Claiming Olivia (2 page)

I could always count on him to make a fool out of himself to make me laugh. But I hadn’t been able to count on much else for a while now.

My phone’s text tone went off and I reached over to check to see who had sent me a message. I had expected it to be Sofia, my sister, but it was my best friend Cassidy.

AT JFK. SEE YOU IN SPAIN :)

I smiled. Cassidy was one of the most world traveling people I knew. She had known me since I was 18 years old and we had almost immediately bonded as sisters. I could also state with confidence, that Cassidy is one of the best photographers ever.  I knew that no matter what we got into in Ibiza it would be a great, fun, and memorable trip.

“Who’s that?” Mitch asked curiously as I placed the phone back down.

“Sofia,” I lied.

Mitch thought I was going to Ibiza alone. I didn’t want him to know that Cassidy was going with me because none of my friends really cared for him, and she had been there from the start of this entire messy relationship. Well, I should probably word that better. Cassidy had
seen
this start of this messy relationship. From the first day I met Mitch to the first time I left him to the second time I came back.

About a half an hour later, we pulled into the terminal parking garage. He opened the back door and grabbed my bags while I fished for my passport in my purse. Once I found it, I held it up grinning, which made him laugh and we walked in. I looked at a few of the signs before I found my gate and we started to walk in that direction. I sat down and he sat next to me placing my bags in front of me. Mitch leaned back and started to watch the TV that was hanging from the ceiling and I found myself leaning against him with my head on his shoulder. One of the few comforts I had with him that he wouldn’t fight was whenever I wanted to lean against him. I felt his cheek as he leaned his head back against me and I felt tears sting my eyes. I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t care to know why. I didn’t want to regret my trip before it started so I reached up quickly and brushed them away.

One of the attendants made the announcement that we would start boarding in the next ten minutes. Mitch stood up and looked down at me.

“Guess I better get going then,” he said.

“Okay,” I said in a quavering voice.

Do NOT cry Livie.

“Here,” I said reaching into my wallet and handing him some money. “That should take care of parking, gas, and whatever else you need for the next few days.”

“Nah, I’ll be alright,” he said shaking his head.

“And you’ll get home on no gas? Just take the money, Mitch. Please?” I asked as I held out the money again.

He looked angry for a second before he took the money and slid it into his wallet.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” I said as I reached down for my bags.

“So, have a good time, alright?” he said.

I nodded and stood there for a moment.

He leaned down and pulled me toward him by my waist and stared into my eyes for a moment. I could feel myself getting lost in those beautiful blue eyes for the first time in a long time.

“Be good,” he whispered.

“I will.”

Leaning down he kissed me gently, then a bit harder as he tightened his grip.

“Love you, Livie. Have fun,” he said as he let me go.

“Love you too. I’ll try,” I replied with a smile.

I went over and stood in the line of people that were starting to accumulate and looked over at Mitch who was standing there with his hands in his pocket watching me with an amused smile. I grinned widely and waved as I walked up to the attendant and she checked my passport and I.D. I turned around and before I lost sight of him I mouthed
I love you
to him which he mouthed back. I walked through the corridor and found my plane on the seat.

I sighed happily as I looked out the window. I was actually going to Spain. For the first time in my life, I was going to do something that would be good for me and I didn’t need anyone’s help to do it. I was proud of myself.

First stop Ibiza, then the world!
I thought as I settled into the airplane seat happily. Since I had an almost 15 hour trip in front of me, I fished around in my purse and grabbed my Dramamine. I ran quickly to the bathroom so that I could drink from the sink and wash it down. I didn’t fly anymore without taking that first. Not only would it make me sleep for most of, if not the entire flight, it would keep me from feeling sick afterwards too.

I settled back into my seat and the lights came on to tell us to fasten our seatbelts. I started to shake with excitement. It was really happening. A few moments later the plane began to back up slowly as it turned and headed for the tarmac. The captain said we were third in line and that we would be departing shortly.

I double checked my phone to make sure I had shut it off then looked out the window again. I watched as the two planes in front of us took off and headed toward their destinations. Then our plane’s engines fired up and we began to pick up speed.

