Claiming Olivia Read online

  I double checked my phone to make sure I had shut it off then looked out the window again. I watched as the two planes in front of us took off and headed toward their destinations. Then our plane’s engines fired up and we began to pick up speed.

  I always likened a plane’s take off to a rollercoaster. At first you go slow to build up the tension and anticipation, but the moment those wheels leave the tarmac, it’s like going over the first drop. Exciting, scary, and fun once you recover from the initial shock.

  I closed my eyes once we were steadily in the air and were allowed to take off our seatbelts. The Dramamine was starting to kick in and I wanted to be well rested for whatever adventures lay in front of me.

  When I woke up it was because the young man sitting next to me was gently shaking me. I opened my eyes and looked over at him and he smiled.

  “We’re in Madrid,” he said with a slight accent.

  I nodded and stretched which made me laugh quietly as he stood up and grabbed his backpack from the overhead and start to head down the line of people that were pouring out into the terminal. I had a bitter taste in my mouth and I’m sure my hair was standing up like it did when I napped so I smoothed it out before I reached up to grab my belongings and then get in line as well. I stifled a yawn and sighed.

  As I stepped off the plane I was greeted by attendants who checked my passport information then gave me a stamp. I looked down and smiled sleepily as I received my first official “You’ve Finally Traveled Outside of America” stamp.

  “Livie!” I looked around the terminal and saw Cassidy waving at me with a big smile. I ran over and gave her a big hug.

  “Can you believe it? We’re in Spain!” I said to her happily.

  “I know,” she said, “it should be a good time. I thought your plane would never get here! I checked the gates while we were waiting so I know where we have to go. Want to get something to eat? I’m starving!”

  “Definitely, but I need to brush my teeth first. I can taste the death swarming around in there,” I replied making a face at her.

  We both laughed as she led the way to the restrooms and I pulled out my toothbrush. I listened as she told me about her flight from JFK and how she swore that the pilot “had to be on something” with all the turbulence they encountered. As I brushed I had to stop at points and giggle because Cassidy was very comedic when she explained scary or strange situations. Once I was satisfied that the bacteria in my mouth had died, I spit out the paste into the sink and swished some water around in my mouth while I cleaned my toothbrush. After I was done, I checked to make sure I hadn’t left anything in the sink. That was one of my pet peeves; old paste in the sink. That was right up there with a man shaving and not cleaning the sink.

  I put my toothbrush back into the travel kit and picked up my bags as Cassidy and I looked around for a place to eat. We settled on La Pausa, mostly because we thought the name was fitting. We sat there looking at menus and then kind of stared at each other.

  “So, you’re gonna tell me what this says right?” I asked quietly.

  “I was hoping you would,” she replied.

  “Okay, I’ll do my best, but if I wind up ordering us moose ass, I don’t want to hear any complaints,” I replied with a shrug.

  She started to laugh and told me to flip the menu over.

  “Oh.”

  Now that I could read the menu without second guessing myself because it was in English I felt more confident in knowing what I could and couldn’t eat. I ordered a Coke and she ordered water like she usually did and we sat there quietly for a moment as we watched the people walking by in the terminal.

  “Hey, who’s that?” Cassidy suddenly asked.

  “Who?” I asked following her gaze.

  She was looking at a guy that for some reason seemed familiar. He was standing at the front of the restaurant smiling at us while he chatted with the host. When he saw me looking he waved with a big grin. I raised an eyebrow and waved back quickly.

  “I have no idea,” I replied.

  “He’s been staring at us since he walked in,” she said before she turned her attention to the waiter who had just arrived with our food. We both started to unwrap our napkins when he suddenly appearing by our table.

  “Mind if I sit down?” he asked.

  I looked at Cassidy who looked up at him with a priceless look on her face.

  “Sure,” she said giving me a quick wide-eyed look.

  I remember that Europeans were very friendly, but this was a little friendlier than either of us were expecting.

  Grinning, he pulled out a chair and turned backward so that he was sitting on it with his arms crossed across the backrest and looked at me.

