All I Believe (3 page)

I stepped back quickly and grabbed my glasses, pushing them in place as a delivery truck bounced and rattled into the square. The boy stepped back too, blushing shyly. When he looked at me, I said softly, “They’re green. I’d wondered what color your eyes were.”

“Yours look like a wildfire, seen through a bottle of Coke. I knew they weren’t mud-colored.”

I chuckled at that description. We stood there awkwardly for a few moments, and then I murmured, “I have to go. My family’s probably awake by now and they’ll wonder where I am.”

“Not yet. Just five more minutes, please?”

“I really should get back.”

He grinned mischievously and took my hand. “You can’t go yet. You haven’t said goodbye properly.”

“Goodbye. It was great meeting you.”

“Not to me. To them,” he said, tilting his head toward the fountain.

I burst out laughing when he jumped into the water and started to drag me in with him. As I exclaimed, “What are you doing? We’re going to get in trouble,” I leaned back and dug my heels in.

“Totally worth it. Come say goodbye to the celestial rodeo.”

“It does look like a rodeo! I can’t believe I never saw that before!” He scooped me up in his arms, carried me into the fountain and put me down beside one of the horses while I flailed and protested. “Oh my God, the water’s freezing!” I shouted as it soaked into my pajama pants.

“You’ll get used to it after a minute,” he said. “Now tell me, what’s this horse’s name?”

I forgot the cold and looked up at the bucking bronco. “Zeke.”

The boy burst out laughing. “Why Zeke?”

“I dunno. Seemed like a rodeo name. The other two are Clem and Billy Joe Bob.”

“You’ve never been to a rodeo, have you?”

“Hell no. Have you?”

“I’ve been to a bullfight,” he said. “It’s kind of similar.”

“It’s not at all!” While we debated the parallels between bullfighting and rodeos, I waded around the fountain to each of the three huge horses and gave them a hug. I then splashed over to the side of the fountain and crawled over the wide ledge. When I looked back at my companion, he was leaning against one of the horses with his arm around its hind leg. I grinned and said, “Aren’t you coming out?”

“In a minute.”

“I really have to go. I don’t want my mom to worry if she wakes up and sees I’m not there.”

“I know.”

I hesitated and said, “I hate to say goodbye.”

“This isn’t goodbye, it’s just so long for now. I don’t know when or where, but I’ll see you again someday, Clark.”

“I hope you’re right.”

He smiled at me and said, “Oh, I am. I’m always right about everything. You and I are meant to be, I’m sure of it.”

“Think so?”

He nodded. “Absolutely. Who else besides Bruce Wayne would be good enough for Clark Kent?”

“What are you doing?”

I jumped a bit as my eyes flew open. Jessie was standing right beside me, dressed in flip flops and green pajamas with a repeating pattern of cartoon T-rexes all over them. I blurted, “Nothing.”

He sat on the edge of the fountain and said, “I saw you from my balcony when I got up to let in some fresh air. You okay, Nico? You looked like you were a million miles away.”

“I was just remembering my first kiss. It happened right here, when I was fourteen.”

“That’s awesome. Who was the guy?”

I shrugged and said, “I never knew his name. We met here, talked for a few minutes, and he kissed me. Then I went back to my family and never saw him again.”

“Looks like you never forgot him, either.”

I shook my head. “One conversation and a kiss, and he made himself totally unforgettable.”

“He must have really been something.”

I said, “Have you ever met someone who felt totally right from the very beginning? That’s how he felt.”

“I never have. I’d love to find that.”

“You will.”

“I need to go back to bed now that I know you’re alright,” he said. “This jetlag’s kicking my ass.” I got up, held my hand out to Jessie and pulled him to his feet. Dawn was breaking, and a couple delivery trucks rattled into the square.

