Mistakenly Eaten

81. Charts Are Stupid

The door to the room flew open and at the very same time, Nicholas fell down on the floor.

Salva barged inside the room, opening the door with quite the bellicose, that extended the door on both ends, making it hit the wall on each side.

One of the doors, that split open, covered up Althea, that immediately hid behind it and Nicholas, obviously still in shock and full of angst and anger towards Althea for pushing him like that, had all of his anger washed away when he saw Salva standing in front of him.

He felt even more mortified when he realized that meanwhile he was engrossed in making out with Althea, Salva had been knocking on the door and had it not been due to her quick witted actions, Salva would had found the two in quite an inappropriate state.

His first action, was to look at the wall where Althea was, hoping for her to have disappeared somehow and he heaved a breath of relief when he noticed that the door had covered her up and no one would even notice that there was another presence in the room.

Nicholas’s hair were disheveled, whilst his face was red, of humiliation and fright but he still mustered up his lost reputation and stood up on his feet.

Clearing his throat, he held his neck up and high, as he stood erect in front of Salva, who had muddle plastered all over his face.

On the contrary, Althea immediately buckled up her bra and placed it back on to where it was supposed to be.

She also flattened her scruffy hair over her head and looked for a plain and clear exit out of the situation that she was in.

She held her hand over her heart, trying to calm down her nerves and gently craned her neck out of door, looking out to find, Salva’s back turned towards her.

It was a moment of golden opportunity that she needed to grab.

“What the hell are you doing?’ Salva asked Nicholas, noticing him getting up on the floor.

“I heard the knock…” Nicholas’s voice came out coarser than he had expected it to be, since it still had the after effects and the lingering effects of when he was living a cranial moment with Althea. He cleared his throat at once, getting a hold on his mind that was still living in the after effects of what he had been doing with Althea.

Getting a hold of himself, he finally spoke up again, this time much more composed, “… and I was coming in to get the door but then I slipped.”

He lied straight away and at the very same time, his eyes went towards Salva’s back, where he saw Althea’s head popping out from behind the door and waving at him.

‘Keep him busy, I’ll sneak out from the other door!’

She mouthed at Nicholas, gesturing towards the second door of the office, which was located at the further end.

Nicholas knew that it was a long shot, a farfetched idea but also their only resort if they didn’t wish to get caught. He didn’t mind anyone knowing about him and Althea but he also didn’t want to put their situation in further animosity than it already was.

Their situation was already fickle and if he were to reveal their situation-ship to everyone else, Althea might get scared and the moments, he get to hold her close, where she risked getting closer to Nicholas, might be lost forever.

Nicholas nodded back in determination at Althea and she knew that even the guy agreed that she should get out of the office and staying inside would be a huge risk for the two.

She gently sneaked out, from behind the door at first, tip toeing her way towards the door that was slightly north west to her and at the same time Salva began speaking up about his reason to visit Nicholas in the office.

Althea made sure to keep a close eye on Salva at the same time and notice his movements. She reminded herself to not to become to confident and awry of his presence in the room, or else, it would be a imprudent move on her behalf, that would land both her and Nicholas in hot waters.

“I had to leave abruptly in the morning, during the meeting, because of what Serena said about the Santia….” He sighed, as he turned around and Nicholas’s breath felt stuck up somewhere in his pharynx.

He immediately grabbed Salva’s shoulder and held him firmly, making him face him in a stern motion.

The abrupt and pugnacious hold of Nicholas did take Salva by surprise and what baffled him even more was the fact that Nicholas shook his quite rigidly, as if he was trying to make Salva snap out of a thought.

But oblivious to Salva, Nicholas was trying his best to make sure that Salva didn’t speak up a word and mention their family name or the magnanimity of their family business.

“It’s fine. You are forgiven for leaving the meeting so abruptly.” He told Salva, who was still stunned to feel Nicholas’s stiff hold.

“Okay! But why are you being so weird?” he asked his cousin, who kept his one eye on Salva and another on Althea, who continued tip toeing across the room and finally reached out for the door.

She held the handle and pushed it down, only to live through her worst horror and fear and found out that the door was locked from the outside and she probably needed a key to open it up.

Nicholas went stiff for a moment, as his gaze froze on Althea and he sensed that the door was locked.

She turned around and mouthed at him, still leaning low and trying her best to stay obscured off Salva’s gaze.

‘It’s locked!’

She cried helplessly and at the same time, Salva began to notice something inconspicuous about his cousin.

“Nick! Are you alright?” he asked him yet again, shaking him up a bit and Nicholas felt snapped out of his trance, looking at Salva and realized that he needed to divide his focus. But he was too torn, between making sure that Salva didn’t speak up to him so casually that Althea might hear something that would reveal the entire truth about why she was brought to the island and at the same time, he needed to make sure that Althea got out of the office without not just hearing the truth but also without Salva noticing her.

