Tutti Italia: A Novel (18 page)

“Are you ok?  Wow, I thought maybe that was a dog whistle
or something.”  It was a lame joke, but Rachel didn’t care right now. 

“Look!  We’re right by the pool!  Oooh, and there’s a
Jacuzzi!  Do you mind if we go there first?”  His eyebrows rose in
understanding, now that she’d told him what she was so excited about.

“Um, I don’t usually swim.  Not that I can’t, I just don’t
usually swim.  I think I’m going to go explore the area a little first.” 
Rachel’s face fell.  It was alright though, she’d been swimming dozens of times
by herself, and still been able to entertain herself. 

“Alright.  If you find anything interesting, make sure that
you let me know, ok?  Don’t keep it all to yourself.”  She winked at him, then
put her suitcase on the bed and unzipped it.  He dropped his bag next to hers,
then went to use the bathroom.  By the time she’d found her swimsuit, he was
done, and already walking out of the room. 

“Hey, I’m leaving your room key here next to your suitcase
ok?”  Rachel couldn’t hear all the words, but she was sure she knew what he
meant so she called an acknowledgement through the bathroom door.  It didn’t
take her long to change, and there were some
very
fluffy bathrobes
hanging behind the door.  She slipped into one, took the slippers that were set
out for the guests, and put them on. Then, she grabbed a towel and her room key
and left.  The pool was the perfect temperature, and she dove in immediately. 
She did a few languid laps, just stretching out her muscles from the last time
that she’d swam.  She paused to think back to exactly
how
far back that
was, and she couldn’t come up with a date.  That was terrible.  She loved to
swim.  She was going to make up for it right now. 

About a half an hour later, she was completely worn out
from swimming laps as quickly as she could.  She’d lost count of how many she’d
done, and she didn’t time them, but she knew that she was doing pretty well for
someone who hadn’t swam for a competition in ten years.  She walked across the
tiny little area of tiles that led to the hot tub, and gratefully sank into
it.  The hot water soothed her muscle aches away, and after a few minutes, she
could stretch without any tightness at all.  She sat in the hot tub for maybe
another half an hour, before splashing alerted her to someone else coming into
the water.  Her eyes flew open and her heart started racing.

“I couldn’t let you have all the fun, now could I?”  It was
Erik.  He’d come down to spend some time with her.  She smiled at him.

“Nope, I guess not.  What do you think?  Isn’t this hotel
just wonderful?”  She might have been over exaggerating a little, but Erik
seemed to agree with her.

Chapter 24

Rachel was excited, being in a hot tub with a handsome
man was something that she’d always wanted, and now it was happening.  He came
up to her, and put his arms around her, pulling her into his lap and kissing
her.  Wow.  Rachel forgot everything that she’d had in her head.  He was a damn
good kisser.  She stayed in his lap, hugging him and kissing him every now and
then.  Then they went into the pool and swam some laps together.  They didn’t
have much more time, since they had to get themselves ready for the dinner. 
Regretfully, Rachel got out of the water, and Erik slapped her butt playfully,
since she was getting out first.  She led him to their room, and he unpacked
his clothes for the evening while she took a shower.  When she was finished,
they switched, and she dug out her costume.  She put it on, and was in the
process of doing her makeup when Erik came out.  He already had his costume on,
but he was going as a zombie, so he had some makeup to do, too.  They finally
finished, and walked out to the lobby.  Rachel was happy to see an older couple
dressed up as vampires with faces full of makeup, too.  They were the only ones
in the lobby so far, so they decided to strike up a conversation.  Twenty
minutes later, more people had showed up, and the four of them were fast
friends.  

“If everyone could pay attention for a minute.”  The tour
guide was making an announcement.  He was dressed up as well, but the costume
looked comical on him.  “We’re going over to the dining lodge. From there you
can stay in the lodge for the dancing and music that will be there or you can
hike up to the castle and enjoy the party that is going on over there.”  The
four new friends looked at each other, and as one said, ‘Castle!’  Their names
were Van and Angela.  It seemed that they would be spending time together for
the rest of the trip.  The group followed the tour guide, trying not to laugh
at his ridiculous costume.  They walked along an indoor hallway that was about
twenty feet in the air.  It was all glass, and the stars and lights from the
castle were glowing beautifully.  When they came in to the lodge, it looked
like an old fashioned hunting lodge that would have been used around the time
that Vlad Dracul was living in the castle.  The two floors were very
different.  The top floor was set up for the dinner party, whereas the bottom
floor was the dance floor with very few tables, set aside for the locals, and a
bar.  This was going to be a wonderful trip, Rachel just knew it.  The four of
them sat together at a table that overlooked the dance floor.  While the food
was being served, the locals that had been drinking already started the
dancing.  There were different wines served with the dinner, and Rachel knew
that wine made her inhibitions melt away.  She and Angela were discussing that,
and it turned out that both women had the same flaw.  They decided after three
glasses each, they wanted to get down to the dance floor and have a good time. 
The guys didn’t want to join them, and that was ok, too.  They were going to go
regardless.  The dj was spinning, and they were watching the Romanians dance. 
It didn’t take long for them start feeling the music and swaying along.

