Chapter Twenty-Seven: "It's Not Me. It's Definitely You, Babe."
MY HEART WAS BEATING fast and my legs were burning as I finished my sprint, slowing down my pace to a stop. I took deep breaths to calm my heart, looking up at the blazing May sun. And I thought April was a hot month here? I didn't want to think what the weather was like back in LA.
Jake came followed the path I had been taking about half a minute later, his face a deep shade of red that reminded me of a tomato. I handed him my water and when he took it, it went everywhere on him but his mouth. I could see the steam coming off his body from where the water had touched when he sighed in relief, still breathing heavily.
"Fück." The word came out of his throat hoarsely as if he hadn't drunk water in years. Then again, the water had failed to make its way in his mouth.
"I've been telling you that cardio is key. It's not all about the muscle. Stamina matters too." I mentioned poking his own in his arm as I took my headphones off my ears and put them around my neck.
He laughed, sitting down on the sidewalk as if we weren't near a busy street. People walked by us and cars drove by, the loud buzz of the city around us. "Trust me, I have stamina."
"Oh really?"
Jake smirked. "Ask Victor."
I slightly shoved at what he was implying. He asked spoke up again, "Speaking of um, activities involving stamina. You and Giulio-"
"Not on talking relations at the moment." I finished off that sentence for him. Jake and I haven't really had the chance to talk lately and even though I saw him almost every day, I missed him. I remember when I had found out that Jake and I were going to be in the same movie. That had only happened once before, and his role was small. I didn't even know who he was at the time. But with our busy schedules as well as dealing with our own individual matters, we hadn't spent time with just us for a very while.
"The Keith thing?" He asked.
"We'll move past it eventually."
"And, uh, what about Caleb?" He finished off that question tentatively.
"What about Caleb?"
"Nothing going on there anymore or?"
"There was never anything to begin with, remember?"
"So, you're not lusting after him anymore?" He had started to pour water on himself again.
I snatched the water out of Jake's hand, only to find it almost empty. "Thank you for taking a shower with my only source of current hydration." I scowled at him and he laughed.
"I never said that I wasn't," I answered his previous question, but I was quick to correct myself. "Or that I was."
"Anyone can tell that you are," Jake muttered, taking my water bottle back. "You aren't very good at hiding it when you're undressing him with your eyes. But then again he does the same to you."
I hummed, chuckling and checked my messages then my Snapchat, pressing my finger on the red button next to Caleb's name. I almost choked.
The picture he sent me could have knocked me out right then and there. He had taken a full body picture crouching in front of a mirror. The flash was on, his chain in his mouth, one hand was in the middle of pushing his hair back and the caption read. "Oct, red or black shoes today?"
I screenshotted the pic and got a closer look at his outfit before sending him a picture of Jake and saying 'red'.
Jake raised an eyebrow before trying to finish the rest of my water. "Caleb?"
"Yeah," I said before locking my phone and grabbing my water bottle again. "We almost kissed."
"What?" The water Jake had been drinking started sputtering out of his mouth, making my eyes widen as what had managed to go in his mouth fell in front of my shoes. I jumped back, glaring at him.
He took a moment, his eyes bewildered with the news and I waved a hand in dismissal. "I said almost. And it's not that big of a deal. Everyone kisses."
"The way you said everyone kisses is as if it's a common fact for the entire world to contract mono," He informed me. "Not everyone kisses, and you know that."
"I kissed you," I muttered.
"While you were drunk off your ass." He added. "You two were sober. If you were drunk, I'd understand, but sober? Most people don't do that."
"Some would," I muttered, crossing my arms.
Jake shook his head in disbelief. "That's insane. I really didn't think either of you would give in to the flirting I witness almost every damn day. You two have me yelling 'get a room' anytime you're in the dressing room or something."
"We didn't really give into it seeing as he stopped it."
Jake stopped moving, his eyes wide. "Why?"
"I don't know."
"And you haven't asked him why?" He looked taken aback. "Who are you and what have you done with Octavia?"
I groaned, putting a hand to my temple. "I swear you and Sydney are carbon copies of one another."
