A Twist in My Story

It took Joe and Luciana over a day to get to Madrid, the city they had both been interested in visiting. They took a boat from England to Santander, Spain (which took them a day) and then waited two hours for the train to Madrid, which took them another seven hours. Joe had gotten sea-sick within a few hours of them being on the ferry, forcing him to stay confined in his small cabin for the majority of the day, sleeping off his nausea. Luciana took the opportunity to spend time to herself, having been traveling a week with Joe already. She checked up on him occasionally, but most of the time he was fast asleep, a bucket at his bed side just in case. When they docked in Spain, they sat at a small restaurant to eat lunch. It was the first time Joe was eating real food in a day thanks to his nausea, but now that they were off the boat he was feeling better…and ravenous.

The entire menu was in Spanish with small, subscript descriptions of the dishes in English. When the waiter came around, his eyes easily appraising Joe’s female companion, Luciana instantly prattled off her order in Spanish—had Joe known any better, he would have thought her a Spaniard. That didn’t mean he wasn’t impressed, however. The waiter’s flirtatious smile showed he was equally as impressed, but when he turned to Joe, that smile faded. Joe tried his best to pronounce the dishes with foreign names, his cheeks flushing a light crimson color when Luciana giggled at him butchering the elegant Spanish names. “Would you like me to order for you?” Luciana asked just to spare him. Joe was inexplicably embarrassed but nodded meekly as he pointed to the dishes he wanted to order. After she gave the waiter his order and handed their menus back to him, she turned to Joe with a smile. “I take it you didn’t study Spanish?” she asked, her smile making her accent all the more attractive.

Joe cleared his throat, hoping his blush had subsided as he composed himself. “No, surprisingly enough I wasn’t interested in studying Spanish. I only studied French and German,” he replied. “The only Spanish words I know are ‘hola’ and ‘si’,” he added.

Luciana chuckled at his response. The remainder of the meal was spent talking about all the languages they knew—aside from Italian, English, and Spanish, Luciana also spoke French, Greek, and was trying to learn some Russian, though she complained it was an extremely difficult language to learn. Joe knew that most Europeans knew many more languages—seeing as how the school systems here required students learn languages at an early age—but six languages…Luciana continued to surprise him.

After lunch they headed to the train station that was close to the ferry dock and waited a few more minutes before boarding their train. These trains didn’t have cabins like the ones in England but rather seats of two that faced each other. She had been less restrained during lunch but being back in a confined space where she couldn’t easily make a run for it had Luciana on edge, watching every person that walked by them—dreading what would happen if she saw a familiar face. Joe watched her carefully as her eyes shifted every time someone walked by. He was extremely curious as to why she was so paranoid, but decided bringing it up again wouldn’t do him any good. So he tried distracting her.

“I’m really glad you’re accompanying me for more of my trip,” he stated, successfully turning her attention to him.

Luciana blinked a few times, allowing his words to register. For the first time she realized that she was accompanying him on more of his journey than she had initially agreed to. If she were being honest with herself though, she enjoyed spending time with Joe and since he planned to visit many different countries, it gave her an excuse to not stay in one place for too long. It made it harder for them to find her that way…

She smiled ruefully at him. “I’ve been enjoying myself. And I’d be happy to travel to as many countries with you as you’d like.”

“How does all of them sound?” he asked eagerly.

Luciana let out a light laugh. “Sounds nice,” she replied, earning a broad smile from Joe. Somehow she was more relaxed and even managed to fall asleep, her head resting against the window. Joe had done enough sleeping on the ferry so instead he watched the Spanish scenery as they rode along. Or pretended to at least—his eyes kept moving a few centimeters over to Luciana’s face and he studied her, all the questions he wanted answered building in his mind. After about an hour of watching Luciana and the scenery, his eyelids fluttered closed and he too took a short nap. He wasn’t sure how long he slept for but when his eyes fluttered open, he found Luciana was already awake and was focusing intently on the drawing pad he had given her back in England. She was a few pages in (he assumed she had done a lot of drawing while he was sick on the ferry) and her tongue was poking out as she glided her pencil across the page. He watched her for a moment before her eyes came back up. Her brown eyes crashed with his own brown orbs as she stopped all movements. Her intense look faded and her tongue slipped back into her mouth, her lips stretching in a soft smile.

