Last Love
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was looking for the washroom,” I said, pulling the door back.
“Don’t worry, you can use the one here,” a hoarse voice responded.
A chaotic room welcomed me. In sharp contrast to the rest of the dainty, well-kept house, this room was gloomy with one large bed in the middle. A boy was lying on it, a laptop on his face.
“This is your room, huh?” I ventured.
He looked up at me but didn’t say a word. I decided I’d accept his challenge and stared back.
“Hi, I’m Glenn. Nice to meet you, too,” he ignored my question.
“Glenn Romano,” I said without thinking.
I immediately knew who he was. The Romano name was ill-famed. The rumor was that the family was part of some mafia.
“What do you want?” He spat.
“Just to use the washroom. What are you watching?” I asked in a tentative voice.
“Ciro’s Tale.” He said shortly.
“Who?”
“Don’t tell me you’ve never watched it.” He sounded surprised.
“What is it about?” I walked towards the bed.
“Ciro,” he smiled.
“Oh? I could’ve never guessed.” I sat down next to him.
“Okay, so this guy Ciro meets Karina- they’re on this yacht in Venice. It’s love at first sight kind of thing, but Ciro doesn’t know Karina is married, and she doesn’t know he’s a drug lord. They part ways because he feels it’s too risky to be with her and they never see each other again until- “
“Until what?” I urged.
“Well, that’s for you to find out, isn’t it?” He smirked.
We spoke the entire night like we knew each other our whole lives.
Three months went by, and we never met each other.
“Whatcha thinking about?” Mason walked over to me with my cup of coffee.
“Just a movie I watched,” I smiled.
“Cool. Remember, party at Ben’s house today, babe,” he said as he poured his cereal.
I left for Polly’s house to get ready there.
“Is everyone ready? We had to be there 30 minutes ago.” Polly yelled from her kitchen.
“Relax, Polly. We’re coming,” I responded.
The house was already swarming with people when we reached. I was getting Mason another drink as he’d asked, and that’s when I saw him. He was at the door with a tall girl who walked briskly in his arms, flaunting an extremely low V-neck dress. He passed by me with no acknowledgment. I was too overwhelmed to even follow him. After a few seconds, I walked up to one of the rooms to find some quiet.
“We need to stop meeting like this,” Glenn said calmly.
“Why are you here? This isn’t even your room.” I was annoyed.
“I thought I’d see you at some point,” he shrugged.
“You’ve seen me. I’ll just find another room.” I knew he didn’t owe anything to me, but I couldn’t help but feel betrayed.
“Mia. Wait,” he was serious this time.
“Where’s your girl?” I asked.
“She’s not…listen, I came back here to talk to you,” he said softly.
“After three months, you came to say hi. That’s nice.” I said, laughing.
“You don’t understand. It’s my dad. He doesn’t want me with anyone. You don’t know the lengths he’d go to if people don’t obey him,” he seemed sincere.
“Seriously, you don’t owe me anything. We only spoke for a night,” my voice broke.
“I know you have no reason to believe me, but you need to come with me,” he pleaded.
“Where?” I had never been more confused.
“Anywhere. J-Just, trust me. We have to get out of here,” he dragged me, and I followed.
“Where do you think you’re going, Mia? And who the hell is that?” Mason seemed drunk.
“I’ll explain later,” I replied, rushing out the door.
We drove for a couple of minutes, and sharp headlights followed. Another vehicle went past and stopped ahead, trapping us.
“Step out of that car, son,” the figure of a man shouted as he got out of the car.
“Stay here.” Glenn looked at me.
Another car pulled up beside me, with Mason in it.
“What are you- you need to go back now, Mace,” I said under my breath. But I had other things to worry about because I heard a gunshot.
The cars began speeding away, leaving the idle body on the road.
“Glenn!” my vision was blurred through the tears.
I knelt beside him. “It’s going to be fine.”
“I…wish we got to spend more time,” he struggled.
“We still can. Nothing’s going to happen.” I smiled.
“Did you ever finish that movie?” He asked.
I shook my head.
“This is how it ended for them,” he said as he closed his eyes.
