Clarisa was sitting in the American Airline flight reading a magazine while looking around her in the first class section checking out the other passengers. This was holiday time. She was going to spend the holidays in America like last year and she looked forward to it. Of course meeting the wolf was going to be hard when he was occupied with someone else. She avoided him when he could but now it didn't bother her as much as when she had just left. The first few months away from her family she felt wrong because she thought she was running away from a challenge. But when she was spending time with Anna Rosario at her home, it was impossible to feel guilt. The woman was self made. She really looked upto her. If Vincenzo hadn't been fixing Letizia's mess and she hadn't been forced to leave to have some space, then she wouldn't have met Anna Rosario like she did. It was up close and personal at the house of Agostini. Anna Rosario was a rebel in every way. She was away from her family but she didn't show any regrets. She was independent. She was strong and she was well respected. Clarisa had attended parties with her and some business meetings were Anna Rosario was leading. She loved how a woman could be earning the respect of the men in their world. Of course her husband was an influence but Clarisa could clearly see how hard Anna Rosario worked to keep up with the world.
Clarisa had asked Anna Rosario about her motivations. What motivated her to go on in her life. She had answered simply " Love. I love my husband, I love my children and I love life..."
Clarisa hadn't been convinced and had asked " But you had a family in America. You left them behind. You gave up so much. Don't you miss it. Didn't you lose so much."
Anna Rosario had smiled " My man is worth it sweetie. He fought for me. He is what I live for. I love my family... But sweetie we have to make sacrifices. But if you love someone you will put the world aside for them. Falling in love is only the beginning of difficult choices. The easy way is to not fall in love at all. Sometimes it's easier to live alone and not have to face tough decisions. I wouldn't swap my family and children for the world even though I had to give up the chance to lecture at an Ivy League college. It was worth it. Love makes it all worth it."
Clarisa knew where she came from. Amethyst, her daughter had been almost dead for months. The pain of losing her daughter for those months must have been tough but she said love made it all worth it.
Clarisa put her magazine away and looked around. She needed to do something right now. Yes. Love mattered. But so did her studies and her career. There was a maths genius on the plane. She really wanted to interview him for her editor of a magazine she was working part time as an intern alongside her studies. He was a genius and it was a good opportunity to catch him before others did. So she decided to go go upto him. He was sitting at the other side of the plane. She stood up and walked towards him. Her body guards were on alert. She gave them a sign to stand back as she walked closer to the seat of the maths genius.
Clarisa sat down next to him and showed him her card " Terza O'Neil. I am an intern journalist. Can I interview you?"
The young man was shocked " Me. No I don't like interviews. I am just going to America to judge a maths challenge as guest judge. I am not here to get publicity. In my country we don't care for becoming a celebrity. I am so sorry but I have to decline."
Clarisa sighed. At least she tried. She nodded " Fine. Ravi." She then stood up and walked away. " There goes the Maths genius from Gujarat. Maybe she could be lucky enough to meet another Indian Mathematician. She had studied the work of Ramanujan recently for her Maths articles. It would have been nice to interview a genius. Maybe better luck next time. It was hard to be a woman. It was hard to earn respect as a woman. She was trying not to use her name anywhere and make her way without the backing of her family. She was at least on track for securing a scholarship for college. She had the grades. That was one target to meet.
To Clarisa if she didn't work for success, that success was meaningless. She sometimes rolled her eyes at people who wanted overnight fortunes. People playing the lottery week after week to get lucky as they called it. Where was the value in winning money when all they did was buying a ticket. How successful could they call themselves if they just got lucky? She needed satisfaction. She couldn't be satisfied with herself unless she earned her success and worked for it. But she was grateful for all opportunities her family did provide her. Her parents had earned most of their money and worked hard. They never stopped working. She was living proof of it. If she put together the number of hours she had actually seen her parents she didn't think it added up to more than a few months. An hour for breakfast and an hour for dinner. Then there were business mentoring and some family outings. Her parents were always reading and working. The success of an entire business empire depended on them.
Clarisa liked to expand her parents' businesses and perhaps even invest in new territory. She wanted to own an airline one day. The tourism industry was booming. That was something she had learnt from Vincenzo. He was the one having contacts at airports and airlines. She had that in common with Vincenzo. Investing in travel and tourism. Building villas, hotels and planes alongside managing airlines was a bright business idea indeed as the world was changing.
