The Italian Heir-CASTELLANO SERIES: MARTIN’S STORY

7

A good night’s sleep has long gone out the window.

I tried reading but my eyes felt droopy so I thought sleep would come. The second I lay down, I was wide awake once again. I thought a couple of sit-ups would eventually tire me out…it only made it worse. “God damn it.” I muttered, rubbing a hand across my face and glared into the quiet space where pale moonlight pierced through the thin linen curtains.

At one point, I even asked myself why the hell I was sleeping on the couch in my own home.

Gentleman, I thought to myself. I was being a gentleman.

So I lay back on my arms and took a deep breath as I shut my eyes. For a moment there, I really thought I had fallen asleep.

I felt an eerie cool breeze sweep past my feet and stopped at my right arm; I swear to god if it was some poltergeist that was trying to mess with me at this god-forsaken hour, I would be ready to pounce. So when I opened my eyes—big mistake—I let out a startled grunt when a half-asleep, half-awake Erika stood beside me, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand with her hair sticking out weirdly in every possible direction. “I need to pee so badly but I can’t find the light switch to your bathroom and then I freaked because I heard scratching noises on the wall. Can you come with me, please?”

I remember asking her whether she was serious but she looked like she was genuinely scared and was bouncing up and down on the spot holding her midsection. So I followed her upstairs and waited outside (of course); it wasn’t like she needed to hold my hand while she peed. When she was done, she made me sit on the bed right next to her until she fell asleep and so did I, next to her.

She was a real kicker in her sleep. Twice she kicked me in the shin. I had my back turned against her else she might kick something more precious.

“Wake up Crawford.” I whispered into her ear and she moaned into her pillow, swatting her hand in the air carelessly and mumbled something incoherently that sounded like ‘bacon’. “Rise and shine woman.” I added.

“Go away before I beat your ass, Castellano,” she threatened, pulling the duvet over her head. “You wanted a taste of work life so badly, so this is me giving it to you. Up you get, we’re running late.”

When she didn’t answer, I pressed on. “Fine, I suppose I’ll just finish all the glorious bacon I’ve just made. Bummer.”

She rolled over, the back of her hand smacking my abdomen in the process and she just left her hand there. Slowly peeling open an eyelid, her voice still thick with sleep, she asked, “Do buttermilk waffles with syrup come with this sleepover breakfast package too?”

I sighed deeply, great, so now I’m the bed and breakfast guy? “Yes.”

“Great!” she kicked the duvet away from her body and eyed the oversized t-shirt curiously she was now wearing, trying to recall if she had changed out of her clothes last night. I did it, but hear me out. Last night, before she woke me up, she had apparently snuck into my kitchen and poured herself a glass of cold milk from the jug with her eyes possibly closed, hence spilling milk all over the front of her sweater. One can’t simply miss a huge patch of white stain on black-colored fabric. I would say I was an expert in that department, but doing it with my head turned? Not quite.

“You claim that we’re running late but you’re not even dressed yourself.” She yawned once more, trudging down the stairs right behind me. “I just thought we’d switch up the usual work mornings and squeeze in a little work out with breakfast after.” I said gingerly as I pointed at the rolled-out exercise mats on the floor of the lounge room downstairs.

“Yeah I guess we could…wait what?” she asked with an unmistakable confusion in her voice, halting altogether at the stairs with both her hands gripping onto the banister. “What time is it?” she asked and she sniffed the air. “5am, now get down here.”

“The air doesn’t smell like bacon or is there any bacon even?”

“There will be if you get your ass down here at once.”

“No.” she stuck out her chin defiantly. But before she could turn back around, I took two steps at a time back up the stairs, bent lower and grabbed the back of her knees, throwing her over my shoulder. “Nooo. This isn’t fair! I want to go back to bed. The sun’s not even up yet!” She protested, her arms dangling uselessly behind my back.

“5am exercises could be the next best thing to start your day.”

“To start your psychotic day maybe. Oof.” She rubbed her midsection with her hands, pouting at me. “Oh god, is that Britney playing on the speakers? It’s 5am in the morning, Castellano.”

“Hey, it’s a family thing. Even mom has begun to embrace it.”

“Just begun, huh? That took her like what? 20 years to finally get used to it?” She shuddered and I grinned, gesturing to her to come to me. “Precisely, so you should.”

“Thank god I’m not the one who will be marrying you.” She stuck out her tongue. “You’d better not jinx yourself into it.” I winked and she pulled a face.

I passed her a glass of warm lemon water and set up my laptop (for her benefit, else she’d get distracted) while she sat on the empty mat cross-legged next to me. Can’t say I wasn’t surprised she stopped whining altogether but was looking eagerly over my shoulder.

“Morning stretches followed by light cardio and breathing exercises to wrap up.”

