Not Giving Up on Forever

by Yana Stevelork

  Chuck, swaying under the weight of potential purchases, obediently followed the couple into the dressing room and was inexpressibly glad to get rid of the burden, even expecting a sickly percentage of the possible proceeds.

  Teo gestured to the leather seat opposite the fitting room.

  "And you will parade in front of me in all these wonderful dresses so we can choose beautiful options!"

  "As in the movie "Pretty woman"! " Anna giggled.

  "As in the movie "Pretty woman"! " Teo nodded and stretched out in his chair, turning on the MP3 player.

  "I'll put on the music!" snatching the device from him, the girl laughed.

  "Hey!! I want to put on the soundtrack of the movie!" Teo smiled as he wrestled with the girl but he lost, and the player ended up in her frail hands.

  "Ta-da!" Anna exclaimed sarcastically. “Now sit down and wait for me to come out!”

  Brenton Wood's 1967 song "Oogum Boogum" started playing and Teo couldn't help but laugh. Anna stepped out from behind the screen in the sexiest of ways, showing off a chic blue ruffle dress that Teo immediately brushed aside, sending her for the next one. Enjoying a few more choices in the most mind-blowing colors and designs, he approved of a champagne cocktail dress when Ellie Goulding “Love Me Like You Do” was already playing. Anna was effectively spinning in front of him, forcing him to lower an embarrassed look hiding genuine admiration.

  "Decided." she whispered in his ear and kissed him on the lips, embarrassing him to the point of blushing.

  Later in the evening they were sauntering on quietly along the quay, and Ricardo and Leticia were glad to accompany them.

  The air on the quay was fresh and breezy and the vendors of trinkets and other souvenirs were eager to sell.

  Anna held Teo's hand and tried unsuccessfully to read the emotion on his face. He had always been such a mystery, but now it was vital she knew what he was thinking and she didn't have the heart to ask.

  "Here we are!" Teo said proudly as they approached the luxurious Burton restaurant in the futuristic Port Nuova neighborhood. "My treat!"

  They entered a chic room with an ultra-modern design, executed in a minimalist manner with the inherent elegance of Italy. Ricardo involuntarily gasped and the girls hurried to take the most beautifully decorated table. Teo had obviously been to this place more than once because the waiters knew him and several of the visitors asked for his autograph.

  "I'm so glad you're rich and famous." Ricardo said enthusiastically. "Thanks to you, we can go to such luxurious places for free!"

  Everyone laughed and began to choose dishes from the menu. Teo was relaxed and advised friends things he has tried in previous visits and for Anna, he and the waiter for a long time have been choosing the best vegetarian dish.

  Anna was very pleased with Teo's tender attitude, his attention to the smallest details of her life. She watched admiringly as he explained to a waiter she knew that Anna liked this sauce, not the other, that the chef always added meat, and she didn't eat meat. He asked the drink be necessarily so-and-so, the first dish so-and-so, the second one so-and-so.

  "Thank you." she whispered in his ear, and he beamed.

  Over dinner, the atmosphere of tension seemed to dissolve completely. Teo was having a lively discussion with Ri in Italian and the girls were discussing the latest fashion trends and the guys themselves.

  "You're so lucky!" delightedly mumbled Leticia. "Teo is a rare gem, and he seems to breathe you!"

  "Thank you." Anna murmured, looking away.

  "You're a wonderful couple that nothing can break."

  Anna looked at Teo and nodded at Leticia.

  "I guess so..." she drawled. "Nothing indeed..."

  Chapter 75

  They came home together so tired, that the guys decided to just have a little beer and play computer games, and the girls just shut themselves in the room to gossip and have fun.

  Leticia dressed up in one or the other of the dresses Teo had bought for Anna.

  "I envy you so much!!" she exclaimed admiringly. "You don't even know what card you've drawn! Teo is amazing!"

  "Well, well, I shall soon be jealous!" Anna joked. "Ricardo's a great guy, too, Leti."

  "Yes, of course, but not so rich and famous. Look what happens when Teo goes out in public- he's harassed! I am sure that soon he will become a world-famous DJ! And you will bask in his success!"

  Anna laughed, trying this way to change the subject, and showered Leticia with dresses. Her gaze fell on the phone on the nightstand.

  No. Don't even think about it. literally all the internal organs seemed to scream to her.

  Just for a second! was her inevitable answer.

  "I'm going to the bathroom!" Anna blurted to Leticia, who hadn't even heard the remark.

  Grabbing the phone from the table, Anna slipped into the bathroom and locked the door.

  Teo never locked his device, so she logged in her social network account and discovered four messages from Randall.

  Opening chat, she saw a video and a long text from him. Without hesitation, she hit the Play button.

