Mistakenly Eaten

2. Plans of a heartbroken Billionaire and a maid

Tall green trees shrouded the small peace of land that was located in the middle of the Mediterranean ocean, slightly east coat to the city of Ibiza, corner only a few miles off the coat of the small town of Sant Agusti Des Vedra. A beautiful polite town, and a few miles off its coast was that green peace of land.

A private estate island.

The island alone had more yachts and boats standing on its coast, than the entire city of a population of sixteen thousand had.

The small port were the thirty yachts were parked, had a small operation booth, where a guard sat at his duty and over the very back of the small booth, led a proper cut off and freshly paved road, that seemed to have just been refreshed and cleaned.

And of course the workers and the maids on the island had to do so. They were also on their toes working constantly, putting up new plants and even trimming the old bushes that they had just left to grow out, since no one ever showed up on that island in ages.

But they couldn’t do so anymore.

The paved road lead down through the curves of the island and after just a drive of five minutes, it landed right in the middle of that piece of land, surrounded by all the tall trees and bushes and right in the middle stood large white mansion.

Made over an old roman palace design, with a large boundary surrounding it and even more plants and trees built around the main house.

The iron gates of the house were kept open for those days, since it wasn’t empty anymore.

Guards and maids rushed out of the place, as they were all working hard to cater and please the new master who had been sent to the island by his parents.

The paved road of the island continued in to a spotless pavement, passing through all the beautiful greens and plants and going in and beyond the gardens of the mansion.

The gardens contained some of the rarest and the most expensive species of plants found in the botanical world.

Finally reaching the large white fountain that was always kept close but since the master was here and the main head of the staff was told to keep the place pleasant, to please the master; the fountain was turned out and small golden fishes flew in and out of the lower pond of the fountain, whilst a small pressured stream of water ejected up and out of the jet of the fountain with water streaming down, all kept inside the beautifully craved beige colored large ceramic structure.

The road turned round, around the fountain, naturally making way of the return for whoever would visit the mansion.

Right beyond the fountain stood the brown large gates of the mansion, which were also newly designed and installed just a few days ago, before the master’s arrival.

The mansion was a large structure, covering an area of around twenty thousand square feet, extending and covering most part of the center of the island and leaving just some space for rocky mountains right behind the mansion, that also beyond the trees that covered and protected that palace sort of structure.

The building was white in color, neatly and freshly painted with wooden window slits placed at a perfectly articulated and equal distance from each other in the upper section of the palace, running from left to right and coming in the middle to meet up with a large balcony, designed to overlook the beautiful gardens of the palace.

On the structure underneath it, large floor to ceiling windows were paned, just to give the view of the area on the outside, for those who sat in the parlor rooms of the palace. Windows were drawn off the curtains, revealing the posh and elegant couches and sofas that were placed in different rooms on the left and over on the right was the large dining hall, with a renaissance essence, given to its golden pillar embedded roof structure and the large candle chandeliers that hung all the way around the hall including the large twenty four seaters dining table.

Separating the dining tables and the parlor rooms was the large main foyer. A posh white and black themed room, which had the spiral shaped staircase with white Moroccan ceramic tiles with black thin lines running through it, giving it an alluring look whilst the railing of the staircase that led up to the hallway, creating a small viewing balcony over the hallway that led towards different bedrooms.

On the right side of the foyer was the dining hall and the kitchen both having their own separate ways on the outside but connected together on the inside, with a door cutting in from the kitchen and leading right outside on the dining table.

Inside the kitchen stood the head maid. The head maid, an old lady with her hair all turned grey and wrinkles and freckles smudged over her skin, lean and tall, as she wore two inch heels with her all black uniform, making her stand out from the rest of the maids, made sure to check thoroughly through all the dishes, through her thin square rimmed glasses before they would be given to the master.

The door to the kitchen from the foyer opened up and a young maid rushed in, in her white formal shirt and pencil knee length skirt, with her hair tied neatly in a bun.

She ran up to the old maid, named Serena and whispered something in her ears, that made Serena’s eyes go wide.

She dashed out of the kitchen, fuming in anger and walked across the foyer and towards the other corridor that pass and beyond all the other rooms and turned to the left to lead towards an exit of the house to the right side was a large double door that slid open to reveal a room full of large shelves that were stacked up till the very heighted roof of the room, full of books, journals and much and many more rare reads that a person might not even find in the largest libraries of the world.

