Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy (14 page)

At 8:30, Antony was standing at the entrance in front of the circus, waiting for Gregory. He was in a bad mood trying to keep talking Gregory out of the duel, which was crazy nonsense. Gregory ignored all of his comments without answering. On the Vespa, Antony had no chance to convince him further. But, when they stopped at a gas station to get a coffee, he tried his luck again. The gas station attendant had a face cluttered with piercings and a huge lettering with the name 'Verena' was tattooed on his forearm. He watched the two of them interested. He observed Gregory, who seemed to be either deaf or dumb because he reacted in no way to the convincing talk of his companion. He watched them leave shaking his head. Two fruitcakes so early in the morning, what was next, his shift had only just begun.

Leyla was torn, and could hardly believe that Ana was some backstabbing bitch, and she hoped she was wrong about her suspicion. The longer she thought about it, the more likely it seemed to her that Gregory might be right. Ana had been determined to get close to her in Judo training, and it doubtlessly worked for they had become friends. Leyla realized that it had more than come comfortable for her at the time because of being grounded. At least with Ana she had a reason to leave the house. Though she had to admit that trying to make friends in a foreign country on a Holiday was not really, what you could call a crime. Still she would have to find out what was behind all that. Then Ana had told her about this ridiculously mysterious half-brother. She sincerely hoped this guy didn’t have to do anything with the Vultures. Leyla sighed, she just couldn’t imagine that Ana was trying to hurt her knowingly, having herself such a difficult time with her illness and all that stuff. But, maybe someone else was behind it and was setting her up to spy on her connections to Gregory. Whatever it was, she was going to find out. Tomorrow she would accompany Ana to a dinner with her father and her half-brother. She would defiantly probe them and learn their dark secrets if they happened to have any.

She decided to leave the issue to rest at least for today during the baseball game. After all, it had been a long time since she had been on the move with her friends and there was no need to bother them with her suspicious thoughts before she was sure that there was something in the bush with Ana. She'd rather have a great time once again trying to enjoy the evening. The food in the lodge was fantastic, and they were having a good time. Brooklyn and Aiden were glued together as usual. Mila and Shane were making a few stupid jokes about them. Apparently, they were not impressed and ignored the comments. Leyla was sure that Mila just wanted to divert the attention from her misery about her feelings for Shane. At some point, the situation was almost a bit embarrassing, when Mila stared somewhat obvious the whole time at Shane, without him seeming to notice. He was entirely focused on the game. Suddenly Brooklyn called out excited, "Guys, look over there in the box next to us, behind the glass panel. Isn't that Saul Marques?"

Leyla grinned because Brooklyn was such a fangirl when it came to Saul. Then her gaze fell on Ana, who looked as if she was going to cry any Moment. Oops, her guess had been wrong. Apparently, she didn’t hold up that well when it came to her little interlude with good old Saul. When she looked at her sad face, it was hard to imagine that she was some sneaky, sly bitch trying to fool her. Ana's phone vibrated, and she heard Ed Sheeran’s gentle voice. She quickly took the call. There was an unexpected angry outbreak. Leyla looked up, startled, she had no idea what was going on. If it was Ana's mother on the phone, the two of them must have had a real nasty fight. But, Ana's next words caught Leyla's attention. It looked as if the person on the other end of the line was not Ana's Mom. "On a damn island, I don't know and now leave me alone, I have other stuff going through my head right now, than this stupid crap." Annoyed she stopped talking as her conversational partner was talking to her. She seemed increasingly pissed saying unfriendly, "It is none of your freaking business, where I am. All right, then you've seen me, it is not a crime to be at a baseball game. May I’ remind you that you are not my mother. What? Betting on what? Look, I don’t care. I’ll see you tomorrow and don't forget that I’ll bring a friend. Listen to me. It doesn’t matter. You will see soon who she us. Bye now," she stared grimly to the pitch. She would confront Gabe, who was the most arrogant guy she had ever met in her life with Leyla and wondered how he would react when she showed up with her. She just needed to know what was going on, in what mess he had implicated her. She liked Leyla and wanted to tell her that Gabe had set her up to spy on her, but she didn’t know how to say it without Leyla hating her for it.

