books 1 - 3

by Ella J. Smyth

  “Yes, I’d love to. And sorry again for—” She waved a hand vaguely in Gerald’s direction. “My name is Adi. I’ve only just arrived today”—way to mention the obvious, come on, get a grip!—“and you have to forgive me…” Whoa, the kitchen suddenly swerved.

  A firm grip on her elbow steadied her, and Lukas helped her sit on a chair that Gerald had pulled quickly from underneath a small, square table. “Hey, take it easy. Jet lag’s a bitch. You’ll sleep like a baby tonight, and tomorrow you’ll be fine.”

  Adi folded her arms on the table and put her head down on them. Wow, these guys are nice, she thought dreamily before resting her eyes for a moment.

  Somebody shook her shoulder, and a deep voice murmured in German, “Adi, wach auf. Wake up, dinner’s ready.”

  Adi jerked upright and looked around her with wide eyes. For a moment she had no idea where she was. Her back hurt, and she was still so tired. Then a pair of warm brown eyes caught her frantic glare, and it all fell into place. She was in Heidelberg, in her new flat’s kitchen.

  The relief she felt was immediately replaced with a hot flush of embarrassment. Had she fallen asleep in the kitchen in front of her flatmates—two guys she’d only met for a few minutes? A large, warm hand covered hers and squeezed before letting go.

  “It’s okay. You seem really tired,” Gerald continued haltingly. His English wasn’t nearly as good as Lukas’s, but he was trying. “Come eat. We made Spaghetti al Arrabiata, it is hot and good.”

  While Adi was still trying to wake up, Lukas stepped next to Gerald with two white bowls, filled to the rim with strands of thin noodles, glistening with red pulpy tomatoes, garnished with parsley. Adi sniffed and sat up straight.

  “Parmiggiano?” Gerald smiled, holding a chunk of cheese and a grater over her bowl. God, yes. Adi nodded and watched hungrily as Gerald covered her dish in grated cheese. She didn’t want to be rude and start eating before her new flatmates, but boy, did this smell good!

  She watched as Gerald went to bring a bowl of dressed salad, hopefully without dropping it on the floor first. He was very tall, several inches taller than his friend. Now that she wasn’t so exhausted anymore, she opened her mind as Honi had taught her and took stock of their spirit animals. Well, now, that was weird. Their creatures could have been twins. Two beautiful chipmunks, red-brown fur, the distinctive black-white-black stripe down their backs, shiny black eyes surrounded by white patches. Adi had never seen anything like this before. The two animals jumped from shoulder to shoulder, from one boy to the next, playing and nuzzling each other. That was so unusual—spirit animals never swapped their humans!

  Lukas brought the third plate, and as the two passed each other, Gerald bent and swiped his lips past Lukas’s cheek. Lukas smiled happily and set his plate on the table. Huh. More than friends, then. Would that explain their spirit animals? Something to ask Honi… dammit. For a moment, the weight of her decision to walk away bore down on her so hard, she had to take a deep breath and consciously shake off the feeling of loss.

  When Adi looked back at Gerald, the tall man was regarding her steadily, waiting for a reaction to the kiss. A test, then. Adi nodded and smiled, and when the two men returned the gesture, she knew she’d passed. Adi’s heart lifted a little, hoping that they would be flatmates and friends.

  9

  Damn carbs! Adi sat slumped in a chair, trying to concentrate on the opening speech of the exchange program’s coordinator. A middle-aged professor dude in a wrinkled gray suit and a bow tie—a bow tie!—had been speaking for the last ten minutes.

  Honor, happy to see so many, make us proud, blah blah blah. Maybe it wasn’t the carbs, maybe the dude was just so boring he could put a herd of cats to sleep. Mangling metaphors, sue me, Adi thought sourly, fighting to keep her head from falling forward.

  She yawned, snapping her mouth shut, when the speaker glared at her mid-word. If only she hadn’t picked the front row. She shifted on the uncomfortable wooden seat as the coordinator mercifully finished up. She wouldn’t have lasted another five minutes.