Once we were back in the hotel, I returned to my balcony for a few minutes and watched the piazza slowly wake up. The baker slid racks of fresh bread into a delivery van, while another man unloaded produce from the back of an old, blue pickup at the farmer’s market. A woman came outside and began sweeping in front of her restaurant, and a tall man in a dark suit left the hotel and crossed the plaza. He reached the café just as the lights came on inside, went into the building and came out a couple minutes later with a white paper cup in his hand. I expected him to hurry off to work, but instead, he stood beside the fountain and watched it while he drank his coffee. Right before he finally turned and walked away, I could have sworn he said goodbye to the statues in the fountain’s center. That made me happy. It was nice to know I wasn’t the only crazy person out there.

*****

I managed to fall back asleep for a few more hours. When I awoke a second time, I was lucid enough to be disgusted by the fact that I still smelled like bacon. I stripped myself completely, leaving my only outfit on the bed, and went into my bathroom to take a very long shower.

As I stood under the warm water and scrubbed myself with a washcloth, the bathroom door burst open and my grandmother yelled, “Are you alone in there, Nico?”

I covered my genitals with the washcloth, just in case she decided to throw back the shower curtain, and said, “Of course.” When would I have had time to pick someone up?

“I’m going to take Jessie sightseeing. You want to come along?”

“No thanks. I’m still pretty tired and think I’m going to take it easy today.”

“Alright, Nicky. Don’t spend all your time studying though, you hear? You’re on vacation, remember that!”

“I’d actually like to go for a swim since I’m stiff from that long plane ride. My luggage hasn’t shown up yet, has it?” I called over the running water.

“Not yet, but don’t you worry about that,” Nana said. “Jessie and I went out and did some shopping for you. I know you like to swim so I bought you a bathing suit, along with a couple outfits.”

“Thanks, but you didn’t have to do that, Nana.” Knowing my grandmother, I could only imagine what she’d picked out for me.

“I know, but it was fun. I’ll drop your lubed-up stuff at the cleaners, we’ll be going right by there. Have a good day, Nicky, and remember: no studying!”

“Nana, wait,” I called after her, but she’d already shut the door. I quickly rinsed the shampoo from my hair, then turned off the shower and hopped out. As soon as I wrapped a towel around my hips, I went after her, but she was long gone. I returned to my bedroom, a sense of doom building as I shook the contents of two shopping bags onto my mattress. “Holy crap,” I muttered.

It was all so much worse than I’d imagined. Everything was tight, shiny, sheer, made of leather, or some combination of those elements. I picked up a scrap of fabric and stared in horror at the tiny, lime green Speedo. “Oh my God, seriously?” I said out loud. The only pair of pants were black leather. There were a couple tiny pairs of white shorts, too, which Nana must have found in the missy petite section, and a few stretchy t-shirts that looked like they’d fit a child. I was surprised when I read the label and learned they were actually the European equivalent of my size. Apparently they were intended to look painted on.

Since Nana had taken my only outfit with her and I had no other alternatives, I was stuck with the Italian Gigolo collection. I picked up a pair of underwear and actually blushed. My grandmother had bought me sheer, tiny, black briefs. Wow, no. I rejected them in favor of an equally tiny red pair, which at least were opaque, and shimmied into them. I then tore the tag from a black t-shirt and stuffed myself into it. The shirt fit like a sausage casing. I debated between the leather pants and the short-shorts, and finally settled on the pants so my butt wouldn’t be on full display. “I stand corrected,” I murmured when I finally got the tight pants on and pivoted to look at myself from all angles in the full-length mirror. I then searched for my shoes, which turned out to be under the bed. Reaching them was super awkward since I couldn’t really bend my legs, and I ended up flinging myself on the floor and sort of rolling after them. It took me another couple minutes to stand up again.

I looked in the mirror once more and raised an eyebrow at my reflection. I didn’t think it was possible to look any less like myself. I finger-combed my damp hair, then searched for my wallet so I could go and buy myself something more modest. But I soon realized my wallet had been in my pants pocket, and it had been whisked away with everything else.