“Yes! I am just very tired from everything.” He came up with an immediate lie, that he could feel in his bones was quite the lamest pretense that one could muster up but he was trying his best from preventing an approaching pandemonium to occur.

Salva sighed and released his shoulder from Nicholas’s touch, abruptly turning around, making both Nicholas and Althea terrified but Althea’s mind had better responding abilities than Nicholas did.

She immediately ducked down, even before Salva could’ve noticed her and took shelter behind one of the sofa chairs that were located in the middle of the room.

Salva walked up and sat down at one of the sofa, that was placed right oppositely to the one, behind which Althea was hiding.

Nicholas swiftly walked up towards the one behind which Althea was and sat on it, so that in no way, Salva would come near that sofa chair and would sit on it with Althea hanging so closely behind him.

“I can understand! Actually, even I am tired of everything.” Salva admitted, his tone seemingly exasperated.

“Uh huh! Really?” Nicholas asked, gently tilting his neck to cast a look behind him and found Althea perched down on her knees and enclosed her body in a tight encapsulated position.

He actually felt bad that she was positioned like a frightened little kitten, who had just been splashed with a jug of water.

“Yeah! I mean, don’t you find it exhausting? Keeping up with everything. Honestly Nicholas, I think we should soon reveal the…”

Nicholas’s eyes widened, as his focus finally shifted back to Salva’s words and then he felt frightened for his own self that Salva might end up revealing something deleterious and Althea would then end up hearing things that she was never meant to find out.

“The charts! Yes! We should do that.” He cut Salva off, who looked at Nicholas in sheer and complete muddle.

“Charts? What charts?”

“Haven’t you seen the progress charts?” he told Salva, who groaned, rolling his eyes.

“You know, I always hated your stupid charts. There’s a reason why I never joined you committee and Nicholas, I want to stay off your stupid emails as well. When we’re in New York, all you do is talk about numbers and charts and yes, I know you are a nerd but you don’t have to rub it in my face all the time and the reason why you are board’s favorite as well is because you are good with numbers and yes, I get it charts are important for everyone but you have an unhealthy obsession with them. All you do in your excel is make tables and charts and that is honestly nerve wrecking and annoying. And I am literally talking here about something totally off the charts, like literally. Something that is much more solemn and actually concerns real human life but all you are caring about is your stupid charts…”

Nicholas knew how much Salva hated the mere mention of numerical charts, that included their companies study and progressive growth rates and the moment he mentioned charts, Salva somehow lost his patience and began complaining about how Nicholas had a some sort of cranial inclination towards numbers and charts.

Nicholas knew that Salva’s rants about charts were always prolonged and unnecessarily griping, which was going to buy him some time, until he would come up with a plan through which, he could make sure that Althea and Salva would not be present in the same four walls, under the situation that the two were in.

He cleared his throat, as soon as the light bulb over his head enlightened and an idea postulated in his mind.

“… and then on top of it all, when I am seriously trying to have a humane conversation with you, all you do is mention charts. Do you ever even realize how condescending that is? Sometimes, you are just so tough to get through you know and I feel like you do that deliberately, like even before Cheryl, it was hard to get through you and…”

“Fine! you are right. Charts are stupid.” Nicholas slipped the words out of his mouth, like the sly conniving man that he was.

Salva stopped in the middle of his rant and looked at Nicholas with sheer surprise.

“What?” he asked, as Nicholas said the words, Salva thought that even his dead body would not get to hear.

Salva always imagined that when he and Nicholas would turn out and he would be the first one to die, even crying on his body, laying in the cushioned casket, Nicholas would stand on it, cry and tell everyone in his eulogy that Salva hated charts but even then, Nicholas would not even admit that Salva was right and that charts are stupid. Even if it guaranteed Nicholas that Salva might come back from the dead.

And if or when Nicholas would be the first one to leave the planet and be demised to his God, Salva had already planned that in his eulogy, he would cry about how his stupid friend loved charts and numbers and how they were plain and stupid and suddenly, out of the casket, Nicholas would rise only to smack Salva across the face, since his soul would be beyond offended and restless and he would come back from the dead to tell Salva how wrong he was for fomenting his soul and forcing him to come back from the dead.

But here he was witnessing a miracle unfolding right in front of his own eyes.

“What did you just say?”

Salva asked, amazed to hear those words slipping out of Nicholas’s mouth.

“I said, charts are stupid and you are right.”

“Wow!” Salva sat back in sheer and utter surprise.

“Did you just say that charts are stupid?”

Nicholas nodded and hummed back nonchalantly, making Salva’s jaw drop down on the floor.