  Afterwards, Adi found herself at a stand-up reception, being offered cheap finger food—not like students would ever turn down free grub—and one glass each of sparkling wine. She’d spent a few minutes collecting leaflets and class schedules. She’d now moved to the other side of tiredness where she felt restless, irritated, like her skin was too tight. She nearly vibrated as she stood there, clutching her glass with one hand, and—what was this? A cocktail sausage wrapped in limp bacon?—with the other.

  Hot breath caressed her ear as a voice, smooth and creamy like caramel fudge, whispered, “You don’t look like you’re having fun.”

  Adi jumped and spun around. “Florice,” she gasped.

  “Oh, good, you remember my name,” Florice said with an amused smirk on his generous mouth. Adi stepped back to put some distance between her and the blond man. Damn, he had startled her!

  His face fell, and he quickly said in a normal voice, flirtation gone for the moment, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just thought it be fun to surprise you…” His voice trailed off.

  Ugh, now she felt guilty. The look on his face was that of a scolded three-year-old—an impression emphasized by his tousled blond hair and big green eyes. It wasn’t his fault that her exhaustion made her jumpy. She forced the smile back on her face, and immediately his expression relaxed in relief.

  Something was off, though. There was a tension between them, like similar poles of two magnets pushing apart. Despite his obvious good looks, his long legs and lean physique, she didn’t feel attracted to him at all. She took another small step back, shuffling from foot to foot to hide her motion, but he noticed it. His eyes narrowed, and before Adi could react, his hand fell on her shoulder and caressed the length of her arm, trailing off above the wrist.

  “You really don’t need to be scared of me,” he said. His voice had dropped back down to a seductive timbre. It was mesmerizing, and to Adi’s synesthetic ear, it sounded like chestnut-brown with creamy swirls. She shook her head, trying to clear her mind. Florice continued speaking, but she wasn’t listening any longer. His hypnotic voice was dulling her senses.

  She swayed towards him, all thoughts of not being attracted pushed aside while she absorbed the vibrations of his words. The feeling of his fingers caressing her cheek pulled her out of the floaty state she’d been drifting in.

  “You’re not listening. That’s okay, I can see how tired you are. Tell you what, next time we can talk properly. I can wait.”

  Her startled eyes met his, and she was immediately mesmerized again. His irises were a flawless green, like the first buds of snowdrops peeking through snow after a cold winter. The longer she stared, the more vivid the color became.

  She hadn’t realized that she’d moved closer again until his hand on her arm stopped her. Adi blinked, and Florice smiled, obviously amused. He stepped back and said, “Soon, Adi,” before walking away.

  Relief and regret flooded her in equal measures. She stumbled a little, still trying to clear her mind. It was high time to call it a day. Adi put her empty glass down, wiped her greasy fingers on a tissue, and escaped into the warm night. She barely remembered the ten-minute walk to her flat, although she’d never forget those stairs, ever. Just before slipping into desperately needed sleep, she vaguely wondered how it was that she still felt Florice’s cool caress on her cheek and arm.

  10

  Lips sliding to her temple, humming as they went along. Adi reveled in the hot exhale caressing her skin, the vibration making her smile. As she tilted her head to allow more access, a warm mouth nibbled along her jawline. Soon a smooth tongue licked along the seam of her lips, and she opened her mouth with a sigh. The sensation of lips covering hers, the slick tongue sliding into her mouth, was so erotic that she shifted in her bed, begging for more.

  She opened her eyes, expecting Honi’s smiling face and intense eyes above hers. Her hand instinctively reached to her si
de, only to touch a white, slightly smudged wall. A pang of disappointment made her eyes well up. Honi wasn’t with her because he was back in the States. Whereas Adi was in Heidelberg, ready to build a new life without him.

  For a moment she missed him so much, the heat in his dark eyes when he looked at her in his bed, that she wondered what the hell she was doing here, away from him. She balled her hands into fists and pushed them against her eyes, willing the dream images to float away already. Honi didn’t love her, not the way she needed him to. Remembering their last fight did the trick. Adi punched her pillow with a grunt. Her anger at him was still raw, and it didn’t take much to draw it to the surface.