  “Wide awake now, eh?”

  “What?” I asked in confusion.

  “You’re wide awake now. It took me almost ten minutes to shake you awake on the plane,” he said with a laugh.

  “Oh. OH! That was you? Thanks,” I said relaxing a bit.

  He nodded and smiled at us, “What are your names?”

  “I’m Olivia, and that’s Cassidy.”

  “Nice to meet you both, I’m Alejandro,” he said with a friendly smile.

  I snuck a glance at Cassidy who seemed to be thinking what I was; typical.

  “I did not see you on the plane,” he said curiously to Cassidy.

  “Oh, yeah, that’s because I met Liv here. I flew in from New York,” she explained politely.

  “You should probably order some food if you’re going to keep sitting here,” I said bluntly. By the looks on Cassidy and Alejandro’s faces I realized that I had said that way bitchier than I had meant too. I felt my face flush red with embarrassment and I concentrated extra hard on rewrapping my napkin.

  He reached toward my plate with a spare fork and speared some of my fries. I looked up at him and he smiled, giving me a wink to let me know there were no hard feelings. I smiled back.

  “So tell me,” he said turning his attention back to Cassidy, “what brings you to Madrid?”

  “We had to land here on the way to ... um...,” she faltered, looking at me for help.

  “Germany,” I spat out.

  I knew exactly what Cass was thinking. We didn’t know this guy and telling him where we were going when he was obviously so comfortable already was probably not going to be a good idea.

  He laughed and shook his head. I gave Cass the look that said “he’s on to us” and she just shrugged and went back to her food. Alejandro sat at the table picking at my fries and I kept stealing glances at him to construct him fully in my mind.

  When he had woken me up on the plane, all I knew was that he was a young man. Now that he was standing here, I guessed he was in his late 20s; 27 being the oldest he could possibly be. His brown hair reminded me of raw umber. I snuck another glance at him as he and Cassidy were chatting and I noticed that whenever he smiled or laughed he had these crinkles that would appear near his hazel blue eyes. He had lightly tanned skin and he seemed to be pretty big, but he hadn’t taken off his jacket yet so I wasn’t sure if the bulk was him or the coat. Leaning over he reached around me for a napkin, then forked some more of my French fries. When I saw his hand hovering for a second I looked up at him and saw him smiling at me. Did he know what I was doing? Did he know that I was curious about his body, his build? Did he see this blaring, damning ring on my finger, of whose hand I was now sliding as naturally as I could under the table so that I could wrestle it off?

  ‘What time is it?” Cassidy asked snapping me back to attention.

  “Eh, 3:14,” Alejandro said checking his watch.

  “We better pay for this and start heading to our gate, Liv,” Cass said as she reached for her wallet.

  Alejandro waived the waiter over and before we could pull out our money, handed him a credit card, “Todos juntos.”

  “Um, you didn’t have to do that, we were going to pay for it,” I said glancing at him.

  “Yes, but I ate all of your f
ries, and Cassidy here was such pleasant conversation, that I feel it’s the least I could do,” he said signing his name to the receipt that the waiter had brought back to the table.

  “Yeah, well, thanks,” Cass said as she got up and grabbed her bag. “It was nice to meet you and super cool to talk to you. Sorry we’ve got to run, Berlin is waiting. Right, Olivia?” she asked giving me her slight wide-eyed let’s get the hell out of here look.

  “Yeah, guten morgen we go!” I replied with a grin.

  “Well ladies, thank you both for the pleasure of your company,” he said standing as well and smiling at both of us. “It’s not every day that a man can say he’s had lunch with two beautiful, intelligent women.”

  Six foot? Six foot one?

  We all smiled at each other as Cassidy and I exited the restaurant. Oh well. It’s not like I was able to slip off this ring of death anyway, I thought as we made our way across the terminal to our gate.

  “Where the hell did you come up with Germany?” she asked me.

  “I don’t know. Valkyrie was a great movie and ... I don’t know,” I replied shrugging.