“Man, I am sooo glad that Van talked me into going on this
trip.  I was a little reserved about going, but, in the end, he won and here I
am.”  Angela laughed.  Rachel grinned at her.  She knew how it felt to not want
to go somewhere because you weren’t sure how things stood between you and the
person that invited you.  Angela regaled her with a long story as they danced,
about the on again, off again relationship she had with Van.  He kept asking
her to marry him, but she was afraid, and she always told him no.  They didn’t
get much of a chance to discuss that story, however, because Erik came down to
tell them the dessert was coming.  He didn’t have to tell the women twice, they
ran up the stairs, leaving him staring after them.  They politely waited for
him to join them at the table before they dug in to the cake and chocolate
delicacies that were set down in front of them. 

“I’m surprised that they even waited for you.  Putting
chocolate in front of these two might get you to lose your hand.”  Erik
laughed.

“That’s precisely why I intend to never get between a woman
and her chocolate.”  The girls didn’t bother to correct them or to collaborate
with them because they were too busy stuffing chocolate into their mouths. 
When the desert trays were cleared, they decided that it was time to hike up to
the castle.  The foursome made sure that they had their cameras, and as they
wound their way carefully up the old stone steps, they saw torches lit on both
sides, and a courtyard of cobblestones that had a table set up for the dj, some
refreshments, and the beginning of the museum tour.  The tour was a little dry,
but they got some excellent pictures of all the artifacts.  Then they decided
to do some dancing.  There weren’t a lot of people up here, and eventually they
decided to go back down to the lodge.  There were no Americans left in the
lodge either. 

“What about the pool?  It’s always the perfect time for a
swim.”  Rachel would not be thwarted.  She loved swimming, and if there was an
opportunity to do it, she was the first one in line. 

“Yeah!  That sounds great.  Party in the hot tub!”  It
turned out that Van and Angela’s room was right down the hall from theirs, so
they decided to meet up at the junction that led down to the pool.  Rachel
didn’t care about her makeup, she just stripped, in the bathroom where Erik
couldn’t see her, and put her suit back on.  He was faster than her, however,
because when she came back out of the bathroom, he already had his swim trunks
on.  They met Van and Angela, and made their way down to the pool.  When they
opened the door, they saw right away where all of the Americans from their
group were hiding.  They’d all gotten drunk and were playing chicken in the
shallow end.  Some of them were missing parts of their suits, but no one said
anything about it.  The four of them went straight to the hot tub. 

“Ok, so what about a game of truth or dare?” suggested
Angela.  All of them had had enough to drink to lose their inhibitions. 

“Yeah, sure.  Why not?”  Erik was down with it.  Rachel
shrugged.  Why not?  She might learn more about him that way.  Van was up for
anything that Angela suggested, so it was unanimous. 

“Ok, so, Van, you start.  You’re the oldest,” teased
Angela.  He stuck his tongue out at her.  He looked right at Angela and smiled.

“Truth or dare?”  She must have detected something in his
smile, because she shook her head and said truth.  “Hmm.  What do you wear to
bed?”  The two beds in the rooms were separated, but he should already know the
answer to that.  After all they were sharing a room for two nights. 

“I wear nothing to bed.”  She was not ashamed to say
anything, even though Rachel had to look away and blush.  “So, I guess that
makes it my turn.”  She turned to Erik.  “Truth or dare, big boy.”  He must
have sensed some danger in her voice, too, because he played it safe and told
her truth as well.  “Be honest.  Are you and Rachel dating?”  Rachel’s jaw
dropped.  She had in no way, shape or form put her up to it.  This was
completely unexpected.  Erik looked at Rachel for a long time, and she shook
her head, trying to let him know that she’d had nothing to do with it. 