"Oh, I love Sydney," He gushed. "We have to meet up with her when we go to New York. Wait, she isn't coming to your party?"
"She can't. Tour scheduling messed up our plans." I explained. "I haven't asked him why because he'll probably tell me eventually. I'm not going to push him. We're not like that."
"What are you like then? The two of you?" Jake raised an eyebrow, genuinely curious.
I shrugged. "He hasn't ever made me feel uncomfortable about anything I've spoken to him about-"
"You don't usually get uncomfortable though."
"I know but he doesn't allow it. We tell each other things when we want to. We have boundaries and I respect that. I haven't told him a lot of things; he hasn't told me a lot of things. We're friends and whether those thoughts or events are out in the open, they'll be out in the open when we want them to be."
Jake nodded in understanding. "Makes sense."
"Yeah."
"But you guys act like the almost kiss never happened."
He was right. From that day on, Caleb and I had bounced back to our friendship like nothing had ever occurred even when we were alone. He acted as if the almost kiss never happened. I didn't bother bringing it up as the days passed by but it wasn't necessarily an easy event to forget.
"I think Caleb might be the greatest actor amongst all of us," I admitted, opening the latest snap from the man.
He had taken another picture in the mirror, his foot sticking out to show the red Nike shoes he was sporting. "Careful," Jake mumbled. "You may start drooling and have an orgasm on the spot."
I sucked my bottom lip in my mouth as Jake looked at the picture, rolling eyes at Jake's words. "He is very attractive without trying." He commented.
"Tell me about it," I mutter before throwing a double-take at Jake. "Um, hello? You have Victor."
Jake scoffed, starting to walk ahead of me. "Yeah, I have Victor. It doesn't mean I can't window shop when the stores are right in front of me. I look but I don't touch."
"Very wise words." I quipped, tossing him my water bottle to hold.
Entering the villa later that morning, sweaty and sticky from the run with Jake, I found Angie and Krystal sitting at the kitchen counter with a couple of mutual friends of ours, Giulio was one of them. I squirted water into my mouth, saying my 'hi's' but they were all looking at me warily as I refilled my water bottle.
I stilled, cocking my hip as everyone's eyes were on me. "What's wrong?"
Krystal spoke first. "You haven't checked any social media, have you?"
"No, I just went on a run this morning."
What now?
I raised my eyebrows if they were all walking on eggshells around me, I wasn't about to have it. There nothing more in the world that I hated than when people had to pick and choose their words around me to spare my feelings. I didn't need that. Giulio was the first to move, handing me his phone. I took it, my eyes scanning the words of the article that popped up. About Keith. About me.
That son of a bitch doesn't seem to be leaving my life when it was evident I had pushed him out.
I flicked through the article fast, my face impassive as I read and read and read.The entire thing seemed to be a debacle about our previous relationship.
"We had our fun but it's over. I only hope she can move on from me." I said out loud and scoffed. "He better be joking."
"Keep reading," Angie sneered. "It gets worse."
"I apparently called him over and begged for us to get back together?" I stared at the phone. "Can everyone tell that he's lying? He's trying to make me seem like I was desperate and wanted him back. What the hell."
"The worst part is that the world seems to be eating up his bullshit," Krystal mentioned.
My lips parted in surprise at that. "You're lying." She had to be.
"Not even kidding." One of our friends, Flo, muttered and she handed me her own phone to look through the tweets under my name. I read each of them, not believing any of it, not taking in people's opinions from an outside point of view. That's the thing about the world I disliked. We jumped to conclusions without hearing both sides every single time.
As my eyes scanned through both her phone and Giulio's, I sighed in the exhaustion of seeing the same things pop up repeatedly. I was getting mad and when I took a deep breath to calm myself down it didn't help. "Why would I even beg to take him ba-I'm going to take a shower, excuse me."
Not looking at any of their faces, I jogged up the stairs, my grip on my water bottle tight. After taking the fastest and most aggravating shower of my life, I changed into a sundress and was about to put hoops on when my phone started ringing.
