“Sergio!”
A bandaged and filthy Sergio appeared from the side of the vehicle.
“Prince Andrew,” he said with a beautiful smile. “You have looked better.”
Ignoring the paramedic, I got off the stretcher and almost threw myself into my gondolier’s arms. Policemen came towards us, but Sergio held up his hands.
“Tell them there are two in the bin.”
“What?”
Sergio looked at me, concerned and frowning. He probably thought I had finally lost the plot.
“In that bin there. Two more of them.”
Sergio shrugged and passed the message on. They went to check and pulled out the two sleeping gang members. Sergio gave me an odd look. “We will have much to discuss.”
“Where are the others?” I said.
“I don’t know. The whole place is a mess.”
Police and firemen were flooding the building, and paramedics were running towards the scene to help those who could be helped. Every balcony in every building around had filled with people. Where had they all come from? It had been a ghost town not ten minutes before.
I had a throbbing headache. More than once the paramedic tried to get me to agree to go to hospital. I wouldn’t move and Sergio and I sat there for what seemed like hours. Night had fallen by now. We were given drinks and checked over time and again. I could barely speak to Sergio. I just hugged him while we waited to see the true impact of what had happened. I didn’t want to relax, or we could lose Soraya or Antonio. If I started to talk to Sergio about what had happened, it would be admitting they were gone.
About ten body bags came out of the hotel. I cuddled into Sergio, tears threatening to come. Then my heart lifted as I saw Soraya being helped by a paramedic to a stretcher. Leaping to my feet, throwing off the blanket, I ran to her. “Are you okay?”
She smiled and took hold of my face. “We didn’t think about them booby trapping the damned place. I am getting old. I should have expected it.”
“Your leg?”
“It will be fine. The motorbike might be off-limits for a while.”
Sergio joined me, putting his arm around my waist. “I have no idea what has gone on yet but thank you. Thank you for what you did.”
“Ah, the lover.” She winked at me. “Yes, he is very handsome. I understand now.”
Two paramedics came past us with another stretcher. Antonio lay there, unconscious but not in a body bag.
Soraya tried to sit up, struggling with the paramedic and losing her balance. “Antonio. No!” She barked something at the paramedic, who replied and rushed away. Sergio and I helped her back onto her stretcher.
“What did he say?”
“Gunshot wound to the stomach. The stupid old fool. Why did he have to get in on the action?” She lay back on the pillow, crying.
Then I realised why she had been so responsive to Antonio’s call earlier that day. She had been planted there already. Everything became a lot clearer. “Interesting,” I said. “We love our friends, sure, but only a lover makes us this desperate.”
She looked about to say something back to me but simply smiled instead. “Very clever, Englishman.”
Chapter Fifteen
As luck would have it, the paramedics decided we didn’t need to go to the hospital. After giving an assurance we wouldn’t leave the area, we were driven to the hotel in Sorrento. I could hardly believe it when I saw our little red car still there. A beacon, proving that the incredible memories racing around in my head were real. No one at home would ever believe me.
The receptionist gawped in shock at us. We were both filthy with cuts and bruises all over our bodies.
“Still haven’t found that passport. I’ve tried absolutely everywhere,” I said, shrugging.
He just nodded. Sergio gave me another look. He clearly thought I had lost all semblance of sense.
We got into the room and just fell together, sobbing and holding on to each other as if our lives depended on it. I was stiff and sore from being buried under who knew how much plaster, and my ears were still ringing. But my gondolier was with me and I felt I could conquer the world.
“You came for me.” Sergio stroked my hair and kissed me again.
“Of course I did.”
“You are special. But you are also a mess.”
“You don’t look so hot yourself.”
He led me into the bathroom and we undressed to get into the shower. Again we had to wash the day away and I couldn’t bear to let him out of my sight for a second.
“It’s about twenty-four hours since we last did this,” I said.
He threw his head back and laughed. “What a fucking day.”
I kissed him and luxuriated in the feeling of his arms around me.
“I want to make love to you all night,” he whispered to me.
“That can be arranged.”
He squeezed the shower gel over us so the suds covered us. I was revelling in the feel of his hands over my body. Both of us flinched as we accidentally touched tender parts.
“We will have to take it slow,” he cautioned.
“We have the time.”
We wrapped towels around ourselves and I pulled him in for yet another kiss. I couldn’t stop. The relief at seeing him in front of me overwhelmed me. A sudden knock at the door had us jumping.
I frowned. Sergio looked scared. “Oh no, no more. I can’t take it.”
I went to the spyhole and saw a member of the hotel staff. I opened the door a little.
“Yes?”
“A friend has sent you something. Soraya?”
I relaxed and opened the door.
The waiter held a tray bearing a bottle of champagne, some strawberries and a note. He came in and put it all down on the dressing table, nodded then left the room.
I picked up the note.
Antonio through surgery. Will recover well. Try to get some sleep, if possible. Soraya.
I smiled and put the note back, then almost leapt out of my skin as Sergio popped the cork on the bottle.