“Sleep well?” she asked, flipping the pages back and closing her book. Joe felt a bit sad she had stopped on his account.

“Yea. You’d think I’d be tired of sleeping after doing it for almost a whole day,” he joked, straightening up in his seat. “You shouldn’t have stopped drawing on my account,” he stated.

Luciana ran her hand over the cover of the book and shook her head. “It’s okay, I was finished anyways. I was just doing some shadowing and such,” she responded.

“Oh, okay,” Joe replied for lack of a better response. Luciana put the pad away with the rest of her things and sat with her chin propped on her closed fist, staring out the window. Joe bit his lip as silence settled amongst them and decided to pull out his map of Europe along with the European traveler’s guide he had bought at Heathrow airport with dozens of attraction sights listed in various European cities. “So I was thinking, since you’re joining me for the rest of my adventure, we should plan out the order of the countries we’re going to visit; maybe even pick out a few places to see,” he suggested, bringing the map down to his lap.

He looked up and found Luciana’s head was tilted towards him, her eyebrows raised. “Sounds good,” she replied, leaning in closer to him so that they could plan the trip they were now officially taking together. In the end they planned to circle around Europe and end in Italy.

Stepping off the train in Madrid, Joe was immediately captivated by the beauty of the city. His eyes were trying to capture every sight he saw from the people bustling around to the building’s architecture. “Joe, keep up,” Luciana said, her long, lean legs keeping up with everyone else’s fast pace whereas Joe was looking around the street at all the buildings shining with the setting sun. Focusing on Luciana, Joe took three large steps before he was at her side. By the time they arrived at the hostel he had looked up using the bed-and-breakfasts Wi-Fi, it was late and he was hungry.

“Where are we?” Luciana asked as they stopped in front of the hostel that had been a short taxi ride from the main station.

“Cat’s Hostel,” Joe replied. He took a step towards the door but soon realized Luciana wasn’t following him. He turned and saw her rooted to the spot, staring at the two story building with a scared expression on her face. “You coming?” he asked, choosing to ignore the scared look.

“A hostel?” she questioned, her eyes still looking at the building hiding in the shadows of the almost descended sun. “Like where we share rooms and bathrooms with people?” she asked. Never in her life had she ever stayed in a hostel—she never had reason to. When she traveled she stayed in hotels or bed-and-breakfasts, though that was pushing it—Luciana Bianchi never in her life shared a room. She had heard the horror stories about hostels however and was none too pleased that this is the place where Joe had made arrangements for them to sleep.

“I thought you traveled all the time. Haven’t you ever stayed in one of these before?” he asked, stepping back to stand next to her.

She finally moved her eyes from the building to him and shook her head. “I usually only stay in hotels,” she responded. “I’d much rather we go to one right now. I am not comfortable sharing a room with ten strangers,” she said, her tone firm.

Joe released a sigh—he had taken into consideration she was paranoid when it came to strangers, but he hadn’t expected her to be so difficult. “I figured you wouldn’t be, which is why I arranged for us to have a private bedroom,” he responded. He had done a lot of research and found this was one of the few hostels in the center of the city that offered private bedrooms—it was an obvious choice.

Luciana’s wide eyes turned on him. “How is that any better?!” she balked.

“Relax, there are separate beds, but it’s better than sharing with ten other people,” he assured.

Luciana looked back at the building for a moment before shaking her head. “I refuse,” she said folding her arms across her chest. “I want to stay in a proper hotel.”

Joe groaned and threw his head back. “Luce, I can’t afford to stay in ritzy hotels all the time. My plan was to sleep in hostels during my trip,” he said just as firmly as her.

“Fine, then I’ll stay in a hotel and you can stay here,” she replied, grabbing her bag and turning to continue down the street.

Joe took one large step and stopped in front of her. “I’d rather we stay together,” he stated, the gentleman side of him refusing to let her go off by herself.

“Then come with me,” she stated defiantly.

“I can’t!”

They were at a stand-still. Neither person was going to be letting up their side of the argument. Luciana absolutely refused to sleep in a hostel and Joe couldn’t afford to spend all his cash on hotel rooms—he needed to get back home eventually! Both stared the other down until Joe released a sigh in resignation. If the lady wanted to stay in a hotel then he couldn’t stop her, but he really couldn’t afford to. He momentarily wondered how she managed to pay for all her accommodations—was her family wealthy? He tucked that question away along with all the others he had before stepping back, his hands held up in the universal sign of surrender.

