The Heart of Tuscany

Getting ready to leave

The rest of the week flew by quickly.  Tomorrow was Friday and early in the morning Cece would be on her way to Italy. 

              The coffee shop had been extremely busy on her last day.  When Cece got home all she wanted to do was go soak in the bathtub and go to bed.  As she walked up the stairs to her room, she saw that Jack had the door to his room opened as he was packing up some last-minute things.

“Hey Jack, you need any help?” she asked praying he would say no, her body was needing that long soak in the tub.

“Nah, I’m good.  Just remembered things that I may need.  You look tired, busy day?” Jack asked.

“Definitely, I’m exhausted.  I think I’m going to soak and go to sleep.  We’re leaving the house at 4:30 am right?”

“Yeah.” Jack replied

“Okay, Eryka will be here around 4 am. Goodnight Jack.”

“Goodnight Cece.”

              Jack watched Cece walk to her room and continued his packing.  He hoped he could keep his word by not fighting with Eryka.  He would only admit to himself that he was still in love with Eryka.  She had always been the sexiest woman he ever knew.  She just really got on his last nerve, which should have completely turned him off.  The fact that she was completely into herself should have been another turn off, but truth be told when they really got to arguing and yelling at each other all he wanted to do was rip her clothes off and bury himself deep inside of her.

              Jack shook himself from the path his thoughts were leading him.  If he was going to spend the next month under the same roof as Eryka, he had to get control of himself.  He was on this trip to support Cece, not his libido.

              Jack heard the water come on in Cece’s bathroom, he really hoped that she would at least relax enough to get some sleep.  She was his best friend, the only person who really knew him.  In grade school they were practically joined at the hip.  The other boys his age would always pick on him for being best friends with a girl.  In his eyes though, Cece wasn’t a girl, she was just Cece. 

              High school was different, the other guys always assumed he and Cece were dating.  His sophomore year he started dating Eryka.  Eryka was the only girl he had ever dated that never got jealous about his friendship with Cece.  It was the complete opposite in fact, Eryka and Cece had become fast friends.  Sometimes, Eryka would spend more time with Cece then with him and there were times he became the jealous one.  He was so in love with Eryka at the time and he thought she was in love with him. 

              Cece had tried to explain to him why Eryka spent so much time at her house.  He tried to understand.  Cece had told him that Eryka’s parents had married young and shortly after she was born, her father left.  Eryka’s mother then spent years jumping from boyfriend to boyfriend.  Some of them were nice to her and some of them were not so nice.  When he had tried to question Cece further about what she meant by “not so nice”, she had told him that it wasn’t her place to tell.  Eryka had practically moved in with Cece and her parents, this meant she had curfews.  When she lived with her mother she would come and go as she pleased.  He was still with her all the time, but the restrictions sucked.  They dated for 2 years, and were each other’s first for a lot of things, love, s*x, and in the end, his first broken heart.  Halfway through their senior year Eryka had gotten “discovered” by a modelling agency.  She would be gone for weeks at a time, travelling all over the world to exotic places and in his teenage mind at the time, probably meeting better looking guys.  He had ended up taking Cece to prom that year because Eryka was off on a shoot somewhere.  When she had returned home, just before graduation, he had had enough.  He told her how he felt, and the fighting erupted from there.  They broke up and haven’t been able to stand being around each other ever since. 

              Cece was always stuck in the middle of their bickering.  She had too big of a heart to choose between them.  She cared about them both.  Jack was grateful that Eryka at least stayed friends with Cece and came to be with her when Cece lost her parents. 

              His own parents adored Eryka.  Was he the asshole here? Jack rubbed his hand across his face and looked at the clock.  9:30 pm, he really needed to get to sleep.  He finished packing the rest of his bags and got ready for bed.  As he drifted to sleep, dreams of Eryka, hot and wanting him surfaced in his head.  This was going to be a long trip.