  She rolled to the side and checked her phone. She’d have to get up in half an hour anyway, so she might as well try to get a head start on the bathroom. Today she’d talk to Gerald and Lukas about maybe drawing up a schedule. I’ll probably have to do some cleaning, too. She rolled her eyes at herself. Course they’ll have a schedule. They’re German.

  Grinning at her bad joke, she hopped out of bed. She bent down and pulled a large towel out of her unpacked suitcase. Just as she straightened up, wrapping the towel around her, two male voices rose in argument below her window, accompanied by glass shattering on the cobblestones. The incoherent shouting left no doubt that the men were drunk.

  Adi went to her window and looked down. Last night, the yells and laughter of revelers had woken her up several times. She’d left the window open to get some more air moving and cool the room down. Maybe get some earplugs at the drugstore? Living in the town center was awesome, but the party mile was right underneath her window. Especially now, it seemed. She winced as another bottle clattered loudly to the ground, rolling for long seconds before coming to a stop without breaking. Yeah, definitely earplugs!

  Adi turned away, thoughts galloping ahead. She needed to buy groceries. Yesterday she’d forgotten all about it. Honi would have loved exploring Heidelberg with her. Stop thinking about him! She pulled open her door impatiently and stepped out into the hallway.

  Lukas had shown her the bathroom last night, and she’d barely managed to hide her distaste of sharing the facilities with the two boys. When she opened the bathroom door now, she immediately noticed that somebody had cleared a little space for her on the windowsill.

  Yesterday, all horizontal surfaces had been cluttered with bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and more creams and lotions than Adi had ever seen. Amidst the array of bottles, there was a small gap that hadn’t been there last night. At least she didn’t have to store her own toiletries on the floor. She tried not to look too closely at the gray grouting lines in between ancient black-and-white tiles. The whole flat had obviously not been overhauled since the seventies.

  An orange-headed mop leaned in a red bucket against the wall, so the boys at least cleaned occasionally. After another look at the floor, Adi turned around towards her room and decided to wear flip-flops in the shower until she’d had a chance to bleach the hell out of anywhere her feet might touch.

  When she’d finished with her shower, there was still no sign of the other students. Adi would have liked to get some directions to the lecture hall, although she’d figured out yesterday that it had to be somewhere around Universitätsplatz. In a much better mood, she skipped down the stairs. She’d have plenty of time to get a cup of tea and a croissant in one of the many bakeries nearby.

  It was still only 7:30 when Adi slammed the house door behind her. She stood in an alleyway a couple of yards away from the main street. Walking from the dark, dank, cavernous gap between the large houses on either side into the open, sunny place outside the Heiliggeistkirche felt like emerging into a different world. Arms outstretched, a smile on her face, head tilted back, Adi took a deep breath. Sinking into herself for just a moment, she reveled in knowing that she stood amidst thousands of years of history. Heidelberg, fought over by Swedish and French forces over four hundred years ago, saved from destruction by General Patton during the Second World War, had survived largely intact.

  Walking between silent sentinels that had been guarding the town’s bustling crowds since the fifteenth century, Adi followed her nose to the nearest bakery, ready to take on the day.

  “Guten Morgen,” the bakery assistant, a chubby redhead about Adi’s age, singsonged happily. Adi smiled in return, her eyes greedily racing from one end of the tantalizing display to the other. Rows of neatly laid-out donuts, Danishes, pretzels filled with savory meats and boiled eggs vied with imperfectly round loaves of seeded bread behind the assistant’s head.

  At the far end, Adi made out a chilled display cabinet full of gateaux, from buttercream to black forest. They were still whole, pristine, untouched by a knife, and so, so delectable. Adi’s mouth watered, and she promised herself a piece of marzipan-apricot-buttercream in the afternoon. Now that she was in Germany, she was honor-bound to observe the traditional German coffee-and-cake hour. It was an obligation she gladly took upon herself.

