the same moment, from nowhere, Bernardo appeared and, shaking hands with Randall, fell on Anna with wild cries of joy and embraces. Anna was extraordinarily glad to see him but he riveted her attention only on one point that chilled her blood.
Teo was walking towards Randall.
"Anna!!! How beautiful you are!! How good to see you!! We parted not so long ago, but it seemed an eternity!!!" Bernardo exclaimed, clasping her in his arms.
"I'm glad, too!" Anna said, watching the state of events with horror.
Teo walked over to Randall and motioned him aside, nodding to Bernardo and Anna in greeting.
"Lord, what will they do?" screamed Anna.
"Relax, Anna. They've known each other for years. They may be enemies, but they really have nothing to fight about. They're brainless." Bernardo smiled.
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