AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gabriela is expecting him, at any moment, to come out with the words: "Shall we have a nightcap at my hotel?," but he doesn't. He leaves her at the door of the house where she's staying, shakes her hand, and leaves.
How elegant!
Yes, this has been her first lucky day, the first of many. Tomorrow, when she gets her phone back, she'll make a collect call to a city near Chicago to tell everyone the big news and ask them to buy the gossip magazines because she'd been photographed going up the steps with the Star. She'll also tell them that she's had to adopt a new name. However, if they ask her what's going to happen next, she'll change the subject. She has a superstitious belief that one shouldn't discuss projects until they actually happen. They'll hear all about it as the news leaks out. Unknown actress chosen for major role. Lisa Winner was the guest of honor at a party in New York. Previously unknown Chicago girl is the new sensation in Gibson's latest movie. Agent negotiates million-dollar contract with one of the major Hollywood producers.
The sky's the limit.
11:11 P.M.
"You're back early?"
"I'd have been here sooner if it wasn't for the traffic."
Jasmine kicks off her shoes, drops her bag, and throws herself down on the bed, exhausted and fully clothed. She says:
"The most important words in any language are the short ones: 'yes,' for example, or 'love' or 'God.' They're all easy to say and they fill up the empty spaces of our universe. But there's one small word that I have great difficulty in saying, but I'm going to say it now." She looks at her companion. "No."
She pats the bed, inviting her companion to join her. Her companion does so and strokes her hair.
"The word 'no' has a reputation for being mean, selfish, unspiritual. When we say yes, we think we're being generous, understanding, polite. But I'm going to say no to you now. I won't do what you're asking me or making me do, even though you think it's in my best interests. You'll say that I'm only nineteen and don't yet fully understand life, but going to a party like the one tonight was quite enough for me to know what I do want and what I definitely don't want.
"I never planned to be a model, and I didn't even think I was capable of falling in love. I know that love can only survive when it's free, but whoever said I was anyone's slave? I'm a slave only to my heart, and in that case my burden is a very light one. I chose you before you chose me. I embarked on what seemed an impossible adventure and never complained about the consequences, whether it was society's preconceived ideas or resistance from my own family. I overcame all those things so that I could be with you here tonight, in Cannes, savoring the victory of an excellent fashion show, and knowing that there will be other opportunities in life--by your side."
Her companion lies down next to her, her head in Jasmine's lap.
"The person who made me realize this was a man, a foreigner, whom I met tonight while I was at the party, lost in the crowd, not knowing what to say. I asked him what he was doing there, and he said that he'd lost his love and come here to look for her, but wasn't sure anymore whether she really was what he wanted. He asked me to look around at the other guests. We were, he said, surrounded by people who were full of certainties, glories, and conquests, but they weren't enjoying themselves. They think they're at the peak of their careers and the inevitable descent frightens them. They've forgotten that there's still a whole world to conquer because..."
"...because they've got used to life as it is."
"Exactly. They have lots of things but few aspirations. They're full of problems solved, projects approved, businesses that prosper without them having to do anything. Now all that's left is the fear of change, which is why they go from party to party, from meeting to meeting, so as not to have time to think, and to meet the same people over and over and be able to believe that everything's the same. Certainties have replaced passions."
"Take off your dress," says her companion, preferring to say nothing more.
Jasmine gets up, takes off her dress, and slips between the sheets.
"You take your clothes off too and put your arms around me. I really need to feel your arms around me because today I thought you were going to let me go."
She does as Jasmine asks and turns out the light. Jasmine falls asleep at once in her arms. She, however, lies awake for some time, staring up at the ceiling, thinking that sometimes a nineteen-year-old girl, in all her innocence, can be wiser than a forty-one-year-old woman. However fearful and insecure she may feel right now, she'll be forced to grow. She'll have a powerful enemy in HH, who will doubtless create as many obstacles as he can to prevent her taking part in the Fashion Week in October. First, he'll insist on buying her name, and when that proves impossible, he'll try to discredit her with the Federation, saying that she failed to keep her word.
The next few months will be very difficult.
What HH doesn't know, indeed, what no one knows, is that she possesses an absolute power that will help her overcome all difficulties: the love of the young woman now lying in her arms. For her, she would do anything--anything, that is, except kill.
With her, she is capable of anything--even winning.
1:55 A.M.
His company jet already has the engines running. Igor sits in his favorite seat--second row on the left--and waits for takeoff. As soon as the seat-belt sign is turned off, he goes to the bar, serves himself a generous measure of vodka, and drinks it down in one.
For a moment, he wonders if he really had succeeded in sending those messages to Ewa, while he was busy destroying worlds. Should he have been more explicit, adding a further note or a name or something like that? That would have been terribly risky--people might think he was a serial killer.
And he wasn't: he had an objective, which, fortunately, had changed in time.
The thought of Ewa doesn't weigh on him as much as it used to. He doesn't love her as he once did, and he doesn't hate her as he came to hate her. With time, she will disappear completely from his life, which is a shame because he's unlikely to find another woman like her, for all her defects.
He goes back to the bar, pours himself another vodka, and again drinks it down in one. Will they realize that a single person was responsible for extinguishing those worlds? It doesn't matter. His only regret is the moment he decided to give himself up to the police in the afternoon. Fate, however, was on his side and he managed to complete his mission.
Yes, he had won, but the winner doesn't stand alone. His nightmares are at an end. An angel with dark eyebrows is watching over him and will teach him which path to follow from now on.
