Along the street of Antibes

Chapter 3

Aries

I heard a knock on my door, and when I went to open it, I saw that it was the American I had bumped into a couple of times here. I forgot his name, but he's really the friendly type, he's also the one who's doing deliveries at Baroni's. But it's not food in his hands, but bottles of beer.

"Evening man," he always has that grin on his face and he looks like the type of guy who loves to do impromptu and unannounced visits to his friends' place. We're not friends, but why is he here at night with the intention of drinking with me? Did I not make it clear enough that I don't have interest in being friends with him?

He casually entered, and that pissed me off. What's with this man?

"Ok, do you mind telling me why you're here in my place with alcohol? I don't want to be rude, but your appearance here was not expected."

"Oh, I heard that your power is out because there's something wrong with the box, I'm here to fix it. You mind if we're gonna have a couple of beers after I fix this situation here?" Did he just mock me? He's referring to my pitch black place, the power in this Airbnb is having a lot of issues nowadays that makes my blood boil. And it's infuriating because the outlet will throw a fit like any time of the day. Just like now.

"Did Tony send you here? You're kind of really late, I've pitched about the power to him on my second week here. The outlet had gone really mad these past few days, the power will be out at literally any time of the day, it's a problem."

"Well, he didn't. I came here to help you by myself, Tony didn't mention it. The power here in Alicudi is not like the power back in the states. Your place isn't the only place here that's always have a sudden blackout. You have to get used to it. But because fixing electrical boxes is my forte, and we're friends, I think I can fix this island power situation."

"That's good, thank you. But we're friends?" I'm quite thankful for him wanting to fix the power, but I can't get used to his over friendliness.

"Hey, drop the American attitude. Here in Italy, everyone's friends with anyone." He turned his back on me and put the beers on the table, and started to check the box.

After half an hour, the power is back finally. Leo, the man's name, assured that there will be no sudden power outage anymore. That's quite unbelievable given that he only fixed the box for 30 minutes, and that's a short time for fixing a line of electricity. Anyways, he said he's an electrician, and people here will go to him for help with power-related problems.

It's just rude and snobby if I will just reject the beer he brought with him. So we drank. Leo said that he missed having to drink with an American. I don't know if that's true, there's always an American visiting here. Did he not force them into a friendship like what he's doing right now?

In the middle of the conversation, which I had the least part of because I don't really have something to share, Leo out of nowhere begged me for a favor.

"Can you be my sub at the restaurant tomorrow? I don't really have someone else to ask, and I really need someone to help me out. I can't go...I have a really important matter to sort out tomorrow, and I can't just ditch Nina. The tourists will arrive, so it's gonna be hell crazy. Plus, I felt bad for Robin, if no one shows up the next day, she's gonna have to bring the produce to the restaurant. Lifting is not a simple task."

I was caught off guard not by his crazy favor, but his mention of Robin.

"Really? That's why you came here to fix my power, because you have no other person to get some favor for, who can show up for you at Baroni's, aside from me?" First of all, he's crazy for showing up here, forget the shitty power, and he's even nuts for asking me to do his work tomorrow because he can't go. He really doesn't know how to draw the line, it's annoying. We saw each other at the beach for like 3 times, and he did my food delivery 2 times. Clearly, we're not friends for him to simply ask me for favors.