“Why would I need breathing exercises?” she inhaled and exhaled 3 times quickly and giggled. “See.” She breathed in and out once more to prove her point, doing some weird hand movement as if pushing air to the left then right like some taichi master.

“Point taken, but seeing how you clambered around the kitchen and freaked out just because you heard noises that made you not want to pee alone, I figured you were pretty stressed out with your assignment. You’re hallucinating noises even…despite it being your first day working on it.” I muttered the last part under my breath.

“I heard that.” She drawled. “Oh, pick this guy. His biceps would definitely wake me up real good.”

And so we did—from body stretches to low-impact cardio for Erika; I did my own push-ups and bench presses followed lastly by focused breathing. “Hummm...” She hummed while I was lying on my back in silence with my arms behind my head and my eyes closed. “Hummm...” She hummed once more and I can’t help but c***k a smile.

“Hummm…”

“Breathing all right there?”

She snickered once I finally acknowledged her antics; she lay down on the ground and rested her head onto my abdomen. Neither of us spoke a word. It was just slow, quiet breathing in the room.

“I know what you’re trying to do for me, Martin, and I appreciate it, what with getting me up early on the grind to get me moving. So in return, I’ll let you in on a little secret.”

“Should I be honored that you’re letting me in on it?”

“Very.” She said smugly.

I tilted my chin lower to get a good look at her. “What is it?”

“You know I was so sure you were going to let me work with you on my assignment, so confident that I hadn’t even bothered to apply elsewhere? That is, until you told me no, I only realized that I can’t always get what I want.”

“But I can’t say you weren’t persistent about pestering me all week.”

“Because a part of me felt like I was entitled to you granting me my wishes just because we were best friends until I sat down one afternoon and realized how imposing I was. I was wrong.” She admitted. I frowned. This was a new side of Erika that I'd not seen.

“If I wanted something, I had to earn it. I’ve always dreamt big but they’ve remained only as dreams because I’ve not done much in making it happen.” She turned away from me, eyes gazing hollowly at the ceiling above us. “But something you said triggered me, something about never having to work hard for anything because I had it easy. I was angry at first, but then I realized I was only angry because what you said about me was true, especially when my parents' connections to the business world were at my disposal. My point is, even as friends, you can say ‘no’ if you don’t feel like doing something for the other and that’s okay.”

“Hey.” I tapped the crown of her head and she turned her head to the side once more, looking expectantly at me. “I think we thought long and hard about what we said to each other—some words were said out of spite but there will be times where one also speaks the blatant truth whilst doing so—but know that this isn’t me trying to justify what I had said so carelessly to you from before and I’m truly sorry for that.”

The fine lines around her eyes crinkled as she smiled, so I continued, “Hence, why I think there was some good that came out of our little bickering.”

“I hate bickering with you constantly about silly little things and I get upset when you act like you’re more superior than I am, even though we’re only two years apart. So…” she sat upright and I let her pull me up. “I will do my best to respect you as my superior, as weird as that sounds, and learn as much as I can in the 4 weeks to come and in return…”

“And I will do my very best to make sure you ace this assignment of yours.”

It was nice having Erika in the kitchen with me to start the day. I don’t usually spare much thought about menial things like that. My home in general was pretty much always quiet; there were plenty of meals I had here that were eaten alone, documentaries watched alone, books never read aloud and a kitchen that never had any utensils clanging noisily against the counter tops.

But the air this morning was unlike any other; there was laughter and teasing with a little dancing whilst singing at the top of our lungs to a point we didn’t hear the front door open and close. “Oh I’m sorry, did I walk into your future? The air smells like a newly married couple; it's nauseating.” A familiar chuckle made its way into the kitchen.

“Steve!” Erika yelped and I took a step back hastily with a full cheek smacked with pancake flour. “We didn’t hear the door.” She added quickly. I couldn’t help but smile when she mentioned ‘we’. Steve gave me a knowing smirk and I narrowed my eyes at him with a warning look. “Showing up at my place unannounced has always been his favorite sport.” I said flatly.

“I thought I would come by for breakfast and check in on this lonely bachelor, but it seems to me, apparently, he’s doing just fine.”

“I live alone, not depressed Danburke.” I defended. “Of course you aren’t now.” Steve winked. “Great, you’re just in time. We’re making buttermilk waffles, some pancakes and bacon.” Erika flipped over the waffles in the pan with a spatula, grinning as she handed me a paper towel for my flour-dusted face.

“We’re running late, why don’t you head upstairs for a shower and I’ll take it from here.” I said to Erika. “But I’m almost done here, you sure?” she pointed at the stack of buttermilk waffles. “I have an extra pair of helping hands here.” I nodded at Steve who made a face whilst helping himself to the bacon strips. “There are some clothes that the twins left behind somewhere in my wardrobe, you can use whatever you like.”

