They walked out of the relatively small airport and were assaulted with offers as soon as they stepped into the night air. A dozen taxi drivers were competing for their attention, making offers in English and a slew of other languages. Feeling completely overwhelmed, Ben pressed past them to where the actual vehicles were. He was vaguely aware of Jace asking him to wait, but he was eager to get into the solitude and comfort of a car. Not wanting to be in cramped quarters again, he headed for the biggest vehicle, a white minivan.
The driver appeared, happily taking his luggage from him. Ben allowed himself this luxury and crawled into the backseat of the car. Jace was soon next to him, tutting something about not choosing so quickly. Then the driver was behind the wheel, but before he pulled out another man took the passenger seat.
“My brother,” the driver explained with a smile. “Where you go?”
Jace gave him the address. The man nodded wordlessly, and guided the vehicle away from the airport. Ben looked out the windows, eager for his first glimpse of a European city. So far, Rome didn’t look all that different from Houston.
“Are you sure we actually left Texas?” he asked Jace.
“Hm? Oh, I see what you mean. All highways look pretty much the same. Wait until we’re in the center of Rome. You won’t believe the difference.”
Ben checked the meter to see if cabs here were as notoriously expensive as they had been in Chicago. Except there wasn’t a meter. That couldn’t be right. He shifted in his seat, scanning the dashboard as casually as possible. He was certain that there wasn’t a proper meter. Nor was there any sign of a taxi license or driver ID. Surely such things were required, even in a different country. How did people know if they were getting ripped off? Were they supposed to haggle the price before they got in the vehicle? He looked worriedly to Jace who met his gaze and nodded knowingly.
“Told you we picked too soon,” he said in hushed tones. “This little trip is probably going to cost us an arm and a leg. It’s all right,” he added when Ben’s face crumpled with guilt. “We’ll be fine.”
The all-too-familiar sight of the highway receded into the distance as they barreled down one of the exits. There was good reason for the universal stereotype of taxi drivers being demons behind the wheel. They zipped past a small village in the blink of an eye, entering farmland, the road dark and empty except for the illumination from their headlights. The two men in the front seat, who had up to now been chatting rapidly in their native tongue, grew silent. Jace tensed up as the van pulled over to the side of the road. Ben reached over, his hand crawling along the seat in hope of finding Jace’s.
The driver’s brother turned to face them, his brow furrowed angrily. “How much money you have? We need more money to go.”
Jace said something in Italian, causing the other man to look surprised, but he recovered quickly. “You give us money, you have no problem.” He raised a hand and wagged a flat metal object at them. A knife. It was still folded shut, but his meaning was clear enough.
Ben felt cold panic. Had he traveled all this way just to die in some remote Italian field? If all these guys wanted was money, that was fine with him. He shifted to reach for his wallet, but Jace’s left hand stilled him. His right hand was already holding a wallet out. The man took it eagerly and turned forward again to examine its contents. Ben wanted to say something to Jace, comfort him or discuss some sort of cunning plan that would get them both out of this mess, but the driver’s eyes in the rearview mirror were locked onto them both.
“This all?” the brother demanded.
“That’s 200,000 lira!” Jace replied.
“That nothing!” the brother spat back.
“Well, it’s all we have,” Jace said. “Everyone uses credit cards these days.”
The man looked skeptically at Ben, who shook his head in what he hoped was a convincing manner. He did have money on him, and he was more than willing to give it up, but he didn’t want to prove Jace a liar. Who knew how the men would react then?
“Get out,” the driver said.
“Fine.” Jace nodded to him that they should exit, but Ben faltered.
He didn’t like the idea of being abandoned in the middle of nowhere any more than he liked being robbed. The audacity of the suggestion incensed him, causing his panic to recede as he slowly saw red. “You can’t leave us here!”
“Your hotel not far,” the brother said in friendly tones, as if he were performing a public service. “You walk that way. Half hour, you there.”
