Mistakenly Eaten

61. Gestures of Love

“Can you believe, it’s just eight of us now? Four of those who came with us are already gone.”

Althea told Fiona, who shrugged, “Yeah! Well, it ought to happen anyways. I actually feel a bit down right now and would like to not ado myself any further. I feel really worn out these days.”

Seeing Fiona feel so dejected and low made Althea’s heart cringe in sadness.

She knew the very reason why Fiona was so low, it was because of Garry, who was still up in his own head and wasn’t paying much heave to Fiona and her bold moves.

Althea realized that she soon needed to come up with a cure for Fiona’s situation or else, it would simply all backfire her and Fiona might get quite depressed.

“Of course! I will just hang in the garden for a few more hours. Good night.”

She bid Fiona a sweet night and made her way outside the mansion, finding the lawn swing that was situated deep inside the vast and curved gardens of the mansion’s premises and sat down, opening up the book that she grabbed from the library on her way.

Sitting on the double swing, she pushed it a little, making it move to and fro slightly. She looked ahead of her, watching the beautiful cemented roman structured fountain, that was lit up for the night and Althea realized that it wasn’t lit up everyday, only on particular dates.

She wondered if there was any pattern to the days when the fountain was made run but she decided not to read too much in between the lines.

Nevertheless, she decided to enjoy the view of the fountain, pass all the green bushes that were decorated with beautiful colorful flowers, dimly lit underneath the silver lamp posts, that illuminated the entire garden, like the stars did just the same for the sky, making everything appear beautiful in its own twisted enchanting way.

She tried her best to read the book but her mind simply couldn’t focus, as she kept on thinking about the competition.

Althea felt extremely sad that Lilia was eliminated but at the same time, she felt grateful that it wasn’t her, who had to leave for home that quickly.

Her plan included, staying on that island till the very end and winning not just the title and the cash prize, that would obviously revolutionize hers and her family’s life but also aimed at achieving and securing a position at the council of the secret chef hunter’s society, which constituted all the previous winners, who showed up at the very final competition day and decided who would be the next winner.

She couldn’t wait for that day to come and meet her heroes, whom she looked upon and worked hard just to see them face to face and that’s why, she was working harder by every passing day and crafting more rich and tasty dishes, making sure that she enhanced every single recipe that she had in her mind.

Also, now that she was on that island, she had actually started being a little less homesick and had grown more accustomed to enjoying the weather of the island, along with some beautiful company. Whereby, every evening, she spent, was in a beautiful terrace, up against a beautiful view of the sun setting in the beach and drank the finest wine that could ever exist.

Life was finally taking a beautiful turn for her and that also with a beautiful person.

She thought about Nicholas, the guy for whom, her heart beat became louder and faster.

She couldn’t help but feel enormously shy and blush hard, just as the thought of Nicholas crossed her mind.

She kept the book low in her lap and bit her lips mindlessly, giggling to her own self, as she remembered the time she was spending everyday in the terrace with Nicholas, talking for long hours about everything and nothing at the same time.

“Seems like there is some steamy scene in the book?”

She heard a familiar voice that made her snap her neck and turned to find Salva standing a few feet away from Althea, on the curved pavement that led towards the lawn swing.

“What?” she asked, feeling even more embarrassed, remembering that the book that she had in her hands, did had a s*x scene written, involving the two main leads.

She gulped hard and decided to play her bluff.

“Have you read this book before?” she asked and Salva shook his head.

“No!”

Althea sighed mentally and then broadened her shoulder with confidence, “There is no steamy scene in this book.”

“I lied, I have read this book.”

Salva burst in to loud laughter, making Althea’s eyes go wide.

He continued laughing over the look on Althea’s face, where she was flabbergasted and embarrassed at the same time.

He walked towards Althea and perched on the swing, next to her, giving more momentum to the swing that slowly began coming back its previous state of motion.

“Then, why did you lie?” she asked, her tone full of offense and anger.

Salva snorted a little laughter, “You think, you’re the only one who can play her bluff?”

Althea rolled her eyes in obvious anger and disappointment, “Still unfair.”

Salva laughed out once again, quite amused by Althea’s annoyed expressions.

“You actually still haven’t answered my question.” Salva reminded Althea, who threw the book at him.

“I had just started reading the book, why don’t you read it yourself.”

“Whoa! Althea, I am a guy in his prime. Single and good looking and if you give such material to me, you do realize that you are pushing me towards sin. And we are here on a confined island, you do realize what this could be taken as from my side, right?”