Once Erika was out of ear shot, I could sense Steve was either smiling or smirking behind my back. Before I could say anything, he beat me to it. “You didn’t allow a single woman to sleepover, let alone step into your place in the last two years, but when you do, it’s our darling Erika?”

“Hey, get your head out of your ass. Nothing happened.” I emphasized the last part.

“I didn’t say anything.” Steve shrugged. “But it’s the guilty ones who get a little aggressive.” He teased.

“Oh for the love of god!” I scoffed. “And how’d you know she stayed the night?”

“Who goes over to a man’s house just to make breakfast with him? On top of that, she’s wearing your football jersey.”

I choked on my glass of water. Steve had a point. And that was the first piece of clean clothing I grabbed in the dark when I had to change her out of her milk-stained sweater. “Fine then.” He concluded and extended his folded arms on the counter. “If you claim that you don’t have anything going on with anyone, I’d like you to meet my friend. I think you’ll like this one.”

“Danburke, for the last time! If I was a no-show to all the blind dates you and Rhea set me up ever since my breakup, what makes you think this time will be any different?”

“Dude come on, are you telling me you’re never ever going to be dating again?” He leaned back in his seat and shook his head looking disappointed, before adding, “It’s been two long, agonizing years, Castellano.”

“Dating isn’t at the top of my to-do list right now. There are far too many things that are demanding my attention every other day.”

“You’re taking this whole no-dating-work-only thing a little too far.”

“And you’re a little too concerned with my love life to realize your girlfriend is calling you right now.” I pointed at his vibrating cell phone on the kitchen counter with the spatula Erika was using earlier and went back to flipping the last of the pancakes.

“Damn it.” Steve mumbled as he answered the call. When he was done talking, he turned his attention back to me. “Alright, I’ll just be honest. She’s not exactly my friend per se but it’s a friend of Rhea’s. Her name is Zara and she’s in town for the next couple of weeks for a short holiday—semester break… I haven’t exactly met her either but Rhea tells me she’s nice.”

“And what does that have to do with me?” I asked. “And I bet that was Rhea hounding you on the phone about this?”

What is it with my friends constantly setting me up only to find out I always end up bailing every single time?

“I just thought it’d be nice for you to get to know other people, hopefully it’ll take your mind off work some time and let loose a little. You’re only twenty-three but your lifestyle resembles a middle-aged man who speaks with the mind of an ancient wizard. It’s hard for the rest of us to keep up with your pace, you know…feels like you’re missing out on all the fun that young adulthood has to offer.”

“Ancient wizard?” I said with a derisive snort. “That’s the best description you can come up with?”

I leaned against the countertop and sighed quietly, not wanting to look at Steve, because I knew deep down inside, a part of me knew that he made sense. Every aspect of my life right now seemed like it’s been fast-forwarded at a rattling speed and I was solely responsible for it.

I’m at a place not many kids want to be at this age, I was doing things no other teenager would place much importance on. I was attending and speaking at seminars, doing financial forecasts and brainstorming marketing ideas when everyone else was out partying or just doing what every other normal teenager would do— enjoying what’s in front of you. I think you get the point.

I knew my friends had my best interests at heart and I’ve disappointed them far too many times already. Surely there is no harm in meeting new people, right? It wasn’t as if they were forcing me into a loveless relationship or anything like that.

“I’ll give it a go.” I finally said, but grudgingly.

“You’re not saying no?” Steve looked really surprised and picked up the top most pancake from the stack. The look on his face told me it was as if he was expecting my usual ‘hell no’ with no room for negotiation. “I’ll meet her only this once.” I enunciated the last part clearly so as to not give him any funny ideas by going ahead and setting up date night part two.

“Ah my friend, you will soon eat your words back once you meet her.”

“How would you know I would? You’ve not met the girl and you said so yourself.” I countered, to which he gladly answered.

“Rhea showed me her photos, duhh.”

“A mere photo can’t possibly tell you about a person’s character or personality.”

“But it would most certainly prepare your puny little self-esteem to know the bella donna you’re up against.” He retorted to which I only let out a sharp laugh at his attempt at Italian. “Great. I’ll let Rhea know. So you’ll take her to dinner tonight…” he began typing on his phone quickly while I dished out the final batch of pancakes.

“Tonight is a big no, I can’t just…” My brain was automatically wired to say no to everything on a weekday because I assumed there would be some sort of trouble at work for me to solve.