Passing through the library was a single but quite heavy and big door, right to the glass door that led out towards the back balcony of the mansion. That single door opened up inside just a similar room, that was full and stacked with books, but had a sofa set in the south of the room closer to another door that was also a double one and mahogany in color and in the middle of the red sofa chairs was a glass coffee table.

In the north of the room right in front of the large windows, that had its curtains drawn on, was a large mahogany desk, over which Nicholas sat, still sulking in sorrow and slumped and dumped in his own grief.

Salvador moved right behind him and drew off the curtains from the window, revealing the beautiful ocean right behind the office. Salvador opened up the windows making a cool breeze come inside the office and the small rays of sun that fell on to his face, felt fresh and enticing to him.

The hotness from the sunrays settled down because of the cool wind that blew and the view seemed even more scenic due to the pleasantry condition of the weather.

“Ah! It is such a beautiful day. Just look out there man.”

Salva encouraged Nicholas to turn his gaze out and look out the window but Nicholas remained submerged in his work. His head was drowned and focused just on the laptop in front of him.

“The beautiful waves are hitting the bright sandy ocean and everything looks just so beautiful and …”

Salva turned around, expecting Nicholas to be lured by his words and look out the window but he remained unmoved, which made Salva squint his eyes at Nicholas’s back, boring holes with his gaze.

He had been just like that for the past entire week, ever since they arrived at the island.

Salva had come to the island only because of Nicholas’s mother Rachel, who had blackmailed Salva in to taking Nicholas to the island and help him move on and out of his hurt from Cheryl.

But so far, Nicholas seemed to be the same. His father had taken over the business for the time being and was handling the entire enterprise as a temporary acting CEO but Nicholas didn’t forget his duties and had brought his laptop even on the island and was overlooking all the reports and all the businesses his own self.

He also knew why his parents sent him to the island and was well aware of the fact that if his parents had not sent him to the island, someone from his office might have murdered him for making those poor souls over work. He realized that his problems and his stress was not something he could project on others and he had that very realization when all of his office staff celebrated him taking his time off.

Everyone around his office was happy that he was taking a break, since he had made them overwork after his break up with Cheryl and with him gone, they could finally relax.

Nicholas realized that he didn’t even notice making his staff over work because of how drowned he was in his own sorrows and that was also why he stepped down easily and came to the island. That way, he wouldn’t make his staff work over time as well and could easily handle the reigns of his business by sitting far away not just from his office but from the rest of the world.

He was actually happy and willing to come to the island. He knew his family sent him there so that he could get closer to nature or whatsoever, but he was there only to escape from having to attend family functions and dinners every now and then and at least pretend to be happy. This way, he could be left alone to his own self and didn’t have to even pretend.

Salva walked up towards Nicholas and turned his chair around, making Nicholas click his tongue in agitation and close his swollen dark circles ridden eyes, that he immediately closed as the sharp rays of sunlight fell over his face.

“What do you want?” he asked Salva, who yelled back in frustration.

“What the f**k do you want?”

Nicholas opened up his eyes as Salva stood in front of him and shielded his eyes from the sunlight.

“Who stepped on your toes?” Nicholas shrugged at Salva and turned back and around towards his laptop, continuing to type in another mail.

Salva walked ahead and closed the lid of Nicholas’s laptop with much force, making Nicholas immediately snap his hands back from getting them in between his laptop’s screen and keyboard.

“Dude! What the f**k?”

Salva was beyond agitated at Nicholas’s stale behavior and repulsive attitude, where he remained adamant and absolutely refused to move on.

“Can’t you f*****g see how annoying your behavior is?” Salva complained and Nicholas simply shrugged.

“Then don’t watch it.”

Salva groaned at the back of his throat, holding back his urge to punch Nicholas off his chair, throw him down on the ground and beat him to a pulp, until he agrees to move on from Cheryl.

“Dude! Can’t you see that everyone was happy when you agreed to come here because everyone is sick and tired of watching you sulk like this. It would not bring you or anyone peace if you continued being like that.”

“Who said, I am looking to give others peace?” Nicholas c****d, crossing his hands across his chest and finally turned around and away from Salva, actually looking out at the window.

He remembered coming to the island as a young child and actually never found the place to be beautiful or joyous. Unlike his brother, he actually enjoyed the big and bustling city life but he never knew that he would come crawling back to that place only to find a moment of silence for his own self.

He had come to the point that he was tired of that big bustling life and actually just wanted to settle low and remain just to his own self. That moment had just actually arrived in his life.