“Hah! Hah! As if you are a priest.” She rolled back with sarcasm, making Salva laugh even harder.

“Hey! You can’t raise questions on my character. You don’t know me like that.”

“Oh, really? So, you have never experienced the touch of a woman?” she crossed her arms across her chest.

Salva nodded in agreement with her question, “Exactly! I am a sweet virgin.” He chimed out, throwing a goofy smile, filling his cheeks with air.

Althea laughed out loud, patting Salva’s head, “You do look like one.”

Her statement, took Salva by surprise, making the smile on his face drop down, with his eyebrows twitching together in annoyance.

“Hey! That’s unfair. You just can’t say that to any guy. That’s offensive.”

Now, it was Althea’s turn to have her fair share of laughter.

“You think, you’re the only one who knows how to play his bluff?” she c****d and Salva couldn’t help but smirk back as well, sensing that she was just as assertively smart in striking up a clever conversation as he believed himself to be.

The two turned silent, as they looked ahead at the fountain and enjoyed the view in silence.

As Althea simply enjoyed the view, with a good company, Salva wondered if Althea would have been able to achieve more in life, had she not had those responsibilities on her shoulders, that held her back.

He realized that she was actually quite cognitively capable of achieving many things in life yet only bad situations were the ones that struck her and forced her to do, what she didn’t want to. And yet, there she was full of hope and life and the way her smile was so bright and lit up. To Salva it felt like she was completing radiating, extremely earnest and attractive in every manner.

It was a shame that her ex boyfriend never actually realized how pure she was, had it been him…

He wondered, immediately shaking his head and turning his head back to look ahead of him and focused on the water jetting out of the beautiful round fountain.

“Are there any particular days on which the fountain is turned on?” Althea inquired and Salva nodded.

“Really? I thought so. So, what’s the theory behind it?”

Salva hummed for a moment, trying to come up with an appropriate response, that wouldn’t give away the whole truth of their incredibly and intricately built up lie.

“The first owner of this island and this mansion, was an old Italian man, who lost his wife while she was giving birth to his son. That night, the man cried a lot in the balcony, looking up at the moon that was full that night, rendered helpless and even turned back to the ancient methods of worshipping, even asking the moon, if it were a god and asked it to return back his wife. His wife, obviously had passed away but the man decided to commemorate her memory by turning on the fountain every night of the full moon.”

Salva described, Nicholas’s grandfather’s story and how even though, he had remarried, he still kept the memory of his first true love, his first wife alive and full in spirits.

“Wow! It’s so beautiful isn’t it? That how small things can be turned in to big monumental gestures for love. I just love how, people just want to do a lot for the ones that they love.”

She sighed for a moment and Salva could tell that there was a lot of pain and sadness in the little breath that she had just released.

“Love has just vanished from our times, don’t you feel so?” she looked at Salva, who didn’t have an answer to that question.

He had never been in love before, so he couldn’t tell whether Althea was right or not.

“I feel like, people in the olden times were more in love. They would do these big or small gestures and just show that they really love the other person but now, I feel like people are just too afraid of love and I mean yeah, breaking heart had become easier and more vile and gruesome but I just think, that if you really like someone, you shouldn’t hold yourself back and just give your best and if they don’t want you, than it isn’t your fault. Sometimes, some people and something are never meant to work out and sometimes, somethings just work out and some people just fall together perfectly and things just work out for the best. And that’s just amazing. Right?”

She turned towards Salva, who was already looking at Althea’s hopeless face and her statement, sounded more like a pounding confession and comfort sentences that she was trying to tell herself and her own heart.

Salva simply smiled and nodded, refusing to say a word and still let Althea know that things would definitely work out.

“I mean, how lucky were those two people who owned this place and how lucky was that woman to have found someone, who made sure to let her legacy and memory live on, forever. I only wonder how beautiful the moon must be back then. Is it that beautiful right now as well?”

She questioned, turning around and looking up at the sky.

“Oh, it really is so beautiful.”

Althea was simply struck with how radiant and shiny the moon looked through the clear sky, with stars gathered around that white celestial body, that added more shine for its surface to reflect.

Salva looked up at the moon for once and then his eyes shifted low on something he felt was more radiant, glowing and shiny than the moon itself. It was Althea’s face.

To him, it looked more beautiful than anything he had ever seen.

Althea on the other hand looked up at the moon and her mind involuntarily and simply surfed through her memories, going back to the time when she was at the back terrace of the house, sipping wine against a beautiful sunset with Nicholas.

