AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The officer who held the passport, a tall young man with a black beard, was about to speak when the phone rang. He held up a finger in a “one moment” gesture and picked up.
“Hello?” he said in a flat, accented voice. He nodded and listened, then frowned and looked at Olivia. “Really?” he said in English and switched to Romanian for the final half-minute the call lasted.
“What?” Olivia asked. “Who was that?”
The door to the office opened, and two men walked in. She bit her lips and pinched the chair hard. One was another cop, and the other was the thief with the smoky bus.
“Yes, that’s him! You found him!” she yelled. But nobody moved to make an arrest, and judging by the soft, embarrassed smile on the guy’s handsome face, Olivia was pretty sure that no arrests were going to be made any time soon—or ever. Then why was the handsome thief even here? She felt the anger stirring fresh within her. Even more so now, she hated the way the wordhandsomekept popping into her head.
“One moment, Miss Carter,” the police officer who’d just walked said before turning to his coworkers and speaking in Romanian. Olivia watched them with crossed arms. Occasionally her eyes would drift to the attractive thief, who was much taller than the police officer next to him—and their eyes would meet. He’d give her that embarrassed smile with those pretty lips and white teeth and she’d turn away.
Olivia recognized her blue purse when the other police officer brought it out and showed it to his coworker, muttering more words she couldn’t understand. She did pick out “American,”or was it Americana or Americano?She was clearly the one in the picture and she felt a refreshing wave of relief flood through her when the officers turned to her, this time with soft smiles on their faces.
“Really sorry for the inconvenience,” one of them said in carefully constructed English. He sounded like a child, Olivia thought. She would have felt bad for thinking it, but these men deserved every condescending thought she had. She could have ended up in jail just because those jokers couldn’t put one and one together. They wouldn’t even let her call Mr. Stanley, rejecting the one thing she knew about getting arrested. Her one phone call!
Yet, this was not America, and mistakes happened, even ones as bad as this. So, she nodded and rose from her old plastic chair, grabbing her purse. She ignored the attractive man, who stood by the door as she walked past. Despite her fury, she was incredibly relieved that she wasn’t about to end up in a Romanian prison cell.
“Miss Carter,” the driver called after her. She kept walking.
“I’m not a thief. My name is Christian. I was uh . . . I was supposed to pick you up at the airport today before the, um, the little mix-up.”
Olivia turned to face him. Because he was so tall, the first thing she saw was his chest, so she had to tilt her head up to meet his eyes.
“‘Little mix-up’?” she repeated angrily. The man, Christian, ran his hand through his dark, thick hair, lost for words.
“Bigmix-up?” he said.
Olivia raised a brow. “Where is my luggage?”
“Yes, of course. I have it. In my van. Let’s go and get it, and then I can drive you—”
“I think I can take a cab from here. You’ve done enough, thanks.”
She ignored the deflated look on his face.
“Your bag is this way.” He started walking down the dark hallways of the airport’s administrative offices. She followed as he slowed, adjusting his pace to hers.
“I’m so sorry about everything. If you think about it, I kinda did it for you, I mean, believing that woman was you, Olivia. I thought you were some crazy lady—”
“Crazy?” she stopped and scoffed, raising an eyebrow.
“I mean, not crazy as incrazy, but more like in a funny way. . .” he rambled, a look of desperation in his eyes. He sighed. “Please just listen to me for a second. I’m really sorry about all of this. It was a misunderstanding.”
Olivia opened the small door at the end of the hallway that led to thearrivalssection of the airport. The long line of yellow taxis and the tourists storming toward them distracted her for a second.
“Why don’t we just start fresh?” Christian said. “I promise this will never happen again.”
She looked at him briefly. His eyes were full of hope and desperation at the same time.
“Just let me drive you as I was supposed to, please. Elena will expect us back soon.”
Olivia tightened her lips and her nose flared. The more she stared at him, the angrier she got. Yet, at the same time, the honest look on his face made her want to reconsider. She also didn’t want to put Elena out if this was something she’d planned for her—Elena had been through enough after the loss of a loved one.
Olivia sighed. “Well . . . let’s start with my luggage.”
With a hopeful smile, he pointed at the van parked at the end of the line of taxis. “This way.”
Olivia’s mouth dropped slightly open at seeing the van. She’d been so focused on that red-haired lady and her stolen luggage, she hadn’t fully taken in the monstrosity of the vehicle.
