Something Like Summer (28 page)

Living in Austin had been
an easy adjustment. The city had its own skyline, waterfront, and
culture centers, so it was in effect a smaller, warmer version of
Chicago. Well, not exactly, but Ben found it much more vibrant than
Houston had ever been. He had also settled nicely into the
university. Allison had been there to guide him around all of the
usual newbie hiccups, and after eight weeks Ben hardly ever got
lost around campus anymore.

The phone rang, making
Allison wince and Ben jump to his feet. He knew it would be Jace
calling with his flight times. He waited until he was out of the
kitchen before allowing himself to shout with
excitement.

“
Hello?” Ben gasped once
he had finally found the phone.

“
Hey, bucko,” Jace said in
forced jovial tones that Ben had already learned to
interpret.

“
You aren’t
coming.”

Jace sighed heavily into
the receiver. “I wanted to call you yesterday but it was the night
from hell. I didn’t get in until 3 a.m.”

Ben frowned and plopped
down onto the sofa. “So do you have to work this
weekend?”

“
No,” Jace answered
cautiously, “but my sister is out of town and someone has to take
care of Samson.”

“
Oh, come on! This is the
third time you’ve canceled! I haven’t seen you once this
month.”

“
The other two times were
because of work,” Jace replied calmly. “This is the first time
because of Samson.”

“
He’s a cat! Load up his
food bowl and he’ll be fine overnight.”

“
I haven’t been home for
over a week,” Jace countered. “He needs to see me
sometime
. Anyway, I can
get you on an afternoon flight and we can--”

“
Forget it.”

“
What?” Jace asked,
sounding startled.

“
Forget it,” Ben repeated.
“You have fun with your cat. I’m going to do my own
thing.”

“
Ben, I’m not trying
to--”

“
I just need my space,”
Ben interrupted. “I’ll see you next weekend.”

Ben hung up the phone,
feeling instantly ashamed. He wasn’t being fair to Jace, he knew
that. Part of him also knew that he could get away with acting like
this. As difficult as Ben could be, he never managed to ruffle
Jace’s feathers. Ben supposed this skill came from dealing with
annoying passengers every day.

The phone rang again. Ben
wanted to pick it up and be civil, but he also didn’t want to
appear insane by letting his mood shift too suddenly. He should
probably pretend to really be angry, at least for a little while.
He picked up the phone.

“
Just let me--”

“
I’ll call you later,” Ben
said before hanging up again.

All right. So maybe he was
being psychotic.

He didn’t really mind that
Jace was so crazy about Samson. That proved that he was capable of
long-term love and dedication. Sure, he was a little possessive
with his cat, but then, Samson was overprotective of Jace. They
were cute together, and Ben had just passed up the chance to be
curled up in bed with both of them. And for what? Because the plan
had changed? Jace had managed to visit Austin five times in two
months. Just because schedules were tight in the last three weeks
was no reason to punish Jace. Ben was being childish.

Time to admit he was being
an idiot. He didn’t know why love made him act so irrational, but
he was pretty sure he wasn’t alone in his emotionally induced
insanity. Every time he saw Jace the feelings intensified. They got
along so well and their relationship had been so harmonious that it
was hard not to selfishly want as much as he could get. Instead,
his behavior had cheated him out of more of that time. Ben reached
for the phone so he could call and apologize. It rang before he
could pick it up.

“
Hello?” he said
tentatively.

“
Italy,” Jace said as
quickly as possible.

Ben furrowed his brow in
confusion. “What?”

“
I’m taking you to Italy,
you spoiled shit!”

“
You are?” Ben asked,
feeling like a tool, but a very happy one.

“
Yes. I wanted to tell you
in person, but--”

“
I was being a dick, I
know,” Ben said apologetically. “Are you serious?”

“
Spring break,” Jace
confirmed, sounding friendlier. “You up for it?”

“
If you still want me,”
Ben chuckled nervously.

“
God knows why, but I do.”
Jace’s voice took on a seductive tone. “Now get your ass to the
airport and come apologize to me properly.”

* * * * *

The world is a very big
place. That was obvious enough, but Ben had never known exactly how
large until now. Hour after hour passed, and even flying over it at
five hundred miles per hour, the ocean below refused to give way to
land. The sun set unnaturally soon eight hours into the flight,
obscuring with its departure any sign of progress or time. Ben
tossed and turned in his tiny seat, immensely uncomfortable but
unable to do anything about it.

Jace dozed peacefully
beside him, as much at home here as anywhere else. When Ben’s
attempts to “accidentally” wake him failed, he turned his attention
back to the in-flight movies. The individual monitors on the back
of each seat were good, but the program selection was dreadful.
Already Ben had drudged through multiple films that he never would
have watched on the ground.

Eventually he did manage a
sort of fitful sleep until the flight crew began serving breakfast
with pursed lips and raised eyebrows. Except when it came to Jace.
They were all smiles and courtesy with him, even though he insisted
he didn’t know any of them. Maybe they sensed he was one of
them.

Ben wanted to weep with joy
when the plane finally began its decent, which turned out to be
extremely gradual because it took another hour before the airplane
was on the runway, and what felt like three eternities before it
taxied to a gate and they were allowed to disembark.

“
We’re never doing that
again,” Ben swore while they stood waiting at the luggage
carrousel. “We’ll start new lives here in Rome. Anything but
another flight like that.”

“
I liked it.” Jace
stretched contentedly. “It was really relaxing. Back home you
barely get in the air before landing again. I’m thinking about
applying for international routes. The pay is certainly
better.”