I always likened a plane’s take off to a rollercoaster. At first you go slow to build up the tension and anticipation, but the moment those wheels leave the tarmac, it’s like going over the first drop. Exciting, scary, and fun once you recover from the initial shock.

I closed my eyes once we were steadily in the air and were allowed to take off our seatbelts. The Dramamine was starting to kick in and I wanted to be well rested for whatever adventures lay in front of me.

When I woke up it was because the young man sitting next to me was gently shaking me. I opened my eyes and looked over at him and he smiled.

“We’re in Madrid,” he said with a slight accent.

I nodded and stretched which made me laugh quietly as he stood up and grabbed his backpack from the overhead and start to head down the line of people that were pouring out into the terminal. I had a bitter taste in my  mouth and I’m sure my hair was standing up like it did when I napped so I smoothed it out before I reached up to grab my belongings and then get in line as well. I stifled a yawn and sighed.

As I stepped off the plane I was greeted by attendants who checked my passport information then gave me a stamp. I looked down and smiled sleepily as I received my first official “You’ve Finally Traveled Outside of America” stamp.

“Livie!” I looked around the terminal and saw Cassidy waving at me with a big smile. I ran over and gave her a big hug.

“Can you believe it? We’re in Spain!” I said to her happily.

“I know,” she said, “it should be a good time. I thought your plane would never get here! I checked the gates while we were waiting so I know where we have to go. Want to get something to eat? I’m starving!”

“Definitely, but I need to brush my teeth first. I can taste the death swarming around in there,” I replied making a face at her.

We both laughed as she led the way to the restrooms and I pulled out my toothbrush. I listened as she told me about her flight from JFK and how she swore that the pilot “had to be on something” with all the turbulence they encountered. As I brushed I had to stop at points and giggle because Cassidy was very comedic when she explained scary or strange situations. Once I was satisfied that the bacteria in my mouth had died, I spit out the paste into the sink and swished some water around in my mouth while I cleaned my toothbrush. After I was done, I checked to make sure I hadn’t left anything in the sink. That was one of my pet peeves; old paste in the sink. That was right up there with a man shaving and not cleaning the sink.

I put my toothbrush back into the travel kit and picked up my bags as Cassidy and I looked around for a place to eat. We settled on
La Pausa,
mostly because we thought the name was fitting. We sat there looking at menus and then kind of stared at each other.

“So, you’re gonna tell me what this says right?” I asked quietly.

“I was hoping you would,” she replied.

“Okay, I’ll do my best, but if I wind up ordering us moose ass, I don’t want to hear any complaints,” I replied with a shrug.

She started to laugh and told me to flip the menu over.

“Oh.”

Now that I could read the menu without second guessing myself because it was in English I felt more confident in knowing what I could and couldn’t eat. I ordered a Coke and she ordered water like she usually did and we sat there quietly for a moment as we watched the people walking by in the terminal.

“Hey, who’s that?” Cassidy suddenly asked.

“Who?” I asked following her gaze.

She was looking at a guy that for some reason seemed familiar. He was standing at the front of the restaurant smiling at us while he chatted with the host. When he saw me looking he waved with a big grin. I raised an eyebrow and waved back quickly.

“I have no idea,” I replied.

“He’s been staring at us since he walked in,” she said before she turned her attention to the waiter who had just arrived with our food. We both started to unwrap our napkins when he suddenly appearing by our table.

“Mind if I sit down?” he asked.

I looked at Cassidy who looked up at him with a priceless look on her face.

“Sure,” she said giving me a quick wide-eyed look.

I remember that Europeans were very friendly, but this was a little friendlier than either of us were expecting.

Grinning, he pulled out a chair and turned backward so that he was sitting on it with his arms crossed across the backrest and looked at me.

“Wide awake now, eh?”

“What?” I asked in confusion.

“You’re wide awake now. It took me almost ten minutes to shake you awake on the plane,” he said with a laugh.

“Oh. OH! That was you? Thanks,” I said relaxing a bit.

He nodded and smiled at us, “What are your names?”

“I’m Olivia, and that’s Cassidy.”

