Walking on cupid's path

Keanu sat on a bench by the waterside, thinking about what he should do. He felt like his life was

hit by a cyclone, and one thing caused another. They had just moved Gregory into a plane, and he was on the hunt for Marcos and the amulet, and as if all that wasn’t exciting enough as it was, Veronica told him that Giada was on the island and had been over at their house dining with Mikiel and Gregory on the day of his birthday, when he was lurking for Marcos in Mgaar. He couldn’t stand it, Veronica had portrayed Giada as some sort of scared saint that couldn’t be blamed for the events but was rather a victim of them. Ha! But he knew better. Giada was the devil in high heels with a seducing smile. She was a praying mantis that ripped the heads off men when she was done with them! He didn’t believe a word Veronica said. She said Giada was forced by her father to marry a criminal and that was why she had left Sicily. What a farce, Giada had grown up amongst criminals herself so a groom with a dubious past shouldn’t bother her too much. It was ridiculous. Besides, she shot Gregory only after he had tossed the amulet into the crater on purpose because she knew about the legend. That gave him a horse laugh. This beast still tried to fool him, and she got Veronica, who was usually rather mistrustful to believe all her crap. He would have liked to talk to Mikiel about it, but he was walking Cupid's path since that day and was on a date with Arvela. Damn it, if you needed somebody to talk to, nobody was there. Veronica had insisted he appeared in front of Giada's hotel room at 6:30 PM that day. He was supposed to knock on her door like some idiot and talk to her about everything. But he damn well didn't want to talk to that beast about anything, no, he was even scared of seeing her again. Scared, that he would believe all this bullshit she would no doubt tell him, just like Veronica. He told Veronica that it had to be a trap and that he didn't believe that she would leave her family just like that to explore new horizons. If she had to leave, why Malta, then? There was almost certainly a plan behind this. He did his best to make it clear to Veronica that there was nothing to talk about between Giada and him and even if she was Mother Teresa herself, he wouldn't have anything left to say to her. Unfortunately, Veronica was a very stubborn woman and didn't want to hear any of it. She thought that Giada needed the opportunity to tell him her version of the story. Apparently, he owed her that much. He buried his face in his hands. He didn't owe her shit, damn it. She had destroyed his faith in the female gender so much; he would probably never recover from it, at least not when it came to a relationship. At least now he knew that Giada was in fact on this darn island because he had seen her all over the place and questioned his sanity. He remembered the short haired blonde in the café when he had made a fool of himself and followed her. Still, Veronica wouldn't leave him in peace until he talked to her, he knew that from experience. If she put her mind to something, it was very difficult to convince her of something else. There was no way for him to avoid meeting Giada. He strolled morosely towards the hotel Giada lived in, and Veronica, unfortunately, worked at. She had surely put her informants on him, and they would report back to her the next morning about whether he appeared there or not. Damn it. But he wouldn’t be there on time, the least he could do was make the beast wait for him. He managed to fiddle about to get half an hour late to the Hotel Nettuno. When he arrived in front of Giada’s door with the number 222, he thought to himself that 666 would have been a better choice, but unfortunately, the hotel didn’t have enough floors or rooms for that. With a dark expression, he knocked on the door. Instead of a beaming, seducing Giada that stood in the doorway, there was a rumbling from inside the room, followed by a muffled voice; "Come in, the door is open. I hope you can help me clean up this mess real quick; I'm expecting a visitor that is already late. Maybe he won't come at all. Oh, and I hope you have dressing material with you, I've had a little accident and cut myself!" Keanu was baffled, what was that all about now? What trick was she pulling this time? He opened the door and hesitated with surprise. The blond girl that he had seen in the Costa Café was kneeling on the floor and was busy cleaning up shards of obviously shattered glasses with her fingers and disposing them in a trash can next to her on the floor. Her right hand was covered in blood that was dripping to the floor. She offered a pathetic image and Keanu almost started laughing; this situation was too good. She was wearing a summer dress with a black and white pattern that was apparently not by one of the expensive designers she usually appreciated. She looked so unbelievably young and almost inconspicuous with her short blonde hair and without her usual makeup. In any case, she didn't have much in common with the Giada he remembered vividly. He was contemplating if all this was a trick to get him to think she had changed. Giada could be given credit for anything; he knew that too well. At this moment, she looked up, and horror was written all over her face. After the initial shock that it was him and not a maid she had apparently been expecting, she got up, and her pale face turned red. She stuttered something about glasses she had knocked down looking completely unsteady. Keanu remained in the door as if glued to the spot; what the hell was going on here? There was no way this was Giada, maybe because after looking at her more closely, she undoubtedly looked like Giada.