"Octavia," I answered; annoyance clear in my voice.
"You heard." My agent, Erika noticed.
"I read, actually. Insolent prick." I spat out.
The next words she spoke were clear and full of authority. "The next time paparazzi see you-"
"Just say, it's all false." I finished for her.
"No." Erika corrected. "Don't say anything. Change the topic if you have to."
"Change the topic?" I repeated, outraged by her answer.
"Do you want to engage in a war with Keith?"
The question does he want to engage in a war with me? I wanted to tell Erika.
I wasn't about to have Keith make me look like a desperate woman or a fool. But I had an image to maintain and getting into a stupid argument with Keith was only going to end up tarnishing things.
"No." I decided.
"Then stay low." She said before cutting off the line.
"Huh," I said staring at my phone. "Hanging up first is my thing." I twiddled with my fingers before fixing my hair. Gelling down my hair, I twisted my hair into three braids at the front, packing it and the rest of my hair into a low ponytail, giddy when I didn't break a single hairband this try. I grabbed silver cuffs that matched my earrings, putting them in the braids.
When I was grabbing my hoops, my phone lit up with another Snapchat from Caleb and I opted from checking it, deciding to message him instead. I wasn't going to talk to anyone downstairs about how annoyed I was because they would tell me things I don't want to hear or things I already knew.
Me:
Are you busy?
He replied within seconds, making me smile.
Caleb:
Now I'm not.
Staring at his answer, I twisted my phone between my fingers before deciding to check twitter. My eyes widened at being the number one trending topic. Fans were quoting what he was saying about me, sympathizing with him while others didn't believe a word he was saying. But as I read through it, I kept seeing the quotes of things he had claimed I had done.
"What the hell?" I rolled my eyes at Keith's strenuous antics.
Fück him. No, honestly, fück that egocentric, dumbass pity excuse of my ex-boyfriend.
So much for moving on.
I knew I had but clearly, he hadn't, if he was saying things like this for a very public, very known entertainment page. Trying to degrade me, shame my image, make our relationship seem like what he did was nothing whilst making me seem like the desperate one and had the nerve to publicly broadcast it to the entire world.
The slight anger had managed to course through me wasn't even about our past relationship. It was the lengths he had taken to make everyone seem like he was the great guy while trying to make me look like an idiot.
My finger tapped on the call button and for once, I wasn't calling Sydney.
He picked up in the middle of the second ring. "Hey."
I didn't miss a beat. "You've seen it, haven't you?"
Caleb sighed. "I think everyone who has access to the Internet saw it, October. Ignore him."
"Not easy," I mentioned, grabbing my small cute black backpack.
"I know." He mumbled and I heard typing on the other line.
I paused, shoving in an umbrella in the bag just in a case and a hat in case my hair turned out to be a mess later in the day if I wanted to go out. "Did I interrupt something?"
"No, no," He quickly said.
"I interrupted something." I pointed out, sighing and he laughed lightly.
"You didn't Tavi, don't worry about it," I heard a rush of typing before it stopped. "I'm sorry Karen is being a dipshit and spreading false rumours about you."
"I don't even care about the rumours; he's just being an annoying dick. It's nothing I can't handle."
"Never doubted you for a second." A smile came to my face. He never has. "But he's irritated you."
"He has," I admitted.
"I wish I could do something about it." I stayed silent at his words, twisting my hoop earrings in between my fingers before setting them on the dresser. "What did Erika suggest for you to do?"
"Nothing. Lay low."
He scoffed. "Does she know you?"
"I think she's forgotten who I am, but she's right. I don't want to stir up any trouble. He's not worth my time with his petty fragile behaviour."
Caleb snorted. "You can say that again." By now any irritation or anger I had felt for Keith had vanished. "You want me to change the topic? Get your mind off him?"
"Tell me something weird," I told him, taking my black backpack and putting it beside my hoop earrings.
"Excuse me?" He was not expecting me to say that.
"Tell me something weird," I repeated. "Or something you've been wondering lately. Usually what you're wondering is a weird thing."