He sighed, as he turned around and finally made up his mind, “You can go if you want. I won’t stop you.” He told Salva taking the guy by surprise.

“What? You do know, I am not here because of you and…”

“I’ll talk to Mom!” Nicholas gave him even a bigger pass and a ticket to get out of that retched island that was eating Salva up on the insides.

He was yearning to get out of that place and that’s why kept on pushing Nicholas to move on as well so that they could get out of there as soon as possible.

But listening to Nicholas’s offer, he didn’t care about him moving on and all he saw was a golden opportunity.

“You will?”

Nicholas nodded, “Yeah! You have no fault in everything that happened to me. You don’t deserve to be punished in to exile and to live here. Everything is my fault. I fell in love with Cheryl, thinking that she was the right person for me. I loved her unconditionally and blindly and then when she left without a reason, I realized that this pain and the heartbreak that I am suffering through is my punishment to love the wrong person, so much. I gave her a piece of my soul and she took it and crushed it down. I hated this island so much as a child but now I have come to realize that this is my perfect punishment to stay here forever. I will not be going back to the city ever again. I am fine here. I have been testing on how to operate business from here and everything has been going smoothly so far. Within a month, I will ask dad to quit as well and I know he will do it gladly. I can attend meeting from here and if something grave ever happens, I can travel out of this island as well. It is fine.”

Salva’s eyes widened at Nicholas’s plan. The man didn’t plan on moving on forever and was ready to pronounce himself and become the self proclaimed prince in exile.

The door to the office opened up and Serena walked inside with two maid dragging large trolleys of food with them.

“Senor, Master Santiago, what am I hearing? You said that you don’t want to have any food that we have prepared for you and you just want a regular turkey sandwich?” she asked, stepped away and letting the maids present the dishes to him. They all ranged from intercontinental cuisine to East Asian, each and everyone being extremely colorful and highly tempting.

Salva’s mouth filled with water as he looked at that extremely tempting food.

“No!”

Nicholas monotonous, yet harsh words broke the maids’ heart down. One of them was a newbie and Nicholas’s stern behavior had scared her already in the past entire week.

She couldn’t just stand his rudeness anymore, which made her cry out loud and run out of the room.

From Nicholas refusing to even taste the food that Serena had prepared for him to the maids crying and running away from the office, everything was a mess for the poor old head maid to take care of.

“Oh boy! Why would you not even eat?” she asked Nicholas, not putting up the same level of respect anymore.

To him, he was like her own son. She had loved and cared for him for the past thirty years and worked for the Santiago family as a loyal subject at their different mansions, all over Europe. Rachel trusted her endearingly with her children, as she was initially hired as a nanny to them and grown up to become a senior worker for the family. That’s why, she had asked Serena to take care of Nicholas whilst he was at the island.

“Because I don’t want to.” Nicholas shrugged adamantly, getting on the last of Serena’s nerves.

“Curse that woman who broke my child’s heart. I swear if I find her, I will break her neck and make her eat my paella. Do you even know how hard the chefs worked to make all of this?” she tried to guilt trap Nicholas in to tasting the food, something that used to work as a child but at that point, Nicholas was basically dead on the inside.

“Unless and until your pasta is as good as the one that I tasted in Gragnano, there is no point in having any of it prepared and get me a simply turkey sandwich.”

Nicholas kept his tone plane and his demands straight, as he went back to work on his laptop.

Serena was about to argue with him again but Salva held his hand up in the air and stopped her from arguing with him.

“Serena, have the dinner served at the dining hall and ask all the staff of the house to eat it.”

Serena didn’t argue further, as she listened and loved Salva just as much as Nicholas and nodded at him, understanding that Salva comprehended Nicholas in a much better way than anybody else.

Serena left the room and Salva looked at his poor cousin, who opened up his laptop and went working back on it.

“You know what Nick! I think, I’ll stay here for a while. I am not missing anything anyways and besides, aunt Rachel helped me get some days off from work and you know how much I love being away from Dad and his taunts about me being irresponsible. So, I’ll stay here for about another week.”

“Do whatever suits you best.”

Nicholas told him, not even bothering to look up at Salva and continued typing his mail.

Salva nodded and left the office, closing the door behind him and getting out of the mansion through the glass door, he stood by the grey cemented railing, inside the back balcony of the mansion and picked out his phone, ringing a call directly to Camila, who picked up after the second ring.