Leyla pretended not having listened to Ana's conversation. She was talking to Brooklyn, and they exchanged meaningful glances. There seemed to be something in the bush with Ana and Leyla doubted that Ana had noticed anything of that baseball game so far. So much for wanting to attend a baseball game once in a lifetime, and what exactly did she say about an island? That couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? She observed Ana carefully acting naturally. Ana was staring at the court absentminded when all of a sudden Brooklyn dashed past the baffled Aiden like a rocket. She had seen Saul walking by their box. She lunged toward him approaching him. She asked him if he would take a picture with her which was only possible because he was without a shield in this private box. Otherwise, some fans would have probably surrounded him by now. He willingly followed Brooklyn. They made several pictures, and he even grimaced for a silly photo Brooklyn asked of him.

Everything would have been fine. Ana, remained in her seat making herself as invisible as possible. She would have remained undetected, but Brooklyn couldn’t get enough and was trying to make the most of the moment. She wanted a photo with Saul and her boyfriend. Aiden didn’t move out of his chair, and Brooklyn dragged Saul with her into their box. Saul, the nice guy next door was doing her the favor walking with her into the box. After all, he knew that he owed his success to his fans. No airs and graces at all. Aiden got reluctantly up to shoot the picture. However, the picture would very unlikely win a prize. When Saul got ready with a broad smile on his face, his hand raised up in a victory sign, his eyes fell on Ana, who sat behind the two of them. His eyes widened in surprise, and Aiden stuck out his tongue and Brooklyn who had seen it coming was closing her eyes in horror.

Brooklyn looked disappointed at the picture and wanted to ask Saul to make another one with them when she realized that he was looking intently at Ana. 'Ana?' What was going on? Did the two of them know each other? She frowned at Leyla, who desperately tried to make her understand that she should leave Saul in peace, nodding towards Ana, moving her eyebrows meaningful. Finally, Brooklyn realized that there was probably something going on that she didn’t know. Interested she looked at Ana, and she was not the only one. Everybody in the box stared at Ana, and even Shane reluctantly looked away from the court. Ana had done her best to make herself invisible, at least as much as it had been possible under given circumstances, but unfortunately, it hadn't worked, and now she felt like being the main attraction in a zoo. All eyes were set on her, including Saul's eyes. God, how she hated when something like this happened. Defiantly she stared at him, why didn't he leave her alone? Why didn't he pretend not to see her? Why did he have to embarrass her in front of Leyla's friends? Besides, Brooklyn was apparently one of his biggest fans.

Well, she had to admit that he had probably not expected to see her in this box and was therefore legitimately surprised and it must have thrown him a bit off track. But, a simple hello and a nod would have been enough, and then he could have disappeared again, out of the booth and definitely out of her life. But no, he was, standing there, looking at her with a startled, guilty expression on his face. As if someone had caught him doing something awful he managed to put a wry smile on his face. All of a sudden, he beamed down on her, or was she just imagining things? He stopped in front of her looking silently at her for a while as if she was a chocolate cake that was not intended for him.

Finally, he cleared his throat, "Ana, I didn't see you. How long are you staying in the city?" Instead of waiting for her reply, he ran in a fidgety gesture through his hair. He seemed nervous, what was wrong with him? "I'm sorry that I haven't called you after the party, but I'm a little stressed out at the moment. I'm working on a new album and sometimes I don't know whether I am coming or going and I still have to prepare for my forthcoming European tour," Ana looked at him silently. She had no idea what to say. He looked thoughtful for a moment before he continued, "would you have time tomorrow to meet me?" All eyes were on him by now. No one had eyes for the game anymore. Even Aiden seemed to be of the opinion that this was a lot more entertaining than the game. Only Shane was constantly watching what was going on at the court. He was not as easily distracted. Ana wished the ground would swallow her. They all stared at her waiting for her to answer. How awful, and embarrassing. She raised her eyes, forcing herself to look at him. She gave her best to act as uninterested as possible, which was difficult.

The guilty look on his face was quite irresistible, and he looked at her, like one of those huge banana splits, they served at the Diner close to the hotel that she craved to swallow whole, but she wouldn’t do it.
“No problem, I was very busy, "You know my mom and her meetings keep me pretty busy," She laughed a little cheesy, "tomorrow, I have to pass. Unfortunately, I asked Leyla to come along, we’ll have dinner with my half-brother and my father." Saul didn't seem to give up that easily, "I could go with you. I remember you said they were a bit difficult to handle," he looked at her with a convincing smile on his face, "I could come along for moral support." Ana could hardly believe her ears, was he kidding? What kind of crap was that? He ditched her at the party after they made out for hours. No way, she would make it easy for him, "I think that is frankly not such a good idea," she said, frowning.