  She laughed at my logic. That was typical me though. I usually never had a justification for the odd things I would say, so I would throw in a random fun fact and keep rolling hoping that eventually a good explanation would come to me. It usually never worked.

  We got to our gate and dropped our bags on the floor in front of us when we sat down. Cassidy reached into her purse and pulled out her phone. As she kept herself busy, I watched the people walking back and forth. Some were walking casually, some were walking at a very quick pace with worry creased across their faces, some were children happily skipping by, and some just happened to be the man that crashed our lunch and we told we were going to Germany.

  I nudged Cassidy and jerked my head in his direction.

  He looked at us and smiled kindly, “This plane is going to Ibiza. I think you’re at the wrong gate.”

  Walking around us, he sat down behind us and dropped his backpack.

  “Oh. Ibiza isn’t in Germany?” Cassidy asked in mock confusion as she tried to keep up our charade. I laughed loudly and she grinned at me.

  “We lied,” I said turning around to face him. “We’re going to Ibiza. We just don’t exactly know you and don’t hand out our travel plans to strangers.”

  “I see,” he replied with a twinkle in his eye. “I am not offended. I understand completely.”

  Nodding, I turned myself back around and opened a book I had brought with me for the plane ride. I reread the first sentence about ten times before I sighed in frustration and turned back around to look at him again.

  “Why were you in Chicago?” I asked.

  He pulled out his ear buds and smiled, “I’m sorry I missed that.”

  “Chicago? You had to have gotten on the plane at O’Hare. What brought you to Chicago?”

  “I’m trying to visit all the major cities in America,” he replied with a shrug. “I thought I would start with Chicago.”

  “Really? That’s pretty cool. I’ve never thought of that. I’ve been to Chicago maybe once or twice and I’ve been to New York City a bunch of times. I used to live an hour and a half away from there,” I said.

  “What’s it like? That’s going to be my next trip when I go back to America next month,” he said as he leaned forward in interest.

  “Oh I don’t know how to explain New York,” I said honestly with a laugh. “It’s pretty huge. There’s a shit ton of people all over the place. Um, you should see Grand Central Station when you go. It’s really pretty. Try to remember to look up when you’re in there.”

  He smiled and nodded.

  “So, Olivia, why are you and Cassidy going to Ibiza?” he asked.

  “A few reasons. First, it’s pretty. I like pretty.” He grinned. “Second, it’s kind of home in a long lost descendant kind of way. Not Ibiza specifically, just Spain. Third, I’ve never left the country before. Not to another country anyway, and we thought, why not Spain? But yeah, it’s pretty,” I said again causing him and Cassidy to laugh.

  “You’re such a mess,” she said as she shook her head and went back to her phone.

  “Do you have nicknames?” he asked.

  “Cass,” she responded.

  “Liv or Livie,” I said, “What about you?”

  “Alejo,” he replied.

  Cassidy put her phone away and stood up, “I’m going to head to the bathroom. Check your phone Olivia, I sent you that thing you were asking for when I was in New York.”

  What thing?

  I leaned over and grabbed my purse and searched for my phone. When I found it, I pressed the button on top to bring it to life. I put it in my lap while I waited for it to start.

  “So do you live in Spain?” I asked glancing down as the first power screen flashed on.

  “Yes, I was born there,” he said.

  “Whereabouts?”

  Screen number two. Almost there.

  “Ibiza.”

  I looked up at him, “Seriously?”

  Nodding with a smile on his face I watched the corners of his eyes crinkle and had to fight the shiver that went through me at that moment.

  My God, you’re beautiful.

  “A-ha!” I said as the phone sat idly in my lap. I pulled down the top screen and saw a message from Cassidy. I tapped it open and had to do everything in my power to burst out laughing.

  YOU KNOW THE SAFE WORD. APPLE BANK.

  I put the phone away still giggling and turned my attention back to Alejo.

  “So was I right? Is Ibiza pretty?”

  “I would say so,” he said thoughtfully. “I’ve lived there since I was about 17 years old and I like it very much.”

