Not Giving Up on Forever

by Yana Stevelork

  Chapter 79

  Everyone had to take a shower again, and they moved out of the house late enough to risk being late for check-in. Anna began to worry and complain that she wouldn't catch the plane, but Teo reassured her that there were no unsolvable problems and that if she missed that plane, he would buy her a ticket for the next one, just not to make him nervous.

  Ricardo and Leticia sat in the backseat, singing songs to ease the tension. Anna looked around, trying to remember once again all the streets, cafes, and pavements. Milan was in a turmoil of the day and the company got into a traffic jam. They kept cool by singing to the guitar and for the sake of it, Teo and Ricardo had to swap seats.

  Finally, having reached the airport, Anna, Teo, Ricardo, and Leticia, in the style of a running late family scene from the movie "Home Alone", rushed to the registration desk and took a place in the queue that seemed endless.

  "See, you're not alone." Teo grinned, handing her a purse.

  "Indeed." Anna gasped, fixing her clothes and hair. "I'm all wet from sweat!"

  "Mmm." Teo said, hinting.

  Anna hit him with her purse and smiled.

  "That's not what you're to be thinking, young man."

  "We're going for a smoke, okay?" Ricardo said, hugging Anna just in case.

  "Hey, bro, don't stay too long, this line will pass quickly." Teo said disapprovingly.

  "Don't worry, man. We will be fast."

  Ricardo and Leticia did not smoke fast though. Anna drooped, for she was realizing that they would be late and she might not say good-bye to them. The thought made her angry and disappointed. They were both so dear to her.

  "I don't understand why it was impossible to just wait a bit!" Anna protested with annoyance.

  "Relax, they're coming." Teo tried to reassure her. "I'll walk you to the end."

  They walked down the long corridor and Teo was in vain trying to reassure her that Ri and Leti were coming, but something had happened that no one could have imagined...

  Chapter 80

  From behind came a calling cry " Anna!!" and the couple turned.

  What a shock it was to both of them to see Randall running toward them.

  "I can't fucking believe it!" Teo swore. "What the fuck?"

  Randall kept shouting, "Anna, Anna!" making his way through the crowd of people.

  It stunned Anna. She had expected everything from today, but not this. She watched Randall coming toward her, waving his arms, afraid she wouldn't see him, and her blood ran cold. She couldn't even look at Teo, private fear had completely paralyzed her.

  "Anna!" Randall finally ran up to her, ignoring Teo completely. "Anna, dear, forgive me, I beg you, I beg you, forgive me! I was blind, I was just an idiot, I love you! I've always loved you, I just didn't realize it before! Anna!"

  "Randall, get the fuck out of here!" Teo said angrily, tugging at his shoulder but Randall pulled him back and dropped to his knees in front of Anna.

  The crowd gasped and Anna recoiled in horror.

  "Anna, listen to me, I don't care anymore. I've been looking for you all day, I tortured the informants at the front desk to find your flight, I found you, and now I want you to look me in the eye and forgive me. I love you, look at me!"

  "Randall, For God's sake!" Anna gasped at last, looking around anxiously. People whispered right and left and began to converge around them in a ring. "Randall, get up now, please! Everyone's looking at us!"

  Teo spat in disgust. Anna blushed and tried to comprehend what to do.

  "I'll go to smoke, and I'll give you a minute, Anna." Teo said. "When I come, this circus will be over."

  And he strode out of the corridor.

  "Teo!" Anna shouted after him, but her eyes fell back on Randall.

  She had never seen him like this. He was shaking. He really didn't give a damn that people were crowding around and asking each other what the drama was about. His eyes were red with tears and glistened, dropping the new ones.

  "Anna, look at me. I can't live if you don't forgive me and come back to me. I know you love me. Do you love me, Anna? Answer me!"

  "I love you." as if against her will, bashfully looking around, muttered the girl.

  "You can't be with him. I'm made for you, and you are made for me." he unfolded a crumpled piece of paper on which he had scrawled a poem in Italian, and started reading it to Anna.

  People cheered, some applauded, but Anna did not understand a word of the verse and did not get what she should say, how to react. When he finished, she pleaded:

  "Randall, please stand up, don't attract the audience."

  "You forget about the audience! They'll forget we exist in a second!"

  At the end of the corridor, two burly, mustachioed guards were approaching.

  "Randall, security is coming! Stand up, I'm asking you- what do you want from me??!!!" tears flowed from her eyes. "I don't know what you want!"

  "Don't fly away, please! Be with me!"

  "Randall," Anna finally managed to lift him up "it's not serious. I have a life, a job, and I need to get back home."