I tried to call both Nana and Jessie. Their phones went straight to voicemail, so I left messages asking them to bring back my wallet. Fortunately, I had a few euro in my backpack and was in desperate need of coffee, so I resigned myself to being seen in public in that outfit. After I took out a few things I wouldn’t be needing, I slung the pack over my shoulder. It actually required a bit of effort to work my thin, plastic room key into the pocket of those incredibly tight pants.

The leather made noise when I walked, something like
reek, reek, reek
. As if it wasn’t bad enough that I was stiff-legged and walking a bit like a robot. The sound was so loud that people in the lobby turned to look at me. All I could do was hold my head up and own it, even though I was mortified.

I left the hotel, crossed the plaza, and bought myself a cappuccino at the café, reducing my current net worth by fifty percent. Since it was a beautiful day, I decided to sit outside. A dozen little metal tables were arranged beneath a wooden pergola, and I settled in at the one closest to the fountain with my legs sticking straight out.

Even though I’d told my grandmother I wasn’t going to study, I decided to sneak in a little research to get a jump on a term project for the following semester and fired up my laptop. It was challenging to focus on the dry legal document on my screen, and I kept glancing up at the activity in the town square. Tourists meandered around and posed for pictures at the fountain while locals went about their business. A couple dogs were wandering through the piazza, and soon a few more joined them. While it was common to see dogs off-leash in Viladembursa, it started to seem like they were forming a pack. Some were probably strays, but the rest looked like pets. I spotted a big poodle and a dachshund in the mix.

I soon became aware of a strong smell in the air. Apparently someone was cooking bacon, and lots of it. I glanced around but couldn’t spot the source of the aroma, so I went back to trying to concentrate on my computer screen.

That lasted about three seconds before an incredibly good-looking guy caught my eye. He was absolutely flawless, from the dark, expensive suit that had obviously been custom-made to hug every inch of his tall, muscular body, to his thick, black hair and sexy five o’clock shadow. Mercy.

He was reading something on his phone, so he didn’t notice me staring. After a moment, I realized he was the same man who’d stood at the fountain early that morning, potentially speaking to the statues. That made me grin. He walked right past me on his way into the café, without glancing up from his phone. I pivoted in my seat and took in the rear-view, just because it was too tempting not to. When I swung back around, I caught the disapproving glare of a woman at the next table. I frowned and turned my attention back to the computer screen.

The bacon scent was stronger than ever. I leaned in and sniffed my laptop, and suddenly realized that was the source of the smell. When I picked it up and tilted it to look underneath, a stream of lube drizzled onto my pants. Apparently a fair amount had gotten into the vents on the bottom of the computer, and as the PC heated up, it both intensified the odor and liquefied the lubricant.

I was startled when a little brown dog jumped up on his hind legs and put his front paws on my knee. “Hi there, puppy. You need to get down,” I told him, gently trying to lift him off me.

In the next instant, I was swarmed by about a dozen dogs. I yelped and leapt up, grabbing my computer and backpack and trying to hold them over my head, out of dog range. All of them were way too interested in my bacon-scented leather pants. The big poodle grabbed my pant leg and started tugging, and I shoved my laptop into my backpack and slung it over my shoulder to free up my hands. I tried to pull the poodle off me by his collar, but that didn’t deter him in the slightest. “No! Down! Sit!” I yelled as the dogs almost knocked me over. It didn’t help.

In a moment of panic, I scrambled awkwardly onto the table. The larger animals could still reach me easily, including the white poodle, and two dogs grabbed my cuffs with their teeth and started to tug, as if I was a wishbone. “No! Bad dog,” I yelled. That, of course, did absolutely nothing.

I grabbed the edge of the pergola and tried to hoist myself up, but the dogs were determined to pull me back down so they could eat my pants. Both my loafers fell off at about the same time, and immediately became doggie chew toys. I hung from the pergola with one hand, and used my other to unbutton the pants and pull down the zipper. As soon as I did that, the poodle and his cohort shucked the pants right off me.