Tutti Italia: A Novel (11 page)

“Yeah, sorry about that.  I ran out of phone minutes and I
need to get some more but the store’s closed.  I was hoping that if I got here
early enough, I’d see you and I could catch up to you.”  She smiled at him.  He
really was a nice guy.  Maybe fate had a surprise in store for her that she was
actually going to like for once.

“That sounds like a good plan.  But I do have to tell you
some very important information that just might make your day.”  His eyebrows
rose in surprise, and he leaned in a little.

“And what would that critical information be?”  He smiled
at her.

“You can get phone minutes at that little shoppette thing
across the street from your armory.  That’s where I go because it’s cheaper.” 
She smiled at the stunned expression on his face.

“How did I not know that?  I walk by there every day that I
have to work.”  They’d started walking towards the theater, and they were
stopped at the crosswalk, checking traffic before they crossed the street. 
“Wow, I feel like a dunce now.”  She laughed and patted his shoulder in a
friendly way.

“It’s ok.  I only learned it a few days ago myself.  One of
the teachers I’m going to be working with next week told me about it.  I would
have never thought that I could go there to get phone minutes.”  The made it to
the ticket counter, and Jason snuck in front of her so he could get his ticket
first.  At first Rachel thought that he was rude, until she heard him ask for
two.  He was paying for her.  That was wrong. 
She
had invited
him
. 
That meant that she should pay.

“Hey!  Wait a minute!”  She tried to stop him from getting
the money out of his wallet and get hers out at the same time.  That definitely
wasn’t a success.  He paid the lady and Rachel punched him playfully on the
arm.  “I invited you!  That means that
I
pay.  Not you.”  He laughed at
her good-naturedly. 

“But I’m the guy.  Isn’t it the guy’s job to pay for the
dates?”  Rachel blushed.

“So now you’re saying it’s a date?” she teased him.  Now it
was Jason’s turn to blush. 

“Well, I just thought-“  He paused, not finding the words
he wanted to say.  “I guess I was just hoping that it would be one.”  His
embarrassment was absolutely adorable.  Rachel patted his shoulder
affectionately as they walked into the dark theater. 

“Well, in that case, I would have to say that I rather
hoped that it would be one, too.”  She was glad that it was dark.  She knew her
cheeks were flaming.  She led the way to one of the middle rows in the theater
and sat down.  Jason followed her and got comfortable in his seat.  The credits
rolled by, but then something happened that she had never seen before.  A few
notes of music came on, and a picture of the American flag filled the screen. 
Jason jumped to his feet and stood stock still, as straight as he could, with
his hands balled in fists at his side.  She was confused and was about to ask
him what he was doing when she saw that everyone else was standing, too.  She
got to her feet, still not quite knowing what was going on.  Then the National
Anthem came on, and she automatically put her hand over her heart.  She relaxed
a little.  Now she knew what was going on.  She would have to ask Jason if they
did this in all military theaters.  It was a nuance for her.  When the music
was over, everyone in the theater sat down, and the movie started to play.

When the movie let out, Rachel was moved.  It had ended so
sweetly that she had a few tears in her eyes.  Jason on the other hand, had
laughed at the end.  She excused herself to the restroom, and dashed away the
tears.  It wouldn’t do for him to see her choked up over a movie.  It was
interesting to her though because the place where some of it was filmed
actually existed.  She was hoping it would be on the list for the ITT trips
Jason had been talking about before.  She made a mental note to ask him.  When
she came back out of the bathroom, he was waiting for her.

“So, what did you think of the movie?”

“I loved it!  I was hoping that maybe I could go to Verona
and see the place where Juliet’s statue is.”  Jason chuckled.  “What?  What did
I do?”  He shook his head and sobered up.

“Nothing.  I was just thinking that you might be asking me
to check the ITT trips every month to see if there were going to be any trips
to Verona.”  She blushed and looked away.

“I, um, might have been thinking to ask you to do that. 
You know, maybe.”  He laughed at her again.  He knew he’d hit the nail on the
head.  He walked her back to her dorm, and this time she let him walk her to
her door. 