“Sorry,” he said, a bit embarrassed.
“I’m a bit jumpy for that yet.”
He poured us two glasses. I bit into a strawberry and took a gulp. The ultimate pairing. Pulling him closer, I kissed him, sharing the taste.
We broke the kiss to nestle into each other and stood like that for what seemed like an eternity, just enjoying the feel of each other.
“I could fall in love with you, Prince Andrew,” Sergio whispered.
“Well, that’s pretty handy, because I think I’m already in love with you.” I smiled.
We moved to the balcony to stand with our arms entwined around each other. The moon lit the night and Vesuvius stood proudly in the distance. The clock below us struck eleven, that same clock which had shown me the way to Antonio Valeri.
“You know, this has been quite the Valentine’s date, Sergio.”
He clinked my glass. “Well, I had to get you to notice me.”
“Oh, I’ve noticed you. Believe me.”
He leaned in and kissed me.
“For the next date, let’s just go to a movie. If that’s okay?” I said.
“So, there will be another date then?” he asked, his face the picture of hope.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight ever again, my handsome gondolier.”
“Are we on then?” he asked, nuzzling my ear.
“We’re so on.”
He wrapped his arms around me, tighter than before, and, together, we watched the wind whipping through the palm trees as Sorrento carried on as though nothing had happened.
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A Little Bit Cupid: Special Delivery
Ellen Mint
Excerpt
“Crap!”
I dropped to the floor behind the counter while a tinny bell jangled through the small shop. The reason for my panic strolled in out of my sweaty,
highly awkward teenage memories to fondle the begonias. Probably fondle them. I could only take a quick peek through baskets of scissors to savor the pressed navy trousers cupping his legs.
Tan Nguyen, the hottest guy to ever attend Carmel Cove High School in two hundred years, strolled into the tiny flower shop where I worked. Just walked right in as if the sight of his chiseled, sky-high cheekbones wasn’t guaranteed to give me an instant heart attack. And if that didn’t finish me off, those rich chocolate eyes sweeping across mine would be a double brain aneurysm with strawberries on top.
“Excuse me…?”
Oh shit, that voice. How did I forget that voice? Full-bodied like a cello back when he’d been the star of the track team and I’d changed in the showers so no one would see my skinny legs. Now, age had given him a delectable gravel that hummed with an electric spark I wanted to feel strike every nerve of my body. Which would probably be another death at his hands.
“Uh, Jack?” A garish pink Croc knocked into me and I glared up at the face of my bemused coworker, Lauri. Red ribbon circled her arms up to her elbows as we both fought the oncoming war that was Valentine’s Day.
And she’d just revealed to Tan that I was hiding. This required every four-letter word in English! Swallowing down the pile of curses that’d get my mouth washed out with Tide, I muttered to the floor, “Yep. It’s all good back here.”
Slowly, I rose to my feet, wiping my hands on the ugly green apron that boxed in my skinny body. Pivoting away from the gorgeous customer, I focused on Lauri instead. Her face was in full laugh-at-me mode, a finger rising to accuse me of having fallen to my stomach for no good reason.
“Doesn’t look like any possums got in,” I babbled, the smile I forced turning into a terrified grimace. Possums? What the hell was I talking about? “But we should watch them anyway. They sure do love to…smell flowers.”
Mother of God, stop talking!
Some other creature born out of a life of customer service inhabited my babbling meat sack, turning me towards Tan. What brain matter remained after the simultaneous stroke and heart attack combo whimpered that he was in a suit tailored to a perfect V. Without a tie…and he’d left the top two buttons undone. Dead. Fully gone. Jack Dawson is no more.
At least Lauri could bring a nice peace lily to my funeral.
“How can I help you?” the last remnants of my gray matter asked.
When Tan smiled warmly, my gritting lips flopped upward in the stupidest grin of my life. It was a wonder I didn’t collapse my chin to my hand and sigh. Don’t do that. Don’t even entertain the idea of doing that!
“Jack,” that sonorous voice called to me, his eyes shining brighter. “I haven’t seen you since…”
Fifth-period chemistry when I let you copy my notes before the final and risked smelling your hair. It was like oakmoss and cinnamon. “High school,” I answered, proving I didn’t nuke all my brains from one glimpse of him.
“Right.” The smile’s wattage increased, blanking out the sun. “How have you been?”
“Can’t complain, or I’d be fired,” I said without a thought, then winced. But to my shock, he laughed at that stupid comment. Not some polite one either—a snort was in there. “You! You look…” Back up, stop, do not pass Go. “You’re doing good?”
“Well enough. It’s so great to see you,” Tan said, and he drifted down those eyes that hadn’t left my thoughts for five years. No doubt to check out the menu of options splayed across the counter. He’d come into a flower store willingly. No one did that unless they had to appease a parent, a significant other or a corpse. Hopefully not all at the same time.
Sliding a step forward, I tried to clear off the counter covered in fallen petals—which only smeared pink and purple pigment across the glass. Smooth. “You live here often?” my lips babbled while my brain packed its bags and ran for it. Was it too late for me to drop to the floor again?