  It was the video from a music competition, from which the mutual aversion of the guys rooted. Anna watched with a sinking heart as Randall played an unknown composition on the guitar and sang. He had a great voice and enjoyed the performance. Anna had never heard him play, and she hadn't even known that he could, until the latest events, so it was a real shock to see him on stage with a guitar, in an expensive suit, with his hair lacquered.

  After that, there were some other two performers, and lastly, Teo came on stage. He wore simple t-shirt and jeans, his disheveled hair completing the style and as he commenced, the entire audience and jury froze. He performed a lyrical ballad of his own composition and played as Anna had never seen him play. He literally was the music. He was all the words of the song, all the chords, all the pauses. He merged with the Universe itself and no one had any doubt that he was worthy of victory. He was excellent. When he finished the song, he just smiled and jumped off the stage to enthusiastic gasps.

  The depth of Teo's talent shocked Anna. Although Randall also played beautifully, the difference would have been clear even to a deaf person and yet it puzzled her why Randall had sent the video. The long message was supposed to explain everything to her, so she began to read.

  "Anna, here's a video from my performance that made me and Teo eternal enemies. I hope you see now that I was worthy of victory and not him. "

  Anna sighed sadly, shaking her head. Text followed:

  "But that's not why I'm writing to you, though. I haven't been able to sleep since we parted on the platform. I keep replaying all the moments in my head. You are in my head all the time and I see that I have missed something very important. I think about you every second and the picture of Teo pushing you into the car just doesn't go out of my head. I thought I was doing the right thing, that you'd be better off with him, that he was a good match for you. But I just can't accept it. Every second I think, that not he should run hand in your hair and kiss you, but me. Not he should walk with you in Milan, but me. Not he is your fate, but I am. I think I know what I missed, Anna. I think I love you, Anna. Do you hear me? I love you and I want you with ME, not him."

  Anna froze on the last two sentences and stared at them for several minutes. She read them over and over, thinking it was a system failure, some kind of mistake, or maybe it wasn't Randall, or maybe she wasn't Anna, or maybe it wasn't planet Earth.

  But no.

  "I think I love you, Anna. Do you hear me? I love you and I want you with ME, not him."

  Randall wrote it. And she was Anna. And this message was for her.

  And Randall was online.

  Tears came into her eyes and, wiping them with genuine anger, she wrote:

  "What a piece of shit you are, Randall!"

  He answered at once:

  "But I love you and I want us to be together."

  "How do you even have the guts to tel
l me that!"

  "It's true. And I'm glad I figured it out before it's too late. I LOVE YOU."

  "Shut up!"

  "I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!"

  Anna couldn't believe her eyes. Her heart was exultant, her brain was so angry, her soul so disappointed, and her intuition so anxious, that she, unable to withstand such an influx of emotions, abruptly logged out, turned off the phone and rushed back to the bedroom where Leticia did not lose her at all. Then she fell on the bed and cried aloud.

  Chapter 76

  "Anna, dear, don't be so upset." Leticia murmured anxiously. "What happened? Stop crying, tell me! I can't look at you like that without understanding!"

  "It's okay, Leti. Leave me for a while, go sit with the boys, I'll come out to you soon." the only thing Anna could mutter in response.

  Leticia, after a moment's hesitation, obeyed and left the room. Anna was alone with her thoughts and she tried to sift despair from hope. Randall ... How she had waited for that simple phrase and gone to such lengths to hear it. Did he really mean what he wrote?

  Closing her eyes, Anna seemed to read the messages over and over again. She tried to figure out where the mistake was, what was wrong. Those were the most welcome words of her life but when she finally got Randall's confession, she didn't feel that relieved.

  She dreamed that if he told her he loved her, everything would finally fall into place, they would be together again, and the story would have a happy ending.

  The reality was that the confession didn't ease the pain of his cheating, that Teo and his story with Anna didn't just disappear like a second's worth of memories, that the awaited phrase didn't restore her pride and peace, and she didn’t rush her back into Randall's arms.

  She could not find an explanation for the reaction. But even so, she felt this wild, unbridled joy, this misplaced exultation, this sort of triumph that she had got her way.

  "What's to be done about it?" a voice called from the doorway.

  "Huh?" the question took Anna aback.

  "Attires." Teo nodded toward the scattered dresses and was horrified to see that Anna's eyes were red. "Are you crying?"

  "No, no, Teo. I just - I just..." no quick lie came to mind. "I was just washing off my make-up and then I got a little distracted, that's all. I will wash it off quickly and come out to you. I'm just tired of wearing false eyelashes all day."

  Deciding that the excuse had worked, and not daring to subject Teo's reaction to scrutiny, she slipped into the bathroom and turned on the water as loudly as she could.

  "Damn it! Phone!" she slapped her forehead and, hastily washing off the last of her makeup after a long sob, ran out to shower Teo with more explanations.