  "It's all nonsense!" Randall shouted through the whistle of the surrounding men. "All this does not matter, you have nothing in Mining-Great! You can't fly away and leave me alone! I can't be without you, I just can't stand it!"

  His shoulders began to shake with sobs and he covered his face with his hands.

  "Jesus, Randall." Anna felt a physical pain to look at this and she hugged him.

  "I do love you, Anna," he looked her in the eye. "AND I KNOW IT NOW. I was such an idiot and I lost you, and only this asshole Teo got me to understand that you are everything to me, and I will never give you to him! Please don't fly away, we'll be together."

  The guards stopped to ask what the commotion was, and two ladies enthusiastically described the story unfolding before the eyes of the onlookers, eventually making the guards allies of the spectacle.

  "Randall, please don't cry." Anna cried herself, wiping his tears, and he wiped hers.

  "I understand all now, I understand everything." he muttered. "Please stay... You can't leave..."

  Teo came back into the circle and at the same moment, the speakers began to call for the passengers on Anna's flight to board.

  "The concert is over, Randall." Teo hissed. "Anna, you have a flight to catch."

  Without answering, Randall grabbed Anna and begged again that she would not fly, assuring her of his love. Anna wept and stood like a statue in his arms.

  She looked at Teo. There was so much shame and pain in his eyes, so much frustration and anger, that no words were needed to understand what he was feeling at the moment.

  She looked back at Randall. His tear-stained eyes expressed love and a kind of primal fear. She swallowed, glancing back at Teo.

  "Randall, I have to go." she gasped, searching Teo's eyes for a reaction, but when she saw nothing, she looked back at Randall, whose eyes were filled with terror.

  "You can't, you can't fly away!" he clutched his head.

  "Randall, let me go, please." Anna repeated.

  Randall looked her straight in the eye, trying to explain her decision to himself.

  "Are you leaving me?"

  "Randall..."

  "Are you leaving me?"

  "She's got a plane, Randall." Teo snatched the girl's hand from Randall's grasp. "Go home."

  Randall froze, staring at Anna. He couldn't believe it. He was so sure that his confession would change everything, and pain shot through him.

  Teo was literally dragging Anna away, making his way through the staring crowd and endless comments. Anna looked only at Randall but continued walking with Teo.

  Randall stood crying. He watched her go, and when he realized she would not break away from Teo and run to him, he turned and walked down the hall without looking back.

  "Randall!" Anna cried.

  He didn't hear her. But she didn't scream for him to hear, because she didn't try to run after him. She was holding
Teo's hand...

  Chapter 81

  Teo walked with her to the very last gate. They were silent.

  "I have to go." Anna said.

  "Take care of yourself, Anna." Teo managed to choke out, and it was obvious that even this phrase was difficult for him.

  "Yeah, you too." she said, with equal tension. "And Ricardo and Leti?"

  "They won't come." Teo said dryly. "I explained to them why. They didn't need to see it all."

  Anna drooped and tears ran down her cheeks. Teo wiped them away with a flick of his hand.

  "Hurry up." he said. "You don't want to miss your flight."

  "I don't..." said the girl, choking with tears. "Goodbye to you, Teo."

  "Goodbye, Anna."

  They hugged, and Anna literally ran to the plane, not because she was late, but because she was consumed with shame and guilt in front of this wonderful guy who stood, looking after her with pain.

  Chapter 82

  She rode in a taxi, looking at Mining Great City with tear-stained eyes. The place remained the same. Billboards burned just as brightly, people were just as indifferent to each other's existence, and ran about their business in just as much haste.

  Her head ached unbearably, she had been crying inconsolably all the flight and now, as soon as she entered her dusty apartment, she crashed on the bed and fell asleep.

  It was nearly noon when she finally opened her eyes again. The sun flooded the room with bright light and a breeze stirred the curtains on the half-open window. Anna stretched and looked sleepily around the room.

  That's all. The adventure was over. she thought and stood up lazily.

  On the bed, she discovered forgotten before travel phone and frankly cursed. How many misfortunes could have been avoided if her forgetfulness had not played this cruel trick! She would have just taken the phone with her and the whole course of events would have turned out differently. But it is pointless to cherish the thought now. It had happened as it had happened, and the things that would happen were happening, but Anna really believed in fate.

  While the phone was charging, she took a shower and, for not having food in the house, went down to the coffee shop on the first floor of her house to buy a fresh espresso with a couple of sandwiches.

  Her mood was unpredictable. She began to cry again, then rejoiced that she was finally home and seemed to forget about the events of the day before. The brain itself had not yet decided how to react to all this.

  As soon as she turned on her phone and computer, Anna began reading her work e-mails and found that her workplace was still fixed, but her boss was furious and would have fired her long ago if she had not been such a high-class teacher.

