I yell at the cops in Spanish, asking them how they allowed this to happen. Knowing that I’m now from here they take their hands off me and I motion back toward Lizzy, then take off to her.
The back door of the club flies open and a bunch of patrons look to see what’s going on.
“Let me through! It’s my daughter,” Eric yells like a little pussy. Where the fuck was he when all this was going on?
The bouncers comply and he runs to her, but I shield him with my back, cradling her and keeping her safe.
“We need an ambulance. She’s been drugged.” I scan the crowd finding the nearest officer and yell at him for an ambulance.
Not thirty seconds later the sound of its siren wails from a distance alerting me that it’s time to scoop her up and run with her to it, which is exactly what I do…Eric falling behind me.
CHAPTER 15
Lizzy
Two days later
I’ve been back at the hotel for a full day now. I was lucky in that I only spent that one night in the hospital and then was allowed to go home. Luckily I didn’t ingest too much of the roofied drink and it’s mostly out of my system although I do feel a bit lethargic still.
Even so, I need to talk with Alejandro, and properly thank him. I was completely out of it two nights ago and just spent most of yesterday in bed trying to remain horizontal.
I get up out of bed and move toward the balcony, where he’s sitting with my dad.
“Hey, you should be in bed,” he says, as if my comfort and recovery are the most important things in the world to him.
“I’m fine. Really,” I say, reaching for the pitcher of lemonade, but Alejandro reads my mind and pours me a glass before I can even try.
“You wanna sit with us?” dad asks.
“Yeah, sure.”
Alejandro goes inside and grabs a chair, putting it in place for me. I feel like a princess. They’re sitting on iron chairs meant for the balcony, and able to withstand rain, and I’ve got a plush, comfortable chair that’s way too big to be out here. I’m not about to complain though.
“So…how are you feeling?” Alejandro begins.
“Confused.”
“I can tell you what happened if you really want to know, not that I think it would be a good idea to relive it,” my dad says.
“No, not about that. Something else.”
They both turn and look at me.
The vacation is well over halfway over and I want to salvage what we have left, and that starts by getting answers to some questions.
“Alejandro?”
“Yes.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course. Anything.”
I look at my dad as if to request that he give us some time.
“He should stay. No secrets.”
I nod slowly. “Okay then.” I pause. “Are you sure?” I say, just wanting to relieve myself of any responsibility of how embarrassing this might be.
“Absolutely.”
I breathe in deep and blow it out. “Why are you paying for sex?”
His eyes narrow and he looks at me strangely and then I can see that he’s completely offended. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The women, on your phone.”
“Women on my phone?” he mouths barely audibly.
“When we accidentally had each other’s phones the other day. You got a message about some hookers asking you which one you wanted.”
“Hookers? What? This had to be a wrong number.”
“It wasn’t. No way. I think she may have addressed you. No wait! She addressed you as ‘love.’”
“Love?”
“Hey love.”
Alejandro shakes his head and buries it in his palm.
“Is that what this was about?”
“What do you mean? This is a huge problem.”
My dad says nothing and I wonder what information he and Alejandro have already shared while I was lying around.
“You wait here,” Alejandro says, and goes and grabs his phone, coming back quickly.
“Did those whores look like this?” he asks, showing me a picture on his phone.
“Yes! Those girls exactly.”
Alejandro hands the phone to my dad, who purses his lips.
“Honey,” he begins. “Due to the violence in their home country, there are a number of Brazilians who’ve moved abroad…mostly to Portugal, but also a lot to San Diego, for some reason. In their culture it’s very sexy to have tan lines. It’s a huge thing for them, but they want small tan lines, which means small swimsuits when they go to the tanning bed when it’s not summer time in San Diego, or other places.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, in the fashion industry you’re always a few seasons ahead. I wouldn’t exactly call this fashion, but we have a large amount of girls wearing these in Brazil now, and that means we know they’ll sell like hotcakes in Portugal and San Diego this coming winter when all the girls don’t have the summer sun in the Northern Hemisphere and they all head to the tanning beds.”
“Swimsuits. It was for an order of swimsuits,” Alejandro says.
My stomach drops to my feet and I go to swallow but my throat is completely dry, despite the lemonade I just drank.
“I need to call Felicity,” Alejandro says to my dad, excusing himself.
“The woman who orders all this stuff from the factories in Vietnam is based out of the U.K. They address each other as ‘love’ quite often there.”