Beautiful things had begun to remind her of Nicholas and she hoped that whatever she had with him remained just as beautiful as it currently was.

As she thought about the guy in question, he stood by the harbor of the island, where all the yachts were lined up and he waited for the captain on the island, Peter Jr, who was the son of Peter Sr., that worked for Nicholas’ father Alejandro, on the same island and performed the same duties.

Peter turned the engine of the boat that he had taken off to sail to the nearby town and hopped of, carrying a wooden box in his hands.

He passed the box to Nicholas, who took it in and felt the heavy weight of it.

“How many are in there?” he asked Peter, shaking the box a little and hearing the rattling sound, as he placed the box closer to his ears.

“They said eight but I will get back to the town by next Sunday and get another box before you run out of them.”

“Perfect!” Nicholas chimed, happy with his supply of wine that he would be sharing with Althea in the terrace in the upcoming week. “It’s the finest one they had, right?”

Peter smiled and nodded in assurance.

“Well, thanks! I made you run an errand so late at night. Actually I realized that they just had regular wines stocked in the cellar and didn’t have any good ones left, so…”

Peter shrugged, “No! it’s actually and honestly fine. I actually would love to go out for more errands. Garry doesn’t take me on their usual grocery ones, because Serena and he are the only ones to hop out. So, I actually feel relieved whenever someone asks me to run an engine. Makes me feel a bit more useful.”

Nicholas laughed out a little, “Well, Salva made you run out for ice cream a few days back and now you got the wine, so I guess we will keep on edging you every now and then.”

“Ice cream? What ice cream?” Peter asked in a completely unfamiliar tone.

“Salva asked you to get some ice cream from the town, a few days back. Don’t you remember?”

Peter scoffed a bit, as he shook his head, “No! but yeah, he did ask me to get an ice cream, around two weeks ago, I guess. I got that from Ibiza for him but after that today, I went to get wine for you.”

A scuff appeared on Nicholas’s face, as he heard Peter’s words, “Did he tell you what he wanted to do with the ice cream machine?”

“Yeah, I asked but he didn’t say much and simply said that he wanted to try and make some ice cream. I guess with the whole new girl on the island thing, everybody is having some sort of cooking rush or fever.”

Peter laughed, shaking his head and moving away to get inside his residence, that was a small single room, located next to the security booth.

Nicholas was left silent, stunned and definitely bothered as he was able to analyze one fact with the information that Peter had given him.

Salva didn’t get the ice cream for Althea, while he could had, but instead, he got an ice cream machine and made ice cream for Althea, because Althea liked homemade ice cream, something that Nicholas had found after stalking her on f******k.

But he couldn’t believe that Salva would go that far for some girl, let alone the one who was merely a subject of treatment that was going to be used for Nicholas.

Nicholas’ own heart had started waltzing in to insecurity. He had spent some time with Althea and had beginning to fall for her and he only felt frightened that what if even Salva had begun to fall for her as well.

As he reached the mansion, the guards at the gate, rushed towards him, offering to carry the box for him and he allowed them to do so, walking ahead in to the garden, with the determination to take a stroll and clear his mind.

Salva was never the guy to have ever fallen for any girl and Althea was nowhere near his taste.

He knew the kind of the girls that Salva was interested in, educated, tall and leggy, blondes, perky, tiny waist, curvy body and obviously someone from a good and nice background because Salva believed that girls from lousy houses, tend to get greedy when they would find or see a rich boy and that’s why, he never even slept with anyone below an upper middle class girl.

Althea was nowhere near those standards and yet Salva was making ice cream for her. it seemed quite disturbing to Nicholas, who ended up reaching the spot in the garden where the lawn swing was placed and stood at a distance, watching as Althea sat on the swing, with her face turned back and looking up at the sky and Salva was perched next to her, instead of looking up with her, he actually looked at Althea, as if stealing gazes at her.

“The moon looks so pretty!”

Nicholas heard Althea sigh and admire the beauty of the full moon. He turned his eyes towards the moon for once that Althea was admiring with so much adoration and felt slightly jealous, wishing that she would admire him with same effort and love as well.

“It’s pretty, right?” she asked Salva, still keeping her face turned up towards the sky and Nicholas watched, as Salva kept his face steady, looking at Althea instead, as he replied her back.

“Yes, indeed it is very pretty.”

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Welps! the love triangle just got a bit more twistier :D

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3