  He was standing at the door and as soon as she came out, he motioned her into the hall. He had a phone in his hand.

  Anna swallowed, expecting a scandal.

  Chapter 77

  They went out into the hall where Ricardo and Leticia were playing against each other in GTA. Teo smiled and flopped down on the sofa, inviting Anna to sit beside him. A little embarrassed by his change of mood, Anna hurried to join him so as not to aggravate his temper.

  "How about some music?" Ri wondered.

  "Marvellous idea!" Leticia clapped her hands.

  The guy jumped to adjust the speakers and look for suitable compositions for fun.

  In a couple of minutes, a bright salsa rattled, to which Ricardo and Leticia spun in the dance to lyrical dialogues of Malu Trevejo “Hasta Luego”. Teo suddenly jumped up to dance with them. Anna could not help laughing at their merriment until they dragged her to the center of the room to dance together.

  And it was a wonderful moment. Teo danced to the male lead, and then Anna took hers, and they looked so happy and harmonious that any outsider would have given the obvious verdict that they made a great couple. When he was gloomy, her sun shone on him, and when Anna herself was lost in dark thoughts, Teo found every opportunity to make her happy again. And now he wasn't even going to argue, he was just enjoying the time they had left to spend together.

  It was a night full of dancing until morning, of unrestrained fun, and of the incessant ringing of the telephone, which lay on the dresser which drowned the sound of of the pouring music.

  Randall never heard Anna's voice that night.

  Chapter 78

  Anna woke up with a terrible headache. Loud music until the morning perfectly caused her migraine and it needed no alcohol to understand the hangover of a person on the morning after the party. However, she set her alarm for 7 am to spend maximum time with the guys before she flew away. It was her last day in Milan and the 16:00 flight reminder was instantly depressing.

  Teo was not in the room and Anna hurriedly dressed, applied an exquisite makeup to cover the fatigue, and went in search of him.

  He was outside with Ricardo in a mock fight. Leticia was arranging food on an open table, and as soon as she saw Anna, who was still looking slumberous, began to cheer:

  "Good morning! You're so scary looking! Come for breakfast!"

  "Thank you, Leti. You know how to support. A real friend." Anna joked.

  "Stop fighting, y'all!" Leticia attempted to separate the boxers. "Like little children, really!"

  Teo and Ri pulled away after a good battle, sweating and breathing heavily, and walked over to the table. Teo beamed as Anna stood up:

  "Up so early?"

  "Today is an exception! I want to spend as much time with you as possible. I mean, all of you." Anna admitted.

  "Really cute!" Ricardo nodded, hugging both ladies at once.

  The company began to eat. They talked about Anna's future plans because most likely she has been axed. Anna laughed it off, although in her heart she believed that she really expected only a good-old-friend-unemployment.

  Teo was in good spirits, joking a lot and trying to keep everyone positive. But the general mood showed sadness for Anna's departure. Ricardo was worried about Teo, Leticia was worried about Anna. And the four of them had become superb friends during Anna's time in Milan.

  "So, are you ready for it?" Teo asked. "There might be traffic."

  Anna nodded weakly. There was an undercurrent in everything, a sense of strange deplorable ignorance, and it made her uneasy. She finished her meal, thanked Leti for her concern, and, having hugged Teo and Ricardo, went to the bedroom of the house to pack her suitcase.

  As she was busily engaged in arranging her clothes, there was a knock at the door. It was Ricardo.

  "Anna," he began.

  "Yes?"

  Randall called.

  "What? Whom?" Anna shivered.

  "Now to me. At first, he'd been bugging Teo all day and been carefully sent away. But he had the nerve to call my phone, too."

  "What did he want?"

  "What do you think? To talk to you, but I told him to forget you, that you're happy with Teo, and that you're leaving back home today anyway, so you're not up to his dramas right now."

  Anna gasped at Ricardo's answer.

  "Nice. Thanks, Ri."

  "Nice?"

  "Yes. You said it perfectly. Even too gently. You should have sent him away."

  Ricardo frowned incredulously.

  "Anna, is that you?"

  "It's me, me." the girl smiled. "I can't be a venturesome fool forever."

  "That's what I like to hear! That's my Anna!" Ricardo beamed, hugging her. "You deserve the best treatment for such a pretty face!"

  Teo came into the room.

  "So, here you are touching my girl!" he jokingly lashed out with his fists on Ricardo. "Hands off!"

  Again the battle began, in the process of which they crumpled and messed up all things Anna prepared for packing. She fiercely joined scramble, to give them a good dressing-down. Leticia came in with a pot of spaghetti and, realizing she was wasting precious time, threw herself on top of them all, rewarding them with a generous shower of pasta.

  And they say too much laughter leads to tears
...