Sand Castle: Chapter 4

"Tom?"

I called his name when I realized that the place next to me in the bed was empty, but I didn't get an answer. I looked around, but he wasn't in the room. Quickly, I got up from bed, and I ran out into the garden, hoping I'd find him sitting on the bench, smoking a cigarette, but he wasn't there either. When I returned to our room, I felt relief. His guitar, his bags, and his black rucksack were on the floor. I thought to myself, he'll be back soon, he must be somewhere nearby, because all his things were here, and he left his phone on the table.

I sat by the window, and I began to wonder where Tom might be before ten in the morning. After some time, the big green gate opened, and with bags in his hands, Tom returned from the market with Mrs. Sofia, our landlady.

"Hey, you're up?" he said, surprised when he saw me sitting by the window.

"Yes, where have you been?" I asked him.

"Did you get scared that I might run away?"

"Of course not! Where would you go without your things?"

"Oh yeah! You saw my stuff! I should have left you a message saying that I went to buy something for breakfast, and I'll be back soon. Sorry."

"Yes, you should have."

"Yesterday on our street, we passed by a bakery and a grocery shop, and because we don't have room service, I went to buy something for breakfast. I was hoping I'd be back before you woke up. I bought fresh peaches, apricots, and chocolate croissants. They're still hot. In the grocery shop, I met our landlady, and I helped her with the bags."

"Great! Just give me five minutes, and I'll be ready."

"When a girl says that she needs five minutes to be ready, she means she'll be ready in fifty minutes, minimum."

He knows the girls. Tom is twenty-four. He is six years older than I am, and obviously, he has a lot of experience with the girls. I don't know why, but for some inexplicable reason, girls are weak for boys in a band, especially for boys with blue eyes and blonde hair, like Tom.

"I have a perfect plan for today. First, we'll visit the Museo della Citta and The Federico Fellini Parc. For lunch, we'll go to a restaurant on the main promenade in the Rivazurra district of the city. I forgot its name, but my guidebook says it's one of the best in town. After lunch, we'll go to Mirabilandia Theme Park, then we'll go to relax for a few hours on a beach, and tonight we'll go to a nightclub. What do you say?" Tom asked me while we were eating.

"Your plan is very ambitious. You have planned everything, to the smallest detail," I said with a mouth full of food

"Yesterday, we wasted the whole day moving me in here."

"Yes, but yesterday was a good day."

"I agree with you," he said with a big smile.

"If you are interested in archaeology and ancient history, you'd like a Museo della Citta."

"Have you visited it before?"

"Yes, I have. Last week."

"Then I'll go there tomorrow, early in the morning, alone, while you're still asleep, and today we can go somewhere else, together."

"No, I'd love to visit it again."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

We stuck to the plan. Tom was fascinated by the Roman Mosaics in the Museo della Citta, and I was glad because I visited the museum for a second time. The first time, our guide didn't take us to the part with the ancient coins and the amazing glassware. From the museum, we went to the Federico Fellini Parc, where we spent one peaceful afternoon. The dozens of photographs we took in front of the big camera and the fountain with the four horses will always remind us of this day.

"They serve delicious food and wine. Each meal is freshly prepared using locally sourced ingredients and freshly caught..." Tom was reading me from his guidebook when we arrived at the restaurant he chose for today.

"Don't trust everything you'll read in your tourist guide. Maybe the guy who wrote the book has never been to Rimini."

I'm glad I was wrong. It seems the author who wrote the guidebook has been to Rimini after all, and he had a meal at this restaurant. I liked the fish, even fish is rarely on my menu, for an idiotic reason. When I was around ten, one day, I was traveling with my mother by train, and next to me was sitting a woman who had lost her voice, because a fishbone had damaged her vocal cords. The fear that the same could happen to me keeps me away from the fish.

"Are you ready to learn from a real master how to build a sand castle?" Tom asked me as we left the restaurant, and we continued to the beach.

"Tom, I'm afraid I need to go back to our room because I forgot to take my bathing suit with me," I said after I looked in my bag.

"What?" he asked, disappointed.

"But I’m sure that I put it in my bag last night."

The temperature was around forty degrees Celsius. It was unbearably hot, and the streets were almost empty. We were only a few meters away from the beach, and we had to walk to our room and back, in this heat, because last night I forgot to put the bathing suit in my bag.

"Blue is definitely your color," Tom said when he saw me in my bikini in our room.

"Let me just put my dress on, and we're going."

He was standing by the window, and he was looking at me, like he was looking at "Flaming June", his favorite painting. I approached him and I kissed him. We couldn't stop kissing. Making love on a scorching afternoon wasn't on our agenda, but it was the most enjoyable thing that happened to me today. Unplanned things are always the best.

"Will you please forget your bikini and the next time before we go to a beach? Then we'll have a perfect excuse to return to our room and repeat what we did today," Tom said with a smile.

"Okay, no problem, but we don't need an excuse to return to our room and have sex."

"Yeah, if we want to, we can stay in our room until the end of the week."