A long moment passes. “Oh,” is all I can muster up.
“Yeah, we’ll take one shipping container,” I hear Alejandro saying from the other room before he’s back on the balcony.
“Now that that’s cleared up, I have a question for you.”
He asks me, yet doesn’t grill me or come across in an aggressive way, about the text message that came through on my phone the same day. I explain how my friends have been encouraging me to hook up with some guy, and lose my virginity before the start of my senior year.
Talking about this in front of my dad is beyond embarrassing, but at this point it needs to happen. Plus, after what happened at the club the other night, this seems like nothing. These are just words. That…that was literally life and death.
And how ironic that I could have been trafficked to one of those very brothels that I was reading about online…one of the very brothels I was shocked to discover that maybe Alejandro had visited before…only for him to save me from spending days, if not weeks, or years, selling myself in one with no chance of escape.
After everything gets cleared up, we all just sit there and stare at the view for what seems like an hour until finally Alejandro excuses himself and leaves the hotel.
“Everything’s gonna be okay,” my dad offers up, trying to comfort me I think.
“Is it?”
“You just wait and see.”
CHAPTER 16
Lizzy
Two days later
“One,” I say as Alejandro and I hold hands on the side of the sailboat.
“Two,” we say in unison as our clasped hands go forward and then back.
“Three!” we say as we jump into the sea.
The cooling sensation of the Mediterranean as the saltwater caresses my skin is like no other.
I completely relax, allowing my body to float to the surface as I roll over onto my back, staring up at the warm summer sun.
Now this is what a vacation is all about.
“Hey honey!” dad says, waving at me.
I squint, bringing one hand up to block the sun and wave with my other hand as my dad takes a picture with his new Fujifilm Instax camera that Alejandro picked up on the way to the harbor this morning. It’s so cool to have something with us that’s basically a modern day Polaroid camera. Alejandro suggested we all sign the bottom of the pics and then make a collage out of them. The only question is where do we store the collage, or in other words, who
gets to keep all these pics…these memories?
I swim over to the edge of the boat. “Where’s Alejandro?”
“He’s coming back up,” my dad says pointing to the water where he must be. “He went down deep.”
Suddenly Alejandro emerges with that million-dollar smile. “Look what I found!”
“An…oyster?”
“Yeah, can you believe it?”
“You went all the way to the bottom?”
“There was a little sand shelf not too far down. I saw it on the controls and wanted to see if I could dive to it.”
“Wow.” I’m impressed. I know Alejandro’s got stamina, but still…that’s something else entirely.
“Let’s see if there’s a pearl inside.”
I pull myself up the ladder and back onto the boat, Alejandro right behind me and when my dad turns his head briefly he literally bites my butt, causing me to giggle.
We get on board and Alejandro digs a ballpoint hammer out of the area where there are a bunch of tools.
“Should we really disturb him?”
“Disturb him? Either there’s a pearl or we’re going to eat fresh oyster. Either way we win.”
I can’t argue with that.
Alejandro gives it a crack and turns it in his hands, opening it up in my direction.
“Wait…wha-…”
Dropping to one knee as my hands rise up to my face I stare down at the heart shaped diamond ring which is sitting perfectly inside the ‘oyster.’ It’s only now that I can see it’s an old one that he probably picked up in a gift shop somewhere…and what a gift it holds. The promise of a life, here, with him.
After things got cleared up the other day we started to get cozy again, albeit out of the line of sight of my dad. We talked about the future and how this could all work out, but most importantly, at this point, we hadn’t so much as spoken a word about any of it to my dad.
“Lizzy, I know this is fast, but life is short…and I want to spend every moment of mine with you.”
I feel the tears running down my cheeks thinking of all the fun we can have, all the swims, all the times cuddled up on the couch discussing our favorite books…even the business Alejandro runs with my father and how I can use my degree to fit right into that very business. It all just works out too perfectly, but I’m not about to question it for one second. Some things are truly meant to be.
“I don’t have a big speech or some dramatic show to give you…but what I can offer you is my heart, my love, my protection, every waking breath of every day…just for you, for us, for the family we will have one day.”
I’m about to lose it when something in me tells me to turn and look at my dad. He’s standing on an elevated part of the deck just next to me and he simply nods, a smile on his face.
