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| SOMEONE SOMEWHERE SOON WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU by Enola PART 16 It’s Saturday morning, the day of James’ friend’s wedding. You have to leave in a few hours since James has forgotten his clothes in his flat in Cardiff, so you have to go there before so that he can prepare. Having had breakfast and took a shower, Chris gives you a hand to arrange your hair lifting it up and holding it in place with some hairslides, but you know that they aren’t enough to hold your hairdo, so Chris sprays some hairspray onto it. She also gives you a hand with make-up as you aren’t very good at it. She puts some eyeshadow, eyeliner and a bit of mascara and finally, you put some lipstick. Afterwards Chris leaves so you put your dress on and also your new boots you have bought for this occasion. At the beginning you weren’t sure to buy them as you thought that their heels were too high, quite higher than you usually are used to wearing, but as you liked them so much you bought them all the same. You stand up and take some steps forwards and backwards your room to “train” your feet. You have to admit that they aren’t uncomfortable and since you think you won’t have to walk a lot, that you’ll spend a great deal of time sitting, you’re sure you won’t have troubles with them. Sitting again in the chair you have an “unpleasant” surprise! You notice something you didn’t when you put your boots on: when you’re sitting your dress is shorter and it is even more when you cross your legs!! “Oh, shit! Shit! Shit!” you yell. You have the sensation that it’ll cause you some “problems”! Better not to think about that now. You stand up again and put the bag in which you have put some clothes into on your bed and check if you have put everything you need to change tomorrow when you’ll be back home: jeans, sweater, underwear, socks, trainers and leather jacket…in short, your true clothes! You have put your photo albums as well since James has reminded you that Nick wants to see Stella’s pictures, so you can’t forget them at home. Glancing at your watch you notice you’d better go downstairs as James is supposed to arrive soon, but before entering the lounge you understand he’s already got since you hear him chatting with the others, with Olivia and George too. Once again Shane has managed to arrange things…and you have helped him this time. They have known James longer than you and they have always considered him as a good person, kind, loyal and trustworthy. He’s apologised to them and told them all the truth showing all his deep bitterness and repentance. Olivia and George have understood and have decided to give him another chance. Having put your bag on the floor you enter the lounge saying hello and you immediately have all their eyes on you. Shane whistles as men often does when they see a nice woman and exclaims, “What a doll!” Afterwards Olivia gets up and walks towards you smiling saying you look pretty and blah blah blah; George regrets the fact he is not thirty years younger; James stands up and says jokingly, “I think we don’t know each other yet!” so he stretches out his hand and adds, “James, VERY pleased to meet you!” You beg all of them to shut up threatening them you’ll rush to change at once if they won’t, so they all sit down again but you! You stay up by the sofa while they all insist that you sit. Few moments later Olivia comes close to you asking if there’s anything wrong, so you tell her to go to the kitchen with you, so you move a chair and sit crossing your legs. She looks at you amused forcing herself not to laugh, “Well, it’s not that short…if you don’t cross your legs!” Although she’s doing her best, she can’t help laughing making you feel utterly uncomfortable. After a while you hear James calling your name and you understand he’s about to enter, so you immediately spring to your feet as he comes in to tell you it’s time to leave. Suddenly you realise that it’ll take you more then three hours to get to Cardiff and you don’t have a clue how to deal with your little “problem”! One thing is sure: you can’t certainly keep your coat on as you couldn’t bear the heat of his car. So what can you do? Oh yes! You can put your coat on your lap!! Pheeew!! You feel a lot better now! Having said goodbye to everyone, James picks up your bag while you take your coat and your handbag and reach his car. He puts your bag into the boot, then you both get into his car and fasten your safety belts. “Put your coat on the back seat” he says some moments later. You can ‘t say you didn’t expect him not to say that!! “Erm…it doesn’t matter…it can stay here…” you say a bit nervous, “what’s up? Before you didn’t sit and now you…ehm…” he pauses a bit then he chuckles and goes on, “ehm…I understand!