An irish Lovestory - the summer of Life

Italy

Carlotta receives a phone call from Johanna in the evening, but she also ignores it. Mrs Giesmas knows exactly that she tells Johanna everything. But she hasn't said a word about this holiday and doesn't plan to say anything until they are back home. Only Helen has asked her to take over her Snapchat account for a few weeks so that the flames don't disappear. Luke gave his account to Charlie willy-nilly, because he couldn't think of anyone else who, firstly, wouldn't be spending the holidays in Germany and, secondly, didn't know his parents well. However, the siblings don't know anything about the plan to spend the holidays alone in Spain. They have switched off their GPS signal at home so that they cannot be tracked by mobile phone. This means they can't use Google Maps to find their way around, but the old sat nav will do.
Luke has Carlotta prepare a few things in the holiday home and goes shopping in the small town himself. Once in Spain, they can only do a little shopping so that none of Luke's friends from the holidays recognise them and call the police. He buys lots of noodles, other durable goods and a few more utensils they could use. He already knows the cashier from the last holidays and she gives him a friendly nod as usual. Through her work in a holiday cottage village, she speaks fluent German and talks quietly to Luke as he stands at the till. "So you and your girlfriend really eloped?" At his questioning look, she adds, "You are already wanted in Germany. Today your missing person report arrived in Bavaria and you know that's where my one sister lives with her family and she likes to talk." Luke thinks agonisedly of last summer in Italy, where he met the cashier's sister. For hours she talked about something he had no idea about or just didn't care about. "Are you betraying me?" he asks with a furrowed brow. The cashier smiles and shakes her head. "This conversation never took place. However, you should get away from the German beaches within the next three days. Otherwise, there's a very good chance you'll only be able to spend three or four days together on holiday." Luke nods and looks at the long queue behind him. "Thanks, maybe we'll drop by your place again for a coffee tomorrow morning. Or tomorrow at noon during your break. Otherwise, we'll see you on the way back."
With these words he walks back to the cottage, which Carlotta has already dusted off completely and ripped open the windows so that they have enough fresh air during the night. "Where have you been for so long?", Carlotta asks Luke as he unlocks the front door. "We're already wanted in Germany! We have to be out of here the day after tomorrow at the latest before they find us and take us back!" She grins to herself as he appears in the doorway. He is wearing his leather jacket again and all black underneath. "I feel like I'm in a bad romance movie right now. The Bad Boy has kidnapped the girl from a good house so they can be all alone and the police are looking for both of them. They won't get us! We are far too smart for that!" She has her back to him and can't see his reaction. Luke walks slowly towards her and puts his hands on her hips from behind. Carlotta turns her face towards him and looks into his eyes. On the one hand she sees the spirit of adventure flashing in them, but on the other hand she is afraid that they might get caught. She turns once around one hundred and eighty degrees and stands with her face right up against his. They look deeply into each other's eyes and Carlotta gives Luke a tender kiss. A short time later they are both lying on the bed only half dressed, falling over each other like ravenous lions. "I love you Carlotta.", Luke whispers in her ear as he gently strokes her back. She answers him in the same seductive whisper, "I love you too Luke."
Only the loud growling of their stomachs stops them both from being completely naughty and moving around the house naked. Luke ties a towel around his waist and briefly goes to cook pasta and tomato sauce while Carlotta puts the bed back in order and sets the table. Unlike Luke, she has still had time to get dressed.
Luke puts on something sensible before they both eat. But before they dig in he says: "Allora buon appetito. Che possiamo trascorrere una vacanza spensierata. Ti amo!" Carlotta looks at him questioningly.

