Ruins of Autumn

30• One Guest

    Eltoni:
    Call me when you can. It's about Bruno.
 
 
    Right after reading that message, Arjon Kelmendi touched the white phone icon on the right of the screen and put the phone in his left ear.
 
    "What happened?" he asked while taking two packages of M&M's from the shelf in the candy section of the market.
 
    "I met Blerim Agolli a few days ago."
 
    Arjoni's hand froze in the air with the package.
 
    "He came to my restaurant in New York with a woman," his close friend kept telling him. "I passed by them when I was leaving. I'm not sure he recognised me. He didn't even look at me."
 
    "Maybe he pretended like he didn't know you." Arjoni took two more beers and went to the cash register to pay. 
 
    "I suspected that too at first." Eltoni approached the window of the office in the restaurant and ran his hand through his long black hair, while his eyes looked unfocused anywhere in particular. "But then I thought that maybe it's just a coincidence. It's been three years. He would have found out a long time ago that he had been in prison because of our fault. He hadn't wanted to endanger any of his family members and had said, 'past, forgotten'."
 
    Arjoni went, agitated, to his white car, which was parked on the other side of the road. The plan he had made three years ago was to solve all the problems caused by that package. He was thirty-seven years old, and Eltoni was thirty-five. They no longer had the patience to return to the past. Why was Blerim Agolli disturbing them now?
 
    "Or Blerimi has talked to Bruno, and Bruno has told him everything," he said, suspecting the former employee of the car wash, who was unknowingly involved in their job, while getting into the vehicle. 
 
    "No, I don't think so. You gave Bruno a huge amount of money. He knows very well what can happen to him if he talks." Eltoni removed the phone from his right ear and saw his sister's name in the newly arrived message on WhatsApp, where he was also talking to Arjoni. "What should we do, Arjon?"
 
    "Leave him alone. Maybe it's just a coincidence, as you say, and we don't have to risk."
 
••••
    Denada Gjozefi headed to the exit of the airport in Los Angeles, knowing that Blerimi and Leonora were waiting for her near the building, as she had agreed with them. 
 
    The only guest at their wedding had agreed not to say anything when her cousin had asked her not to tell Leonora that she had wanted them to meet each other three years ago, but he had refused, with the argument that his fiancee shouldn't blame herself, by thinking that if she had fought more against the rules set by her family for the way of living, they would have met in time, without the need for an intermediary; Albioni wouldn't have stood between them, agreeing to marry Leonora against her will, and, if she had had the freedom she had deserved in life, she would probably have known Blerimi before he had met Anila Idrizaj, and things wouldn't have taken an irreversible fatal turn.
 
    Just a thought, an image, and the feeling of an exact event—these three had made Denada call Blerimi that day in September to invite him to a party that would be organised by the company where she used to work and to tell him that she wanted to introduce him to a girl, Leonora Vitori. 
 
    It had been a while since she had met her and found out that her family wasn't going to allow her to go to university in Tirana. She had tried to convince Graniti to support his sister, arguing with him that Leonora could live in her house in Tirana and that she would take care of her first. Why should a person who had all that potential to achieve a lot in life burn in vain?
 
    The close friend card and the trust that he had in her had been worthless. Granit Vitori hadn't changed his decision, had warned Denada to stay as far away from Leonora as possible, and had cut off all communications with her. Leonora hadn't been able to win over her father and Graniti, which was why she was left prisoned in her house in Puka after finishing high school. 
 
    Only when Denada had returned to her hometown to spend autumn and winter with her family had she met Leonora and Ardian Vitori walking on the street; she had observed the girl up and down, her hands without rings, and Blerimi had come to her mind. She immediately had the feeling that they could be a perfect couple, while she studied the timid redhead with her gaze. If they married together, she would also escape from her toxic family.
 
    Just out of anger, too, that she didn't want Leonora's life to go as Graniti wished, Denada had tried to be friends with her. Her soul ached when she saw Leonora without anyone by her side. She herself didn't have an older sister, but she had her mother's support.
 
