Chapter 5

I turned the nobs and waited for the water to flow out of the shower head above me. I made it cold deliberately, although warmer water creates a calmer mood, I just want to wake up from that nightmare. He almost made me go into cardiac arrest I thought to myself as I stood under the water. We barely even knew each other yet he still went and pulled that. I was desperately trying to forget about what happened. The images of him face down in the water flashed through my mind over and over again. He wasn’t even dead yet I was still thinking about it. How mean. How disgusting. How could he even think of pulling a vulgar trick like that, to someone he only just met?

Stepping out of the shower tub, I almost slipped on the little rug. The maid must have come and tidied the bathroom up this morning. I cursed at her though, because she turned the towel heating rack on and all my towels were now roasting on that open fire. Putting one of those around me + the humidity in the air is a certain death sentence. Quickly rushing around my room in my birthday suit looking for something to slip on. Mum didn’t expect me to wear anything too fancy right? Nah probably not. I decided to be a quite cheesy and colour co-ordinated so I grabbed a light dress and roman sandals. Hey it matched the hotel walls; I thought I looked pretty good!

I checked the wall clock, “12:58” it read. Perfect. I had 2 minutes to get my a*s over to mum’s room before she started to panic. My mum is very particular and worrisome. If you’re .25 seconds late, she’ll ring you and demand to know where you are. I glided across the hallway and knocked on her door. Zack opened the door gloomily but his face brightened up when his eyes lay on me.

“Mati! I’m so glad you’re here. Mum already went downstairs, and I’ve been waiting for V to get out of the shower for about 15 minutes.”

I glanced up and down at him. I could see why he was a little distraught.

“Nice clothes.” I whistled at his outfit. Corduroy pants, a white shirt, grey vest and a black bow tie.

“Mum made me! She says it was important I looked nice. It’s not like we’re going to a 5 star restaurant!” He complained.

“Uhh actually we are…” V appeared behind Zack in the doorway. She was wearing a tight black dress and black pumps. Typical V. I suddenly felt extremely casual. What was mum planning? V judgmentally glanced at my outfit. She ushered Zack out into the hallway where I was standing and locked the door.

Without a word, she stormed off towards the elevators. Zack and I glanced at each other with confused looks and whispered “Must be the time of the month”. We giggled childishly and V gave us a disgusted look. The elevator took us up to level 9, the Chinese restaurant. I’ve never really enjoyed Asian food that much, I just don’t know why. Mum and Dad used to adore it, stir fry every single night sometimes… Back in those days.

All the lobsters were nipping at each other in those giant fish tanks, the freakishly large fish gliding past each other and the random octopus all by himself in one of the tanks. Its small eyes watching me as I walk past. I walk up to the maître de and ask if mum has come past. “Oh sí sí, come zis way”, she guided us through the restaurant. I could see mum’s dirty blonde hair in the distance. We approached the table, she was with someone. Someone with longish dark hair. I couldn’t tell who she was because her back was turned to us, must be a friend of mums from the international woman’s council thing she joined last year… Nothing to worry about!

Mums eyes caught mine and she noticed us and stood up. Her guest stood up too. She was wearing a suit? Um… Interesting fashion choice. We took our seats on the table and sat down straight away, without shaking the outstretched hand of the guest. I noticed that her hand was unbelievably hairy. My gaze followed up her arm to her face where I gasped shockingly out loud. She was a He.

“Kids, this is Ernesto…” Mum moved her seat closer, next to him.

Ernesto had wavy black hair with organized stubble on his face and perfectly tanned, immaculate skin. He had dark brown eyes, his smile was perfect and his teeth were flawless. “Hello”, his Spanish accent was thick and he spoke English with a tint of American. He was unsure of what to say after and glanced sideways to mum.

We were all gapping at them. V’s eyes had turned cold and Zack’s jaw had dropped so low it was going to hit the table. I just stared at mum, expecting her to say something more. “I asked you guys here tonight bec-“mum was cut off by V. “Where did you guys meet?” Her voice was in such a monotone. Mum was reluctant to speak but she went ahead.

“We met back at home, at one of the conferences our company held annually. Ernesto was a representative from Spain and luckily I got to sit next to him.” Zack made a choking sound. “We started chatting and we realised we had so much in common. Long story short, ever since he left to come back, we have been skyping and well… we are in a relationship now.”  They glanced at each other’s eyes with a puppy dog expression.

“How come you haven’t told us anything about this before?” V’s arms were crossed and her face had turned dark purple.

“I was afraid that you wouldn’t understand. Since your father left…” We all winced. “… it’s been so hard on me. Do you know how difficult it is to be alone, raising 3 teenage children? I need to find a man, someone who could take care of me and love me. That’s why I’ve decided to extend our stay in Spain by a few months. You can go to school here.” Their hands were held together on the table. Ernesto avoided our eyes.

Zack jumped out of his seat, knocking over his chair. “You think we wouldn’t understand? Mum! Why didn’t you just tell us something was up? We could’ve helped you. Dad didn’t leave, he disappeared. He still loved you till the very end. You don’t need some guy! How old are you anyway?” He turned to Ernesto. His eyes were raging like a bull.

“I am 27 years old. Please sit down Zack, your mother is becoming distressed.”

I almost fell off my chair. 27. What. He put his muscly arm around mum who’s eyes were so red, she was about to burst.

“Don’t you touch her! And don’t you ever call me Zack again, you hear me? You don’t love her, you filthy gold digger.” He smashed his fist on the table and pulled off the table cloth, breaking everything on it. It’s like Zack had become a man in front of our eyes. He had never acted like this before.  Mum had finally broken, her tears flooded onto Ernesto’s suit. It looked expensive.

