Arranged Love – Episode 10

Dinner is done.”

I managed to finish the dinner in a timely manner. Also, I made roasted herb potatoes and some salad with Italian dressing. Angela was helping with plating the food in a family style. Matthew had went off somewhere. As I set the table, I heard the front door open.

“That might be Adrian,” Angela said to me. I gave her a nod and walked over to the front to see that it was Adrian who had walked into the room. My hands were shaking. I hadn’t seen Adrian for a while so I was a bit nervous. I turned at the corner to see him there.

He didn’t look like he had been staying in the office for a long time. In fact, he looked ready to go to work. His clothes were smooth with no wrinkles. His hair was not in a mess. He had no facial hair showing.

He simply walked away to the stairs without looking at me. My mood went down a bit. I took a deep breath and walked back into the kitchen to finish setting the table. I took the bowl of risotto in my hands. “Did he see you?” she asked me.

What should I say?

“Adrian is here. He said that he will be down in a bit,” Matthew said and took the risotto bowl from my hands. “You don’t have to help. You are the guest,” I said to him as I tried to take the bowl from him but, he was taller than me.

“It’s alright. I’m your brother in law. I’m suppose to help my little sister,” he said to me and walked to the dining table. “That goes for me too,” Angela said as she walked passed me with the salad bowl and the plate of sliced steaks.

I took the plate of roasted potatoes and walked to the dining table. We sat down and waited for Adrian to come to dinner. Matthew walked to the wine shelf. “I should get some water,” I said to them and got up from the table. “I’ll go get them,” Angela offered to me.

“No. I’ll go,” I said to her and walked to the kitchen to get some water for everyone. After getting the waters, I walked to the table to see Adrian who was about to take his seat. He had changed into some more comfortable clothes but, they were still a bit formal like his work clothes.

He turned his head to me. I lowered my head and walked to the table with the tray of waters. Water was placed in front of everyone. “Thank you,” Angela said to me. “Your welcome,” I said to her with a small smile.

I placed the tray nearby and took my own seat. Adrian didn’t help. Matthew noticed it and said the prayer. “Thank you for the food,” we said in unison and started to pass the food around. After everyone had food on their plate, we started to eat and I could tell that Matthew and Angela was enjoying the food.

“This is amazing,” Matthew said and looked at me with a big smile on his face. “Thank you,” I said to him. “I wish I can cook as good as you,” Angela said and took a bite of the risotto. “What do you think Adrian?” Matthew asked his little brother.

“It’s great,” he said with a smile on his face. I felt my heart swell. He liked my cooking. It was the first time that he was tasting my food. Angela and Matthew gave each other a smile and continued to eat their food happily.

Matthew and Adrian talked about business while Angela and I talked about married life. She was telling me how Matthew would be romantic every month. He would plan something romantic for her. I wondered if Adrian would do something like that.

“That reminds me. Where are you two going for your honeymoon?” Angela asked Adrian and I. To be honest, I didn’t know if we were going to go on a honeymoon because Adrian was very busy with his work. Plus, he didn’t seem to like me.

“Great Britain.”

I looked at Adrian. Is he serious?

Matthew didn’t seem to believe him. “Why the Great Britain of all places?” he asked him. “Well, I love the history there. I want to go explore some historical sites and go to a few museums,” Adrian said and then looked at me.

Does he want me to play along or something?

“What about you Vera?” Angela asked me. “Um…” “She had been interested in English history since she was a little girl and wanted to go there. That’s the main reason why I planned for us to go there,” he explained to them. I didn’t know what to think especially at a short notice.

I was surprised that he knew my interest in English history. England was one of the places to go to on my bucket list. I never told him about it. Does he want our marriage to actually work? I was a bit excited. “That’s sounds good. I can’t wait to see pictures,” Angela said to us. Adrian had a smile on his face and continued to eat his dinner.

“So when are you guys going?” Matthew asked us. “In a few days. I already booked the hotel and planned the whole two weeks there,” Adrian said and took a sip of his wine. In a few days! I can’t wait!

The rest of the evening was pleasant.

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Few days later…….

“Did I forget anything?”