  Smiling maliciously that she was getting away with it, Anna began to write a long explanatory letter with many touching details, but without mentioning her real adventures. Lying was obviously bad, but keeping the job with its generous salary was far more important, especially now. So Anna, ignoring calls of Heaven to repent, continued scribbling and promised tomorrow to show up at work and do best in the triple regime, take cool leadership, manage Olympiads and whatever needed to be back in the boss's good graces.

  Reassured that she was not unemployed and could breathe freely, she picked up the phone. Her hands began to tremble, she expected at least abusive messages from Randall or Teo, a bunch of angry texts from friends and acquaintances, and at least a million messages from Mark.

  But her expectations were not met...

  Chapter 83

  There was nothing from Randall. Nothing at all. No messages, no missed calls. Nothing.

  Only the realization of this brought a new wave of tears to Anna. He was not online for two days, according to the messenger. Now he was off as well and the girl engulfed panic. She texted him, asking him where he was and how he was, and begging him to answer.

  One missed call and one message came from Teo: "Did you make it?" and she wrote that the flight went well, she was at home and she was not fired.

  Indeed, from Mark was if not a million, then a good dozen messages. He wondered if she'd flown to Milan, where she was, why she wasn't answering, what the hell was going on, how, and when she'd finally get back to Mining, and if he should call the police.

  Without a moment's hesitation, Anna dialed Mark's number, but a girl, whose voice Anna immediately remembered, picked the phone.

  "Hello? Well?" she wondered in a provocative tone.

  "I need to talk to Mark. My name is Anna, I'm an old friend of his. Um ... I flew back from Milan."

  "And?"

  "And I need to talk to him!" Anna said, and swore under her breath, shocked by the girl's haughty tone.

  "Mark isn't home." the girl said irritably.

  "Where is he?"

  "Has left."

  "Where?"

  "What do you care?"

  "My God!" Anna shouted. "Are you that insecure that you would pour water for half an hour to get rid of me as if it would help to keep Mark under your skirt?"

  They hung up.

  "Stupid sheep!" Anna swore loudly. "I'll talk to him, anyway. What a stupid sheep! Where had he found her?"

  Anna began to copy and paste to all her friends who worried about her, telling how she liked Milan, that she had forgotten her phone at home, that everything was fine and she was thrilled and that life was beautiful. Universal message to calm down and cheer up.

  Then she telephoned her mother, and after a half-hour's tirade of reproaches, chatted with her for three and a half hours more, telling her the details of her journey.

  Elena ooh-ed and aah-ed, commented and joked, and Anna felt infinitely calm at heart that she was at home, that she could again, not at such a distance from each other, hear her mother's voice, that tomorrow she would begin her pleasant working days, hoping that fate, in which she so believes, would put everything in its place.

  Chapter 84

  No matter how many times Anna called, no matter how much she wrote, there was no way she could reach Randall. She was going insane from suffering, praying that Randall would take pity on her and pick up the phone at last.

  She began to bombard Bernardo with messages but he only answered once, saying that Randall had gone to China alone, without him, and that they had had a big fight about it, because Bernardo had a job to do and Randall didn't want to wait until his friend's vacation and had left in a hurry, burning bridges behind him.

  Though Teo wrote, the messages were cold. He answered dryly and distantly as if he were a bot. The sentences were scored, that everything was fine, work was fine, and music was fine. But there was nothing in these words.

  Anna believed that she had hurt him so much that he was just being polite and forcing himself to keep in touch with her and that it was only good breeding that prevented him from sending her away and telling her what garbage of a person she was to him. However, Anna continued to write to him every day, and he answered, with long delays, making her check the phone several times a day in vain.

  At the end of the week, the phone rang and Anna, running out of the bathroom wet, rushed to answer, believing it was Randall or Teo.

  But it was Mark.

  Seeing his name on the screen, Anna hastily wiped her face and hands with a towel and answered:

  "Mark?"

  "Anna!" a familiar voice said. "Anna!"

  "Mark! Hi!" she smiled as she continued drying herself. "Your girlfriend is a bitch."

  They laughed.

  "Why, thank you. I just found out, in a fight by the way, that you called me a week ago."

  "Oh." Anna snorted, putting on her robe. "Why don't I look surprised."

  "Where are you? How are you?"

  "I returned to the capital, all is good! Back to work!"

  "You weren't fired?"

  "No!"

  "Great!" Mark laughed, pleased to hear her voice again.

  "Where are you? Can we meet tonight? I have so much to tell you!"

  "Emm. No, it won't work! I'm in Lon
don!"

  "You what?"

  "I'm in London!" he repeated proudly. "I moved!"

  "Why didn't you tell me? Ah, Yes." Anna slapped her forehead. "You moved???"