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The weight I had gained thanks to Mariana’s excellent cooking was long gone, and I once again resembled a walking corpse. But who cared? Not me.
As soon as Santino picked me up this morning, I knew something was wrong. He kept shooting me glances, and he was fidgeting. Santino never fidgeted. It made me nervous. The morning was slow going, the work I still had to complete seemingly impossible.
And then there were Santino’s attempts at conversation. Since he’d never initiated a conversation before, this made me suspicious.
“Can I get you anything?” he interrupted my dark thoughts on how they were going to kill me. I thought chopping me up in tiny pieces and throwing them into the ocean would be a favorite. Like I had never existed.
“No, thanks.”
I forced the “thanks” out, not having forgotten my manners completely while having a pity party for one.
“You haven’t eaten anything yet.”
“Not hungry.”
“I’ll get Mariana to make you a sandwich.”
“No, thank you.”
This time, the “thank you” part came out growled.
He fixed me with his gaze, gearing up to say something else. The opening of the office door interrupted our uncomfortable stare-off. Lucius’s unruly mop of dark glossy hair peeked through, and his drool-worthy body followed. Even if I were about to be dismembered, there would never be a moment when I wouldn’t appreciate all that was Lucius.
He nodded at Santino, who got up and left without a word. I watched Lucius move around the desk and stop at my side.
“Let’s go,” he said and took my hand.
Too stunned to protest, I let him pull me up. “Where to?”
“You’ll see.”
Way to be cryptic. But what choice did I have but to follow?
Lucius walked me down the long corridors, his steps sure, his grip warm. He looked back at me with a tentative smile on his face, making me suspicious as to where we were going. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he seemed almost excited.
I was lost after the fourth turn, all the hallways looking the same. After another few turns, we stepped through a large door and into a pool area with a glassed roof and Olympic-sized swimming pool.
The sun shining through the roof caused the water to sparkle, giving it an otherworldly appearance.
Lucius visibly relaxed as soon as we’d set foot into the room, his shoulders less tense and his face losing some of its permanent frown lines.
The door fell shut behind us, the loud noise echoing in the cavernous space.
“What are we doing here?” I asked, curious why he would bring me here.
He held out his arms, meaning I lost his hand and warmth. “This is where I come whenever I feel like the walls are closing in around me.” He led me to the back of the room, to the large windows.
There was a blanket on the ground, a picnic basket next to it. The gesture was so sweet and unlike him that a smile stole over my face. My anxiety faded to a dull throb that was unlikely to give me heart palpitations.
Lucius stepped closer and pointed at my mouth. “That smile right there made begging Mariana to pack a picnic and enduring Santino’s teasing worth it.”
The heat rising to my cheeks was instant. I mumbled an incoherent response and studied the polished concrete floor.
Why would he do this for me? It’s a gesture for a friend. Or lover. Not a prisoner.
There was no way he was interested in someone as boring as me. I’d done nothing exciting in my life. A good day to me included a visit to the ice cream parlor and a movie. I was small and currently scrawny. I didn’t wear makeup. My thick hair was a tangled mess thanks to the humidity and my lack of care factor.
But none of that seemed to matter to him.