“So this is where you live.  You know, one of my good
buddies lives right next door to you.”  Uh oh.  She felt guilty now for calling
the police when the loud music was coming through her wall.  At least Jason
didn’t know about that.  She hoped that it wouldn’t throw a wrench into the
works that she was hoping were running smoothly with Jason right now.  She said
good night, and Jason gave her a quick hug goodnight.  He took off pretty
quickly, and Rachel thought he might be embarrassed.  She had a broad smile on
her face as she let herself into her bedroom.  And she couldn’t hide it.  It
kept popping up at random while she was in the shower, and as she put her
pajamas on, and as she curled up in bed.  Today had been a wonderful day, and
she wanted to capture every minute of it.  Before she turned off her lights and
went to bed, she pulled out her diary from the shelf behind her head and wrote
down in detail, everything that she could remember from the moment that she
woke up, that included Jason.  When she finished, it was almost ten.  She
yawned and put her diary away.  Bedtime.

She woke up early the next day, and she couldn’t for the
life of her figure out why.  She hadn’t set her alarm. There had been any loud
noises. Her phone hadn’t rang. She was just awake early.  The sun was streaming
through her blinds already, and she checked the time.  It was eight thirty. 
She sighed, that was too early.  She wanted to sleep in for once.  She rolled
over, grabbed her teddy bear, and went back to sleep.  At about ten, her phone
went off.  She reached for it without opening her eyes and managed to open it
and get it to her ear.

“Hello?” she said groggily.

“Hey!  It’s Elena.  I’ll be in the parking lot of your dorm
in about thirty minutes.  Then we can go shopping for decorations.”  That was
why she woke up early.  She’d been excited about going shopping out in Italy. 
She was wide awake now.

“Ok, sounds good to me.  See you then.”  Rachel hung up the
phone and leaped out of bed.  She hurriedly splashed water on her face to help
her wake up faster.  She fixed her hair and brushed her teeth, grabbed some
jeans and a sweater, threw on some socks, and put her shoes on.  She was just
putting on her coat when her phone pinged.  It was a text from Elena, telling
her she was here.  Rachel smiled and grabbed her purse.  She had to stop herself
from running down the pigeon poop covered steps.  She wasn’t going to look like
an excited American going out on the town for the first time.  That was why the
Italians had a bad impression of the Americans, and she wasn’t going to be
someone that added to that stereotype.  She found Elena’s car and jumped into
the passenger side.

“Good morning!  I can’t wait to go shopping.”  Elena took
one look at Rachel’s excited face and laughed.  “What?”

“Nothing.  You just remind me of my little sister.  She
lives to shop, and even she doesn’t get as excited as you just did.”  Rachel
toned it down a bit, and tried her best to sit still while Elena drove.  She
was looking out the window, trying to remember the turns that Elena was taking
so that she could get to this place by herself when she got a car.  

Chapter 15

When Elena parked, Rachel felt like she was in an old
world charm village.  The streets were cobble stone, the buildings were old
fashioned, and the shops were smooshed together.  The two of them had to park
farther away and walk into the town because no cars were allowed in the
shopping area.  To be honest, they wouldn’t have fit down the narrow roads
anyway. 

“Thank you so much for bringing me here!”  Rachel jumped up
and gave Elena a big hug.  Elena laughed but hugged her back.

“It’s not a problem at all.  I like shopping, too, and I
haven’t been here in a long time.  I miss having someone to go shopping with.” 
The expression on Elena’s face was a sad one, and Rachel almost reached out and
hugged her again. 

“What about your sister?  Don’t you want to go with her
sometimes?”  Rachel didn’t know if that was a safe question to ask, but it had
slipped out before she could filter it. 

“I would love to go with Marisol, but she goes to
university in another city and it’s very far away.  I only get to see her at
holidays or when she has a break from school.”  I almost feel like an only
child because of it.  My parents always try to make me go out and find new
friends, but it’s hard.  I don’t trust people very easily.”  Rachel knew how
that could feel.  She’d been there herself, not too long ago.

“Well, maybe some shopping can cheer you up.  What do you
say?”  Elena smiled at her. 

