Chapter 3 – Green-eyed Monster

When I arrived at Laurence’s he grabbed my elbow and dragged me to the kitchen.

“Why do you have Allegra’s favorite flask? What happened? Did you ask her out? Did you two kiss? Or did you..did you have sex?”

I chuckled “Calm down, man. Nothing happened, okay? She made some tea, I said I had to go so she put some in the flask. I didn’t even know that was her favorite flask…why did she tell me I could keep it?”

“Did she…did she really?” he asked shocked.

“Yes.” I answered confused. What was the big deal? It was a common normal flask. “Anyway, good Lord, man, relax. You fired me with questions that don’t make sense.”

“Yeah, yeah. You don’t like Allegra, do you?’” he spat sarcastically.

“Exactly.” I replied.

“So you weren’t undressing her with your eyes, right?” he smirked.

“Shit!” I mumbled avoiding his gaze “Okay, Laurence, she is hot, I admit that, but I don’t like her as in you like a potential girlfriend. Clear?”

He patted my back “You are going through the first stage.”

Was he crazy? “First stage of what?”

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out.” He smiled knowingly.

“Great” I threw him daggers before attempting to leave the kitchen.

“Wait.” He called after me.

I turned around “What?” I said in a rude manner.

“Jake is coming.”

I gritted my teeth as soon as I heard the name of that disgusting individual. I loathed the man.

“Come on, don’t be aggressive.”

“Why did you invite the bastard?” I growled .

“I didn’t invite him. He wants to pay a visit. Especially to you.”

“Well, I’m not staying.” I sipped the tea from the flask.

“You are. You think I’m gonna let you ruin your opportunity to win Allegra over?” he winked.

I simply rolled my eyes “Tell that jerk that he doesn’t want to talk to me if he still wants to see the sun rising tomorrow.”

He brushed me off “So you admit that you want to try to win her heart.”

“I never said so.” I said coldly.

“Whatever.” He just left me in the kitchen. Someone knocked the door but I couldn’t be bothered to go and get it. What if  it was Jake? Well…I was going to kill him.

It was because of him that I had to break up with Caterina, my long term girlfriend. After finishing my undergraduate degree I moved to Italy to study for my Master Degree. And that’s when I met her. I was wandering around, completely lost on the University grounds when I saw this amazing young woman with black curly hair and black eyes.  It was love at first sight. Or at least, it was for me. I had become spontaneous with her. I was living the moment, carpe diem, instead of over-analyzing everything.

Long story short, when Jake, my ex best friend came to visit me in Milan I introduced her to him. The last day of his visit I was supposed to pick him up from the hotel he was staying at. Because it was late and he wasn’t showing up I went to his room’s floor and opened it with my spare key for the room. Let’s way I was shocked when I saw my best friend (sorry for the language that is to come) fucking my girlfriend- soon to be fiancée into oblivion.

And the bitch had the audacity to blame it all on me saying that I was always away, I didn’t give her the attention she deserved. And I answered by telling her that she could have told me , so to discuss our problems instead of spreading her legs for my bastard of a best friend.

The break up left me heartbroken, devastated. I had thought I had found the one….and still after a year I was still feeling sick about all this matter.

The door opened and I heard the ‘voice’.

“Laurence, I gave my favorite flask to party-popper guy!”

He laughed  and closed the door behind her “He has a name, you know.”

“Whatever. How could I be so stupid?” I heard her say in a desperate voice. “I need that flask. You know how important it is to me.”

“Don’t worry, he will give it back.”

“Are you sure? The guy hates me. How can you tell me that he won’t give it back just to hurt me?” That is exactly why you should never listen to someone’s else conversations….they might hurt you.

Did she really think I was a jerk? Me? Hate her? Yes, she wasn’t exactly my best friend, but that didn’t mean I hated her. To be honest I didn’t even know what were my intensions with her.

“Trust me, he doesn’t hate you.” He said in his tone ‘I know it all’.

I felt bad, now, while holding her flask. Therefore I decided I needed to finish the tea, wash the flask and then give it back to her. But stupid me, didn’t remember that the tea was burning hot, so when I gulped the tea down I felt my mouth and throat burst into flames. I started yelling profanities while spitting the tea in the sink.