What a wonderful idea, to spend the rest of his holiday in our room. Every moment with Tom is unforgettable. He is so restless and full of life. No one can make me laugh like he does. I love his songs, I love when he smiles, I love the way he's putting his hair behind his left ear, his laughter, I love his big ears, his hugs, his kisses, his imperfections... I love when he talks passionately about movies, music, art, life, New York, politics... I love everything about him.

For a moment, we forgot about our plans, and we stayed in our room. While we lay embraced in our bed, which was too small for the two of us, Tom was telling me about his favorite authors and books. I had never heard of some of them before. I read a lot. Literature is part of my job, but obviously, Tom reads more than I do. I know little about American literature, because I was always more of a fan of British and French literature. And today I solved the big mystery: the day we met, on the beach, Tom was reading George Orwell's "1984" for the tenth time.

"I don't know what I was thinking when I brought with me a suitcase full of books on vacation, and I had the intention of reading them all. I was hoping I'd have time to read at least two books a day, write over a hundred new songs, and have enough time for everything else. That would be possible if the day in Italy lasted a hundred hours. But it never crossed my mind that I'd meet you."

"So, it's my fault because you haven't written a single song by now, and you won't read all your books?"

"No, no, I didn't say that..."

"Tom, I'm just joking. Now we're even. I'm not going to school because of you, and you can't work and read because of me."

"Nina, you're the best thing that happened to me this summer."

"Really? What about the last summer?"

"Last year, I was in Mexico with my family."

"And last year, you were lying to a Mexican girl, that she was the best thing that happened to you?"

"No, last summer there were no girls. Hey Nina, it's almost four o'clock! Are we going to a beach or not?"

It's unbelievable how he always changes the subject when I just mention the word "girlfriend".

The beach was only ten minutes from our room, but to get there we needed at least twenty minutes because, after every few steps, we were kissing. At this time of the day, the beach is usually crowded, but we found a good place.

"I must warn you, Nina! When I was little, with my brother, we were building sand castles every summer, so I have a lot of experience."

"You can never build a sand castle more beautiful than mine, Tom."

"Do you want to bet? In the sand castle I'll build, we'll be able to live in."

We built a smaller, but far more beautiful sand castle than the one I built alone. It was probably more beautiful because we built it together. Everything Tom and I do since we've met, we are doing it together. We are breathing the same, and our hearts are beating like one.

"Haven't I told you, Nina, that I'd build a sand castle bigger than yours?"

"What? You can only wish. The mine sand castle was bigger, plus you can't take all the credit because I helped you build this one."

"All right, you've got me there! It's true. You helped me build this one. Hey Nina, please stay right there, and I'll take a picture of you next to our masterpiece."

"Okay!"

"Now when you are in this picture, the sand castle doesn't look like it’s something. The sand castle can't compare to your beauty."

"Are you saying that to all your girls?"

"No, only to the girls I'm building the sand castles with. And just for the record, the only girl with whom I've built a sand castle before is my little sister."

I didn't care how many girls heard that line from him. I didn't care about his past, and I didn't care about the number of girls he seduced with his angelic look. These days, I was the only girl who kissed his soft lips every time I wanted to. He was here with me, now, and everything else was irrelevant.

"Tom, our favorite pizza-restaurant, do they deliver pizza?" I asked him after we returned to our room from the beach.

"I don't know. Why?"

"If they do, then we don't have to go out. We can stay in our room."

"Well, we are in Italy. There must be a restaurant that delivers pizza in town."

"Yes, but only in one restaurant in the town, the pizza tastes better."

"Do you want to stay? We'll stay if you want to. Nina, I need you to participate more in the planning of our time. I have a feeling that I'm making all decisions alone. If you want to go out, we'll go out, but if you want to stay, we'll stay."

"I want to stay with you in our room tonight."

"Are you sure? I can eat pizza and nothing else for the rest of my life, but if you want, we can go to a restaurant to eat healthier food."

"We're eating healthy food. We had fresh fruits for breakfast, then seafood, and a salad for lunch."

"Well... All right, I'll find a restaurant online, we'll order a pizza for dinner, and we'll stay in our room."

"Tom, I'm leaving you to make almost all decisions because I've been here longer than you are, and I have seen enough of Rimini. If there is anything left to see, I'll see it next week, and I can return here whenever I want. My mother travels to Italy every month to order new shoes for her shop, and she takes me with her sometimes. Next week, you'll go home, and I'll probably never see you again. I truly enjoy it when I'm with you, even when we are doing nothing at all. Tonight, I want to stay here with you. I want you to sing me all your songs, and I want to make love to you all night long. That's what I want. But if you want something else, I'm in, just to be with you."

I can't believe I was brutally honest with him. Tom said nothing. He just passionately kissed me. We ordered pizza after we made love, and we stayed in our room all evening. In our room; we are happiest. Later, he took his guitar, and began to sing his songs, just for me. It's inexplicable to me how his sad and heartbreaking songs will always bring a smile to my face.

He finished his little concert at two in the morning. It was time to sleep, but it was impossible to fall asleep with Tom next to me. I couldn't get enough of his kisses. If I were a queen, I would give my kingdom for his kisses. His lips are so sweet, and they taste so good. I need his lips more than the rainy sky needs the sun, more than a desert needs rain, more than a bird needs wings to fly, more than a mother needs her child, more than I need air to breathe...