“Fine, if you don’t want to stay here then I can’t make you. I’ll at least walk you to a hotel so I know where you are and how to contact you,” he compromised. “I’ll see if they can reimburse me for the other bed we won’t be needing,” he added, hoping his tone wasn’t too annoyed—he never liked dealing with women when they were being difficult and stubborn, qualities most women, in his opinion, seemed to possess.

Luciana sighed as well, knowing she was being rude and a stuck up princess. Princess…she hated being called that yet she was acting like one. Releasing yet another sigh she looked back at the building, already regretting her next words. “No, never mind. I will stay here. You already made the arrangements. And it’s a private room—no strangers,” she said, trying to reassure herself more than anything.

Joe was taken aback that she conceded. “Are you sure?” he questioned. She nodded. Before Joe could suggest they step inside, he saw Luciana stiffen and her eyes widened, searching in the shadows of the alleys behind him.

Luciana’s heart rate sped up when she saw a figure move in the darkness in the alley separating the hostel from the building next to it. It wasn’t so much the shadow itself but the face she thought she recognized when the street light cast a glow on the figure.

It couldn’t possibly be them. She had been extremely careful and made sure they didn’t track her. How did they find her?

“Let’s get inside,” she said hastily, hoping Joe didn’t notice the strained tone in her voice. Luciana grabbed her bag a little tighter before stepping through the door Joe held open for her, praying that her eyes were just playing tricks on her. She followed him to a small desk that served as the reception area and stood beside him, looking over her shoulder every few seconds, hoping no one she recognized stepped into the establishment. She tried to distract herself, silently admiring the décor of the lobby while Joe checked them in. She was somewhat surprised—it actually looked nice. She looked around once more, grateful that no one had barged in and demanded she go with them. Perhaps her eyes had been playing tricks on her.

Once Joe had a key card for each of them, he walked towards the stairs and to the upper floor where the rooms were. Once they found their room, Joe slid the key card in its slot and opened the door, sticking his hand out to the wall and looking for the light switch before allowing Luciana to enter before him. Her eyes scanned the small space—it was nothing like what she was used to. There were two twin size beds against the wall on the left side of the room, each bed close to the other two walls with only a nightstand separating them. The door was relatively close to the last wall of the room, opposite the beds, meaning there was barely any room for their bags at the foot of their beds. There were two doors against that last wall—one for their small private bathroom and the second for a hole-in-the-wall closet. Luciana took a deep breath as she took in the space, wondering how she would manage being in such close proximities to Joe for the two or three days they’d be in Spain.

“Well, it’s quaint,” Joe stated, throwing his duffel bag on the bed closest to the door. Luciana sat on the edge of the bed by the window, glad Joe had left that one for her seeing as how she knew she’d be feeling claustrophobic and being near the window would help. She looked around once more. “So, I was thinking we freshen up a bit and then go grab some dinner. I’m famished,” Joe stated. Luciana looked at him and nodded—anything to get out of that small room. “Cool, well you can freshen up first,” he offered, lying down on the bed. Luciana grabbed a few toiletries and a fresh shirt before going into the bathroom and doing as much as possible in the tight confines to freshen up from her day and a half of traveling. When she came out Joe was already waiting for his turn. Once he was finished, they gathered their room keys and wallets and headed out into the beautiful Madrid night.

They walked in silence down the dimly lit streets until they reached one of the main roads in close proximity to the hostel. They walked down the lit street, contemplating what they were in the mood for. “I heard tapas are a must. I want to try one of those. Where do you think they sell them?” Joe asked, a bit of excitement in his voice. Luciana couldn’t help but smile at him, the tension she’d been feeling since they’d arrived at the hostel slightly rolling off her shoulders. She didn’t know what it was about him, but Joe always managed to get her to relax a bit and not take things so seriously. She envied his carefree personality, knowing she’d never be able to just throw her inhibitions to the wind. She always had to be practical—she was always being watched, so she had to be careful what she did.

“Pretty much at any restaurant in Spain,” she replied with a giggle. “It’s the food Spain is most known for.”