“You just took all our money,” Ben retorted. “You can at least drive us the rest of the way there!”
“Ben--” Jace tried.
“No! I’m not getting out of the car. Go ahead and cut us up! Stain your upholstery with our blood and go through the hassle of hiding our bodies. I don’t care. Or you can take us to the hotel. You decide!”
Ben could barely breathe by the time he was finished. The two brothers yammered at each other angrily for a few moments before finally reaching a conclusion.
“We take you,” the brother said moodily.
Ben wished he could feel relief, but at this point he could only suspect the worst. Maybe they were being driven to some mafia hideout where the professional cleaners would make short work of them. His muscles remained tense and his pulse throbbed until the neon hotel sign finally came into view. The taxi pulled over before reaching the u-shaped driveway.
“Get out,” the driver ordered a second time.
Ben wanted to, he really really wanted to, but another thought had occurred to him. The second they stepped out of the vehicle, it would drive away, taking their luggage with it. There was something he had worked very hard on in that luggage, and he wasn’t willing to give it up.
“Take our bags out,” he insisted. He wanted to look at Jace, but he didn’t dare take his attention off the two men up front.
The driver’s brother appeared about to snap and carve his initials all over their bodies. The muscles in his jaw tensed as his eyes bored into Ben’s, but the unblinking gaze that he received in return broke him down. He stepped out of the car, slamming the door loudly behind him. He opened the rear hatch of the van and took their luggage out, tossing it carelessly to the side of the street. As soon as it was out, both Ben and Jace followed suit.
“Crazy Americans!” the brother spat, literally this time, at Ben’s feet before reentering the taxi and speeding away.
A cool breeze blew across them as they watched it disappear around a corner.
“You were amazing!” Jace said, grinning and picking up Ben in a hug. “Jesus! You should be a hostage negotiator!”
“Well, that was bullshit,” Ben said, his voice trembling. His braveness had fled along with his adrenaline, returning the fear he had been ignoring. His legs were feeling shaky, too. “Come on. Let’s go,” he said, removing himself from Jace’s embrace and picking up his luggage. He just wanted to get into the hotel where they were safe before the thugs came back to gun them down or something.
Check-in went by in a blur. Ben repeatedly looked out the lobby windows for any sign of trouble. The receptionist barely blinked an eye when Jace explained how his credit cards had been stolen. A couple of calls had to be made to cancel the cards and to secure the reservation. Jace switched to Italian again and must have found some way to work it out because they got their room.
Ben sat down on the bed and tried unsuccessfully to hide his trembling hands. Jace noticed and kneeled before Ben, taking them in his own. “It’s okay,” he soothed. “We’re safe now. We just got into the wrong taxi. I should have known better and been more careful.”
“It’s my fault,” Ben said, refusing to let him take the blame. “No, screw that. It was theirs. That was really fucked up.”
“It was,” Jace agreed. “But you shouldn’t let it ruin our trip.”
How could it not? All Jace’s money had been taken, and relaxing in a country where you could get robbed just by getting inside a taxi did
n’t sound possible. “I think I want to go home,” Ben blurted out.
Jace smiled sympathetically and sat next to Ben, wrapping an arm around him. “I know you’re shaken up. You have every right to be, but that was just bad luck. Italy is a wonderful country, and the people are fantastic. We just ran into a couple of bad seeds, something that could happen anywhere. I can’t let you leave now. I won’t let you go home with a bad impression of this place.”
Ben sighed and leaned against him. The idea of the long flight home was almost worse than being robbed. “Okay,” he agreed. He was starting to feel better. Being near Jace always made him feel safe.
“You did great with the luggage.”
“Well, I didn’t want to lose your present.”
“My present?” Jace asked. “Sounds good, but look what else you saved.”
Jace unzipped his bag and dug around until he found a cheap figure of a plastic cat. The toy split in half like a Russian doll revealing a wad of cash inside. “Never put all your eggs in one basket.”
“How much is that?”
