The Opportunist Part 23

I go back to my seat and Noah graciously lets me in without a word about my swollen face. After taking a few large swigs of my flat soda, I slide two fingers underneath my eyes to clear up any smudgy mascara and turn to Noah, frowning.

"I'm not going to Rome on business," I say, and he doesn't look surprised. Why should he? He doesn't know that I'm a perpetual liar.

"Oh," he says, raising an eyebrow, "Ok."

I take a deep breath. It feels exhilarating to tell the truth.

"I'm going to find Caleb Drake and when I do, I have to tell him the truth about everything. I am so scared."

He looks at me with new interest. I've transitioned from being a pretty girl, to a woman of intrigue.

"What type of truth is it?"

"A messy one. There's going to be a lot of clean-up," I sigh.

"I'd like to hear about it."

I shift under his gaze. He has the intensity of a nuclear weapon in those two green orbs.

"It's a long story."

"Well," he says raising his hands and looking around the cabin. "It's going to be a long flight."

"Okay. I'll tell you on one condition," I say, pulling my legs up to my chest and holding them there. Noah looks at my knees and then my face like he can't quite grasp why a grown woman is sitting like a little girl. "You have to tell me the worst thing you've ever done."

"The worst thing I've ever done?" he looks off into some distant memory and grimaces.

"When I was in the ninth grade, there was this girl in my cla.s.s whom we called Felicity Fattness. As a prank I snuck into her backyard and stole a pair of her underwear off the line and then hung them on the schools front door with a sign that said, Felicity Fattness Wears Parachute Panties. When she saw it, she burst into tears, tripped over her school bag and had to be rushed to the emergency room to have five st.i.tches put into her chin. I felt horrible-still do actually."

"That was mean," I say, nodding.

"Yeah, she's a total babe now. I saw her at my high school reunion and asked her out on a date. She laughed at me, said I'd already seen her panties once and it wouldn't be happening again."

I laugh-a real laugh, so that my whole body shakes. Noah joins me. I am still smiling, when I realize that I have another boy scout on my hands.

"So, Felicity? That's the worst thing you've ever done?"

"I stole a magnet from the dollar store once."

"Oh boy," I say. "I'm not sure you're ready for my story."

"Try me."

I look at his face and remember how Caleb once told me that you could judge someone's personality by their appearance. If this is true, I decide that I can trust Noah because he has the kindest eye's I have ever seen.

"I fell in love underneath a tree," I began.

Twelve hours later It is raining in Rome and I am standing outside of the De La Ville Inter-Continental Hotel, hiding underneath a goofy yellow poncho that is barely shielding me from the pouring rain. I don't know why I am here right at this moment, as nothing can be accomplished with me looking like a drenched rat. But, I feel the need to see his window and to look at the view his own eyes had been enjoying all morning. Their hotel is small but opulent and it sits majestically on top of the Spanish Steps. I can imagine that you can see the whole city from their little balcony. How romantic. I sigh and continue watching. There is movement behind the window and then a familiar red head emerges and crowds under the awning with a glowing cigarette in her hand. Didn't she know that nicotine negatively affected fertility?

"Keep smoking," I whisper, narrowing my eyes. A second later the door pops open again and looking like a Roman G.o.d, Caleb emerges to join her. He is shirtless and his hair is damp from a shower, he most likely just took. I pretend that my heart is not doing the electric slide and wipe two fingers underneath my eyes to clear away the mascara that is pooling there. Don't you touch him, don't-she reaches out a hand and runs it along his chest seductively. Caleb catches it at the waistline of his pants and laughs.

I look away when he pulls her towards him and wraps his arms around her. My heart begins to ache, a feeling I have been best friends with for the last nine years. I stomp my foot on the pavement agitated and an animal wail emerges from my mouth. I am so freaking sick of loving him.

"Okay Olivia, they are about to put the fertility thing to the test. I have to stop Leah's sp.a.w.n from happening," I sing this to myself while pulling my cell phone from my pocket. The call was going to cost me a fortune, but who cares right? You can't put a price on love.

Dialing the De La Ville's number, I stuff myself underneath the overhang of a perfume shop and wait impatiently until I hear the short burst of ringing.

"Buona Sera, De La Ville Inter-Continental. Non ci sono t.i.toli che contengano la parola?" a female voice answers.

"Um...hi...do you speak English?"

"Si. How can I help you?"

"I am trying to reach a guest of your hotel. Mr. Caleb Drake-it's urgent and I was wondering if you could page him immediately and have him return my call." I hear her typing something into the computer.

"And your name?" Uh oh! What was his secretary's name again? It rhymed with Pina Colada...