Italian is one of the few European languages she doesn't speak. So Luke translates briefly for her. "Well then, bon appétit. So that we can spend a carefree holiday. I love you." Carlotta nods, raises her empty glass and says, "Here's to us having a wonderful holiday incognito and that this won't be our last. Ti amo!" So they start eating and really enjoy the pasta.
After the meal, they make a plan for the next few days. "Okay, then we'll leave tomorrow evening under cover of darkness, arrive in Genoa the day after tomorrow morning, then take the ferry from there to Marseille and we'll stay there for one night. Mary lives there. I'm sure she'll be happy to see us." She pauses for a moment, just as Luke doesn't like Charlie, Carlotta doesn't like Mary. But she has to go through there now. She calls her roommate.
"Bon soir Carlotta. Has Luke left you? No? Then that's good, or I would have gone to his place myself and slapped him. You're where? Yes, of course you can come. I'm glad. Okay, well, my parents won't be home anyway. See you the day after tomorrow!"
Luke can tell by the look on Carlotta's face that they have a place to stay for the night in Marseille. "Okay, as soon as we get back to the port of Marseille we'll take the next ferry out of France and then arrive in Barcelona about four hours later. We won't stay there, though, but take the next ferry straight to Cádiz. We can sleep on the ferry and then arrive safely in Cádiz in the morning, where all we have to do is drive to our holiday home and spend the rest of the holiday there," Luke says as if the phone call had never taken place. In his head it doesn't look quite so optimistic, but he doesn't care, the main thing is that the two of them spend the holidays together with all the risks.
Carlotta silently gets up from the table and goes upstairs. She feels dizzy and tired. But before she goes to bed she wants to take a quick shower. When she gets into the shower she feels so dizzy that she leans against the wall to keep from falling over. Luke follows her and a short time later is also in the shower. He doesn't notice Carlotta's discomfort. The cold water beats down on her and does her good in the warm summer temperatures. Luke is a little surprised that Carlotta says nothing, but he thinks she is just tired. So he wishes her a good night when he's finished and goes to bed himself. If he had stayed in the bathroom a few minutes longer, he might have been able to prevent Carlotta from falling over and lying unconscious on the floor.

Luke doesn't even hear the impact any more, he has fallen asleep so quickly. When he wakes up from a nightmare in the middle of the night and Carlotta is not lying next to him and her pyjamas are also still folded up next to him, he thinks nothing of it, but luckily for Carlotta he also has to go to the loo and thus finds her. Immediately he is wide awake and takes care of Carlotta, who by now is lying in a small puddle of blood.
She is still unconscious and under other circumstances Luke would have gone straight to hospital with her, but as they are both wanted this is unfortunately not possible. He stabilises Carlotta, bandages the wound on her head and quickly runs to the cashier's house. She is fortunately still awake and promises to come right after Luke.
Luke runs back to the little cottage and sprints up the stairs to Carlotta. She has woken up in the meantime and is trying to pull herself up by the toilet. Luke grabs her under the arms and carries her into the bedroom onto the bed. "What happened?", Luke asks Carlotta as she sits up in bed. Carlotta looks at him and shakes her head. She doesn't know.
The cashier of the small kiosk comes in and examines Carlotta expertly for a moment (she trained as a doctor, but dropped out at some point). After a short while she says: "A clear case of dehydration, lack of sleep and excitement. Tell me, how much did you drink today?" Carlotta shrugs. "All in all, it was probably only one and a half bottles of Coke, a cup of coffee to-go and just a glass of water," Luke answers for her. The cashier says, "That's definitely too little my child. Luke, would you please make sure that she drinks more in the next few days. Otherwise your little trip will turn into a horror trip pretty quickly!" Luke nods and looks at Carlotta. Reluctantly, she nods too. If only it were that easy. She has always drunk far too little, but being dehydrated has never happened to her before.
The cashier hits her head briefly. "I almost forgot, I'm Sabine Harana, you can both duck me or I'll feel so old." Luke grins. He's known for almost ten years that he's supposed to use the dear cashier's first name, but always gets a kick out of using it to the barely mid-thirties year old. "I'll have another look at your head injury tomorrow morning at breakfast, if I give the OK, you can go on, otherwise you'll have to wait half a day longer to get out of here! It could be that you have a concussion and then I don't want to let you drive," she says as a farewell and as quickly as she has come, she is gone again. She turns off the light too.
Luke covers Carlotta, checks the bandage on her head again (that it isn't too tight) and also lies down in bed. He looks at Carlotta in the light of the full moon and begins to doubt that they will make it to Spain at all. With his mind on Spain, he dozes off and sleeps until early dawn, but very restlessly. Every little noise makes him startle and look over at Carlotta, who, however, lies there calmly sleeping.
When he is lovingly woken up by Carlotta at just before eight the next morning, he is still very tired and has coffee delivered directly to his bed by Carlotta. So he can wake up slowly and fill up on caffeine right away. "Good morning sleepyhead!" is the first thing he hears from Carlotta, who seems to be wide awake again. "Wow, you usually only get something this good when Christmas and Easter fall on the same day.... So never!", he greets her in a still croaky voice. Luke is anything but a morning person, but he doesn't let last night show. Carlotta has noticed, however, that he hasn't slept well or much, so she has put a cold spoon next to his bed so that he can at least get rid of the bags under his eyes.