“
Wouldn’t you be home
less?” Ben asked. He already couldn’t get enough of Jace. Any less
time spent with him and he would start developing withdrawal
symptoms. He could just see himself clinging desperately to a
framed photo of Jace while trembling with the shakes.

“
I don’t think it would be
so different, really,” Jace answered. “We’ll see.”

Local time was three in the
morning. Some careful math in Ben’s head told him it was around
dinner time back home.

“
Hopefully we can still
take a shuttle bus to the main terminal,” Jace said, checking his
watch. “After that it’s just a few train connections to the
hotel.”

“
All right,” Ben said,
snatching their luggage off the conveyer belt as it came by. “Let’s
do it!”

Jace looked surprised.
“Really?”

“
Of course,” Ben replied,
trumping his puzzled look. “Why not?”

“
I was sort of counting on
you not being up for it.”

“
Public transportation,
you mean? Hey, I used to live in Chicago, don’t forget.”

Jace sighed. “Well if you
aren’t going to insist that we take a taxi, then it’s up to
me.”

“
Big baby,” Ben
laughed.

They walked out of the
relatively small airport and were assaulted with offers as soon as
they stepped into the night air. A dozen taxi drivers were
competing for their attention, making offers in English and a slew
of other languages. Feeling completely overwhelmed, Ben pressed
past them to where the actual vehicles were. He was vaguely aware
of Jace asking him to wait, but he was eager to get into the
solitude and comfort of a car. Not wanting to be in cramped
quarters again, he headed for the biggest vehicle, a white
minivan.

The driver appeared,
happily taking his luggage from him. Ben allowed himself this
luxury and crawled into the backseat of the car. Jace was soon next
to him, tutting something about not choosing so quickly. Then the
driver was behind the wheel, but before he pulled out another man
took the passenger seat.

“
My brother,” the driver
explained with a smile. “Where you go?”

Jace gave him the address.
The man nodded wordlessly, and guided the vehicle away from the
airport. Ben looked out the windows, eager for his first glimpse of
a European city. So far, Rome didn’t look all that different from
Houston.

“
Are you sure we actually
left Texas?” he asked Jace.

“
Hm? Oh, I see what you
mean. All highways look pretty much the same. Wait until we’re in
the center of Rome. You won’t believe the difference.”

Ben checked the meter to
see if cabs here were as notoriously expensive as they had been in
Chicago. Except there wasn’t a meter. That couldn’t be right. He
shifted in his seat, scanning the dashboard as casually as
possible. He was certain that there wasn’t a proper meter. Nor was
there any sign of a taxi license or driver ID. Surely such things
were required, even in a different country. How did people know if
they were getting ripped off? Were they supposed to haggle the
price before they got in the vehicle? He looked worriedly to Jace
who met his gaze and nodded knowingly.

“
Told you we picked too
soon,” he said in hushed tones. “This little trip is probably going
to cost us an arm and a leg. It’s all right,” he added when Ben’s
face crumpled with guilt. “We’ll be fine.”

The all-too-familiar sight
of the highway receded into the distance as they barreled down one
of the exits. There was good reason for the universal stereotype of
taxi drivers being demons behind the wheel. They zipped past a
small village in the blink of an eye, entering farmland, the road
dark and empty except for the illumination from their headlights.
The two men in the front seat, who had up to now been chatting
rapidly in their native tongue, grew silent. Jace tensed up as the
van pulled over to the side of the road. Ben reached over, his hand
crawling along the seat in hope of finding Jace’s.

The driver’s brother turned
to face them, his brow furrowed angrily. “How much money you have?
We need more money to go.”

Jace said something in
Italian, causing the other man to look surprised, but he recovered
quickly. “You give us money, you have no problem.” He raised a hand
and wagged a flat metal object at them. A knife. It was still
folded shut, but his meaning was clear enough.

Ben felt cold panic. Had he
traveled all this way just to die in some remote Italian field? If
all these guys wanted was money, that was fine with him. He shifted
to reach for his wallet, but Jace’s left hand stilled him. His
right hand was already holding a wallet out. The man took it
eagerly and turned forward again to examine its contents. Ben
wanted to say something to Jace, comfort him or discuss some sort
of cunning plan that would get them both out of this mess, but the
driver’s eyes in the rearview mirror were locked onto them
both.

“
This all?” the brother
demanded.

“
That’s 200,000 lira!”
Jace replied.

“
That nothing!” the
brother spat back.

“
Well, it’s all we have,”
Jace said. “Everyone uses credit cards these days.”

The man looked skeptically
at Ben, who shook his head in what he hoped was a convincing
manner. He did have money on him, and he was more than willing to
give it up, but he didn’t want to prove Jace a liar. Who knew how
the men would react then?

“
Get out,” the driver
said.

“
Fine.” Jace nodded to him
that they should exit, but Ben faltered.

He didn’t like the idea of
being abandoned in the middle of nowhere any more than he liked
being robbed. The audacity of the suggestion incensed him, causing
his panic to recede as he slowly saw red. “You can’t leave us
here!”

“
Your hotel not far,” the
brother said in friendly tones, as if he were performing a public
service. “You walk that way. Half hour, you there.”

“
You just took all our
money,” Ben retorted. “You can at least drive us the rest of the
way there!”

“
Ben--” Jace
tried.

“
No! I’m not getting out
of the car. Go ahead and cut us up! Stain your upholstery with our
blood and go through the hassle of hiding our bodies. I don’t care.
Or you can take us to the hotel. You decide!”

Ben could barely breathe by
the time he was finished. The two brothers yammered at each other
angrily for a few moments before finally reaching a
conclusion.

“
We take you,” the brother
said moodily.