It didn't take him long enough to come up with something. "I was taking a walk the other day-"
"I wasn't invited on this walk?" I made sure to sound dramatically offended and he noticed, laughing at my antics.
"You were at that meeting thing with Isabella and AJ for the movie remember? I texted you the entire time, you barely paid attention to the actual meeting."
I scoffed. "I was paying attention."
"No, you weren't." I really wasn't.
I pulled the focus back from my obvious lie. "What happened on the walk?"
"I saw these two pigeons and I remembered how much you once told me you hate pigeons."
I did. I hated pigeons more than anything in the entire world. I truly believed they were the demons of the animal world along with Canadian geese. "And geese." I pointed out.
Caleb laughed. "Well, I didn't see any geese this time but if I see some, I'll be sure to tell them about how much you hate them. Does Italy even have geese?"
"That would be gratefully appreciated and look it up if they do."
Caleb chuckled again. "Okay, so I spotted these pigeons that were pecking at foods and I was wondering why the hell bread was so damn amazing. Like there are so many things you can make out of bread. And potatoes. Holy, potatoes. like you can make tater tots, hash browns, fries, anything. I love potatoes. And eggs. I crave them whenever I'm drunk it's so weird, but you know that. But then suddenly I was thinking to myself at the time that I really wish I could go swimming."
"You," I felt like someone got into my mind and twisted it whenever he spoke like this, but it was honestly strange and intriguing about how far his mind went. "You literally took a conversation that was a straight direction from room A to room B then decided to go to a whole different building and enter room 900."
There was a pause on his side. "That was the dumbest analogy."
"It made sense." I defended.
"No, it didn't!" Caleb exclaimed.
"Yes, it did. You're so annoying. It had to make sense."
"I'm not annoying, you're annoying." He muttered as I left the room, hearing music coming from downstairs. I figured that Krystal and Angie had invited more people they knew over and while I would have loved to socialize and all, I really wasn't in the mood.
"But how did you get from watching pigeons eat to thinking about going swimming?"
"I had passed by a pond."
"Well, you could have explained that so I could see the connection." I stood in front of a map of Italy as the voices seemed to get louder. Shaped like a boot kicking a soccer ball some people had said it was. I let my finger touch the glass when I muttered into the phone, "Do you ever just want to do something crazy?"
"What ideas do you have?" He sounded skeptical.
My eyes narrowing in on a destination. "I've never been to Venice."
"Venice?" I could imagine the confusion all over his face. "You want to go to Venice? Now?"
"Yeah." I reached out, touching the dot over the city.
"Venice?" He repeated.
"Yes, have you ever been?"
"Yes," Caleb said slowly. "Beautiful city."
"I want to go," I stated.
"Impulsive." He pointed out.
"You want to come?"
"Just drop everything right now and run to Venice for a couple of days?" His voice was filled with bewilderment, seeing as we had work tomorrow night.
"Not a couple of days, just for the rest of the day and come back later tonight. It's still morning. I can call up a driver right now. Or buy train tickets. Can't remember the last time I've been on a train, to be honest."
There was a pause on Caleb's end. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah, I'll be at your place in half an hour," I decided. "Get ready."
"Octavia, you're crazy."
"Caleb, you're crazier," I pointed out and he hummed in agreement. "It's not like we're flying to whole other continent. C'mon."
He was possibly overthinking about what he had planned to do today was about to get shoved to the side because of me. But I knew him better than I thought. I already knew his answer.
"Give me twenty minutes." He hung up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Caleb and I sat on the train, smiles on our faces as we stared out the window as trees whipped by. He turned the black hat on his head around, fixing the sunglasses on his face. With his chain in his mouth and the high sun from the window streaming onto him, I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth, focusing on the wine glass in my hand instead.
I leaned back, taking a sip of red wine as he turned to look at me. He twiddled with his fingers. "What's the plan for today?"
I raised my shoulders mindlessly. "We can't just go with the flow?"
"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow. "It's a go with the flow type of day? I didn't notice since we literally dropped everything we were doing and hopped on a train. Might mess around and rob a couple of stores too, huh?"