Tan, far too nice of a guy that he was, chuckled. “I try to live as often as I can, yes. New job, new city, new experiences all around.”
“Well, you’re certainly dressed…”—like a man who wants to take someone across his desk and show them the meaning of life—“nice.”
It had to be my imagination that Tan’s forever-sun-kissed skin blushed. A familiar danger rolled in my gut. One born from being the skinny weird kid figuring out his urges in a smallish town. Awkwardness can lead to punches if not played right. Back off. Back off fast!
“Lauri here, she can help you with whatever you’re looking for,” I said, grabbing my coworker and pushing her in the way.
“I can?” she whispered at me, but I was already running back to the small closet crammed with baskets we had to stuff before Friday.
“Nice to see you again, Tan,” I called pathetically in my escape.
“You too, Jack,” were his last words to me. Leaving him in the helpful but belligerent hands of Lauri, I leaped between the long rolls of multi-colored cellophane to hide.
Placing both my hands to my cheeks, I found them so hot I could fry an egg then get a pancake going on my forehead. Christ on a cheese platter. Tan Nguyen, here. In my shop…that I worked at. I never want or will want to own a flower shop. And he’s here right before Valentine’s Day.
Because he’s buying something for his girlfriend.
Truth waddled up and socked me in the jaw, my head splattering back against the cracking drywall. Of course he was. It was nearly the day of love and roses. Of romance and wine. Of handsome boys asking girls to marry them.
I knew two things for certain when I was younger. One, I would literally die for Tan if the man asked me. And two, I would never in a billion years find the courage to tell him. The second-worst scenario to my imaginary confession was that he was as straight as khakis. The absolute worst change-my-name-and-become-a-lumberjack scenario was that Tan was into men and had no interest in a scrawny florist who pretended to be an artist.
Either one would crush my heart to a fine powder, so ignoring it and hoping that my years of pining would vanish seemed like the healthiest option.
When the cash register beeped and the corny bell jangled, I risked a peek out onto the main floor. There was no gorgeous god among men, just Lauri trying to bleach up the mess I’d made. A lump formed in my throat, a lump named ‘You wasted your one chance’, but I swallowed it down deep. Healthy!
Shuffling through the order tickets, I ignored the newest addition to begin a basket of posies for an M. Winthorpe. While I cut the green foam to size, which required my flesh getting dangerously close to sharp blades, Lauri glanced over to ask, “So…who was he?”
“No one,” I mumbled.
“Right. Because when no one wanders in through the door, it’s normal for a person to sweat bullets, fall to the floor, then scuttle away into the storeroom.”
“I did not…!” I thundered, raising the pinking shears high in my hands as if I was about to stab her in the throat. Lauri trailed her caustic gaze up to the glinting blades and I dropped them to the counter. “He’s someone I knew, in high school.”
“Old flame?”
“I’d give my left nut for that to be true” slipped before I could stop myself. More four-letter words, please. Keep ’em coming.
Lauri spat out a laugh at catching me, ribbon unspooling in her fingers. We had two dozen baskets to finish and there were guaranteed to be more, thanks to the latecomers. Never turn them away. Even if all we have left is a sprig of baby’s breath and a bag of tootsie rolls. Those were the rules of the shop that made getting through February excruciating.
“Well, your little man candy must have something special planned for Val day. He ordered the biggest package we have and something extra, too.”
There was the other reason I dreaded coming to work after New Year’s. Fingers ripped to shreds from thorns, eyes bleary after tying the ten-thousandth ribbon, stems and leaves dug out of my underwear every night, and for what? To watch couples make fish eyes at each other while I
hoped for a tip more elusive than pictures of Bigfoot on a jet ski? To cart these hundred- to five-hundred-dollar ‘My love is bigger than all of yours!’ displays from door to door? To listen to the squeals out of offices as they all gathered at the watering hole to prove their boyfriend loves them?
God, I’d give anything to have a boyfriend.
“Hey.” Lauri jabbed her elbow into me. “Fantasize on your own time. If we don’t get this done, Ms. Hellberg will feast upon our eyeballs.”
Arranging the Gerber daisies, I sighed. “She won’t eat our eyes. She’ll go for our feet first so we can’t run away.”
Valentine’s Day. Second-worst day to be a florist after Mother’s Day. And absolute worst time to be a lovesick, anxious fool with his foot permanently crammed in his mouth. I hate this stupid holiday.
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About the Author
I have written for as long as I could write. In fact, before, when I would dictate to my auntie. I love to read, and I love to create worlds and characters.
I live in the English countryside. When I’m not writing, I like to get out there and think through the next scenario I’m going to throw my characters into.
Inspiration can be found anywhere, on a train, in a restaurant or in an office. I am always in search of the next character to find love in one of my stories. In a world of apps and online dating, it is important to remember love can be found when you least expect it.
Kristian loves to hear from readers. You can find his contact information, website details and author profile page at https://www.pride-publishing.com
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