“Please tell me, Nicholas forgot about Cheryl already and is happy, please!”

Salva sighed, “I wish this was the case.” He complained, making Camila groan back in agitation.

“Then why did you call me?” she asked, actually annoyed by Salva’s phone call.

“I actually don’t get it! I am spending all my time and energy at your brother, to help him move on and I can’t even call you for something?”

“I always knew you two idiots would cost me my mental peace. It’s not about you calling me, it’s about you calling me to give me some bad news. It is bad news, right?”

Salva sighed, “Well, technical it is not bad news but is not also not a great news.”

“What do you mean?”

“So, it turns out Nicholas is refusing to taste any food unless and until it doesn’t taste like some pasta he is in Gragnano.”

“Wait! Pasta in Gragnano?” Camila asked. “Nicholas proposed to Cheryl in Gragnano.”

“Who the f**k is ever Gragnano?” Asked Salva, confused by the entire commotion.

“Gragnano is this little town in Campania in Italy.” Camila informed him.

“Are you shitting me? Why would he even propose her at such a place.”

“Wait!” Camila, suddenly having recollection of the entire series of events that she came to know about the proposal that Nicholas made for Cheryl.

“If I might remember well, at their engagement party, Cheryl was telling this story over and over again to everybody, so I remember some of the parts of it. They were in Gragnano, at this small restaurant and they had a pasta and it was really good and Nicholas let Cheryl have the entire past and that made the two realize that Nicholas really loved Cheryl and that lead to Nicholas proposing her and Cheryl saying yes. Wait! Didn’t you hear the entire story?”

“A proposal story? Do you really think, I would be an i***t enough to ever listen to such a thing? Proposal, stories and me? Are you even listening to your own self? And besides, are you even listening to that story? It has too many red flags, like why would you propose over a stupid dish of pasta and also, wasn’t Nicholas clear on his day of engagement that Cheryl was marrying him only because he loved her and she never said that she said yes because she also loved him. Dude, he is f*****g stupid and ought to have all of that happened to him.” Salva scoffed, making Camila shake her head. Her brothers were definitely going to be the death of her one day.

“So, wait! You are saying that Nicholas actually misses that pasta? I don’t get it! I thought he hated everything else related to Cheryl, how could he miss that pasta?” asked Camila.

“I don’t know, you are the psychologist. You tell me how is that possible.”

“Hmm, let me see. He had the hotel in which they were supposed to get married, demolished, burned his wedding suit down and even had the diamond crushed and dissolved, of their engagement ring that Cheryl left behind with that lame note. How could he want to have that very pasta that made him propose her and… wait!”

A realization hit Camila and Salva also became attentive.

“What? What kind of reckoning did you have?”

“Just as I said that Nicholas let Cheryl have that pasta and it was incredibly delicious, which made him realize that he loved her and propose her right? Maybe, he wants to taste that pasta once again in a different situation and realize that the pasta was just too good that made him feel happy and propose to Cheryl. Maybe, having that pasta now would help him realize that it was just nothing but a mere pasta and not a big symbol of gesture. Maybe that pasta could help me realize that he proposed Cheryl out of nothing and he needed to move on.”

“Or maybe just like he had everything else related to Cheryl destroyed, he wants to kill the chef?”

“If he wanted that he would’ve already done it! Just like he did with everything else.” Camila reminded Salva. “I think he yearns to have that pasta but he is avoiding to have it and him being adamant to taste any other food unless and until it is not that pasta, it is his way of asking for help.”

“Damn! You are good with that psychology thing of yours.” Salva snickered. “So, now you are saying that I need to get that pasta for Nicholas? Do you even know what restaurant it was?”

“Wait! They had the pictures of the proposal. The restaurant’s name must be somewhere…”

Camila’s voice got distant for a moment as she opened up her gallery and went through her pictures from six months back and finally found the pictures that Nicholas sent in the family group after he proposed to Cheryl in Gragnano.

“Got it!” Camila chimed in excitement.

“Great! Just give me the name of the restaurant and I will get the chef and have him cook the pasta for Nicholas. Because that pasta is my last and only hope of making this man move on from that retched woman. I will do anything to make Nicholas get over that woman and move out of this damned place. I can not wait to go back to a normal civilization and party like the wild animal, I am and supposed to. Now tell me quickly, what is the name of the restaurant.”

“It’s Pastalia!”

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Well are you guys excited and pumped up to see what will happen next? :D

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3