“Pretty much the whole vacation budget,” Jace laughed. “I only had enough in my wallet for the taxi and a meal out somewhere.
Ben smiled with relief. He thought he had only been saving their clothes, but now he was especially proud of his actions. Feeling more like himself again, he dug into his own bag and brought out a small cellophane-covered basket. He handed it over to Jace and waited nervously for his reaction.
Jace pulled away the plastic to reveal a basket full of fortune cookies. They were a little misshapen but came in a variety of different colors.
“Wow! These look amazing,” Jace exclaimed. “I love the colors. Look, a blue one! Where did you get them?”
“They’re homemade,” Ben explained. They were a huge pain in the ass to make, but the expression on Jace’s face was worth it.
“No way! What about the fortunes?”
“Check it out.” Ben smiled as Jace broke one open and tossed half into his mouth.
“Mmmm, good. What’s in my future?” He examined the scrawl on the little strip of paper and raised an eyebrow. “A thousand kisses will soon cover your body.” He raised his gaze from the fortune to look at Ben. “Let’s see if we can make this one come true.”
* * * * *
Before leaving for Italy, four nights had seemed too short a visit. By the third day, Ben’s leg muscles were shredded and his feet felt on the verge of falling off. He couldn’t imagine his condition had they stayed for a week or longer. There were simply too many sights to see. Ben found it impossible to rest for very long before the urge to continue exploring overtook him again.
Rome was a fascinating mix of old and new. They visited the obligatory sites: the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Pantheon, and the Circus Maximus. Ben’s favorite had been the ancient ruins of the Forum. While there he imagined travelling thousands of years into the past, the crumbling buildings restored and proud again, the streets teaming with Roman people going about their daily business. Being in the midst of the ruins brought home the reality of this bygone era.
Modern Rome had much to offer as well, especially for a shopaholic like Ben. They ducked into designer fashion stores where the price for a pair of jeans was more than what Ben paid for rent, but they also found some smaller stores where he picked up a couple of shirts he was certain never to see back home. The grocery stores were more humble, full of variations of familiar Italian staples but new items as well.
The quality of Italian restaurants varied wildly. For the first couple of meals, Jace took them to back streets where the menus weren’t even in English. The food here was exquisite and gave credence to Italian cuisine’s reputation as being among the best in the world. Once, Ben was impatiently hungry and allowed a pushy proprietor to pull them into a restaurant near a tourist attraction, where Ben’s pizza was flavorless cardboard and Jace’s pasta microwaved.
Having learned his lesson, Ben let Jace choose from then on. Today he had managed to find a lunch café that looked like a tourist trap, but was visited almost exclusively by locals. Jace ordered for them in Italian, loving the opportunity to show off his language skills. Ben was more than happy to allow him, enjoying the helpless feeling that came with not being able to read or speak the local tongue.
“To the bravest boyfriend I’ve ever had,” Jace toasted once their wine had been served.
“You’re not still going on about that?” Ben blushed.
“I don’t just mean the way you handled the taxi drivers,” Jace said. He considered the wine as he swirled it around the glass. “How old were you when you first came out?”
“Fourteen,” Ben said after a moment’s calculation.
“I’d say that’s pretty damn brave.”
“Yeah, maybe in the nineties,” Ben countered, “but kids are coming out younger and younger these days.”
“All right, all right. What about that time at the Greek restaurant where the waiter disappeared for half an hour and you marched into the kitchen--”
“Only to find him smoking a joint with the chef,” Ben finished wryly.
“At least you got us our food. How about that guy you punched in the chest after we saw him kick his dog?”
“Fat lot of good it did. His dog turned on me like I was the jerk.”
“It was still brave,” Jace insisted.
“Look, I’m not trying to go overboard with humility,” Ben said, “but I think you misunderstand. Sometimes I get angry and do crazy things without thinking. I don’t think that counts as bravery. Recklessness would be a better description.”
