Love Struck (13 page)

The sea flowed gracefully, the sound
of the ocean was like a soothing melody, the view of the tides rhythm was like
a perfectly choreographed dance, it served to wash away any apprehension,
clearing the body of any worries, relaxing the senses in a composed state.

It was what Gloria needed more than
anything else at her point in life. She sat on the soft sand, gazed deeply at
the wide open sea, the relaxing sounds and peaceful sight helped to ease her
anguish enough to get by. She could not forget or forgive what Paulo had done,
betraying her and throwing their relationship into the gutter for a fling, but
she could think straight with her head soothed, no longer spinning around like
a race track, dizzying her  and sending her in a flurry.

At the same time, Tommaso was
utilizing the same therapeutic remedy to ease his problems and sooth his spirits.
He strolled along the beach, a lonely figure in the setting sub, lost in his
deep thoughts, given a form of clarity with the gentle pacifying music of the
waves flowing in and out of the shore, crashing softly off the rocks.

“Oh, Sara.” he muttered to himself as
he stared out at the beautiful ocean outstretched before him, it was the kind
of experience reserved for two to get the most out of it, “How I wish you were
beside me.”

Not looking ahead, he was engrossed
in a fantasy of himself and his darling Sara taking a romantic, peaceful walk
at the beach, lit up in the warm and loving colours of the evening, gazing at
the sea tinted in the setting sun's coating, and there they would stop and
share their first kiss.

The romantic scene was abruptly interrupted.
Tommaso found himself being pulled out his fantasy and back to reality quite
literally as he tripped over what must have been a pair of feet. His image of
Sara so close to him was replaced with the sight of himself crashing face first
onto the sand.

“Oh, I'm so sorry.” apologized
Gloria, the stranger had accidentally tripped over her outstretched feet,
neither day dreamer had realized what had just took place until it was too late
to react.

She crawled up to see if the tall,
motionless man lying flat in the sand was fine. “Are you all right?” she asked
with much anxiousness.

The tall, over dressed man stirred,
she had triggered a reaction, he was perfectly all right. He sat up, looked at
the young girl crouched beside him. “I'm fine.”, he brushed the sand off his
suit jacket and trousers. “I should have been watching where I was going.”

She looked closely into the tall,
stranger's eyes. His troubles in paradise matched her own. He could see the
same turmoil in the young girl's eyes, they were kindred in that regard. “This
trip is turning into a bit of a mess.” he sighed.

Gloria looked at him sympathetically,
she could feel a similarity between them. “I know the feeling.”

“Would you care to have some
company?” Tommaso politely asked, he felt he could confide in a fellow
distressed soul, he had nothing else to do, he might as well drowned in his
sorrows with another in the same boat than drown alone.

“Sure.” Gloria accepted his
invitation, she was in the same boat, her feelings in sharing the same predicament
as a twosome rather than solo was mutual.

Tommaso and Gloria sat down, they
turned to face the mystifying ocean in the centre, admired its splendour and
grace together, washing away their pain a notch.

“I wish I could stay here all day,
stare at the sea forever.” the young girl said in a calm ardour. A soothing
serenity was consuming her and her unknown companion.

“Me too.” agreed the tall, sharply
dressed man. They were caught in a shared train of thoughts, riding on the
exact same wave length.

“No pain.”

“No complications.”

“No betrayal.”

“No troubles.”

“Just happiness.”

“Just simplicity.”

Their enthralled, mesmerized gazes
shifted from the sea to each other, they could not comprehend what was going
on, it was out of this world, the find of their century, they had stumbled
across their own twin spirit.

The resort was paying off for them,
giving them a taste of their own paradise to face their related troubles
together, they were graced with a soul mate.

“Hungry?” Tommaso asked his kindred
acquaintance, plotting on inviting her to dinner, he would have preferred to
eat with another rather than by himself.

“A little.” after the strenuous
excursion she had been through, it had skipped her mind that she had a bit of
an appetite earlier on, despite her lack of an urgency to want to eat, she
could not turn down a meal.

