Chapter Four
Sunday was spent properly unpacking from Europe, catching up on laundry, and general housekeeping. Michelle would not return from Gavin’s until this evening, so Aliannah took full advantage and played the radio on a high volume but not so loud that she would upset the neighbouring apartments. 90s bops were her feel-good songs.
She did not realise how many clothes she had brought home until she finally finished six loads of laundry. Thankfully, nothing smelled like Serenity anymore; the oaky bourbon smells and the odd waft of a cigar were gone from her entire wardrobe. It saddened her to think that she would probably never experience the Adriatic Sea again in all its beauty. She had never seen a sea so clear and so blue. It was enchanting, and the water! My god, the water was so warm that it felt like being hugged by the sea. She often wondered if mermaids were real; would they live in the sea caves deep below where Ivan liked to moor the Serenity at sea? Scuba diving was her favourite thing to do out there. Aliannah would see a rainbow of fish every time.
The lobby buzzer on the wall rang, bringing Aliannah out of her daydream and back to reality. It was Harry. “Aliannah, there is another florist delivery on the way up to you.” She thanked him and rolled her eyes as she hung up the receiver. More flowers? Seriously?
Aliannah opened the door to the courier, and he produced yet another bunch of 100 white peonies. She tipped him for his troubles and closed the door. “Where am I going to put these? I am running out of space!” Eventually, the kitchen table was decided to be the home of this bunch. Soon, she would be able to run her own peony shop if Ivan kept this up.
Ali darling, can we please talk? – I
Peonies were slowly losing their spot as Aliannah’s favourite flower. It broke her heart more to come to this conclusion. “Can we talk? Fucking talk? Is he for real?!” She yelled at the flowers. Unbelievable.
The rest of the day was spent purging. She scrubbed the apartment from top to bottom and cleared out her wardrobe before jumping in the shower and scrubbing herself from head to toe. She made a pizza for dinner and climbed into bed to watch trashy feel-good TV.
Monday morning rolled in, and it was time to resume her usual tasks at the museum. This involved cataloguing inventory from the gala to ensure everything was returned to its rightful place in storage. Aliannah also had to process the new inventory and allocate it to its proper place, be it in storage for a later exhibition date or directly to the museum floor to be the current hot new pieces of the week. The exhibits were regularly cycled in the museum. This kept the interest of the customers, sponsors and donors. She also had to formulate the monthly newsletter to update everyone on what was currently on show and what was to come next. Her job may be mundane, but the historical aspect of the pieces always piqued her interest. Today, she catalogued a lost Reinhart painting from World War II. It was magnificent.
Mid-afternoon, a door-dash courier walked to her reception desk. Aliannah assumed one of the other staff had ordered in. *Delivery for Miss Aliannah Stackton* is what the bag said on it. She remembered she left her lunch on the kitchen counter; Michelle must have returned home and seen it. The smell of the bag made her stomach growl like a drowning whale, so she took the bag up to the canteen to eat. The cheeseburger, fries and milkshake hit the spot perfectly. Aliannah shot Michelle a text of thanks for the door-dash.
*PING*
God, Michelle replies fast! “I didn’t door-dash you?”
Aliannah ran to the window of the canteen. Sure enough, out on the street below was a black SUV with tinted windows. The back passenger window was cracked a small bit. She tried to see if it was him or just a coincidence; cars like that were common on this street as they were only around the corner from the finance district. Of course, money follows money; where else would you put a museum of antiques? Lost in her thoughts, movement in the car jolted her back to reality. A hand and forearm. She knew that forearm anywhere. It was, without a doubt, Ivan. His lion tattoo was confirmation enough.
*PING* An unsaved number had sent her a text.
Thought you might be hungry since you didn’t leave the office at all. – I
She cursed herself for filling out so much information on the employee sheet Marcus insisted upon. It was probably Ivan who insisted. He never showed any interest in the other stewardesses or even the deckhands; he barely spoke to any staff apart from Marcus and Aliannah. Did Marcus hire her because he lost three stewardesses that day? Or because he knew she fit the description of Ivan’s ideal woman? For Marcus’s sake, she hoped it was the former. Aliannah had liked Marcus; she thought him to be a good friend. He was easy to talk to and to have a laugh with. You need people like that when you’re stuck on a boat moored at sea. It’s not like you can just get up and leave. It doesn’t matter how big the boat is, it’s always good to have a friend.
Closing time rolled in quicker than Aliannah expected, and she was glad about it. She was exhausted from the day’s tasks. The SUV was gone when she left the building, and she breathed out a sigh of relief. She didn’t consider Ivan to be a stalker, but the way she had just upped and left Croatia made it clear to him that she did not want to speak. Ivan had a strange way of convincing those around him to come to his way of thinking. This was his way of letting Aliannah know he was around.