Tutti Italia: A Novel (10 page)

“That sounds really interesting.  How expensive is it
though?”  She was thinking about her dwindling supply of cash, and even though
she now had the information that her mother needed to wire her money from the
states, the debit card that came with it wouldn’t be in her hands for probably
another week.

“It’s really cheap, actually.  That’s the whole point of
those adventures.  They like to make them affordable so that people won’t just
sit home and drink or play video games.”  That was kind of neat.”

Chapter 13

They finished their food, and Jason walked her back to
her dorm.  She still didn’t want him to know exactly where she lived.  One
quick date at the food court wasn’t going to be enough for her to trust him
completely.  She said goodbye, then watched him walk away before she went up to
the second floor and to her room.  When she got in, she could hear her roommate
blaring loud music; but it still wasn’t enough to cover her sex noises.  She
rolled her eyes and went into her bedroom.  Luckily for her she had her little
cd player.  She put on her headphones and went to sleep. 

Tuesday was going to be a free day for her.  Actually, the
whole rest of the week was that way.  Classes didn’t start until next week, and
the room was already clean.  She and Elena had worked hard to get it to where
it was now.  All she had to do was to buy herself some supplies, and get
decorations for the room.  She wanted ocean themed things, and she decided that
she would go and get a few things for her room, that she could bring them with
her on Monday.  Until she was able to get a paycheck, and then a car, Elena
told her that she would come and pick her up.  Rachel didn’t know what she’d do
without her.  It was a good thing that Elena had become her friend.  She’d
woken up to a strange siren blaring right outside her door, and a red blinking
light was flashing at top speed above her bed.  She had no idea what was going
on, but she was hoping that she would get a chance to ask someone about it…then
again, the only people she knew that she could ask was limited.  Her roommate
was a frigid bitch that didn’t talk to her.  Elena wasn’t American, and so
probably wasn’t privy to the inner workings of what things meant on the base. 
That left Jason.  She took her phone off the charger, and started writing a
text message.  She didn’t get an answer until she’d brushed her teeth, gotten
dressed, and combed her hair out.  She’d just finished plaiting it when her phone
pinged.  She opened it and read the message.  She could forgive him the lapse
in answering because he’d written her an entire paragraph explaining that it
was a summons for all of the police that lived in the building to get dressed
and run to the armory.  Apparently it meant that there was an incident going on
that was under the highest priority, and they needed everyone that was
available to respond.  She could understand that.  The fact that she was living
in a police dorm was an intriguing one, because she thought that it would make
her safe, but now, it seemed more of pain in the ass.  She hurriedly typed a
message back, thanking him for the explanation, and asking how often things
like this happened.  She waited eagerly for his reply, than groaned as she read
the next text.  They did this once a month.  If they did badly, there would be
more practices the next month.

She looked at her watch.  It was nine in the morning.  The
store opened half an hour ago, and she was going to comb through it to see what
she could find for her room.  She went down one aisle after another in the home
décor department, and she found a few things that she liked.  The only problem
was that none of it was child proof.  She’d had to leave it all on the shelf. 
A thought came to her.  The children’s toys department would probably have some
things that she could use.  She said a sad goodbye to the beautiful knick
knacks she’d wanted, and headed to the toys department.  What she found there
made her smile.  There were blow up ocean creatures that she could blow up and
hang from the ceiling.  There were banners with alternating  ocean creatures
that she could hang up around her blackboard.  There were a few very large
stuffed animals, and she found a dolphin and a starfish.  Unfortunately, that
was all she could find. She carried her loot back to her room, and left the
bags on her desk so she could leave on Monday morning with them all ready to
go.  Then she had an idea.  She grabbed her phone and called Elena.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Elena, it’s Rachel.  I was wondering if I could ask
you for a favor.”  She paused, hoping that her friend would be free today.

“Hey.  Yeah, what’s up?”  She sounded eager to help.