…how short is it?” You don’t reply and smile and in a while your smile becomes a nervous giggle. “Ehm… Monica…do me a favour” he says, “leave your coat there please! Y’know, I’d like to get to Cardiff safe and well!!” You finally leave and during the journey you keep chatting all the time and almost three hours later you get to Wales. In a big sign you read ‘Croeso I Gymru – Welcome To Wales’. ‘Gymru’? That’s weird! You have always thought it was ‘Cymru’! James says that it normally is ‘Cymru’, but in that case it changes, he doesn’t know why though as he tells you he’s not very good with Welsh. Opening the door of his flat James apologises for the mess in his sitting room. You understand that the last time he was there he left in a hurry. You see some newspapers and some magazines on a table by the sofa. There are also a dirty glass, a mug with still some coffee into it, an ashtray full of ash and cigarette ends. One of his shirts is over the back of the sofa, a book, quite thick, lies open on one of its pillows…That’s nothing new to you as the whole scene reminds you about your room a little. “I’ll have a shower now, so you can sit down and make yourself at home!” he says teasing you, “watch TV, put a CD on, help yourself to drink…just do what you like, okay?” As he leaves you think you’ll sit and watch some TV, so you look for the zapper, but you don’t see it anywhere. You search for it on the table under the newspapers, but it’s not there. You think that maybe it could be on the sofa, probably under a pillow, so you move one and you finally find it. That’s something that happens quite often to you when you watch telly, the zapper always manages to hide under the pillows! You finally sit down and turn on the big television in front of the sofa…God! The news in Welsh!! It’s true you don’t understand a word of it, but you enjoy listening to it! About half an hour later James comes back wearing a smart black suit and a white shirt under his single-breasted jacket. You’re speechless as this is the first time you see him in a suit. “Wow! You look very posh!” you smile getting up, “Posh? Hell, I’m going to a wedding! I can’t go to a wedding in jeans, don’t you think? You like me?” “Oh yes, you look great!” “Too kind! I haven’t told you yet what I think about you, have I?” he says scanning you from head to toe, “Don’t speak a word please!” you warn him, “Okay, I’ll keep my mouth shut!” he unwillingly says, “And stop looking at me like that!” you snap, “Sorry babe, it’s not my fault if you look so bloody gorg…” “Shut up! You promised!” you protest aloud, “Whoops! I let it slip!” he smiles cheekily. You both keep silent for a while, then he goes on, “Try to relax…I remind you that I’ve seen you even less dressed!!” ARGH! You completely forgot about that day you painted your room and you wrapped yourself in that tiny towel after a shower, then you went downstairs thinking to find Shane there. You feel yourself blushing and you can’t believe he still remembers about that. Having laughed a bit about that day, you leave and in less than a hour you get to the castle. It doesn’t seem very big, but you change your mind as soon as you enter it. A butler opens the huge wooden main door and welcomes you with a funny nasal voice and in a very formal way calling James ‘Sir’ and you ‘Madame’. James gives him his invitation, so the butler seeks for his name on the wedding guests list, “Two rooms sir?” he asks quite surprised glancing at you, “Yes. Two!” James replies. Afterwards the butler tells you to follow him upstairs so that you can bring your luggage in your rooms. You and James walk after him looking and smiling amused at each other and you joke about the fact that no one has ever called you ‘Madame’ before. Having left your luggage in your rooms, the two of you go downstairs again to see if his friends have come even though James knows that they’ll get at the last minute since, as he says, they both are ‘allergic’ to parties. He’s quite surprised about their presences as he was sure that “Nick would prefer watching the football while Sean would prefer playing with one of his devilish gadgets!” He’s sure you’ll get along well with them since he knows you have lots in common with them. As he thought they haven’t come yet, so you have the time for a sightseeing tour of the castle. You meet Rhys, the bridegroom and Hugo, his brother-in-law and best man. As James introduces you to them as one of his dearest friends who is Italian and speaks Spanish, you notice a pleased look and smile in Hugo’s face. You have to admit you’re not indifferent to his deep voice, you’ve always had a weakness for Spanish blokes native speakers especially for South-Americans!! Rhys tells you that you may go up the tower if you like to and he’s sorry because he and Hugo can’t come with you as they have to rush to change. But Hugo certainly is the sorriest, you understand that from his sighed ‘¡Qué lástima!’ (= ‘What a pity!’) and from what he says, as he and Rhys leave, ‘Nos vemos luego’ (= ‘See you later’) smiling at you. You just smile shyly back at him. “You made a big hit with him!” says James with a silly smile in his face, “Ehm…Hugo you mean?” you enquire pretending to be surprised, “Yeah, Hugo!” You don’t add anything else and you just tell him you want to go up the tower. You reach it through a spiral staircase and when you are on the top the beauty of the landscape around the castle leaves you breathless. You stare silent at the sky intensely for a few moments, “You’re lucky!” says James lighting a fag, “I think we’ll have a starry sky tonight. We might come back, later” “It’d be great!” you remark excited, “And come even to see sunrise” he adds, “I’d like to. I’ve seen sunrise just once…but I’m not sure if I’ll still be up until then!” “Don’t worry about that, I’ll keep you awake!” he smiles, “Oh, will you? I wonder what you exactly mean by I’ll keep you awake!” you say perplexed. He gives a short laugh, “I mean that I won’t allow you to go to bed before 5 or 6! I’ll keep you awake talkin’!” “Talking?!” “Yeah! I feel like talkin’ to you…y’know, we have to make up for lost time, don’t you agree?” “Yep, definitely!” you smile at him. You stay there for some minutes then you decide to go downstairs as the wedding ceremony is due to start in half an hour. In the meantime, a great deal of guests have come and you notice a guy looking at James and you and after a while he comes closer. He and James already know each other, so they chat a bit, “Guess this is your girlfriend” he says smiling, “No!” say you and James in chorus, then James goes one alone, “This is Monica…she’s…” “I’m his foster sister!” you say cutting James off suddenly. “Pardon?” says the guy in astonishment. You turn to look at James and see in his face a kind of what-the-hell-are-you-saying look, “I know it may sound weird” you giggle, “but James and his father will probably adopt me, won’t you James?” you say giving him a light kick in his ankle, “Errrm…yeees…errm…that’s true!” he chuckles looking at him and glancing at you, “y’know, I’ve always wanted a sista…so…I’ll have one soon!” he adds smiling squeezing your hand in his. “How nice!” exclaims the bloke and you understand he’s kidding since he has realised you and James are just teasing him. As soon as the bloke goes away from you James bursts into laughing and keeps laughing for a bit and for a moment you have the impression he won’t manage to stop because when he seems he’s stopping, he starts laughing again even harder. he tries to speak, but he doesn’t manage to. He just laughs for several minutes leaving you amazed since you didn’t expect he could find it so funny. In the end, he calms down and they friends arrive. You walk towards them, so James introduces you to them and they all look very pleased to meet you especially Nick as he doesn’t stop smiling. You have to admit he really is beautiful! His hair is a bit long, parted in the middle, his big blue eyes are simply sparkling and his smile is incredibly lovely. Rachel, his wife, is very pretty and nice. They are a very beautiful couple. You’ve been struck by the fact they are holding each other hand tight, Nick let her hand go just for a few seconds when he squeezed yours, then he immediately searched for hers again holding it even tighter than before. You’ve been struck by his height too! He’s really really tall, damn it! You feel like a dwarf in front of him! Thanks God Sean and his wife Rhian are shorter, they are both just a bit taller (or less short…you should say!) than you and that makes you feel ‘normal’! In one of his hands Sean has a tiny video camera, his new one, he says he bought it yesterday. “Bet you came just to test your new toy, didn’t you?” says James teasing his cousin. Sean doesn’t reply, he just glare at James as if he wanted to say ‘leave me in peace, don’t annoy me as usual!” You have a nice chat with them until the butler announces that the ceremony is starting in a few minutes and invites you to take a seat in the chapel. The chapel simply is a room of the castle which has been converted to a chapel for the occasion. Some pews have been lined up into two rooms, so you all sit in the same pew in one of the last. Before you sit down James teases you asking if you need his jacket. You give him a scowl, then you settle down in the pew crossing your legs with an unexpected naturalness resting your hands on your thighs. Then, with the same naturalness you turn and stick your tongue out at James. “Nickyyyy!” he whines like a little child, “Monica stuck her tongue out at me!” “Oh you bad girl!” grins Nick jokingly. A moment later you see Hugo close to Rhys on the other side of the room. As your eyes meet for an instant he gives you a sensual look matched with an irresistible smile… PART 17>>> <<< Enola's stories |