“Okay, good, you can choose where we eat then,” he stated with his signature broad smile. Luciana bit back a smile as she continued the few feet to her favorite restaurant in the city. She’d been to various Spanish cities throughout her life, but this small family restaurant in Madrid remained her favorite. She and Joe had a pleasant evening together, continuing to talk and get to know each other. She always subconsciously stayed alert to her surroundings, but with Joe around, she found she wasn’t as focused on the people around her. Her male companion was interesting enough and always managed to commandeer the majority of her attention; making her laugh until she had tears in her eyes the majority of the time-.

When they arrived back at the hostel, Joe walked her to their bedroom before claiming he was going to do a bit of exploring. Secretly he was giving her some privacy so that she could get ready for bed. After thirty minutes of chatting with other guests in the hostel’s common room, he ventured back to their room and found Luciana turning her sheets down, already in her pajamas, a pair of shorts and a camisole, her damp hair dripping small droplets onto her smooth, olive back. He smiled ruefully at her before going to his things and grabbing a pair of basketball shorts, a fresh pair of underwear and a t-shirt. Usually he just slept in his underwear but figured it would make Luciana uncomfortable. He took a quick shower, the warm water welcoming on his weary body. After brushing his teeth, he exited the small bathroom into the small room and walked towards his own bed, turning off the lights in the process. Luciana had already been curled underneath her covers with her eyes closed. It had been a long trip, so he figured she was already asleep as he too got in bed. He had been in more comfortable beds before and suddenly felt bad for making Luciana sleep here when she was clearly used to more. Even though she was laying completely still, her breaths steady and even, he decided he would tell her she didn’t have to stay with him in hostels from now on in the morning; he wanted her to be comfortable. With a deep sigh, Joe turned on his side, facing the wall and his back to Luciana.

The next morning Luciana awoke before Joe. She was just stepping out of the bathroom freshly showered and dressed when he sat up, stretching his arms over his head. He must have gotten warm in the middle of the night because he was no longer wearing the shirt she saw him take into the bathroom with him. Hoping he didn’t catch her blush, she said, “Buongiorno.”

“Morning,” he replied back with his easy smile. “Have you been up long?” he asked.

“No more than 20 minutes,” Luciana replied, stuffing her pajamas into her bag. She realized she was going to have to do her wash soon. She’d suggest it to Joe later in the day.

“How did you sleep?” Joe asked.

“Surprisingly well, thank you. I was just so exhausted yesterday,” she replied.

“You can check into a hotel if you’d like,” Joe said.

Luciana shook her head. “It wasn’t too bad. I was overreacting last night. I’m sorry.” Before Joe could even tell her she didn’t need to apologize or tried to convince her she didn’t need to stay here, Luciana changed subjects. “The bathroom’s all yours. I think I’ll head down and check out the rest of the place. Will you meet me for breakfast?” she questioned.

Joe was silent a moment before composing himself. “Sure thing. I won’t need more than 15 minutes. Meet you at the bar lounge?” he suggested.

“Sounds good,” she replied, gathering her key and wallet before exiting the room. After a cozy breakfast provided by the hostel and already included in their payment, they ventured out into the late summer morning. The first stop on both of their lists was the Golden Triangle of Art—a series of three museums that held paintings from Picasso to Velazquez. Though Joe was into photography and Luciana was into drawing, they both appreciated great art when they saw it. They spent the entire morning in the three museums, taking in the beautiful artwork and discussing their favorite pieces. The discussion continued into lunch—they had found a small café to sit outside of and continue their heated discussion about modern art as opposed to the classics. After lunch they ventured more around the city on foot, walking all the way towards the west of the city just to visit the Palacio Real de Madrid (the Royal Palace). They took a tour of the palace and its gardens, Joe taking pictures the entire time. Luciana so wished she could sit out here all day and draw the nature scenes but knew that was impossible—Joe’s pictures would have to do.

After their tour was over they continued walking around the streets of Madrid, taking in the sheer beauty of the city with minimal conversation. It wasn’t until they returned to the hostel much later that evening with plans of getting ready for a night out on the town that Luciana realized that not once all day had she checked her surroundings to make sure she wasn’t being followed—she was just that comfortable with Joe around.

Finally. After weeks of searching they finally found her. She was a difficult one to keep track of, but they finally had her in their sights. Their boss would be happy to hear that. All they had to do now was wait for the right moment to make their move.