“Seriously?”

Nicholas bobbed his head once again and Salva jumped up in excitement.

“Dude! No way you said that.”

Nicholas stood up as well and walked up towards Salva, turning him around and held his shoulder.

He walked him out of the room, “You know what let’s just have some drinks by the pool and relax and enjoy and why don’t we just leave the office talk behind us?” he told Salva as he walked him out of the room and closed the door loudly behind him.

Althea gently lifted her neck up in the air and looked over the couch, finding the room to be entirely empty.

She sighed with great relief, as she didn’t get caught with Nicholas in an inappropriate situation by Salva.

Sensing that it was the perfect moment for her to get away with everything, she immediately sprinted out of the office and finally down the hallway, where she found the staircase and immediately darted and flew right up the stairs.

Nicholas by that time had taken Salva and a pack of beers, by the pool, where he opened the chilled bottles at once and offered it to his cousin c*m best friend.

“Here!”

Salva looked at Nicholas for a moment and then grabbed the bottle.

“Are you really fine? you have been acting very weird today. First, I find you lying on the floor, then you say that charts are stupid and not only did you actually divert away from work talk but also you are enjoying a leisure moment by the pool. What’s gotten in to you?”

Nicholas held his bottle only a few inches away, halting from taking a sip of the cold drink and lagged in his actions as he deeply pondered on Salva’s question.

He had been doing things lately, that he never thought or imagined he would ever do.

He was a completely different person and he in fact, was enjoying being the new person that he had become.

It was like his body and soul had ventured on a new journey and that new journey was full of ever so changing and diligent activities, that kept him excited, anxious, nervous, thoughtful and always on the edge.

He thought that he enjoyed playing it cool and playing it safe.

Always the one to make sure, he stayed away from bullets and guns and walk the straight line, antiparallel to unscrupulous ways of the world.

And yet, there he was, playing dirty and precariously.

He could’ve just told Althea the truth to begin with, when he found out who she really was but he got greedy and now he was being lascivious of course, but at the same time, he had some ulterior motive behind keeping Althea barred and on the island.

“I don’t know…” he lied nonchalantly and shrugged his shoulders, “I guess, there is just something in the atmosphere of this island. Perhaps, maybe that’s why Mom and Dad thought that it would be better for me to come to this island.”

“So, do you feel any change?” Salva asked, hoping for a positive response and Nicholas’s little nod was enough to pump his veins with alacrity and jovial.

“Seriously?” he asked, reaffirming and wanting to hear it from his friend’s mouth.

Nicholas nodded once again and this time, decided to make his feelings vocal.

“Yes! I do feel better and perhaps, maybe in a month or two, I guess, I might visit Spain as well.”

Salva placed his beer bottle on the side and got up, tapping Nicholas’s shoulder with great joy.

“Thank you! So much for saying that. I honestly feel delighted that you are getting better and it has just been a month of bringing Althea here. that girl is really full of magic.”

Salva stated, with a soft smile, flushed with the thought of how Althea, so pure and innocent, became a catalyst, in fact the whole reason of Nicholas’s recovery process and at the same time, Nicholas also thought of the girl and her shy smile and playful mannerism, definitely left a huge imprint of his heart.

“I am going to visit Mom and Dad.” Salva announced, taking Nicholas by surprise.

“Huh? What? Where? When?”

He was surprised by the fact that his friend would be leaving him all alone at the island.

“Don’t worry! While I am not here, Anthony would be taking charge of things. Also, Mom and Dad are staying in Ibiza for a vacation, so I was thinking of visiting them. Especially, after what happened today, I think it is better that we involve someone experiences and superior in this matter. What do you say?”

Nicholas nodded, “You must have been exhausted by handling all the matters on your own. Take some days off. Give me regards to Uncle Stephano and Aunt Greta and spend some quality time with them and also in Ibiza. I mean, how could you not?” Nicholas winked at Salva, who smiled slightly but at the same time, felt incredibly evoked by the fact that, a good time between the two meant, some time f*****g around with women and somehow that was the last thing on Salva’s mind.

He was not leaving this island, as desperately as he thought he would at a time, when he first came on that island.

And then slowly, the concept of life on island, that at first felt unendurable to Salava had started to become a stagnant part of his life and then at a moment when things had started to look so indifferent, that very island had started to look like home to him.

“Enjoy your time off the island and in fact, you can take a month or two off if you want and…”

“No! I don’t want to.”

Salva stated bluntly, making Nicholas look at him with confusion.

“I mean…” he rubbed the back of his neck, not wanting to reveal why suddenly he had become so attached to the place.

He cleared his throat as he finally spoke up with a much more doable pretense.