"No of course not. Only rob little items. Like toothpaste and face cleansing products. Just for fun." I played along and he chuckled.
"You got to go for the big things, October. Banks."
"How much money?" I leaned in, intrigued at the game we were playing.
"Millions," He leaned in as well, locking his hands, his eyes wild. "So much to be able to take over a nation."
"A nation? Just a nation, Romero?" I teased.
"A continent." His brown eyes lit up.
"Just a continent?"
"The world. What more do you want, Ms. Okonji?"
"The universe," I demanded dramatically, lifting my head up. "I want it."
"I'll start planning on giving it to you."
We laughed at our words, leaning back and Caleb looked a little more serious. "What do you really want to do today? To take your mind off things?"
"I haven't been to Venice. I told you. I want to explore."
Caleb wiggled his phone in his hands. "You want me to be your professional photographer for the day, too?"
"Yes, please."
He rolled his eyes. "I have a cool restaurant we can check out later. I'll take you sightseeing. Shopping?"
"Shopping?" I perked up at that and he smiled.
"Yes," His eyes lit up in that mischievous way they do whenever he's going to say something crude. "Try on some lingerie for me."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "I'll let you buy me lingerie, how about that?"
"So, I'm going to have to imagine you in it? I can't see?"
"Whether or not you want to see it, is your decision, Romero." I let my statement out there before going through my bag for my water bottle, easily changing the conversation. I didn't even look for his reaction because I knew that whatever I said he wasn't going to show on his face. "Want some water?"
He took the bottle gratefully, taking a sip before handing it back. I took a magazine out of my bag and Caleb's eyes lit up at the back cover. "Wait a second."
I rolled my eyes at the huge smile on his face.
He locked his fingers, perching his chin on them. I let my eyes go to his tattoos then back to the childish smile on his face. "You didn't bring me Playboy to make me stay on the trip, did you?"
"No," I couldn't help the laugh that fell from my lips. "It's Cosmopolitan. Cosmo."
"Cosmo," He repeated. I watched him flicked through it, before tossing it beside him. "Well, you're with me and you don't need another man like Cosmo to have your undivided attention."
"It's a magazine."
"Just," Caleb took his hat off, running his hands through his hair like he was irritated. "Understand my analogy. Made a lot more sense than the ones that have been coming out of your mouth lately."
"Fück off." I kicked him under the table, and he laughed loudly, putting his hat back on before taking a sip of the red wine I had ordered out of my cup.
He swirled the cup in his hands. His sunglasses were tinted heavily, and I wasn't sure if he was looking at the glass or at me. "You want me to lead the way?"
"Yeah."
The sly smile that crossed his face made me grin as I snatched the glass back, finishing the drink as we got started on our day.
"How do I look in this?" Caleb held up a very bright pink shirt up to his torso hours later. We had gone through so many stores he had remembered from his previous visits here, not slowing down or tiring out. His eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses but his excitement as we exited every store was clear when he grabbed my hand to pull me to the next one.
"I know you're expecting me to say no," I told him. "But honestly you'd look good in that."
"I wasn't. I genuinely wanted the shirt and your opinion." He held it up. "If I cut the sleeves, it'd be nicer."
"Yeah, it would." I agreed, I grabbed another shirt, putting it against his chest. "This would definitely look good on you."
Caleb raised an eyebrow, looking down at the heavily spotted shirt. "You think I can't pull it off."
"Was there sarcasm in my tone?" The shirt was ridiculous on someone else but on him, he would make it work.
"Can never tell with you actors whenever you're being serious or not," Caleb muttered before taking the shirt and adding it to his collection in his hand.
"By actors you just mean me, don't you?" I questioned, flicking through the shirts.
He widened his eyes, putting a hand to his mouth like he had been caught doing something wrong. "How'd you know?"
"How many other people in my profession do you hang out with?"
"Plenty. Just not as much as I'm always with you." We exchanged smiles as I handed him another shirt. We were one of the first brand shops of the day. Most of the day we had hit thrift shops and while there weren't that many in the city, Caleb made it certain that we hit everyone because those were my favourite types of stores. "You keep giving me things to buy. Let me at least find something for you."
