Perfidia

new beginnings [part 1/2]

06:43

We're landing soon. But it's still at least three hours until I can finally lay down in my own bed... Alicia's gaze fell at her reflection on the now blank screen of her phone.

She looked miserable.

She was exhausted and couldn't wait to be able to get off the damn plane. There was no baby crying on it this time, but a numb pain in her side didn't let her relax during the whole journey. As if I could relax anyway... She turned on the selfie camera and wiped away the remains of the messy makup around her eyes. She was glad that no one was sitting near her. The last thing she wanted to do was to give explanations to strangers. But she had to look acceptable at the passport check.

She turned off the camera and gazed out through the window on the growing city underneath her. The streets of Madrid became wider and wider until she could see the cars rolling on them. When the plane reached the ground a bitter feeling creeped up towards her neck. I didn't do anything wrong! she told herself, trying to silence her inner voice which kept telling her the opposite, then she took a deep breath, tightened her ponytail, put on her sunglasses and was ready to face her old life.

Without playing the wife of a smug thief.

Without having to tiptoe around his nerdy brother.

Without risking her career.

She let out a relieved sigh when the queue she ended up in finally headed towards the exit door of the terminal and finally felt like smiling as she breathed in some fresh air on her walk towards the bus station.

She was tired, and dizzy, and the pain she occasionally felt came back with three times it's intensity when an inattentive bypasser who popped up in front of her, accidentally bumped into her, pushing her towards the wall of the nearby building.

"Hey! Look where you are walking!" she snapped at him, but soon she realized that the guy did not bump into her by accident. He was neither apologizing, nor about to step away from her, and when their eyes met she recognised the once warm, brown eyes, now staring at her with a cold flicker in them.

"Sergio?!" she winced. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Looking for you." he replied briefly, and eased his grip on her shoulder blinking around, not wanting to look too suspicious for anyone. "Where is my brother?"

"I don't know. Probably still wasted in our hotel room..." Alicia replied coldly.

"What happened?" he stared into her face demanding an answer.

"Why do you think anything happened?!" Alicia shook him off herself and pulled her leather jacket together on herself. She could see the worry and the fury in Sergio's eyes. She wasn't sure yet whether it was the reaction of the cornered prey or the one of a beast feeling played. No, Sergio is not a beast...

"Because you're here. And he is not." he straightened up, but stayed close enough to her to be able to stop her in case she would want to flee. But apparently she wasn't planning to do that. Or she was just too tired to put any effort into it.

"And how did you know that I will be here?" Alicia looked at him raising her eyebrows.

"I've been tracking your phones. I saw that you headed towards the airport while he wasn't moving from your hotel."

"You son of a bitch!" Alicia poked him with a bitter laugh, but he grabbed her hand.

"It's not the time for us to talk about me being a stalker. Damn... I warned him about you! And he didn't want to listen... And now I've been calling him and he does not respond!" he whispered to her "What happened, Alicia?"