“Yes, we are dating.  And I hope that we continue for a
long time.”  Rachel looked up into his face, and his icy blue eyes captivated
her.  She couldn’t move, and she watched, almost in slow motion, as he leaned
down to kiss her.  Her eyes closed of their own accord, and she kissed him back
with all she was worth.  Apparently that was inspiring, because Van gathered
Angela into his arms and kissed her, too.  The wine in the women’s systems was
definitely on the side of the men because the two couples were kissing. They
were too wrapped up in each other to notice the other people leaving the pool. 
Erik and Rachel made their way back to their room, and in the darkness of the
room, the two of them got much closer than they’d ever been before.

The trip was over, and they were on their way home.  Angela
and Van were both asleep, leaning against each other, since they’d chosen the
bench of seats in the back row.  Erik was reading again, and Rachel was writing
in her diary.  She was thinking over the activities of the night before, and
she could feel her cheeks getting warm and red when she remembered that her bed
had gone unused.  She stole a quick glance at Erik.  He was completely wrapped
up in the story of his book and didn’t notice her stealing glances at him.  She
finished her writing, and put away her diary, in favor of the cross stitch
project that she’d been working on for a while.  When she began to lay out her
materials, he took notice of what she was doing.  He watched her for a few minutes,
then wrinkled his brow in confusion. 

“What’s that?”  She smiled at him.

“This is called a cross stitch.  It’s one of my favorite
hobbies.  I can make beautiful pictures out of hundreds and thousands of tiny
X’s on this canvas.  It’s very relaxing.”  He chuckled at her, and she
immediately took offense to it.  “What’s so funny?”  He sobered up enough to
answer her.

“Nothing.  You’re an old lady.”  She frowned at him, and
felt a little hurt.  She didn’t look that old.

“What are you talking about?”

“You like doing all the hobbies that old women do.  You
have some mad old lady skills.”  He couldn’t resist laughing at her again.  Oh
well, let him tease her.  When he had something that needed to be sewn, she
knew he would come to her to get it done right.  He went back to his book, and
she went back to counting stitches.  The repetitive stitching relaxed her and
calmed her down.  By the time they took a break to grab something to eat at a
roadside café, she was back at one hundred percent happy.  The foursome sat
together again and talked about the night before, claiming that it was all the
alcohol’s fault.  Rachel agreed with Angela, verbally, but she knew the truth. 
She’d wanted it as much as Erik had, and that was why it had happened.  The
food came, and they ate in silence, every now and then tossing out a comment
about the food.  When they clamored back onto the bus, Van and Angela stayed
awake and talked, but Erik and Rachel both fell asleep until they made it back
to base.  When Rachel drove home, it was barely afternoon, but she was tired. 
She stopped at her favorite restaurant, and when she’d had her dinner, she
drove home and got herself ready for bed.  Her hair still smelled of chlorine,
so she made sure to shower first. 

Chapter 25

The months flew by, and Erik asked Rachel to move in
with him.  She was surprised, but secretly pleased.  She told him ok, and they
spent a weekend moving all of the things she used all the time into his house. 
She took the rest of the day to clean up her dorm room.  It still looked like
she lived there, and every now and then she would actually spend some time
there.  Erik was testing for his next rank, and she wanted to surprise him when
he got home.  He wouldn’t know the results for a few months, but she wanted to
try to lighten the mood for him a little.  She cleaned his whole house, made a
picnic lunch in the middle of the living room, and bought him a movie that he’d
been wanting for a while.  She took special care with the romantic picnic lunch
in the living room.  She’d pushed the furniture out of the way, spread a
blanket over the cold tiles, and put a bowl of grapes out, a plate of cookies
for desert, some crackers, ham cubes, cheese cubes, and sparkling wine.  She’d
even taken the time to spell out, ‘I LOVE YOU ERIK’ with the food.  Then she
lit some candles, and waited for him to come home.  She heard his car in the
driveway, and she couldn’t wait.  She’d put on some of her best lingerie, and
was waiting on the blanket for him.  He came in the door, saw that everything
was dark except the candles in the living room, and he took a look at the card
and movie on the floor in front of him with an arrow pointing into the living
room.  He looked up and saw Rachel looking back at him with a loving smile,
then walked straight past the living room and into the bathroom for a shower. 
Rachel felt as if her heart had been ripped out.  She went into the bedroom
with a basket of laundry, and started folding.