"Like what?"
It took him thirty seconds to grab something from the 'women's' side of the store. He ran back to me with exactly what I knew he would have. I stared at the lingerie set. This had to be a coincidence, I thought. Then, making sure the blank look on my face didn't change, I said, "I have that exact one."
Caleb's eyebrows rose, glancing at the white lace clothes in his hands then back to me. I watched him take a moment to himself, wondering whatever the hell was going on in his head. A smirk came onto his face, "How do you know?"
Luckily for us, no one was around or in this store now. Neither of us was recognized by the workers and I was certain it had to do with the sunglasses and the hat covering half of Caleb's face. I pulled one strap of my sundress down to show the pattern on the strap of my bra, identical to the one in his hand.
His lips parted as I pulled the strap back up, his gaze still fixated on my shoulder. "All white huh?"
"Matching," I informed him. "I've been told red's a good colour on me, though."
"Really?" Caleb murmured, taking his sunglasses off and hooking it on his shirt. "Purple looks great on you. Yellow too. But white?" He glanced at me and I could feel the heated gaze from his eyes. "I like white."
I swallowed, breaking my view from him as I checked out other shirts. "Good to know."
When we were finished from the store, we proceeded walking near the water. Caleb had told me to stay and returned with two cones of vanilla ice cream. Despite the warm weather outside and the blazing heat from the sun, not many people were around this area. My eyes trailed over the architecture of the apartment buildings when Caleb knocked my shoulder against his own. "How are you finding the city so far?"
"I like it," I confessed as we stood there, overlooking the water.
"Not many people recognize you here." He commented, getting ice cream on his nose.
"Same with you." I chuckled at the ice cream on his face, use a napkin to dab it off for him." He smiled in thanks and I pulled my gaze away from his lips then looked back at the water. "You're thinking about going swimming, aren't you?"
Caleb burst out laughing. "There's a beach not that far from here for that. Swimming in canals? I'm not that kind of tourist." I opened my mouth to argue but he pointed a finger at me. "I seem like it. But I'm not."
"What kind of tourist are you?"
"If you've been with me the first time I saw the Tower of Pisa which I had been calling the leaning tower of pizza since I was a child, you would have shoved me or pushed me straight into his canal at all the questions I had been asking the tour guide. Why does it lean? How has it not fallen? What would happen if it did fall-"
"You realize that all your questions-actually most of your questions can be solved by science?" I told him.
He looked at me as if I had sprouted two heads as he devoured the rest of his ice cream. "Science and I don't have a good relationship. In fact, we broke up in high school. It was grade eleven when we ended everything and burned any connection to each other."
"You are so dramatic." I laughed and he grinned. I loved it when he got like this. He was a person one could love spending time with. I realized right then and there that through our time together, I didn't think one thing about Keith. It was hard to believe that it was only hours before that I had read that article but with Caleb, I forgot everything.
"She wanted to stay but I told her, science, sweetheart, we're just not meant for each other. I must break up with you. But instead of me saying it's not you, it's me, I said, 'it's not me, it's definitely you, babe'."
"Yeah? You broke science's heart just like that? Heartbreaker."
"I did what I had to do," Caleb shook his head solemnly. "It sucks we our ship died but you know, I had to fall in love with some other subject instead."
"Let me guess," We continued walking, through narrow streets, our hands carrying our shopping bags. "English."
"Oh, you know me well, Ms. Okonji."
"I just put two and two together you know?" I shrugged lightly, finishing my ice cream. "English, writing, it made sense."
"Actually, I write better in Spanish then I do in English, so I lacked in writing skills until high school," He let out a soft laugh and I watched as he dwelled in the past. "Sam, my best friend, and I used to swap homework. I hated math so he did it for me and I wrote his essays and whenever each of us ever had a test we'd like hardcore study the night before to help each other." He laughed at the memory, making me smile faintly.
"Say, if you didn't become a writer what would you have wanted to do?"