Today, we were going to the airport to fly to England. We were going to fly from JFK International Airport to Heathrow International Airport. I never had flown in a plane longer than three hours,

Knock…knock…..

Who could that be? I walked to the door and opened it to reveal Lorenzo. “Are you ready Vera?” he asked me. “Yes. I am,” I said to him and proceeded to grab my luggage. “I’ll get that for you,” he said to me and took the luggage off my bed with no problem.

“Follow me,” he told me. I followed him out of my room to the living room where Adrian sat with his laptop open. Looks like he is doing business as usual. As we walked down the stairs, Adrian closed his laptop and stood from the couch.

“Let’s get going. We have business to attend to,” he said to Lorenzo. I was confused. Business? “Yes. Of course sir,” he told him. We walked into the elevator and waited for the elevator to go down. I had many thoughts come to my head.

What did he mean by business? Aren’t we going to our honeymoon?

I looked up at Adrian’s eyes to see that he had the distant look. He was deep in thought. I let out a breath and waited for the elevator doors to open. Once the doors opened, we walked to the car that was in the front.

I felt someone’s hand on my back that made me jump. I turned my head a bit to see that it was Adrian next to me. He helped me into the car before he got inside himself. Lorenzo sat in the front with the driver.

Once Adrian sat in his seat, he opened his laptop and started to work again. I knew to not bother him with his work or anything. I reached in my bag and started to read one of my new books. The book was a romance between a rich man and a poor woman who was arranged to be married.

In a way, it as like me. I was from a poor family in a way. Adrian was from a rich family. Our grandparents had arranged our marriage. We got married without complaints to our grandparents. I wondered if we would have a happy ending like the book.

We got to the airport a bit later than we should have because the traffic was very bad. Adrian helped me out of the car and placed his hand on my back again to guide me through the terminal. I kept my head down and let him guide me to our plane.

I didn’t want to look at the faces of people around us. Will they know my connection to Adrian? Nobody knew my face or anything. The media only knew that Adrian was married but, they haven’t discovered my identity yet.

Soon, we got to the gate. The lady at the front gave us a smile. “Hello. Welcome. Please let me see your ticket and passport please,” she said to us. The thought popped in my head. My passport! I forgot!}

I was a bit afraid to say anything now. My passport was at home. I never brought my passport anywhere because I never flew out of the country in my life. The only time that I used my passport was at the bank when I opened my bank account.

With a bit of fear, I looked up at Adrian who reached into his brief case for his passport. I felt bad that if I said anything now, we would be late for our honeymoon. Next thing I knew, I saw something in his hands. He had two passports.

“Here is mine and my wife’s passports and tickets,” he said to the lady. How did he get my passport?

The lady gave him a smile and took the passports and tickets gladly. I looked over the counter a bit to see that my passport was brand new.

My new passport had my new surname. When did he get that made? It takes a couple months to get a new passport. After a few minutes, she gave him the passports and tickets. “Have a good flight,” she told us.

Adrian put the passports away in his brief case and we continued our way to the plane. We were taking the private jet. Adrian had me go up the stairs to the plane first and followed behind me. Once inside the plane, I recognized the flight attendants.

The female flight attendant had a huge smile when she saw Adrian who was behind me. The male flight attendant had a huge smile on his face when he saw me. I got a creepy shiver go up my spine. They bowed to us.

“Welcome back Mr. and Mrs. Minetti,” they said in unison. Shyly, I gave them a smile. They walked over to us and took our jackets. Adrian took his seat and I took mine at the opposite side of the plane. Immediately, he placed his brief case on the seat next to him and started to work on his laptop.

Quietly, I took a book out of my bag and started to read. “May I get you anything?” I looked up to see the male flight attendant. “Not right now. Thank you for asking,” I said and turned my attention back to my book.

Ping….

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Minetti. This is your captain Steven Spizale with first officer Jordan Michael. We will be taking flight momentarily. At this time please put on your seatbelt. Again, we will take flight shortly.”

I placed my book on my lap and buckled my seatbelt. Once I buckled my belt, I took my book out of my bag and started to read. Soon, I heard the roar of the engines that were turned on. The plane started to make it’s way to the runway.

