Chapter Fourteen
chapter fourteen
ISLA
The sun is teasing the edge of the horizon out my bedroom window, sending sparkles across the water’s surface, like little fairies of pure light dancing along the waves.
I never really went to the beach much in New York. I spent more time in the college pool than in the ocean. I have no idea why, because since being here I feel like being near the water is where I’m meant to be. There’s something about the way that the waves continue to crash, and the tides continue to rise and fall that makes me feel steady, like everything will be okay as long as those waves keep tumbling into the golden sand below.
The sky has been showing off for the last few nights, different hues appear every night.
Just while I’ve been sitting here, the sky has gone from bright blue to tangerine, and was swept with crimson clouds that have disappeared now as if they were never there. It looked as if the sky was burning, and I couldn’t help but open up the bedside drawer where I had stashed Nora’s sketch pad and flick the cover page back.
On my way home from my shift at Marina’s yesterday I stopped at an arts and crafts supply store. I wasn’t planning on it, but the sunlight caught my eye in the store window, reflecting off the seashell chimes hanging over the doorway. My heart tugged as I admired the paintings scattered around the store, in between the macrame weavings and plants hanging on the walls. But I couldn’t bring myself to buy a set of paints, not yet. I don’t fully understand why, I just couldn’t. So I settled for a set of pastels instead.
I started with pastels. My parents didn’t trust me with paint when I was younger, so for my thirteenth birthday they got me a set of pastels and a sketchpad. I’d spend hours outside, painting the day as it went by. The seasons. The years. I filled that sketchbook and two more before I got my first set of oil paints. I never went back after that, falling in love with the feeling of a brush in my hand. So coming back to pastels now…it feels right.
I run the crayon across the page, adding shadows to the ocean I’m trying to recreate as it shimmers in front of me, the sun nearly disappearing from view.
My door pushes open before May comes barreling in, landing in a heap on my bed before looking up at me in the chair by the window with her head in her hands.
She’s wearing one of her new shirts. She took it upon herself to go down to the eclectic souvenir shop in town last week and buy cheesy t-shirts, all of which she’s cropped with scissors and hemmed with the old sewing machine that’s in our living room. This one has Robert Pattison on the front, he’s got a mustache and dark eyebrows with a speech bubble extending from his mouth that speaks: “Ciao, Bella.” I can’t help but snort, that’s a good one actually.
“Yes?” I ask.
Her eyes switch from mischievous to soft as she takes in the pastels beside me. “You’re doing your art?” She pushes up off the bed before coming to look over my shoulder at my work. “Oh Isla!” She shakes my shoulders while giggling. “This is beautiful! You never fail to impress me.”
I laugh with her and shrug. “I was feeling inspired.”
She presses a palm over her chest. “I’m so proud of you,” she gives me a genuine smile.
May is someone who has always supported me in my artistic endeavors. She’s been my biggest hype-woman since day one. So I know she’s genuinely happy to see me putting pictures on a page again.
“Thank you,” I smile. “How was your shift?”
“Quiet. Day shifts are so slow without you or Marina,” she sighs.
“Well, we’ve got our shift together this weekend.”
She flops back onto the bed, sighing before she starts up again. “Okay on to more pressing matters,” she says, flipping back over to face me.
I lift my eyes from my work to look at her, and when I see the look glittering in her eyes I already know where this is going.
“I saw Caio on the way here and he asked me to give you this.” She pulls an envelope out of her back pocket and hands it to me.
“You’ve got to be joking.” I lift the seal to see all the money I’d left at his apartment. A flash of red catches my eye as I pick up one of the dollar bills and unfold it. I scoff a laugh.
“What is it?” May asks.
“It’s the money I gave to Caio,” I flip the bill around to face her, displaying the bright red letters rejected stamped on the bill.
“Rejected?”
“He won’t accept any money from me, or you for that matter. If he thinks this is going to stop me, he’s got another thing coming for him.”
“I mean you could always compensate him in other ways,” she wiggles her eyebrows at me.
I throw the envelope at her. “Oh, you never give up do you?”
She dodges the flying envelope. “No I do not,” she smiles brightly. I shake my head trying to hold back my smile.