“Zack…” She pleaded. “Shut up mum.” He pushed past all the tables and rushed out of the restaurant. V stood up and awkwardly chased after him in her giant pumps.

I sat for a few seconds, staring at mum in Ernesto’s arms. He squinted at me with a pleading look. I felt a pang of pity and guilt for them for a small second. Tears filled my eyes and I too, ran off without a backward glance. Leaving the two lovers in misery. People in the restaurant had heard the whole thing and stared as I rushed past. I could not think of anywhere to go. If I went back to my room, mum would surely find me. I pressed the lift button so many times that I think I might have broken it. I held back my tears until as much as I could.

*BING* Ground Floor �" Lobby, the elevator doors opened and I rushed out. Instead of going through the main doors, I jumped over the unattended kiosk bar and went through the kitchen. Cameras were probably watching my every move and security would probably be after me any second. I smashed through the back door of the kitchen and out into the alleyway. I grabbed the nearest milk crate and sat facing the door, waiting suspensefully for security to burst through and take me to the front desk. 3 minutes past. Nothing. Perhaps no one had seen me after all. This was the perfect time to cry. But as much as I wanted to, nothing came out. So I sat, staring at my hands in the alley. It smelled like cat pee but I didn’t care. Ernesto was mum’s new boyfriend, and we’d just have to deal with it. I guess that if he was around mum’s age, I wouldn’t have cared so much. But 27? Wow mum… I don’t want my mum to be seen as some cougar with an attractive boy toy. Actually I take that back, I would have cared either way. It feels wrong. I’ve never imagined Mum with anyone else other than dad. Sure, dad had disappeared but that didn’t mean we wasn’t still out there, and I’m sure he still loves her.  So many things raced through my mind, I couldn’t concentrate on anything. It was all a blur.

What felt like seconds had actually been hours. The sky began to turn dark and strange people started to roam around. I stood up and brushed at the back of my dress. Time to give up my hiding spot I thought, and I made my way back to my room

***

The door to room 610 opened with a click as it usually did, letting me in. As darkness had fallen, my apartment had become pitch black. I stepped in and walked a few metres inside. The door shut behind me with a slam. “Hello.” A deep voiced figure moved out of the complete darkness and into the reflection of the moon. I turned around and with what little tae kwon do I still remembered from when I was a kid; I back kicked him in the stomach before he had a chance to say another word. *Oof* The figure faltered and fell to the ground with a thump.

I raced to the light switch and flicked them all on. I looked back at the person and he rolled onto his back and I gasped in extreme astonishment. “Harry?!?!?”

***

“Oh my gosh. Harry is that you?!” I rushed over to his side and brushed his curls out of his face. Yep it was Harry alright. He mumbled something really unclearly and continued to rock from side to side with his hand on his stomach. This time, I could tell he wasn’t joking.

Harry’s face had turned bright red, brighter than a tomato. He was struggling to breathe. Had I burst one of his lungs? S**t, s**t, s**t. Now it really was my fault. He was winded beyond belief. Should I take him downstairs? Call for help?

I stood up and headed to the dresser. There was a jug of water and some glasses neatly placed on the top. I quickly poured in some water and rushed back to Harry. I lifted up his chin and made him scoff down some water. I hoped that I didn’t make him drink too much that it would surely kill him. His eyes were wide open and he looked kind of like a goldfish out of the bowl, gasping for air but without the flipping around.

Slowly his extreme gasps for air began to slow down and became steadier. He was obviously still in quite a lot of pain. I cupped my hand under his head and waited for him to calm down. His hands slowly moved for my arm. We sat there for a number of minutes; I guess waiting for each other. Although I really didn’t know what he wanted me to do?

Soon enough, a smile began to break out on his face. I smiled down on him. His eye’s once again staring into my soul. I hated that. By doing that, Harry had a certain power over me.

“I’m sorry…” I whispered.

“No… I’m sorry.” He looked up at me with troubled eyes and whispered, “Two times today I’ve scared you to death.”

“Oh yeah…” Suddenly remembering what he did earlier on that day. I stood up quickly and his head dropped onto the floor with a smack. That time, I did not say sorry. I crossed my arms and paced across the room.

“Harry I still haven’t forgotten what you pulled today. What the hell are you doing in here? And how on earth did you get in?” I glared at him through the reflection of the mirror above the dresser.

He used the bed as a balance to stand up. “I came here to apologise Tilly… I knew straight away after you pulled me out of the water that I had made a huge mistake and I might have ruined our new found friendship. Please I just want a chance for forgiveness…” He put his hands together in a praying sort of way and stood in front of me. “I know I can make things right. I persuaded the maid to give me a spare key card into your apartment. She felt sorry for me I suppose.”

I shook my head in repulsion. “What makes you think I’m going to forgive you just like that? This is intrusion! Intrusion into my room! First the fake death and now this?!? I don’t know Harry…” His jaw tightened… Maybe he’d just get the message. “I mean, this is our second day of knowing each other and already we’ve had enough fighting to last us 10 years!”

His eyes were starting to become redder. Please do not bring on the water works, I thought. Hopefully he was too manly to cry in front of me. “I really don’t know what to say to you Harry… I just need to be alone. Could you please leave?”

“But Tilly I-…” He began to shake.

“Just go Harry!” I pointed to the door and looked away. He turned on his heels and rushed out, closing the door gracefully behind him. I’m not sure if he looked back because I was choking back tears for the second time tonight.

Today was most possibly the worst day of my whole, entire, short life. I just wanted it to be over.

I gloomily slipped on my pyjamas and hopped into bed. Maybe if I go to sleep, I’ll wake up and I’ll be back home. Waking up to my 6:30 alarm and this has all been just a dream…