“I was thinking we could decorate the room with an ocean
them.  I’ve gone to the store here on base, but I didn’t really find a lot.  I
was going to ask you if maybe you would be so kind as to take me somewhere that
we could find more.”

“Yeah, sure.  I know a few places that have decorations. 
When did you want to go?”

“Whenever you want to.  Just let me know.  I have nothing
to do all week.”  There was a pause, and what sounded like rustling paper.

“I’m free tomorrow.  I can pick you up at one.”  Rachel’s
heart sank.  She was hoping to go today.

“Yeah, sure.  That sounds great.  Thank you.”  She hung up
the phone.  Oh well, tomorrow wouldn’t be so bad, but that meant that she had
to figure something else to do for the rest of today.  She knew it was still a
little on the early side, but she decided to shoot a text to Jason.  Maybe he
wanted to do something today.  She wasn’t really expecting an answer right
away.  She curled up on her bed, grabbed a book and started reading.  She’d
barely made it two chapters through the book before her phone pinged.  She
marked her page and looked at the message.  It was from Jason, and he said he
would love to hang out.  He had nothing going on all day.  She asked him what
he wanted to do, and he replied that he had an idea but that she had to trust
him.  She shot back an ok, and he told her to meet him at the foot of the
stairs in ten minutes.  She had a little less doubt today that he was actually
going to be there, so she got herself ready and went downstairs a little
early.  Even though she
was
early, he still beat her there.

“Hey.  I’m glad you texted me.  I had nothing better to do
anyway.”  He grinned at her and led her to the parking lot.  He opened the
passenger door of a red Jeep Wrangler for her and closed it when she was
inside.  He hurried over to the driver seat and got in.

“I didn’t know that you had a car.  How’d you get one so
fast?” 

“I’ve had this car for a couple years.  The military
shipped it over for me.  This is my baby.”  He patted the dashboard
affectionately.

“So…where are we going?”  He looked at her and grinned.

“Do you trust me?” 
That
was a dangerous question. 
If she said yes, he might try to kidnap her or something.  If she said no, and
his intentions were actually pure, he would be hurt that she would think
otherwise.  She took a chance.

“Sure.”  He smiled.

“Good.  Because it’s a surprise.”  He drove slowly through
the little town right outside the base, and came to a stop behind a grungy
looking grocery store.  He pulled into a parking space, and got out to open her
door for her.  She blushed a little.  No one had ever done that for her, or for
anyone she knew.  Apparently, chivalry wasn’t dead after all, just few and far
between.  He motioned for her to follow him, and she did.  They walked up a
winding road that led up a hill for about five minutes, then levelled out. 
Rachel’s eyes widened.  It was a flea market.  Right in the middle of the
street.  That was something no one would do back in America, but here everyone
had an agreement that this road would be closed down for the flea market one
day of each week.  That was amazing to her. 

“How did you know about this?”  She was in awe as she saw
exactly how extensive it was. 

“Some of the guys on my flight are married, and their wives
come here religiously every week.  I personally don’t like shopping that much. 
I usually know what I’m going in for, then I go in, get it, and leave.”  He
shrugged.  “Must be a guy thing though, right?”  Rachel laughed at him.

“You mean you don’t like browsing around for new and
interesting things?”  He looked chastised. 

“Well, I didn’t say
that
per se, I just usually know
what I need and where to get it so it’s a quick trip for me.”  She was coming
up on the first booth.  It was full of scarves that were hand embroidered. 

“Now, me, I love flee markets.  I like to dig around for
hidden treasures, then haggle with people for the best price.  I always tell
them that I’ll be back later, and if I don’t find something better and cheaper,
then I actually
do
go back for it.  It’s something that mom taught me,
and I love doing it.”  They were passing by a vendor that was selling leather
coats.  She knew that even on a haggle those would be expensive, so she kept
going.  The next booth had handmade beaded jewelry.  That caught her eye, and
she spent a few minutes looking over some of the pieces that were on display. 
The woman asked her, in English, if she needed help with anything.  Rachel
smiled at her and told her that she was just browsing.  As they passed another
booth, and then one more, a thought struck her suddenly.  She turned to Jason.