“I talked to Marina…” Oh god. “And she agrees that Caio has the hots for you.”
“The hots for me? That’s what you’re calling it now?”
She fans herself dramatically in response. I let out a groan before dropping my work onto the table next to me and giving her my full attention against my better judgment.
“May, “
“Wait—“
“No, you wait,” I snap, and immediately feel guilty for it. I know May has good intentions, but I don’t want to talk about this now. She’s already gotten too in my head.
I haven’t seen Caio in over a week. I’ve seen glimpses of him, but I’ve taken the quickest escape route every time. My brain stops thinking clearly when Caio is in my proximity, and I don’t need any more brain muddling from May or anyone else. I’m already totally across that without anyone else pitching in.
“I love you, May, and I know you just want me to have fun and be happy?—“
“Oh, we both know he’d make you very happy,” she winks at me, and I cough out a laugh before continuing.
“But you know me better than anyone. I can’t do casual hookups. My feelings are bound to get involved, and that is not what I need when we are leaving at the end of the summer. Caio might have ‘ the hots for me,’ but that’s all it is and all it ever will be. Plus, I really like Marina and the others, even Rafael.” She rolls her eyes at the mention of his name. “And I don’t want to ruin any of that by sleeping with Caio.”
“So you admit you want to sleep with him?” She grins at me.
I pick up my sketch pad and aim for her head while laughing. “We are friends ,” I say. Even if the way that my heart skips a beat every time he’s near says otherwise.
“We’ll see…” She runs out of the room before I can throw something else at her.
Even I don’t believe the words coming out of my mouth, but I need to make them a reality. Caio and I can only ever be friends. I need to focus on my future, and Caio is not part of that future, he’s a distraction, and one that I don’t need.
I decide to order room service, not bothering to leave the peaceful sanctuary of my room and run into anyone today. I run myself a bath, dumping an obscene amount of the floral bubble bath left on the little stool into the water.
I sink into the warm water, allowing the hot suds to envelop my body. My breath slows as I force myself to relax, watching the cloud of steam float out the window, carrying my restless thoughts with it.
A knock on the door thirty minutes later tells me that my meal has arrived. I ordered a seafood risotto, a guilty pleasure of mine.
Brandon hated seafood, he couldn’t stand the smell, so I never had it around him, so that would be never. So when I saw it on the room service menu I couldn’t resist.
I quickly jump out of the bath, letting the water droplets glide off my skin and onto the plush mat beneath my feet as I wrap the white robe around myself and slide on the matching white slippers, quickly scooting out to the door. I can’t let room service leave.
I swipe that stupid envelope from the table and twist the bolt lock, pulling the door open just as the lady from room service is about to round the corner down the hall.
“Excuse me!” I yell out, shuffling down the hall in my robe and slippers, leaving the delicious smelling risotto on the floor outside my room.
Her eyes widen as she takes me in before schooling her face into a pleasant expression. “How can I help you?”
“Is there any way that you would be able to pass this on to Mr. Marchetti?” She eyes me skeptically. “He’s a friend of mine and he’ll know it’s from me.” I try to give her a reassuring smile.
“I’ll see what I can do,” she grabs the envelope from where I was holding it out in between us. It’s fatter than it was when May gave it to me earlier. If Caio thinks I’ll just forget about it, he’s very wrong. In fact, I added last week’s tips to it this time just to sweeten the deal.
“Thank you so much,” I say, before she speeds off down the hall. I falter on the way back to my room, wondering if that envelope will even get to him. Oh well, even if it doesn’t, it won’t be my problem anymore.
The smell of the risotto floats up my nostrils the closer I get back to my room where it’s sitting outside the door waiting for me.
I pick up the tray, kicking the door shut behind me as I make my way to the couch. I lift the cover off the plate and sigh in contentment as I look at the risotto in front of me. I don’t wait another second before I dig my fork into the meal, shoveling it into my mouth as I sit back on the couch. Fuck, that’s good. Nothing beats a good meal, and nothing gives me more pleasure than when my taste buds tingle with glee at what I’ve fed them.
Except maybe the look on Caio’s face when that envelope lands back in his possession.