"Rena Vovada," I breathe. "I'm calling from his office, tell him it's important that he calls back right away. Thank you so much." And I hang up before she has the chance to ask me anymore questions. With the task done, I scurry back into the rain where I have a view of their balcony. Caleb and Leah are still there. She is stubbing out her cigarette with one hand and allowing him to pull her back into the room with the other. I see his head jerk towards the inside of their suite and then their hands breaks lose as he disappears through the door. I imagine that I can hear the distant trill of their room phone.

Good. That would buy me at least a half an hour. Hopefully enough time to kill the mood. Satisfied, I head back to the Montecito Rio, the hotel I had booked myself into earlier. It wasn't as flashy as the De La Ville, but it was charming nonetheless and I didn't care a thing for Susan Sarandon.

My shoes are soaked and sloshing water when I traipse into the lobby. The girl behind the counter glares at me and picks up the phone to call maintenance.

"You are Miss Kaspen, no?" She calls after me as I head towards the elevators. I hesitate before turning around.

"Yes."

"I have a message here for you," she extends a piece of paper my way and I grip it gingerly between two of my driest fingers.

"From whom?" I was almost too scared to ask, but when she replies, "a Noah Stein," I feel a calm wash over my anxiety. Noah, the complete stranger that I spilt my guts to, it was nice that he called. It made me feel like being in Rome was no big deal. I had friends here.

I take my note and my still dripping poncho up to my room and climb into the shower without bothering to read the message. Everything including my new buddy Noah was on hold until I was warm and dry.

When I finally emerge, I curl up on the miniscule bed and unfold the wet paper.

Dinner at eight Tavernetta You have to eat...

I smile. I did have to eat and why not with someone that I really liked. I pick up the phone and dial the cell number that Noah handed me in the airport before we parted.

"For emergencies only," he said winking at me. "Don't abuse my secret cell number."

I hesitated only for a second before taking it. I was alone in Rome. I might need him.

"Noah, it's Olivia," I say into the receiver.

"I don't want to talk to you unless you're telling me that you're coming."

"I am," I laugh.

"Good. The restaurant's a little bit dressy, are you equipped?"

"Let's see, I came here to convince the love of my life that he needs to be with me again...I have four "take me back and love me dresses." Which one would you like?"

"The black one..."

"Okay," I sigh. "I'll see you at eight."

I hang up feeling giddy with excitement. This was it. I was taking control of my life again. Tonight I would eat dinner and relax. Tomorrow I would find Caleb and tell him everything. The Cherry Tart had no idea what was coming. Hurricane Olivia was about to rip through Rome and stir things up.

As I get ready for dinner, I think about the last straw that broke our relationship. The way my heart pounded as I stood outside of Caleb's office, knowing that the person I loved more than anything was betraying me at that very moment. I considered walking away, pretending that there was someone else in his office with the flirtatious girl. Then I thought of my father, and the way his cheating had hurt my mother more than the cancer ever could. I had to see. Not just him, but her. Who was the girl that had the power to break us apart?

The Past This was going to be super bad. Hurtful. Life altering. The door slid open noiselessly, so noiselessly in fact that neither Caleb nor his collaborator knew that it was open and that there was a very stunned audience standing in its wake.

"Caleb," I said in a dry voice, because at this point, the life was already sucked out of me.

Their two heads snapped apart and he took a jerky step back. I eyed the way her dress was hiked up her thigh with a sinking feeling in my stomach. This was reality-her, him, and my life falling apart. There was no way he could explain this away and there was no possibility of me believing him even if he tried.

I looked at his face. It was very, very pale.

"Caleb," I said again. He looked so stunned I cringed. Sorry for being caught. His mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out. The girl looked smug. I wanted to scream Her? Why her?

"I loved you," I said and that was the first time I had ever said it.

His face crumpled with emotion. How cruel was I to tell him something he'd been waiting for, in the moment of his faithlessness? It was a low blow but this was a fight and I was ready to go down swinging. The little trampette on the table looked at us in amus.e.m.e.nt.

"You must be Olivia," she said, hopping down from the desk. I felt revolted at the fact that she knew my name. Did they talk about me? A framed picture of me was positioned near where she had been sitting. My face was witness to their carrying on. I didn't look at her. I couldn't. She left the room in a swishing of skirts, leaving two broken people to face each other.

"I never meant for this," he said when the door clicked shut.

"To be caught? Or to be cheating?" I tried to control the tremor in my voice but it was useless.

"Olivia," he pleaded taking a step towards me.

"No!" I held up my hand for him to stop. "Don't you dare come near me. How could you? There is nothing worse that you could do to me. Just like my father," I spat.

"Your father and I are nothing alike. You have used his sins as an excuse not to love for far too long."

I couldn't believe he said that. I loved people, I loved lots of people. I just didn't tell them.

"You make me sick," I said. "You could have just been a man about it and told me that you didn't want me anymore."