Saul didn't know quite what to do or say anymore. Apparently, she hated him now, after he had ditched her at the party. What the hell had gotten into him? Why did he urge her on eating with her family? Had he gone insanely mad? Yes, he probably had, because he wanted to see her again, he couldn't do anything about it, he needed to see her again, after he had left from that party, he couldn’t think of a valuable reason to convince her to see him again. He didn't know what to do, and soon she would leave and disappear from his life forever. He simply knew that it couldn’t end this way. He would not allow it to end like that. He thought about his upcoming European tour and a vague smile lit up his face. Maybe there was still hope to see her again. "Do you still have my phone number?" Ana shrugged, she couldn’t look into his eyes, and it was just too painful. So, she turned her gaze back to her phone, "I don’t know, probably," with one swift movement, he grabbed her phone, "hey," she said alarmed, "don’t panic, I'll just type my number and my address, and save it to your phone to make sure you got it. So call me if you need anything, anytime, ok?" he gave her phone back. She looked into the void, "Fine with me."

Saul knew that for now, there was nothing he could do to get through to her, but it was not too late, he felt it. She was nervous. He could see how she bit her lower lip. She sure hadn’t forgotten the time they spent alone together in Geckos room. As much as he hadn’t forgotten a thing. He had the memory vividly on his mind and thought to often about her, but now it was time to disappear, that was also clear. He turned to the others, and it was a fact that none of them knew what was happening in the game, no wonder with the show he had just put on. Except for the dark-haired dude with the curly hair, he was still staring onto the court. He suddenly jumped up yelling, "Did you see that? There is something wrong." Aiden looked away immediately to see what was going on. Unfortunately, the girls seemed to care less about the game than relationship dramas. Crap, he thought to himself. Saul had to buzz off quickly. The whole thing was just too embarrassing, "I’ll see you around," was all he could say then he disappeared back to his booth. I’ll see you around?

What a lame exit, surely they probably thought he was nuts. Well technically, he didn’t have to worry about what they thought about him. Maybe he was crazy, about Ana. Anyway, he knew that he had behaved far from normal, but what could he do? After Saul had left the booth, everybody went silent for a while, and then chaos broke loose. Shane had observed how the ball was clearly manipulated when Jose Bautista could have turned the game in favor for the Toronto Blue Jays. Shane could hardly calm down. He claimed that a gust of wind had manipulated the ball. Aiden, Mila, Leyla and even Brooklyn, who didn’t care about baseball and had only come for Aiden’s sake, were briefly distracted from Ana’s relationship show.

It looked like some Vultures had messed up the game. Probably one of them was working for a gig or something. Those guys stopped at nothing, no wonder they compared to the Mafia. There was loud whistling from the crowd, and it looked like a mass brawl. It took a while until the game went on again. When at last there finally was the big break, and everyone had calmed down, Brooklyn followed Leyla, who was on her way to get some drinks, "Wow Leyla, what was that previously with Saul Marques and Ana? Did you know about it?" Leyla grinned, "Of course I knew! Don’t you remember? I told you that some guy invited her to a party and that she wanted me to be her minder and that I failed miserably at my job. Aiden and Mila have picked us up later, and Saul was behaving quite strange leaving Ana behind. That’s why we brought her to the Hotel."
"Oh that's right, now I remember. Then this guy is Saul. Wow. How did Ana manage to get to know him?" She seemed to pose the question rather rhetorical to herself in amazement. She laughed and punched Leyla on the upper arm, which made her rub her arm with a frown. "You're right, you truly are a deadbeat as a minder Leyla, and the two of them have something going on!"
"Well," Leyla grinned, "What can I say, except that you have a keen sense of observation."

Brooklyn tossed some popcorn they just bought at her. Leyla raised her hands, "But you have to admit that I have nothing to do with the fact that their relationship is somehow complicated."
"Well you see, that's why Aiden is my boyfriend and not some pop star. The competition out there would be too big don’t you think that’s why it is complicated?" Leyla sipped her Diet Coke shaking her head, "you're wrong Brooklyn, I think he is into her, and that scared him at first, but now he regrets having ditched her at that party. Then there’s the fact, that she'll leave soon and that she has some strange, mysterious connections.” Brooklyn looked blankly at her. "Oh forget about it, she has enough on her plate and don’t forget that I have no pop star to think about, but there are still a lot of problems.” Brooklyn nodded, "you had to fall in love with the Savior of the world," she made a sweeping gesture, "have you heard of him lately?"