I looked out of the window to see that we were on the runway. Luckily, nobody was in front of us. Soon, the plane drove down the runway to get some lift. Near the middle of the runway, I knew that were weren’t on the ground.

Ping…

The sound indicated that we could take our belts off. I didn’t dare to take mine off. A memory came to mind. A memory that I never wanted to experience ever again.

Flashback…

Age 8….

We were on a flight home from visiting my father’s brother in Seattle. My parents sat with my brother on the midsection of the plane in first class. I sat with a close family friend Margaret in the economy section of the plane at the window seat.

My parents knew her since their childhood. She was my brother’s godmother. She knew of my situation with my parents. She would spend more time with me than my brother. I saw her as a mother figure.

“Ladies and Gentleman this is your flight attendant speaking. We are in our final descent. Please put your seats in an upright position. Also, please put your seatbelt on. We are in our final descent. Thank you for flying with us on American Airlines. We hope to many of you flying back home.”

“We are almost home Vera,” Margaret told me. “Yay.” I was happy that the plane would land soon. I really wanted to go home and read some books that I had gotten from my friends. “How long?” I asked her.

“About fifteen minutes,” she said to me. I gave her a nod and returned to my attention at the magazine in my hands. In two minutes, I looked out the window to see that there were droplets on the window.

It was sprinkling outside. I didn’t think anything of it. I returned my attention to the magazine.

I didn’t know how long I was reading. Next thing I knew…..

BOOM!!!!!!

Everyone started to scream throughout the fuselage. “Get down!” I felt Margaret trying to bend over me so that I wouldn’t get hurt from the bags and other items that were stored in the compartments above us.

I could feel that the fuselage was twirling around and next thing I knew, we felt a hard landing. Once everything settled down, Margaret removed herself off of me. I looked down to see that my belt had unbuckled itself.

“We need to get out,” she told me as she took a handkerchief and cover my nose and mouth. The cabin was filling with smoke. I was in shock to say anything. Everyone in the cabin started to evacuate from the plane from the back in panic. Margaret managed to unbuckle her seatbelt unlike the others who’s seatbelt buckles were jammed.

She got up and got me out of my seat. She guided me out of the plane. I could see that there was a whole on the back of the plane and the cabin was a bit dark. What happen to the tail? “We need to keep moving,” she reminded me.

As we walked through the opening, I could see that the ends of the wires were sparking. “Keep moving Vera. It’s alright,” I heard Margaret behind me. I closed my eyes and kept moving until the light from the outside blinded my eyes.

“We are out!”

Once outside, I took a deep breath of fresh wet air. “Come on. We need to get away from the plane,” Margaret reminded me. We weren’t out of danger. We continued our way off the runway and onto a nearby hill. Luckily, I got away with some scrapes on my legs and arms.

I looked at the plane to see that people were sliding down the escape slides. “Where is mom and dad. Where’s David?” Even though that I wasn’t close to them, I was worried about them since I wasn’t with them.

Sirens of the fire trucks filled my ears. People were still evacuating the plane. The smoke was rising in the air. I could see little bits of flame behind the plane from my view. Once the fire trucks were there, the firefighters coordinated everyone.

Still, I didn’t see my parents anywhere. A security officer walked up to us with blankets in his hands. He gave one blanket to Margaret while the other to me. Margaret helped wrap the blanket around me. I did’ realize how cold I was.

“You need to get on the bus that is right at the middle of the runway. It will take you to the terminal where you can find your love ones,” he informed us. “Thank you officer,” Margaret said to him. We walked with many of the people to the bus.

Once at the terminal, we were escorted to a room where everyone were getting refreshments and waiting waiting for some news. “Margaret!” We turned our attention to the voice. It was my mother with tears in her eyes.

She ran straight to Margaret and gave her a hug. “Are you alright?” she asked her. I looked behind my mother to see father and David. They walked up to us. “Yes, I’m fine. Vera is too,” she told them. They didn’t seem concerned about me.

David gave me a small smile and turned his attention back to Margaret.

End of Flashback…..

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Hey everyone.

I’m happy to see that many of you are enjoying this story. I do need time to write this story though. I haven’t finished the next chapter. I’m still surprised by the number of votes.

Happy reading.

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