Caleb's walking slowed for a second. "Um..."
I raised an eyebrow. "Did you not expect that question?"
"No, it's just," Caleb took his glasses off, conflict behind his eyes. "No one's ever asked me that before. Even before I started writing or anything it just wasn't a question that came up."
"Well, what's the answer?"
"I would have liked to be a teacher, I think."
"A teacher, really?"
He nodded. "Yeah. I like kids. It'd be interesting to have the influence. Maybe in another universe, I'd be an English teacher or something."
"You still could be," I told him.
Caleb frowned. "That was the plan when I graduated high school. Spend a year here, then go to university."
"What changed?"
He waved a hand. "I'll tell you eventually but not today." He stood on the top of a canal bridge and put a wide smile on his face. Literally dropping his bags as if there were nothing inside of them, he spared his arms and took a deep breath. "You know what that smells like?"
I stared at him and his sudden actions. His actions that he did to change the topic of something he didn't want to discuss. I didn't push. "Craziness?"
"No. It smells like life. C'mon do it with me."
"I'm not going to spread my arms out like a wackjob and-" Caleb snatched my shopping bags to the ground, grabbed my arms and held them up.
"There we go," He stood behind me. "Now inhale."
"Caleb-"
"Inhale," He said seriously before chuckling. "C'mon just do it. Do it for the sake of it, Tavi. Inhale, exhale, like a whale."
I turned my neck to look at him. "Like a whale?"
"What else rhymes with inhale and exhale-"
"Pale, hail, jail, sail-"
"But this works," He whined at my lack of cooperation. "Just do it."
I did as he asked and in the middle of me taking in a deep breath, he mumbled, "Inhale, exhale, like a whale-"
I burst out laughing, holding my stomach at his words, backing away from him. "No, no, no I can't do it."
Caleb grinned, handing me my bags back. "Like a whale, baby."
"Shut up." Glancing at the water again, I swiftly turned towards him. "I want to go on a gondola."
"Every tourist's dream," Caleb said flatly and I rolled my eyes at him, grabbing him by the hand to lead him.
When we paid and got onto one with just ourselves, the man steering it paid us no mind as we continued speaking. My eyes trailed over everything from the water to the people at a distance waiting to experience the feeling of the boat underneath them to the buildings and the scenery we were surrounded by.
When I looked at Caleb, I already found him staring at me. "What?" I asked him.
He shrugged. "Nothing, it's just interesting how fascinated you are by everything."
"I'm mostly based in LA for everything I do. I travel but not as much as people think I do over the years. Besides, how could I not be fascinated? Look at this place."
We had been walking around all day and I wasn't even sure what time it was, but I didn't care. Caleb took his hat off and his glasses off and I did the same, taking the hat for him and putting it in my backpack. "I have a question." He said.
"What is it?"
"Do you think if we didn't get to this point in our lives- like with our careers right now, that we would have met anyways?"
I licked my lips, crossing one leg over the other from where we were seated. "I think so. We came from the same town. We went to schools not even that far from one another. Besides I would have noticed you." I admitted.
A smirk fell onto his face at my words before he nodded slowly. "Yeah, I would have noticed you too. We would have met either way. There's no way in hell you would've escaped the great friend that is me."
"Yay me," I said flatly and he shook his head at my sarcasm, looking up at the sky.
"So," He started, eyes looking up. "After the filming, you're heading to where again?"
"Well I'm going to be in New York due to the final scenes, you're there for that too, right?" He nodded. "Then LA for a bit to reunite with my siblings. You really want to meet Daniel?"
"Yeah, he seems like a cool guy."
"Then just come back to LA with me," I suggested.
He wasn't expecting me to say that. "Really?"
"Yeah, why not?"
"Might as well," There was a pause as he kept his eyes on me. He stalled for a breath before asking his question. "Have you ever been to England?"
"Yeah. London." I told him, for whatever reason, my heart started picking up its pace as I waited for his next words with anticipation.
"Ever been to Nottingham?"