  She spent a few minutes trying to decide what she wanted for breakfast and waved off the assistant’s questioning glance while she decided. A customer had come in while Adi was distracted, and his smooth voice sounded familiar. Adi looked up, right into Florice’s amused eyes.

  “Hey, good morning. What a surprise meeting you here,” he said, a huge smile splitting his face.

  Adi had no choice but to return his smile in the face of his unwavering friendliness. She still wasn’t sure why she didn’t feel more attraction for him. He looked edible in the early sunlight. Tall, fit, charming—he was everything she found attractive in a man. She was clearly still too hung up on Honi. There was no rush to find another man. She’d never defined herself through her boyfriend, and there was certainly no reason to start now, she thought defiantly. Friends, though, friends you could never have enough of.

  “—lecture starting?” Florice waited for her answer. Crap, she’d zoned out for a moment.

  “Sorry?”

  “I said, when is your lecture starting?” Florice repeated patiently.

  “Eight o’clock. Language History of the Middle Ages.”

  Florice seemed pleased. “Cool, I—”

  He interrupted himself, paid the girl behind the counter and took his paper bag. Adi quickly pointed at a simple butter croissant for herself.

  While she waited, Florice pulled a marzipan-filled Hörnchen from the bag, took a big bite and moaned with pleasure. The pastry left a white mustache of powdered sugar above his lip.

  Adi laughed. “I’ll need some of that tomorrow.”

  “It’s so good,” Florice confirmed, his eyes closed with bliss. While he chewed, Adi paid for her purchase and turned to leave.

  “As I was saying,” Florice continued, following her outside. “I have the same lecture. Want to walk with me?”

  Adi fought off a feeling of unease. This was a small town, and if they studied the same subject, there were bound to be lectures and seminars they would attend together. She smiled. “Sure, lead the way.”

  It was an unsettling feeling, walking next to the young man. He didn’t speak much, other than to point at an interesting shop or architectural oddity here and there. He walked fast, propelled forward by his long, jeans-clad legs. Adi had to speed up a few times so that she wouldn’t be left behind. At one stage, Florice looked behind and grinned.

  “I’m sorry, am I walking too fast?”

  Adi answered, “No, no.” It would have sounded more convincing, had she not been out of breath and barely able to get out more than those two tiny words. Florice’s grin got bigger.

  “You’re out of shape. There’s a group of us meeting for walks in the area. Would you like to come along sometime?”

  Adi bristled at being called “unfit” but then sighed. He had his countrymen’s annoying directness, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have a point. She still felt the jet lag in her knees and couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a proper workout. Joining a gym was on her to-do list, but
until she found one she liked, she wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to get to know the area better and meet new people.

  “Sure,” she said, returning his pleased smile uncomfortably.

  By the time they arrived at Universitätsplatz, they still had more than fifteen minutes to go until the lecture was due to start. Florice held the door as Adi entered a large white building, stretching the width of the square.

  The three-story Neue Universität sat kitty-corner to a utilitarian sixties cafeteria. Adi wondered what had been there before, given that lining the beautiful square, eighteenth-century facades rose proudly upwards in their red and white fineries.

  When Adi turned to ask Florice, his face was so annoyed, she wondered if she had done something wrong. Before she could open her mouth, he grumbled, “We’re late.”

  Adi checked her phone. “But don’t we have another fifteen minutes before the lecture starts?”

  Florice hurried along the wide corridor, shrugging as he turned the corner. “True. The university has some real staffing and space issues, though. You have to be here a lot earlier to get a seat inside the lecture hall.”

  Adi’s eyes boggled. There were students milling everywhere. Adi stepped over several outstretched legs of people sitting on the floor, smiling apologetically. When she reached the open door, she looked into a cavernous hall. It was breathtaking, light streaming in through twenty-foot-high floor-to-ceiling windows, reflecting off the irregular geometric ceiling. The effect was stunning, modern and bright. Seating for hundreds of listeners occupied the length of the massive room. The noise level was deafening, every seat taken, every bit of floor space inside the room occupied.

  When Adi turned around, Florice waved at her from further down the hallway. “Come on, Adi, I’ve got us two spaces!”