“Call it whatever you like, but there’s something there.” Jace shook a breadstick at him. “Usually you’re adorably sweet and sympathetic, but I’ve seen glimpses of something else. There’s something stronger than titanium inside of you.”
“Like the Terminator?”
“Exactly like that.” Jace laughed. “That bravery, recklessness, whatever you want to call it, is one of the many things I love about you.”
They both became silent at the mention of the “L” word. Funny that they could dive headlong into sex, a relationship, even a trip across the ocean, but saying those three little words was something they still balked at.
“So what’s next?” Ben asked, leaving the question open for interpretation.
“Well, it’s our final day here and I’ve saved the best for last.”
Ben didn’t have to wait long to find out what this meant. A few blocks from the restaurant, in the midst of clothing stores and newspaper kiosks, was another set of ruins. Archeologists had dug down so that an entire city block was below street level. Jace led Ben by the hand down the cracked and ancient stairs and into the excavated ruins where a familiar smell greeted their nose.
“Cats?” Ben asked, but an answer wasn’t necessary as there were already half a dozen in sight.
“They’re using this area as a sanctuary,” Jace said, stooping down to pet a three-legged cat that was rubbing against his leg. “We have to hurry. I think the tour is about to start.”
As it turned out, direct access to the ruins, known as the Torre Argentina, was only possible via one of these guided tours. Otherwise, the land that had once belonged to Roman gods and their temples was now the exclusive home of felines who behaved as if they were equally divine. Every site their guide led them to was occupied by a cat, sunbathing on ancient steps or stalking through broken columns in search of mice.
“And it was here, in 44 B.C., that Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by his fellow senators,” their tour guide informed them, causing a frenzy of picture taking.
“Et tu, Kitty?” Ben joked. When Jace didn’t respond, he looked back to find his boyfriend some yards behind the tour group. He was sitting in the dirt, two cats on his lap, another on his shoulders.
Ben had a great respect for animals. So much so that he usually left them alone, figuring that they didn’t care for people constantly trying to pet them
. His experiences backed this up, and so he usually kept his distance. Jace was different. He loved cats so much that it flowed out of him and somehow changed the world. Even the most troubled cat willingly gave into his affections. He was like a gay version of Snow White with all the forest creatures flocking around him.
“I love you,” Ben said. He’d meant only to say it to himself, but it felt good to finally say it aloud. Jace didn’t react, too far away to hear, so he said it again, this time yelling it. “I love you!”
Jace looked up, surprised, before a wild grin broke out on his face. He stood, sending the poor cats flying and strode over to Ben. “About time you admitted it,” he said before picking Ben up and kissing him. Behind them came a few shocked gasps, a couple of titters, and at least one burst of applause. “I love you, too,” Jace murmured into his ear.
The rest of the tour was embarrassing; most of the group kept an eye on them, waiting for a repeat performance. Ben was relieved when the tour was over, craving private time with Jace so they could explore this new confession.
“Hotel?” Ben asked as he stuffed money into the donation box.
“No time,” Jace responded. “I said I saved the best for last.”
“This wasn’t it?”
“No. Well, for me it was. Especially now.” They grinned at each other before remembering they were in the midst of a conversation. “No, I had something special in mind for you.”
The exterior of the Teatro dell’Opera couldn’t compete with the rest of the city’s architecture, but the interior didn’t disappoint. Opera had never been an interest of Ben’s, but he understood why Jace might think he would enjoy it. Ben felt severely underdressed as they entered the theater, but he had felt that way almost the entire trip due to the fashion-conscious Romans. He felt thankful when he spotted a few other couples in T-shirts and shorts, no doubt his fellow countrymen.
Once the performance started, Ben found himself enthralled by the vocal talents of the singers. Each voice had so much raw power that he found it difficult to believe they weren’t boosted electronically. He sat in rapt fascination for the first hour, soaking in as much as he could. The second hour he began to squirm, eager to leave the theater so he could attempt to imitate what he was hearing.
Something Like Summer Page 20