Steve gave me the side eye and I sighed, much to my annoyance—I gave in. “I suppose tonight will do just fi—“

“Sweet, I just texted Zara that you are going to meet her for dinner at Fine & Rare’…” he trailed. The screen of my phone lit up and buzzed. “I just sent you a picture of her so hopefully you’d recognize her by then. Be nice to her and don’t you go on and on about your business plans and talks. We all know how tedious you can get when you start talking about VAT and company assets and cash flow…”

“You sure do a real good job of painting a clear picture of me.”

“Like one of Jack Dawson’s French girls?” Erika asked as she came back downstairs sporting a baby blue wrap around dress looking all freshened up. Her cheeks were flushed and rosy; I liked what she did with her hair.

“Exactly like Jack Dawson’s naked French gals. And, I just scored our best friend here a date tonight.” Steve announced as he stood up from his seat and smacked his palm against my back, “I’ve got to go, I’ll see you later pumpkin.” He kissed the top of Erika’s head and made his way to the door. “Good luck tonight Castellano! Look sharp!” he sent me a flying kiss to which Erika and I both shot him disgusted looks.

“So, who’s the lucky girl tonight?” Erika wiggled her eyebrows at me the second the main door slammed shut. “To make myself clear, that was entirely Steve’s idea of being a good friend. She’s a friend of Rhea’s and apparently she’s in town visiting for a couple of weeks.”

“What’s her name?” Erika asked, pouring us a cup of black coffee each. “Zara. I think.”

“You think?” Erika snorted, passing me a cup while sipping on the other. “You best not be calling her by some other name, girls really do not like that shit.” she warned, as if she'd been through the same situation once.

“It’s not a date, Erika.” I said dully, before taking a long sip of my coffee.

“It could be the start of something new.” She implored, circling round the counter and sat where Steve was sitting a while ago and grabbed her phone once the notification bell went off. She smiled at the screen. “Not you too.” I warned as I glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’d better shower then we’ll leave right after.” I tapped the counter and walked towards the stairs. “Mmhmm.” She hummed without looking up, her eyes trained on her phone while she sipped on her coffee.

“And hey…” I trailed as I lingered at the bottom of it. “You look nice.”

She looked up unexpectedly from the screen then smiled, “Thank you.”

The morning dragged on as we arrived at the office right on the dot. John stood waiting by the glass doors—the main entrance to the floor of the Finance department like he usually does with his tablet in hand. “Good morning Mr. Castellano, Miss Crawford.” He greeted her politely. “Good morning Johnny.” Erika chimed. John raised his brow but said nothing, clearly not appreciating his name being altered.

Lucien was typing furiously at a dangerous speed on his laptop while Jackson from Marketing was talking animatedly with his hands moving around about chart figures and numbers of sales the company had made last month for other sectors of our businesses—Castellano Holdings didn’t solely deal with just Rogue like it used to. He looked up and shot Erika a boyish smile but was distracted by Jackson pointing excitedly at a diagram on the computer screen.

“Time apart makes the heart grow fonder for you two?” I asked, just as John passed me the tablet and excused himself. It was hard to miss, especially with that little goofy smile she had on her lips. “Just because you’re on this path of celibacy doesn’t mean I should too, right?” she mused.

“I believe I never told you I was. I just don’t see the point in being emotionally and physically attached to another human being that way—when the relationship goes sour, ergo, the rise of all complications. But of course, if I’m in desperate need of a release, I’ll definitely let you know.”

Erika’s jaw dropped before saying “Despicable!”

“After you, tesoro.” I held the door to my office for her and she scoffed, walking past me. Before I even started scrolling through the tablet, the name Blunt was at the very top of my schedule and the time slot given to her stated 9am—that was exactly 30 minutes from now.

“So, Zoe is going to be here in 30 minutes.” I announced without looking up; Erika was picking one pencil after the other, scrutinizing the tips carefully. “Hm, and?” she said, picking up another pencil. “The cause of your distractions is simply astounding Crawford.” I dropped the tablet to my side.

“And simply nagging me about it will not automatically improve it. And yes, I heard you the first time, Martin.”

I gave her forehead a little flick of my finger. “That’s for talking back to your superior.”

She rubbed her forehead and sucked in air through her pearly whites. “Then I guess you’d better brace yourself before you see her.”

“Me?” I took a tentative step forward and picked the pencil out of her grip with ease. She didn’t protest as she looked up toward my towering height.

“Yes you.”

“I think you meant ‘we’.” I corrected her as I fixed her few stray hairs absent-mindedly, such gestures seemed so...normal to me.

“So that’s why you made me do all those breathing exercises this morning?” she looked up at me, looking slightly disarrayed.

“Why, is there another method that you’d prefer to help you think and behave rationally during the meeting?” Her lips coiled into a cheeky smile at which I couldn’t help but gulp silently; there was an unmistakable twinkle in her eyes when she said, “No, but I just came up with ten other ways to help me cope otherwise.”

Blast my sick, twisted mind.