“Yes.  That always helps.  And I want to say thank you for
being a friend to me.  I like having someone that I can do these things with. 
I don’t know what I would do otherwise.”  They walked up to the first shop, and
as they were going in, a thought occurred to Rachel and she just
had
to
ask Elena something.

“Please don’t be angry with me for asking you a question,
but I’m curious.  Do you live with your parents?”  Elena laughed at her.

“Why would you think that I would be angry for asking
that?  Yes, I do live with my parents.  I know that Americans like to move away
from their parents as soon as they can, but over here in Italy, the children
live with the parents until they are married.”  Rachel’s eyes widened.  She
thought she was breaking the mold by living at home until she was twenty-one. 

“I didn’t know that.  Just goes to show you that cultures
are very different.”  The shop that they were in wasn’t one where they would
find anything for their room, but it was a crafts shop and Rachel was going
crazy looking at all the cross stitch patterns.  There were so many beautiful
things that she wanted, but she knew she’d have to control herself.  She didn’t
have an unlimited amount of money coming in, and she wanted to make sure that
she had a cushion if anything were to ever go wrong.  In the end she chose two
of the cheaper ones that she was debating over, and some yarn to crochet with. 
She was grinning widely by the time they went into the next shop.  The shop was
a bakery, and it reminded her of the corner bakery where she would get the
morning rolls for breakfast.  She bought a few fresh rolls, and Elena got some
kind of pastry with chocolate in it, and they moved on. 

“Oooh!  We
have
to go into this shop.  It has all
kinds of nice clothes, and they are usually very cheap.  Maybe we can get you
some Italian fashion!”  Rachel wasn’t very big into clothes shopping, and it
always irritated her mother because her mother loved to go clothes shopping. 
Apparently Elena was one of those women that simply loved to go clothes
shopping. 

“Sure.  Let’s go.”  She was faking her enthusiasm. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I just miss going
clothes shopping with Marisol.  We would spend hours picking out clothes and
trying them on, modeling them for each other.  It’s been years since we could
do that.”  The sad look was back on Elena’s face.  Rachel wanted to help her
new friend, so she decided to suck it up and find some clothes that she would
be willing to try on.  She wanted to make sure that Elena had a good time too,
so she picked up some crazy looking clothes that she would, of course, never
wear.  That would make Elena laugh.  She could see Elena going through racks on
the other side of the store, putting all kinds of things over her arms so she
could try them on.  When Rachel had gone through the whole shop and had found
everything she was willing to try on, she found Elena and the two of them
headed over to the dressing rooms.  An hour later, the two of them had gone
through everything that they’d brought into the dressing rooms with them, and
they’d actually both wound up with some things that they were going to buy, and
Rachel had to admit that she’d had a good time trying on goofy clothes and
finding some clothes that she couldn’t wait to wear. 

Going into the next shop, Rachel’s eyes widened.  It was a
shop that sold everything coastal.  She loved what she saw, and was going to
pick up some things for herself too, to decorate her dorm room.  They didn’t
find much to put into their room, but they did find a few child sized chairs
that were blue and had ocean creatures painted on them.  They also picked up
some tables that matched, so that they would have a nice place to do arts and
crafts on.  It was lunch time, so Elena led her to a nice little restaurant a
few streets back.  It didn’t have anything printed in English, so Rachel
frowned when she opened the menu.  Elena saw her frown and quickly realized the
problem.  She pulled her chair closer to Rachel and commenced to translating
the menu for her.  Rachel chose something that she’d never had before so she
would be able to try some of the local food. 

“This is such a wonderful little town.  I was trying to
remember all the turns so I could get here on my own one day.  I think I’ll
just manage to get myself lost though.”  Rachel frowned at her food.

“Don’t worry.  You have me.  I can take you here any time
you need.  I like going shopping with you.”  Elena smiled at her, and Rachel
smiled back.  She’d never really had a girlfriend before that she could do
things with.  Actually, she didn’t really have friends in general that she
could spend time with and do things with.  Having Elena around was something that
she didn’t want to give up.