Savior

Chapter Three

Sole

I rested my elbows on the table as my head took support of my intertwined fingers, and waited eagerly for her to come into my office and attack me. The third violin was delivered today and I was all ready to meet her.

The clock on the wall in front of me slowly turned into my tormentor with every ‘tick’ sound it made. Restlessness was creeping in and my hands had shifted to the back of my neck. When will she come? My mind kept thinking.

‘She’s not going to come.’ Ricci announced as soon as he entered my office. It was as if he’d heard what I was asking myself.

‘What do you mean she’s not going to come? Didn’t you say the violin was delivered?’

‘It was. But not to her.’ When I raised my eyebrows he explained further, ‘She didn’t go her office today. The violin was received by her secretary.’

Closing my eyes I sighed. For some reason, with her my plans always not go as planned. ‘I thought she never took an off. You said it yourself.’ As soon as I’d found about her from the newspaper article announcing her wedding, I’d asked Ricci to find out everything about her, which of course included her schedule as well. And not much to my surprise she’d never taken an off since she’d started her business. Then what happened today? I wondered.

‘She’s out on a date.’ There something about Ricci that would appeal you, he never shies away from being straight forward, even if he knows that his words sat times might not be digestible to the other person, he still says what needs to be said.

But the problem here isn’t his straight-forwardness but the fact that he didn’t tell me this important news before.

‘Do you know where this date is happening?’ He nodded and I didn’t need any more words from him.

Luna

‘I’m happy that we finally got to go out.’ Dave said as he took my hand in his. We were sitting across each other on a table filled with food, none of which I could eat. Only if he’d discussed with me before bringing me to a restaurant which only served sea-food.

‘Hmm.’

He laughed lightly and said, ‘When are we going to get past your “hmm”?’

‘What?’

‘Luna, we’re going to get married soon. This is our first date. Shouldn’t you by now speak a little more? I always feel it’s just me in this relationship and you’re somewhere else.’ Only if I could tell him he was absolutely right but then it would not go down well with my uncle and aunt, not to mention my cousin.

‘I take time to open up to people.’ I said.

‘Well you better hurry up because I don’t want you to be like this when we’re married.’ I give him an awkward smile and content with it he digs into his food as I sit there and stare at the delicacies. It must have been after a while or when he finished about half a lobster and a full seasoned fish that he noticed I wasn’t eating. ‘What wrong? Don’t tell me you’re on a diet.’ And then he laughed at his own statement.

May be it was his laugh of I was actually feeling experimental that I picked up the fork and the knife and started cutting the fish. I stopped breathing in order not to gag from its smell and moved the fork which had a slice of the most common sea-food on it, near my mouth. Just as I was about to taste it a hand stopped mine and took the fork away from me.

I looked up and suddenly the air in the room became heavier. ‘Stop torturing yourself.’ The man who’d held my hand, the man who I thought I would never meet again, said.

‘Excuse me, who are you?’ Dave asked putting his fork and knife down.

‘Someone who knows that you’re fiancé here hates sea-food.’ The intruder replied. The smug face told me he was still the overconfident bastard as he was before.

‘What?’ Dave asked confusion creating lines all over his forehead.

‘A piece of advice, next time you take someone out on a date make sure to ask their preferences too.’

Dave removed the napkin from his lap and put it on the table and stood up. ‘Who are you again?’

Please don’t answer, I kept praying inside my head. But when has he ever listened to me. ‘Sole Accardi. I’m a close friend of Luna’s.’ And he offered his hand, which Dave took hesitantly.

‘She didn’t tell me she had a friend.’ Dave looked at me and then back at Sole. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you Mr. Accardi.’

‘Oh you have?’ Sole showed faked surprise on his face which made me roll my eyes.

‘Who hasn’t? After all you’re one of those few successful Italians here in California.’

‘That’s all business. I’m much more than that. Luna here sure knows it.’ I wanted to pick of the fork and stab Sole in the heart for this. I knew what he was doing, purposely creating a situation to make me uncomfortable.

‘Even I don’t know you properly Mr. Accardi. I don’t think anyone does.’ I said for the first time since Sole spoiled my date, not that I was enjoying it but still.

‘Don’t worry, this time I plan on making sure you know everything about me.’ His statement had a sense of forewarning in it and it made me nervous. What was he on about?

‘I don’t understand.’ Dave said.

‘You don’t need to.’ Sole said and looked directly into my eyes. His blue eyes were still so innocent as before, if only their beholder wasn’t a devil, I would’ve fallen for them again.