"No," I said slowly. He wasn't going to suggest for me to-
"Come with me," He said in a quieter tone. "I was going to head over to visit my friends after New York anyway. If you're willing, we could go to England for a visit before settling back in LA."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "You're serious."
Caleb shrugged. "Let's be a little impulsive. I mean this morning, we were in Milan and suddenly we're here, so we might as well do more impulsive October and Romero ideas anyways."
I licked my lips, fixing the straps of my small backpack. "New York, Nottingham, then Los Angeles."
His mouth quirked up in a cute smile. "Like that plan?" I nodded slowly, a part of me having trouble believing that Caleb and I were really going to do that together, but it shouldn't have been a big deal to me. I went places with other friends all the time. But Caleb was Caleb, that's what made it different.
He smiled, running a hand through his wavy brown hair and my eyes followed the action. "Awesome. I'm paying."
"What?" He might as well have kicked me. "No."
"I'm paying for the flight from New York to England then to LA."
"No, you are not." I declared.
"Why not?"
"Because I can pay for myself," I explained.
He wasn't having it. "But still-"
"Caleb. I have the money. I will pay myself." I stated.
Caleb blinked, shaking his head and not finding a way around this. "It's extremely hard to argue with you when you use that tone, October."
"I know," I said smugly.
"You'll budge." He muttered. "I have a feeling you're going to like Macy."
"Macy, your best friend's wife?"
"Yeah, you two will get along. You're both stubborn as hell and tell me to shut up."
I laughed. "I like her already."
When we got off the gondola ride, Caleb and I were walking, my hand on his arm when we spotted a tourist group outside of a building. "Let's follow them." He nodded, slipping his sunglasses back on.
"Caleb, people pay for these tours!" I exclaimed.
"So? I could give them one for free," He retorted. "Besides, getting lost is the best part of exploring a new place. Don't people know that?"
"Not everyone is like you." I tried to reason.
"Clearly or else there'd be a lot more peace and joy, that's for sure." He said with a giddy smile. I reciprocated the smile slowly, knowing him better than his words. The peace part sure but the joy I wasn't sure of.
They entered a building- a museum I think, and we followed suit. Hearing the tour guide, Caleb and I took our own lead, out eyes trailing the interior of the place. Following the tour guide our eyes stuck to every inch of the building, we entered a bigger part of the room with a high ceiling and paintings all around. Finding a bench, I put bags down there, taking a seat and just staring.
Caleb put his own bags down, taking a seat in front of me between my legs like a kid as both of our eyes stayed upward, craning our necks. At the high ceiling and the beautiful design of the place.
"It's massive." I heard someone comment in the tour group comment and I snorted, holding my fist to my lips.
I felt Caleb nudge my leg and I looked down to see a sheepish smile on his face at what the both of us were thinking before we softly laughed. "They aren't wrong," I told him as he tapped his sunglasses against his pink lips. "Whoever thought of making this must have had a genius mind."
"I could build something like this."
"Caleb," I patted his shoulder. "Stick to writing."
"I could!"
"I didn't say you couldn't!" I said back. "I'm just saying stick to writing."
"I'll build you something. It'll have your name on the side of it since you think I'm so incapable."
"I don't- shut up." We sat down there for a while longer after the tour group had left, still taking in the room and everything in it from where we were seated.
"October?" He questioned, looking up at me between my legs.
A lock of his hair fell onto his forehead, and involuntarily I swept it back for him, letting my fingers stay in his hair. I watched Caleb's eyes fall shut and a soft sigh expelled from his lips. He opened his eyes much too slowly and it was when he fully focused on me that I blinked. A small smile came to my face. "Yeah?"
"Dinner?"
"What time is it?" My hand stayed in his hair, feeling the strands beneath my fingertips.
"It's 7:30." My lips parted in surprise. I hadn't bothered checking my phone the entire time and I didn't notice the sun just starting to set. I didn't notice how tired my legs were from walking all day either and how much a break I needed before I had taken a seat on the bench.
Just then my stomach grumbled, and Caleb heard it loud and clear, a smile on his lips. "I'll take that as a yes."