"I'll always want you Olivia. It's not about not wanting you, it was about wanting you too much and you not wanting me back!"

I swiped at an angry tear that was ripping across my face and smiled venomously. "So, it's about s.e.x then?"

Caleb threw up his hands in exasperation and looked at me with more anger then he ever had.

"I think that I showed you time and time again, that it was never about s.e.x," his voice was low and menacing. "I loved you enough to put aside every one of my feelings to accommodate yours. What did I get in return? Coldness and emotional detachment. You are selfish and bitter and you wouldn't know a good thing if it fell out of the sky at your feet."

I knew what he said was true. I was all of those things and more, but he could have just left, he didn't have to make a fool out of me.

"Well then, let the healing process start for you right now." I left him standing in semi-darkness and walked calmly to the nearest exit.

You will not hurt, you will not hurt, you will not hurt....

I hurt like h.e.l.l. I hurt so violently that I could barely walk down the stairs, so I sat. I sat and I shook and I wished for a meteor to fall to earth right at that moment and hit the spot where I was sitting. I felt raw and exposed like all of my insides had been turned out and I was bleeding all over the floor. How could this happen? Why? He was all that I had.

I heard the exit door a flight above me open and a burst of music followed the breeze down the stairs. Fearing that it was Caleb coming to find me, I hopped up and ran the four remaining flights not stopping until I was in my car.

I turned the key in the ignition with force and the car hiccupped to life.

d.a.m.n him. I could love. I had it all inside of me. If he knew so much about me, why couldn't he see that?

If I didn't love him, how could it hurt so badly? Nothing, gave him the right to cheat-nothing!

Instead of heading home my tires swerved right and I merged onto the 595 almost sideswiping a minivan. He had all of me, everything I had to give, and look what he did. I trusted him.

"No, no, no, no," the tears started pouring in ma.s.ses down my face. "This can't be happening." I pulled over, afraid I was going to kill someone with my driving. My mind was unhinging, my light was turning dark.

"Caleb, no," I tasted salt seep into my lips. I hated myself, more than I hated him and more than I ever hated my father. I was a tragic mess. The ugliest kind of person. I started driving again. I couldn't go back home, he would come find me. A hotel was still booked, just a couple of hundred miles north, I would go there.

Caleb tried calling my cell phone. I sent his calls to voice mail and turned up the volume on the radio, anything was better than the sound of my sobbing.

The hotel Caleb had booked for us was nice. I remember the fountains and frescos in the lobby and the way the employees greeted you with genuine smiles, but that night my eyes were blind to everything except Caleb's betrayal. I checked in and carried my overnight bag up the stairs, to the room.

It was still early when I had taken my shower and dressed. I pulled out the dress I had bought just for this weekend. It was airport blue, with just a little bit of black lace on the waist-his two favorite things. I pulled it over my head and went to stare at myself in the mirror. I looked beautiful. I was so ugly on the inside though, what did it matter? I couldn't stay here in this room by myself, I'd go mad. I grabbed my purse and ran to the door, trying not to see his hand on her thigh.

I knew what I was going to do, something that would hurt him more than he hurt me. That's the way I fought, dirty. An eye for an eye.

I wandered the busy Daytona streets, staring blankly into store windows. I found exactly what I was looking for a couple of blocks away, Swig Martini Bar. It was subdued and desperate, just like me. I entered through the broad doorway and flashed my ID to the bouncer. A mixture of smoke and a sweet perfume hit me in the face. The smell reminded me of the night I went to Caleb's frat party on a mission to win him back. How depressing. I crowded to the bar and ordered a whiskey sour. The bartender eyed me curiously when I downed it in one shot and asked for another. I saw him pour an extra shot into the second one-bless him. I took my second drink to a little patio outside where I secured a table facing the ocean. It was a good setting. Mysterious, alone, and looking thoughtful. It was a trick that the best of women knew. Separate yourself from the herd, look beautiful, and a man would wander over.

He did. Tall, blonde, and in dress pants with a tie pulled in disarray around his neck.

"Hard day?" he asked, leaning on the banister and looking out over the water.

"Yes. You?"

"Very." He smiled at me and I saw by the yellowness of his teeth that he was a smoker.

"Can I buy you a drink?" he nodded toward my empty gla.s.s and I shook my head yes.

"A shot of anything."

"Okay."

He came back with two. Good. I thought. My travels to wasted land would go all the faster.

We drank for over an hour before I invited him to the dance floor. He was a mediocre dancer but what did it matter at this point? I ignored my disgust at the way he rammed himself into the back of me and kept moving, focusing on the swirling in my head. The night became thick with hasty kisses and liquor provoked fondling and by midnight we were skipping through the streets toward my hotel.