    She had told Graniti the next excuse: to take Leonora to that party, since his sister was now twenty years old. Today, or tomorrow, someone would be interested in her, and therefore the girl had to know something about life to have gone to some places in Albania, because then the other person would think that she might have committed some act considered a sin by society's point of view, where they were part of, and a negative impression would be created for Leonora. 
 
    Surprisingly, Graniti had agreed and accepted for his sister to go with Denada to the company party in Tirana that week.
 
    Half of the road had been done, while the rest, left to Blerimi upon his arrival, had remained unfinished.
 
    He had refused to go to that party.
 
    Maybe some events are really written before we were born, are waiting to be realised in their time, and serve as breaking points to our final destination?
 
    "How does life work, huh?" Denada looked at Blerimi and showed in her eyes what she was thinking.
 
    He laughed lightly, understanding her question, and hugged her. 
 
    "Congratulations and thank you for the invitation." She hugged Leonora tightly, looked at both of them, and thought if only Xhuliana had been there to see her brother starting a family with the woman he loved, to meet her future sister-in-law, and Denada was sure that Xhuliana would have loved Leonora, as if she were her biological sister, exactly the relationship that Leonora had dreamed of having in her life.
 
    "Thank you," Blerimi lightly touched Denada's left arm, and the three of them got into the car to go to the house that Blerimi had bought in California, with the plan to live there with Leonora and only return to Albania to visit the graves of his family. 
 
    Denada had insisted on staying at the hotel that week, although they had told her that she didn't have to spend money. It hadn't seemed appropriate to her at a time when Blerimi and Leonora probably wanted to stay alone while they were getting ready for the wedding.
 
    She loved their two-floor house with fine light-coloured walls, the driveway paved with large light beige tiles to the main black door, the oak trees on both sides of the yard adjacent to the house, and the vases and decorative wood and metal work along the surrounding black walls, but she also retained some enthusiasm for Leonora's wedding dress. 
 
    "Don't you dare sneak at the door or the window and see the dress! Except on the wedding day," Denada threatened Blerimi, and he raised his hands as a sign of peace.
 
    "You do the commanding. I just give the orders," he replied, leaving them alone in the bedroom with the door locked.
 
    "You'll stay with me tomorrow," said Denada to Leonora while they were having dinner at the couple's house. "It's your bachelorette night."
 
    "Oh, no," the bride-to-be refused. "Blerimi and I have decided not to apply these 'traditions'."
 
    "But you're not showing him the dress. This is also a tradition."
 
    "Because I want it to be a surprise for him; that's why," she replied. 
 
    "OK, then. The place next to the house is all arranged ready for the ceremony; now only the wedding remains." Denada agreed and thought about Graniti.
 
    She looked at Leonora doubtfully to ask her if she would do well if she at least invited her brother, but kept silent because she didn't want to make her sad. Leonora would have thought herself about inviting Graniti, but she had clearly shown her decision by refusing to have him present at her wedding.
 
    Denada didn't blame her. After all those traumatic events between him and Leonora, it would take a lot of psychological strength for her to be convinced that history wasn't going to repeat itself and to agree to have each other in their lives again.
 
    For that long-awaited wedding ceremony, Denada had chosen a beige dress with large, colourful pastel flowers along it and sides from the waist down to the ankles. She had brought her favourite pink and gold heels with her from Albania. She had never been so excited to attend a wedding as theirs and probably wouldn't be even at her wedding in the future.
 
    "Are you excited?" The bridegroom was standing next to the altar located by the shore, facing the sea. 
 
    "Not at all," Blerimi answered ironically, as he took deep breaths continuously.
 
    Denada took advantage of the opportunity and laughed mockingly at him.
 
    "If your wedding ever comes," he swore while shaking his head. "Tell me when Leonora arrives."
 
    "Why? So you can run away in time if you don't like the bride?"
 
    Blerimi sniffed at her absurd words.
 
    "She's here." 
 
    He immediately turned his head, not suspecting that Denada could have lied to him, and stared in awe at the woman wearing a white dress with sleeves and beads along it, a veil of pearls, and a tiara on her head, as she walked alone towards Blerimi with a bouquet in her hands and gazed with brown eyes glowing more than the rays of the sun from happiness.
 