“You’re father’s already given me permission for all of us to share in this moment,” he says, reading my mind. My eyes go back to Alejandro. “Now all I can ask is that you give me your permission to be your everything, to make you feel like the luckiest woman on the face of the earth…because you’ve already made me feel like the luckiest man on the globe.”
“Just like the globe in the library!” I yell.
“Just like the globe in the library,” he repeats, and I realize dad doesn’t know that story yet…and won’t.
A million more thoughts race through my mind.
I think about how Alejandro insisted I start my swimming today in a life jacket, making sure there were no effects from the drug I was slipped…and that tells me he’ll always watch out for me and our children.
I think about how once I was swimming freely and I removed the life jacket he was so adamant about, he didn’t scold me, knowing I can make my own decisions and stand on my own two feet.
I think about how he didn’t get angry about what happened with our phones, only frustrated…because it kept us apart and he missed time with me.
And of course I think about moments like these, how he somehow already ran his plan for this moment by my father, a true gentleman and a true friend to the man in my life who will be the one to give me away to the new man in my life…at our wedding.
He’s the man I’ve always wanted, the only man I want, and all it takes is one word to get everything I’ve ever wanted in this life. And despite the summer heat, goosebumps cover my body knowing these are the last seconds of my life as a single person. I may be young, but I know what I want. I always have…for today, tomorrow, and forever.
Him.
“Yes,” I say, and he silently and slowly slides the ring on my finger. It’s a perfect fit, just like the two of us.
If you would have told me when I boarded that plane I might never come back I wouldn’t have believed you. But now, when he lifts me up in his arms and spins me around, as his lips meet mine, I truly feel like I’m flying and I don’t want to ever come down.
“Time to start a new tradition,” he says, carrying me to the edge of the boat.
“I’m not missing this!” dad says, joining him at the side.
“And, uh…one,” they say together, just like the videos dad showed me of the two of them jumping off the roof and into the pool back at dad’s childhood home.
But this time it’s different. They’re still jumping together…yes.
But this time they’re jumping not into an above ground pool, a dangerous mission if there ever was one.
They’re jumping into the sea, and I’m there with them, ready to join them as I take the plunge into the life I always wanted.
“And, uh…two.”
Knowing that thanks to him, to both of them, that I’ll always be able to fly and every day will feel as fresh and as fun as the cool summer breeze that I feel as we all say, “Three!” and jump from the boat and into the water.
As we submerge, Alejandro holds me tight as our bodies intertwine as we sink into not an abyss, but pure bliss.
Seconds later he’s swimming us both to the surface, our lips still locked as we kiss and I realize I never needed air in the first place…only him.
“I love you,” he says.
“I love you.”
“Alejandro? Did you drop anchor?” my dad asks as the boat slowly moves toward the horizon.
“Never,” he says, without taking his eyes from mine. “This journey’s just starting and we’re going to sail off into the sunset…every day and forever,” he says, as he puts his hand on my belly as my dad swims furiously toward the boat.
We both laugh, as my dad grabs onto the back and boards it, turning the wheel to come back and pick us up.
With my legs wrapped around his waist, he treads water, putting his hand on my stomach. “And by we I mean our family.”
“Our family,” I say.
“And that all starts with you.”
“With us,” I say. “With us,” I repeat as dad approaches with the boat on one side and the beautiful Barcelona skyline on the other.
This years summer vacation is never going to end…just like this fairy tale I’m living.
Thanks to dad’s best friend who is now my best friend and I’m his…forever.
EPILOGUE
Alejandro
Two months later
“Careful, beautiful,” I say as Lizzy lowers herself from our boat into the waters off Costa Brava, just north of Barcelona.
“I know,” she says, taking my hand as I help her into the sea.
The doctor who told us she was pregnant is a bit of an alternative medicine kind of woman. She recommended a lot of time outside during her pregnancy, saying that it would make the child more comfortable, relaxed, and healthy. Okay, technically it probably makes the mother more of those things which in turn does the same for the baby. Regardless, I’m all in as it’s allowed us to extend the summer another couple of months.
It wasn’t hard to convince Lizzy’s professors that she needed a late start to the semester either. With the way the world is so interconnected now, she’s able to follow along with lec
tures online and even take some exams right from the boat from our satellite connection. Technology is amazing when it allows people’s lives to be lived like this.
Summer Vacation With Dad's Best Friend (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 108) Page 7