As the plane touched down and Clarisa made her way out of the plane, she noticed there were announcements at the airport. There was a lock down and all passengers had to wait in the sitting area before checking passports. Anyone with non-American passports had to report in a different section to be questioned for secrurity reasons. Clarisa watched with annoyance as another chance to chat up Ravi slipped away. She sighed and took her magazine out but minutes later she found herself surrounded by her guards whom were travelling with her.
He guards explained to Clarisa that there was an issue that she needed to resolve in one of the rooms. Her gurds had been called up to that room by someone she could recognise as Emilio who was the son of Pablo, one of the heads of security of the Rosario household. Clarisa could tell, the Rosarios were involved. The airport was managed by Rosarios and the American Airline cabin crew were also many Rosario employees or relatives of Rosario employees. She knew that much.
Clarisa stood up as she was accompanied with her guards. She stepped into the room and she saw in confusion as Ravi was sitting behind a desk and had a bruise on his cheek. He looked terrified. As she entered the room he begged "Please interview me. I want you to interview me. I am so sorry for refusing you. I didnt know who you belonged to..."
Clarisa gasped. Had Vincenzo put him upto this. She frowned and sighed "Its okay. I dont want anyone to force you to do anything." She then turned to the door.
Ravi's eyes widened "Please. I have a family. My parents will die... Please. Dont leave."
Clarisa turned around. She didn't want to force the man to be interviewed but it seemed like he had been theratened. She nodded "fine." She then walked to the desk and sat down. She took out her tape recorder from her bag and put it on the table. She pressed record and asked him all her questions. She felt funny. It was as though she was doing him a favour now rather than how it actually was. He even insisisted on explaining secrets of his future work he hadnt published elsewhere. Well, it was going to be news flash for her editor.
When the interview finished Ravi kept insisting if she had more questions but she had none. She made it clear to her guards that she wanted nothing to happen to Ravi and he was to be escorted to his hotel safely after the airport was coming out of lock down.
Once Ravi was gone, she sighed deeply. She put away her tape recorder and then turned to Emilio "Can I see your boss please? Now... If he is home, tell him to come to the airport. I need to talk to him. Get me Vincenzo..."
Emillio nodded politely "Yes, Maa'm." He then left the room. Clarisa stood up and walked to the coffee machine in the room. She raised an eyebrow as she saw irish cream on the list of additives. Well. She was having her coffee with Irish cream. Someone must have known it was her favourite. Too bad she was mad at Vincenzo for manipulating this interview situation. She wanted to get the chance to convince Ravi later on to do the interview.But she never got the chance to test her negoatiation skills. She knew she had to offer money. Funding for his Maths projects could do the trick. But now she never knew.
As Clarisa was drinking her coffee, she heard a knock on the door. Her guards braced themsleves as they opened the door but then Emilio came in "The boss will see you Maa'm in his office... alone. Follow me please..."
Clarisa nodded and followed Emilio as her guards followed. She entered the lift and went to the top floor. She told her guards to wait outside his office. Vincenzo had his own office called the private research group office because she was working on a project. A top secret project about circuits which he was doing with a college as part of his final year project.
She entered the room and closed the door behind her. The office had multiple rooms. Which room could he be in? She just chose the study room. That was his favourite because it was darkest. She was sure of it. Vincezno liked working in dim light just like his father. His favourite time of the day was twilight.
As she entered the study room, she saw him sitting on a sofa drinking soda while reading an electronics book in Italian. His posture was like as though he was reading the most entertaining and intersting book. That was Vincenzo. He loved science and technology. Something they had in common most of the time.
Vincenzo glanced up from his book trying to hold himself back. He didnt want to act in a way she didnt want him too. On the inside he was dying to touch her. But on the outside he had to keep it together. He stated "Hello Terza. Can I help you?" He then put away the drink and the book on a side table as he stood up.
Clarisa gave him a sarcastic smile "Wow. Its good to see you too. A welcome home would be nice and most appreciated. Why did you threaten the man to give me an interview?"
Vincenzo gave her a smile and started walking towards her "I didnt threaten him. He threatened himself. I had a quiet chat with him and told him not to treat the ladies so disrespectfully. He is a smart guy. He started theratening himself. He asked me to kill him instead of his family even though all I said was, he is replacable. I didnt say anything else."
Clarisa closed her eyes. She knew how intimidating Vincenzo was. Even starng at him could have done the trick. Ravi must have put everything together and should have realised he was dealing with criminals. Someone pulling him off a flight for an interview is no work of an ordinary elite. She opened her eyes "Please dont do that again. I want to do everything by myself. I dont want you to help me Vincenzo. Please understand that..."