“Would you like to have dinner with
me? I set up reservations.” he kindly offered.

Gloria thought about it for a moment,
she did not have a problem with eating with her tall, kind hearted stranger, it
was more attractive to her than eating out alone. “Sure, why not? It could be
some fun.”

Tommaso smiled pleasantly, it would
do them both some good, to enjoy a fine dinner, partake in a conversation and
then call it a day, it sounded more appealing than sitting in his hotel room,
pining for a lost love and wallowing in his own self pity for losing her.

Tommaso took Gloria to a high-class
restaurant, the swankiest joint in the entire resort, it served only the most
excellent cuisine and offered only satisfaction with their top notch service to
their respectful customers.

He had booked a table in advance for
Sara and himself before arriving, believing they would be seeing the island and
all its sights together, and then eat out at the reserved table on their first
night.

As often was the case, one could be
an expert planner and arrange everything accordingly to the book, but when it
came for the plan to be executed, nothing ever turned out how one envisioned
it, there were always cracks to form in the well presented arrangement, as
Tommaso had seen for himself. He had never foresaw his beloved Sara falling for
someone else during the trip, putting a massive dent to his planned evening for
her.

Even though his efforts of presenting
Sara a five-star dinner for two had sunk without a trace into the depths of his
own disappointment, he had spent money on the finest restaurant in the world,
he might as well not let the reservation be squandered. He would be eating in
her name, Sara would be with him in spirit while her body was occupied with
another.

“Talk about classy.” gasped Gloria,
she had never seen a more extravagant establishment reserved for consuming
food.

“It's the classiest.” Tommaso could
attest to that, he examined it extensively before choosing it over all the
others. He picked only the definitive best.

Gloria had only seen the outside,
when brought into the restaurant, she was triply amazed at how prestigious the
building really was, she could not help feeling like a pauper among all the
princes and princesses. “Do you think I'm a little under dressed for a place
like this?”

“You look presentable.” Tommaso said,
quickly observing her, she may not have been dressed in a fancy garment like
the rest, but she would pass through, he would see to that.

Tommaso and Gloria waited in the
queue, there were plenty of flamboyant and eccentric well-to-do patrons in
front of them, they kept to themselves minus a few glances at the common,
casual young lady.

Had it not been for her presentable
accomplice, she would have been shown to the door by a high strung, snooty
member of staff and forced to go to an establishment more in line to her more
ordinary social class, denied service in their house of societal classed
ignorance among the same species as herself, divided only by their misguided
delusion of grandeur due to the amount of money in their bank accounts.

“I wanted to take Sara to this place
but she has...” he grimaced, he could not say what, it caused him too much
grief “prior engagements.””

“Sara?” that name rang a bell she was
all to familiar with.

“She's a... friend of mine.” that was
about all he could say about her, she could have been more, had it not been for
his worst enemy getting in the way: himself.

The line moved forward. Gloria looked
to him, intrigued to know more. The day was shaping into a series of very
unusual events all linked to a definite Sara. “This Sara, it wouldn't happen to
be a certain Sara Sarracini?”

Tommaso shot her a bemused look, how
did she know of Sara Sarracini.

“Her prior engagement wouldn't happen
to be having a strapping young man giving her a tour?”

He stared at her with a flabbergasted
expression, it was an uncanny coincidence. Did the young girl even exist, was
she a figment of his imagination to subdue his unbridled woefulness “How do you
know?”

“The young man she's with, he is...”
she paused, it would take some getting used to knowing she had loved and lost
“I mean, was... my boyfriend.”

The line moved forward again. There
was only one couple to be seated before them.

“I'm so sorry.” he said, giving her
his sincere, sympathetic condolences, they had a lot more in common than first
let on. They both had their lives devastated by the exact same charming young
man.

“Don't be.” she said “It's just one
of those things.”

A bitter silence loomed between the
two lost lovers, torn from their reasons to love.

“I guess we have something in
common.” Tommaso faked a laugh, trying to lighten the mood and see the funny
side to it “We're both having problems with matters of the heart.”