  I nodded. I was very excited about our final destination but there was something about Alejo that I just couldn’t shake. How was it possible that he had boarded the plane in O’Hare when I did, possibly sat next to me on the flight, and I hadn’t noticed?

  “Do you have plans in Ibiza?” he asked.

  “No not really. I didn’t have much time to think of what I wanted to plan out insofar as seeing things, so I didn’t. I left that up to Cassidy, so I guess I’ll have to ask her if she’s got anything planned. I mean even if we don’t have anything planned, it’s not like it would suck you know? I mean we are in Spain after all.”

  He grinned, “I have a question for you Olivia.”

  “Liv. Or Livie is fine,” I replied.

  “Okay Liv,” he said his grin growing wider, “Earlier when you said that Spain in a way is your home ... where are your roots then?”

  “The Caribbean for both Cassidy and I.”

  “I should have guessed,” he said with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

  I raised an eyebrow and leaned an arm over the back of the chair. I looked toward the bustling people going by and saw Cassidy walking toward us.

  “Did you fall in?” I asked with a grin.

  “Oh my God, you should have seen the line. I thought I was going to die,” she replied. “Everyone’s standing up to get in line. I guess we should too.”

  I looked around and indeed saw that there was a line forming so I got up and grabbed my bags. I stood behind Cassidy and Alejo stood behind me. When we approached the attendant I tried my best to tell her that I would prefer to sit with Cass if at all possible.

  “Um... Si es posible .... Ah... um.... nos gustaría ... sentarnos juntas..,” I struggled.

  She looked amused and I heard Alejo chuckle behind me which caused me to blush furiously. Cassidy patted me on the shoulder and shook her head in mock sorrow. It wasn’t my fault that my Spanish started to fade over the years; at least I tried.

  “Never mind,” I grumbled taking my taking my ticket and walking in embarrassment down the corridor into the plane. I looked at the seat numbers before I found mine and plopped down wondering what possessed me to even try to speak Spanish when she most likely knew how to speak English
anyway.

  Cassidy grinned as she sat next to me and settled in. She gave me the don’t feel bad for trying look and closed her eyes. I could only imagine how tired she was so I just watched the people boarding the plane. The flight attendants walked through after the door was sealed and for a moment I felt kind of bummed because I never saw Alejo go by. Maybe he decided not to go to Ibiza for now after all.

  Oh well.

  While the attendants began to give us instructions in Spanish, I looked out the window. I understood most of it but I’m pretty sure the flight protocols weren’t much different than America so I tuned them out. After a few moments, they began to walk down the aisle and I felt a hand reach around the side and tap me. I turned slightly and looked through the slit of chairs and saw Alejo smiling at me.

  “You might want to put Cassidy’s seatbelt on for her since she is sleeping,” he said.

  I nodded and leaned over and strapped her in feeling oddly happy that not only was he on the flight, he just so happened to be sitting behind us too. I looked up and saw an attendant smiling at me patiently as I strapped my belt on as well before she moved on to check the other passengers.

  I leaned back toward him, “How long does this flight take?”

  “Less than an hour,” he replied as he lifted the shutter on his window.

  I turned back around without responding and closed my eyes. It wouldn’t be long enough for a nap, which wasn’t my intention at the moment. I had just realized that I hadn’t had the chance to take Dramamine so I knew the chances of getting sick were going to be pretty high.

  And we’re off, I thought as I grit my teeth and left my brain on the tarmac, so to speak.

  The flight was peaceful and went by in a flash. Cassidy had slept quietly next to me and Alejo kept to himself. Once we landed and were walking down the corridor I felt the excitement fluttering through me again. After almost 15 hours, we had finally reached our destination.

  We were in Ibiza.

  We hauled our bags out behind us as we stepped out of the airport and looked around happily. It was a beautiful summer day in Ibiza so we had obviously traveled around the right time of year.

  “Well, this could be where we part ways, or I could give you a ride to wherever it is you’re staying so that you don’t spend money on these expensive cabs,” Alejo said saddling up beside us.