Vincenzo started circling her figure in the middle of the room as he was looking at her up and down "You belong to me... I would never stop watching you and I would certainly never stop helping you... For your information I was not helping you here. I just defended my girl. He was disrespectful to you. I told him to apologise to you. Well it seems like his way of apologising was to give you an interview. How else could he make it upto you?" He was now standing in front of her staring her down with his hands in his pocket.
Clarisa stated "Still. I am not happy Vincenzo." You have been keeping tabs on me in my school in Italy too. You asked Vitale and Andreas to watch over me. I dont want you to change anything. Let me do all the work."
Vincenzo stated as he looked into her eyes "You can ask me anything but to stop following you... Where you go, I follow Terza. You cant ask me to look the other way when all I think about is you..."
Clarisa sighed "Fine. At least dont hurt people for refusing me interviews. Ravi was quite scraed."
Vincenzo narrowed his eyes "So you are on first name terms with him... He rejected your offer so it proved to me he wasnt intersted in you which is why he walked out with hardly a bruise. I will call him back in then...."
Clarisa then felt frozen as she watched him walk away to the next room. She slowly followed him unable to form sentences. Was he jealous? Was he real? She watched him go to a room full of small televsion screens which showed activity in different parts of the airport. Cameras were everywhere. She watched Vincenzo look at the screen showing the waiting room looking at the screen with hate. He picked up the phone and she quickly walked to him and grabbed his wrist "Enough Vincenzo... You are unbelievable. Why do you go after Ravi? I am on first name terms with him because as a journalist I must try to act friendly. You have got this all wrong...."
Vincenzo liked her hand on his wrist. Even if she was doing this for the wrong reasons, her touch gave his life meaning. All he wanted at that moment was to touch her, to embrace her to kiss her. He glanced at her hand and then at her eyes making her suck in a breath. She let go of his hand slowly staring into his eyes that saw right through her always. She wondered what he was seeing now.
Vincezno put down the phone "Terza. Have dinner with me on sunday evening..."
Clarisa hesitated. She had to say no. She had to. But how could she say no to him. It was impossible. He looked at him in a way that made it impossible to refuse him anything. She had missed him too. Temptations was too great and she was weak when it came to dealing with his charm "Fine... But... There are conditions... You will not go after people I try to interview for refusing me favours again. I need to interview afew people while I am here. I have even managed to book meetings with some people from wall street. I need you to not go after them. If you do, I will sabotage your work too... If you fight, I fight back..."
Vincenzo smiled "Terza... Dont you know me?"
Terza gave him an annoyed face and then turned around. She walked to the door "I have to go. Change the lock down status at this airport so I can go home. My family must be at the airport waiting. They havent even seen me but you have..."
Vincezno chuckled "Let them wait a while. I can watch you from the cameras at least..."
Clarisa stopped walking and turned around "How long are you planning to keep this place at lock down?"
Vincenzo stated "Maybe a few days..."
Clarisa gasped "Are you crazy?"
Vincenzo pretended to think "Maybe I keep you here in transit because of passport issues. I can.. Maybe I can keep you here for company... You are allowed one phone call to a lawyer. Yes. This idea is better so I can have you here for real..."
Clarisa walked closer to him "What is wrong with you.. Why cant you be civil? I thought you have lost the possessive side from last time I saw you..."
Vincenzo spoke with meaning behind each word as he took a step towards her "Maybe its a good thing you are not in my reach Terza. When you are close, I want you badly. The longer time you spend in this room, the more I realise what I have lost.."
Clarisa shook her head as she was processing his words "You have never lost me Vincenzo. You made a choice. You chose Letizia over me. You must live with the consequences. I wont be your second choice..."
Vincenzo replied with a hard tone "Really? What about when youa re my first choice. Are you ready for that then... That day is coming..."
Clarisa gulped and remained silent. He leaned closer to her and her heart beat faster and faster.
Vincenzo whispered as his breath hit her lips "Kiss me and I let you go now... Stay and I will not let you go for a while..."
Clarisa narrowed her eyes. It was her turn to be furious "Oh. You think I will kiss you after you say you are willing to lock down this place. I may slap you for this. How about that?"
Vincenzo nodded "Do it... If you touch me, its all I want..."
Something in his tone hit her hard. The extent of how much he loved her hit her like a ton of bricks. She was sure no one loved her like he did. She had a mixture of emotions. She didnt want to reveal those emotions though. She took a deep breath running out of ideas. She almost surrundered but then she glanced at the wall and she got an idea "You want my touch... Wont happen... How about this?... I challenge you... to a duel... Cross swords with me..."
Vincenzo gave her a smiled "I accept.... Welcome back Terza..."