“Nice to meet you both, I’m Alejandro,” he said with a friendly smile.

I snuck a glance at Cassidy who seemed to be thinking what I was; t
ypical.

“I did not see you on the plane,” he said curiously to Cassidy.

“Oh, yeah, that’s because I met Liv here. I flew in from New York,” she explained politely.

“You should probably order some food if you’re going to keep sitting here,” I said bluntly. By the looks on Cassidy and Alejandro’s faces I realized that I had said that way bitchier than I had meant too. I felt my face flush red with embarrassment and I concentrated extra hard on rewrapping my napkin.

He reached toward my plate with a spare fork and speared some of my fries. I looked up at him and he smiled, giving me a wink to let me know there were no hard feelings. I smiled back.

“So tell me,” he said turning his attention back to Cassidy, “what brings you to Madrid?”

“We had to land here on the way to ... um...,” she faltered, looking at me for help.

“Germany,” I spat out.

I knew exactly what Cass was thinking. We didn’t know this guy and telling him where we were going when he was obviously so comfortable already was probably not going to be a good idea.

He laughed and shook his head. I gave Cass the look that said “he’s on to us” and she just shrugged and went back to her food. Alejandro sat at the table picking at my fries and I kept stealing glances at him to construct him fully in my mind.

When he had woken me up on the plane, all I knew was that he was a young man. Now that he was standing here, I guessed he was in his late 20s; 27 being the oldest he could possibly be. His brown hair reminded me of raw umber. I snuck another glance at him as he and Cassidy were chatting and I noticed that whenever he smiled or laughed he had these crinkles that would appear near his hazel blue eyes. He had lightly tanned skin and he seemed to be pretty big, but he hadn’t taken off his jacket yet so I wasn’t sure if the bulk was him or the coat. Leaning over he reached around me for a napkin, then forked some more of my French fries. When I saw his hand hovering for a second I looked up at him and saw him smiling at me. Did he know what I was doing? Did he know that I was curious about his body, his build? Did he see this blaring, damning ring on my finger, of whose hand I was now sliding as naturally as I could under the table so that I could wrestle it off?

‘What time is it?” Cassidy asked snapping me back to attention.

“Eh, 3:14,” Alejandro said checking his watch.

“We better pay for this and start heading to our gate, Liv,” Cass said as she reached for her wallet.

Alejandro waived the waiter over and before we could pull out our money, handed him a credit card, “Todos juntos.”

“Um, you didn’t have to do that, we were going to pay for it,” I said glancing at him.

“Yes, but I ate all of your fries, and Cassidy here was such pleasant conversation, that I feel it’s the least I could do,” he said signing his name to the receipt that the waiter had brought back to the table.

“Yeah, well, thanks,” Cass said as she got up and grabbed her bag. “It was nice to meet you and super cool to talk to you. Sorry we’ve got to run, Berlin is waiting. Right, Olivia?” she asked giving me her slight wide-eyed
let’s get the hell out of here
look.

“Yeah,
guten morgen
we go!” I replied with a grin.

“Well ladies, thank you both for the pleasure of your company,” he said standing as well and smiling at both of us. “It’s not every day that a man can say he’s had lunch with two beautiful, intelligent women.”

Six foot? Six foot one?

We all smiled at each other as Cassidy and I exited the restaurant.
Oh well. It’s not like I was able to slip off this ring of death anyway,
I thought as we made our way across the terminal to our gate.

“Where the hell did you come up with Germany?” she asked me.

“I don’t know.
Valkyrie
was a great movie and ... I don’t know,” I replied shrugging.

She laughed at my logic. That was typical me though. I usually never had a justification for the odd things I would say, so I would throw in a random fun fact and keep rolling hoping that eventually a good explanation would come to me. It usually never worked.

We got to our gate and dropped our bags on the floor in front of us when we sat down. Cassidy reached into her purse and pulled out her phone. As she kept herself busy, I watched the people walking back and forth. Some were walking casually, some were walking at a very quick pace with worry creased across their faces, some were children happily skipping by, and some just happened to be the man that crashed our lunch and we told we were going to Germany.