“Chris?” Laurence inquired curiously.

I tried to say ‘I’m okay’ but it sounded more like “Oy!!”

I opened the fridge, found some ice and threw in my mouth. Now that the flask was empty I washed it and rinsed it until it was perfectly clean. I left it in the kitchen.

I went in the living room where I found Allegra and Laurence sitting on the couch.

“Fitzwilliam…when are you finished with my flask can you please give it back to me?”

Of course I would give it back, but I wanted to tease her “Why? You suddenly want to share my germs, my cooties?”

She rolled her eyes “Really funny.” She sent me an hateful look. Her eyes stared at me, in a sort of stare contest. I felt my heart stop and then start beating as if I was running a marathon. I felt the blood rush to my face. I instantly dropped my eyes to the carpet beneath my feet in order to stop her from seeing that I was furiously blushing. I stood up abruptly, my eyes still cast downward “If you will excuse me.” I ran upstairs and walked past Giselle that stopped me.

“”Chris, are you okay? You are all red.” Giselle note, her voice was definitely worried.  “Do you need help?” she touched my forearm in a soothing manner “I can quickly check you—“  Did I ever tell you that Giselle is a doctor? No, I don’t think so.

“No, thanks. That won’t be necessary. I’ll just go to the bathroom and freshen up.”

“Okay.” She said hesitantly.

“Don’t worry, seriously.” I reassured her. I went to the bathroom and locked the door behind me. I opened the faucet and let the cold water run. I put my face under it and relaxed.

It had been a while before I decided I could go downstairs and join the others. Once I reached the stairs and I started descending them I hear Allegra’s laughter. What was she laughing about?

And then I heard his voice. Oh…the backstabbing bitch was there to entertain us with his stupid stories.

“Chris, hey, are you feeling better now?” Giselle asked when she saw me.

“Yes. Thanks for asking.”

“Chris…” Jake, the leech said with a sadden voice.

“Walter.” I said coldly.

“So now you are you calling me by my last name.” he said surprised.

I deliberately ignored him and decided to concentrate on my task. I took my laptop and started going through some work. However, my eyes were set on Allegra.

“Allegra, you are really beautiful, you know?” Jake suddenly said and took her hand in his.

“Thanks, Jake.” She smiled shyly at him.

“What do you think of me taking you out sometimes?” he asked and gave her his signature charming smile.

“Straight to the point, Jake?” she arched her eyebrows.

“Well yeah, carpe diem.” He grinned.

“I’ll let you know.” She smiled secretly.

A sense of anger possessed me immediately. Why was she acting this way? Suddenly all the smiles….I studied them, how they interacted with each other. They were clearly flirting and their actions left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. I wanted to scream and stop him from hitting on her. The thing that was even more exasperating was that she didn’t do anything to stop him!

Possessiveness….that was what I was feeling.

‘She’s mine!’ I was thinking. Wait what? How could I think that? She wasn’t mine to claim, mine to have.

I brutally got up with my laptop. I couldn’t assist to that awful show. “Bye guys, I’m going to bed.”

“Bye.” Everyone said.

“Chris, can I talk to you?” Jake asked smiling hesitantly.

“No.” I answered coldly.

“Chris, can I talk to you?” Laurence asked.

“Yes.” I gave in. What did he want again?

I went upstairs and Laurence followed me.

“Jealousy.” He simply stated “You are just denying that you are already developing feelings for her. Now it’s just attraction, lust, but it is also jealousy and then possessiveness. I know it will be almost impossible for you to go against your lust for her…and then after spending time with her you are so gonna be in love with her that you won’t be able to imagine how life would be without seeing her, listening to her voice, talking to her, seeing her smile, laugh. And you will be aching for a kiss, you will be aching for her to be yours.”

I looked at him shocked, overwhelmed by all he said.

“I’m not going to argue against what you said, Laurence. You believe in what you want to believe. I’m saying to you for the last time that I don’t like her and I don’t have feelings for her. Goodnight.” I convinced myself and turned around and left him there leaving for my room for the night.

His speech had left me unhappy. Was he saying the truth? I didn’t want to fall in love, and especially not with Allegra Carter.