“… I am handling everything around here and I know about how to look in to most of the things and, besides, Althea thinks that I am one of the organizers. So, if I don’t come back, she might become suspicious and we don’t want that, right?”

Nicholas nodded incoherently.

“So, I will be back in a week or two maximum.”

“Perfect!”

With that the two cheered on their bottles and sat down next to each other, looking ahead at the calm twinkling lights, reflected off the pool and at the same time, their eyes darted ahead at the calm ocean, that didn’t have much of a tidal effect that night.

Both of the two cousins sat next to each other, oblivious of the fact that both had the same thought in their minds.

Althea.

Whilst Nicholas felt excited that Althea also felt the same way for him, as he did for her, on the other hand, Salva felt anxious, wondering if his feelings were associated with the island alone or the person that he brought on the island.

What was it, in his heart that was growing like intertwined weeds, with every passing day, getting thicker and stronger to break through.

Every time he thought of that dwindling feeling in his heart, all he could think of what Althea.

Perhaps, getting off that island for a few days was indeed a better idea and might help him overcome his feelings. He did indeed need to get off the island, just to make sure that his mind and heart were in the right place and that he was not going insane.

As the two cousins sat thinking of the same girl, in different situations, the girl in question, walked in to her room, gently closing the door behind her and slumped down on her bed.

Looking up at the ceiling, she brought a pillow onto her chest and hugged it firmly and tightly.

She sighed in reluctancy and wondered what was happening to her.

Her body was in a state of frenzy, as her soul float up and above the whole world, whilst her eyes felt like a monument of reverberation only.

She couldn’t see anything in front of her even with her eyes wide open and as she closed her eyes, instead of the dark, the moments where she and Nicholas were entangled with each other, kissing passionately, holding on to each other for life, all that lured in front of her.

She opened her eyes, gasping out loud. She bit her bottom lips, as she could feel a sensation full of wetness lurking deep down ranging from the pits of her stomach, splooshing in between the folds of her labia.

She sat up straight, planting her hands on both sides of her body for support, since everything in her system felt weak and the only thing that remained loud, clear and truculent inside her was the feelings that she had for Nicholas.

She shook her head, trying to clear all of her thoughts away but nothing seemed to work out for her.

She got up and began pacing around the room.

It was unlikely of her to be that intimidated and that smitten by a guy.

She always held a strong base, stuck to her principles and never bent down or felt so feeble and finicky for a guy.

But there she was.

Nicholas had become the center of her attention and all of her firm principles were washed down, rendering her weak and tacit, right in front of a guy.

No! this can’t be happening.

She once again went down the spiral of denial, whereby she was in abnegation of her own feelings.

She couldn’t quite place, what exactly was she against the idea of.

The idea of the fact that she might just have s****l feelings for Nicholas.

Or the inkling thought that there was more to her feelings and what she felt for Nicholas was not just s****l.

A knock on the door startled her and she walked towards the door, expecting it to be Fiona, who might had woken up from her nap and now was in search of her friend, to finally talk about the situation that occurred in the morning.

But the moment Althea opened up the door, all of her cognitive capabilities diminished and she was rendered to the status of a lummox, since in front of her stood, the center of all of her difficulties, Nicholas.

She remained quiet, looking at his handsome face.

Why was her getting more and more handsome, by every passing day?

She asked herself.

What is it about him that attracts me so much?

Is it all just physical?

She wondered, gawking him head to toe, mindless of the fact that Nicholas was noticing her silently judgmental gaze, feeling quite apprehended and scanned.

Why is she acting so weird?

He wondered at the same time.

Is it all just physical?

Am I only attracted to his body? Is there nothing more to that?

“I just came in to check on you. Salve came to the office abruptly so…”

Nicholas was in the midst of explaining the reason of his abrupt drop by, to her room, while Althea heard nothing but simply gawked at him.

Even if it is just physical and nothing more than that… there is only way to find out.

“… I just wanted to see if you are fine…”

Nicholas was still explaining himself, when Althea grabbed him by his neck and pulled him inside the room, shutting the door loudly behind them.

She rested against the door, as she turned Nicholas around, who stood watching her with a bewildered expression on his face.

“Are you alright?”

He asked and Althea stood still for a moment, choosing the appropriate answer to his question.

She looked at him keenly for a moment, before she finally realized that even she didn’t know the answer to her question.

She wasn’t alright because what she was about to do was something that she had never imagined would happen even in million years. She was about to do something to the director of the society, a place that was sacrosanct for her.

She was definitely was not alright at all and now it was about time, she lost all of her mindfulness and succumbed to being a wanton.

And even if she was alright, she wouldn’t know, unless and until she didn’t do the deed that would determine the status of her mental and physical well being.

“Only one way to find out.”

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What way do you think Althea would apply to find out the truth about her feelings?

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