“How did she know to talk to me in English?”  Jason stopped
walking and thought for a minute.

“Well, she could have heard us talking earlier.  Or maybe
we just look American.  You know that Italians have a much different style than
we do.”  That was true.  Either one of those or even both could have been
reason for the woman to recognize them for being what they were.

“I thought that the Italians in this area didn’t like us?” 
Jason dropped his voice as they passed by an old woman. 

“It’s mostly the older generation that doesn’t want us
here.  The younger ones have realized that we’re mostly stupid with money on
the whole and they want us around as much as possible so they can make money
off us and expand their businesses.”  That was a very blunt answer, but she
supposed there was some truth to it.  It made sense to
her
anyway.  They
were coming up on a booth that had jewelry, but it was jewelry like she’d never
seen before.  They all had a large rock centers and extra thick, heavy wire. 
It looked almost oriental in a way.  Rachel instantly fell in love with it. 
She spent a good fifteen minutes, looking carefully at each piece.  It wouldn’t
be expensive because it wasn’t made up of any precious stones or metals. 

“Excuse me, ma’am?  How much would it be for a necklace,
bracelet, earrings, and a ring?”  The woman looked at her, and was trying to
take stock of her intelligence. 

“For complete set is thirty euro.”  That was a little
steep, but she had to try to knock her down a little.

“Would you take twenty euro?”  Rachel gave her best, you
can’t mess with me look.  The woman looked at her sternly.

“Twenty-five.”  Rachel smiled and handed the money over,
winking at Jason as the woman wrapped the jewelry up for her. 

Chapter 14

Rachel was back in her room,
smiling to herself as she went over the details of the day in her head.  She
was beginning to trust Jason more and more.  She thought that maybe for the
first time, she’d found someone that wasn’t going to end up hurting her in the
end.  She was glad that he’d had today off.  She was hoping that he wouldn’t
consider her clingy with what she was planning next.  They’d made a wonderful
day of it at the flea market, had a nice lunch, and then he’d brought her
home.  She had a copy of the theater schedule for the whole month, and there
was a movie playing tonight that she really wanted to see.  If was somewhat of
a chick flick…ok, it was a
total
chick flick, but she was considering
asking him anyway.  Who knew?  Maybe he would say yes.  To be completely
honest, she didn’t have much hope that he would go once she told him the title,
because no man alive, except her father who went with her mother, would
willingly go to a chick flick with a girl unless she was his longtime
girlfriend, wife, or mother.  It was a simple fact of life.  Ok, she was going
to ask.  The worst that would happen is that he would say no.  That was one
hurdle complete.  The next one was whether she should text him or call him. 
She didn’t want to see like she was desperate, so she decided that she would
text.  That way, if he didn’t see it, it was ok because it wasn’t like he was
ignoring a call from her.  She sighed.  She was really overthinking this.  She
took a deep breath and picked up her phone.  She shot him a text saying that
she was heading to the seven thirty showing of Letters to Juliet, and that if
he wanted to join her, she would save him a seat.  It was only six, so she went
into the kitchen and made herself something to eat. 

When she finished her dinner and put her clean dishes back
into the cupboard, she curled up on her bed, set her alarm for seven, and
picked up the latest book she’d been reading.  Her phone was silent until her
alarm went off.  She sighed, but she had really expected it.  She knew he
wasn’t going to go with her.  Oh well, at least she had a good movie waiting
for her.  She finished the page she’d been on when her alarm went off, and put
her shoes on.  She peeked through the blinds and saw that the wind had started
whipping a little.  She threw her hair up in a ponytail and grabbed her coat. 
Taking her wallet and phone, she left her room and made her way down the
stairs.  She got a surprise when she got to the ground floor.  Jason was
waiting for her.

“Hey!  I didn’t think you wanted to go.  You didn’t text me
back.”  She kept the accusation out of her voice because she was so happy that
he was going to go with her.