“Yeah. We make quite a pair.” she
faked her laughter too, trying in the same vain attempt to lift the atmosphere
from their shoulders and find some humour in their irony.

Served at the counter, despite some
disapproving looks and sneers from the staff and customers, they were brought
to the private dining room he had ordered for Sara and himself to enjoy a nice,
quiet meal together with some privacy, just the two of them without any
interruptions from fans, and there he would have gathered the courage to
declare his feeling affections towards her and proclaim his love for her.

That would not be taking place in the
private, enclosed room with his new companion.

He found her to be a kindred spirit
and nice company to be around with and nothing more, Tommaso was positive her
feelings were on a similar nature towards him.

Brought inside the elegant and
luxurious private room. Gloria and Tommaso were seated to the table by their
refined and snobbish waiter who handed them both a menu with some xenophobia
aimed at the restaurant's first and he hoped only common guest. The day was
full of surprises for everyone at the resort, uncharacteristic from the rest
since the arrival of the illustrious superstar.

“For starters, the soup of today is
tomato.” the Refined Waiter told them, his voice full of broad snobbery and
high self-importance.

“Sounds nice, we'll have that.”
answered Tommaso with a directness, he didn't mind what he had, it would all
taste the same without his dearest Sara to enrich the flavour.

“Very good, sir.” the Refined Waiter
commented as he wrote it down. “And for the main course?” he asked as he
finished noting it on his pad. He looked back at them, the oddest couple he had
ever seen in all his years of servicing the highest the upper class had to
offer.

“I'll have the s
almon
and roasted veg in lobster cream sauce with

a side
of Mediterranean oven
roasted vegetables.” Tommaso
requested the first thing he spotted on the exuberant list of cuisine imprinted
on the fancy menu.

The
Refined Waiter wrote it down, the gentleman had an exquisite taste in food,
well suited for this kind of restaurant that dealt in exquisiteness. “Excellent
choice, sir.” he complimented the tall, suave gentleman.

Next
came the hardest thing the waiter ever had to do, serve a commoner. He forced
himself to look at Gloria, “And you, young lady?” he asked with much
reluctance.

Gloria
stared at the vast selection of gourmet meals in bemusement, she had never
heard of any of them, she had no clue what they were. “I'm still deciding.”

It was
fine with him, the Refined Waiter looked back to someone much farer up his
alley, Tommaso. “And what would you have to drink, sir?”

“I'm
in the mood for something sweet, so I would like a bottle
of
your Tempranillo Rosado.” Tommaso replied swiftly, he needed some form of
sweetness to take away the sour bitterness clouded around him.

“A
very good choice, sir.” the Refined Waiter said writing it down, he was
impressed with his suave customer's selection, his taste was faultless.

The
Refined Waiter looked back to Gloria, “Have you decided, young lady?” he asked,
less than enthused.

Gloria
could not make up her mind, it was like reading a menu written in another
language, she could not make heads or tails out of it. “Not yet.”

If she
didn't order at all, that would have suited him fine. The Refined Waiter looked
back to Tommaso, “And what do you want for dessert, sir?”

“I
would like a slice from your
delicious Chocolate
Ganache.” Tommaso requested decisively.

“A perfect
choice, sir.” The Refined Waiter noted it down, the suave gentleman knew
quality when he saw it, just the way the waiter liked it.

With
the gentleman's order written out, he had no distraction to hold it off, he had
to serve the commoner's order, if she ever made up her mind and worked out the
menu that was out of her league.

The
Refined Waiter looked snobbishly to Gloria, he wanted to get it over with
quickly. “Now, young lady, what would you like to order?”

Gloria
blankly looked to the waiter, and shrugged in bewilderment,  “I'll have what
he's having.”

The
Refined Waiter's composure faltered, he should have guessed she would have no
cultivated taste of her own. He quickly picked it back up, “Very good, young
lady.”

The
Refined Waiter wrote an 'x2' by the order. “Your dinner will arrive shortly.”,
and with that he left the two contrasting opposites to themselves. What they
saw in one another, only they knew.