    Leonora stood in front of him, smiled at Denada, who moved her lips, and silently said, 'You look like a star!' and she glanced again at Blerimi, in whose eyes there was a thin, glassy layer of joyful tears, like her own.
 
    They were getting married together. They were becoming each other's dreams come true. No one would be able to separate them anymore. He came closer to her, cupped her face, her red hair caught in a crown braid behind her back, and squeezed her hands. 
 
    "Nora," he resisted with difficulty the desire to kiss her in those moments.
 
    "I only agreed to buy this dress when they told me that it was easy to open the zipper." She winked at him, and Blerimi chuckled.
 
    They felt completely free and like there was finally no barrier between them when they put the wedding rings on each other's fingers and signed the document that legally proved that they were a family.
 
    Denada ate dinner with them as fast as she could to leave them alone, told them humorous stories from her teenage years at school, university, and journeys around the world, and then got ready to leave. 
 
    "Here you go, Denada." Leonora laughed while holding out her bouquet of flowers. "I don't know if this case doesn't apply because you don't have competition for the flowers, or if it means that you will surely get married."
 
    "Keep them," Denada also replied with a laugh. "There are a lot of methods to preserve flowers nowadays. Text me when you're free, so I can send you the video on WhatsApp. I have saved it for the thought that you never know. It turns out that that video is needed."
 
    "OK," Leonora admitted.
 
    Denada congratulated both of them once again for their marriage, greeted them, and left for her hotel. 
 
••••
    Blerimi took Leonora in his arms before they reached the threshold of the main door of the house and headed for their bedroom, which he had prepared for them while his wife had been talking to Denada and eating dessert, and he had gotten up from the table with the argument to see if everything was okay inside the house.
 
    As soon as her feet touched the white tiles, he held her body, and they kissed, this time not hindered by the conscience that they had to wait because that was what they had decided in the beginning. 
 
    Leonora took off his dark blue jacket and his shirt, looked at his chest along with his arms, and then at him.
 
    "You're realising that the end of the holidays will be worth it, I guess," he remarked happily, and he brought her closer to him, kissed her again, ran his hands across her back, and his fingers began to open the zipper of her dress.
 
    He slid the latter along her shoulders and looked at Leonora in amazement, as if he had life in front of him in the form of the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen. 
 
    "I have never been so sure, not to turn back, than with you, Leonora." Blerimi was able to say, bewitched by her.
 
    She took a deep breath of happiness, her heart more frantic than ever in her chest, and accepted his kiss along with his touches across the frail body laid on the white-covered bed beside them.
 
    Leonora felt her body being recovered from the past through each kiss between them, moans, and intensive looks that showed emotions that couldn't be expressed in words. There wasn't just a mass of someone's body on top of her that she felt she was being tortured by. She was making love with her husband; she was married to someone she loved, and he was in love with her too. 
 
••••
    She rested her forearms on his chest as they looked at each other, and he stroked her loose hair. Leonora couldn't find the right words to ask him how he felt after sleeping with her. The questions 'How was I in bed?' and 'Did you have a good time?' seemed more than absurd.
 
    "Are you happy?" she asked out of the blue, unsure that Blerimi would understand what exactly she was talking about.
 
    The bending of his lips and his intensive gaze made her realise that he had guessed what, and from the blush on her cheeks, he was convinced that he was right.
 
    "Blerim, stop!" Leonora demanded, not at all in an authoritative voice. "Do you know how hard it was for me to ask you?"
 
    "Why hard? I'm not a stranger anymore."
 
    She smiled, rather excited.
 
    "OK. I confess that I am a vengeful person." Leonora warned.
 
    "Oh, yeah? Attack whenever you want. As for your information, I am happier than ever," he answered her question at first. "You?"
 
    "Me too," Leonora whispered back, and he laughed out loud at her state. "That's it! I was thinking about forgiving you, but now I decided to plan revenge," she announced.
 
    "Don't get spared in any aspect, Leonora Agolli," was Blerimi's reaction to those words, along with positioning her body beneath him.
 
    Leonora happily repeated to herself her name along with the surname Agolli, which legally belonged to her now, too, and gazed at her husband before returning his kiss and consciously dwelling on the tantalising feelings created by him.