The Danish Delight (Mads Mikkelsen)

Chapter 28: "DeLuca's Classic Italian"

Chapter 28: "DeLuca's Classic Italian"

We had spent the remainder of the evening participating in various rounds of intriguingly playful sex. Despite my controversial feelings toward Mads' beloved silk blindfold, he'd proceeded in using it on multiple occasions to deceive my wandering eyes while he explored every inch of my desperate body. That night, he made me feel things that no man ever had; things that I didn't think possible.

After finally awaking past the hour of noon, we properly dressed ourselves and took a cab to retrieve the remainder of our luggage at my home. Slight casualties of "Hello" and "Goodbye" were the only words shared between myself and my father as I gathered my belongings and immediately left. Giving my hometown one last glance goodbye, we took Mads' jet back to L.A. and met Arnie, who had returned earlier that morning, at the studio trailers just after 7pm.

"God, this jet lag has been nothing but fucking brutal to my appetite. Care to grab a bite before heading home for the evening?" Arnie wrapped one arm around Mads' shoulder and the other over mine.

Mads looked to me as if he were awaiting my answer.

I struggled to keep my tired eyes open as I laughed. "Just what did you have in mind, Arnie?"

"There's an Italian place that Robinson and I have been to just a few minutes from here. The food is to die for! But be forewarned, I plan to consume at least one extra large pizza on my own."

"I wouldn't put it past you." Mads jokingly patted Arnie's remarkably round stomach.

*Bzrrrrr-ring... Bzrrrrr-ring... Bzrrrrr-ring...*

Arnie's phone buzzed in his pocket to the well-known classic telephone jingle.

He looked down at the caller ID and widened his eyes. "Shit."

"Who is it?" Mads peeked over at the glow of the cellphone screen as it continued to ring. "Fuck.... Uh, you should take that. Just message me the directions and we'll meet you at the restaurant."

Mads grabbed my hand and rushed out to the parking lot. The pace at which we sped to his car was equivalent to that of the incident and made me question just who exactly was calling Arnie.

"What was that about?" I broke Mads' awkward state of silence as he stopped at the first street light.

He pulled his phone out from his front jean pocket and quickly entered a 4-digit code before attempting to hand it to me. "Can you read off the directions to me?"

"Sure. Are you going to completely disregard my question?" I glared at his face as I blindly took the phone from his grasp.

"Elise, there's nothing to worry about. Arnie's ex-wife was on the line and I didn't want you, or I, to get caught within the crossfire. You know how easily flustered he becomes."

Huh?

"Arnie has an ex-wife?" My eyes narrowed with shock.

He chuckled slightly. "Don't act so surprised. Strange as it may seem, Arnie was married once upon a time."

"Oh." I looked down at Mads' phone, prepared to tap on Arnie's message notification, when I realized a familiar face in the background.

"When did you take this?"

"Take what?" He tried to peek over as he drove.

"The picture set as your wallpaper..." I faced the screen toward him.

"Oh." He blushed, having completely forgotten that he'd never allowed me the privilege of looking through his phone before. "Back in Denmark... the night we first made love... you fell asleep on my chest and looked as though you were finally at peace. I remember twisting my fingers within the soft curls of your dark-cherry hair and thinking to myself, 'If there is such a greater being as God, then He, himself, has sent me an angel... a token of my salvation to lead me in my understanding of life's greater purpose. He has blessed me with this beautiful, complex gift of wisdom that reaches far beyond my comprehension. And I promise that I will guard this angel with my life and love her eons beyond my soul's capacity, because she means more to me than anyone else in the entirety of this world.' In that moment, looking below at your soft expression as your eyelids rested like glistening rose petals and feeling your heart beat in synthesized harmony to my own, I knew that the only place you belonged in the world was right there, with me, in my arms. And while I watched you, as the hours passed and the sun began to rise, I needed something, anything, to keep that moment still forever. To make that moment a part of me. So, I took that picture."

My eyes teared up into a light sea-green color like they always did whenever I was about to cry. My vision blurred as I stared down at the screen and then back to Mads. "I... I... I have no words."

Once he saw the tears begin to stream down, he immediately pulled over next to the nearest slab of concrete and put the car in park.

"Min engel, why are you crying?" He held my face within the warmth of his palms to try and sop away my tears, but he was unsuccessful.

"I'm sorry, I- I don't mean to cry but- but I never knew that anyone could ever love me as much as you do. I never fathomed that a woman like me could even possibly end up with a man like you."

"I love you." He kissed my lips harshly. "I love you Elise Desmond... and I'll never ever stop doing so."

I saw his eyes grow glossy as he forced back his tears and continued to pave his lips over mine until the point that both of our eyes began to dry.

I massaged my temple and sniffled while looking back at the now 5 new messages from Arnie on Mads' cellphone. "Shit, Arnie's wondering where we're at."

Mads slipped one last kiss onto my damp cheek and pulled back out into traffic.

"Message him back saying that we'll be right there... and we got lost because you're absolutely terrible at giving directions." He laughed.

"Oh, please." I jokingly jabbed him with my elbow. "The directions say it's just around the corner."

Mads made a left turn down the boulevard and parked near the backlot of the restaurant. The windows sparkled with various bright signs of the name DeLuca's Classic Italian.

Once inside, Arnie's presence was apparent as he jumped up-and-down from his seat and waved his arms all about with his mouth half-full of meat lover's pizza.

"Errr-ahrm-ahem!" Arnie forcefully choked down the bits of food he had left in his mouth. "What do ya know! They're alive! Shit, I'd thought the two of you had fallen off the face of the Earth."

"Oh calm down, Arnie. We'd had a bit of trouble with the directions, nothing trivial." Mads scoffed as he pulled out my chair.

"Whatever you say... By the way, you needn't worry about that call. I took care of it. She's just being a bitch, as per usual."

I opened my mouth, about to apologize for the inconvenience of his ex-wife, but Mads shook his head and shot me a mental message not to further extend the subject.

"Well," Arnie leaned back and wiggled a toothpick in between his gums. "I've nearly finished here, but feel free to have a go at whatever's left."

Mads and I sarcastically snorted as we glared at the one thin cheese slice that was left on the table.

"I think it's probably best if Elise and I order something separate for ourselves, but thank you, Arnie."

"Ay, I do what I can." He playfully winked before getting up. "I think that I best get going home and leave you two lovebirds to enjoy the rest of your evening."

"Lovebirds huh?" A familiar, silky voice spoke from behind me as Mads and Arnie suddenly jolted back with fright.

Who the hell is behind me?

I attentively turned to see a woman who repulsively scared me just as naturally as she had when we'd first been introduced.

"Hello, Elise." Cecilie widened her atrociously maleficent smile. "I'm glad that I could make it in time for the party. I see you've met my ex-husband."