Maybe blond and insecure but her face has followed him in his dreams for a long time, so he knew damn well what she looked like. Before one of them could say anything, the expected room service appeared with a cleaning cart. Giada apologized several times for her clumsiness even though the maid ensured her that she didn't have to worry about it. She wanted to replace the glasses, and the situation seemed to embarrass her a lot. The maid cleaned up the shards and handed Giada a disinfection spray and a big band-aid.

After she was patched up and the maid had left the room, after a curious glance at Keanu, they now stood in Giada's living area of the suite, and both of them were obviously out of words. Giada was the first to contain herself, she cleared her throat; "Please, sit down. I was going to prepare some refreshments, but sadly, I spilled everything. I could offer you some tea though. There is a water boiler in the kitchenette.” Keanu shrugged indefinitely and sat down on one of the couches. "Fine with me. But I'm warning you. I don't have a lot of time, and I only showed up because Veronica basically forced me to, so don’t get your hopes up that I forgave you or anything like that.”

Giada didn’t answer and operated the water boiler with jittery hands. She almost dropped the cup. Keanu jumped up and was able to avoid the worst just in time. The last thing he wanted was for this lunatic to burn herself. She passed by without a word and sat down on the couch. She tried to pull herself together but she just couldn't. She was a nervous wreck, and even though she promised Veronica to tell him her side of the story, she just wasn’t able to think straight. No, she was a mess, and she couldn’t tell Keanu her damn story, he could continue to hate her forever, for all she cared. She hated herself too anyway, so it didn’t matter. One person more or less, what did it matter? She took a deep breath and pulled herself together as best as she could, even though she felt like a wounded deer in front of a hunter on the inside. Keanu watched her transformation with surprise. The way she moved around on the couch, crossing her legs, adapting a confident posture and looking at him with her clear gray eyes. There she was again, the Giada he remembered. Wow, he thought, was it the real her just some moments ago and did she just put on the mask of the cold-hearted composed Giada, or was it the other way around? He didn't know, but he looked at her with fascination and waited for whatever she had to tell him. He had the feeling she had made up her mind and that a different kind of conversation than expected was awaiting him.

“First, I want to tell you that it wasn’t my idea to meet you here. I know there is nothing I could ever tell you that would make you think differently about me, after everything that has happened between us and after all the things that happened to you. Unfortunately, Veronica sees that completely different and I had to tell her my story after all because she had invited me, or rather forced me to come over for dinner. Veronica is a very stubborn lady and can’t be knocked off that easily.” Keanu listened with interest until now he couldn't complain about anything she had said. Giada got up and got the tea, she put the cups on the table; now entirely calm and collected. “You can probably imagine that I almost had a stroke when I saw Gregory and when your brother said that it was your birthday and you would show up shortly. I was rattled and could only think about leaving as soon as possible. I was relieved on one hand that the legend was true and that Gregory survived. He even looked a lot better than I remembered. He was beaming.” She took a sip of her tea and continued. “On the other hand, I could very well imagine how you would have reacted if you saw me at your house.” He looked at her through narrowed eyes, and she quickly added; “rightfully so, of course, after everything." Keanu watched her closely and was surprised to see that her confident façade had received another few fissures. He scrutinized her carefully and noticed that she was firstly not wearing any makeup and that her usually flawlessly manicured nails weren't painted and were cut short. Secondly, she had dark circles under her gray eyes, seemed worn-out and had gotten extremely thin. Where was the Giada with the sexy curves? All in all, she looked like a shadow of her former self.