Beauty and the Geek 2: When in Rome

Chapter 12.

(AUTHOR NOTE: Hello everyone :) Enjoy the chapter! Next one is the last one (then an epilogue) and we are finished! Thanks for coming on this journey with me, hope you've loved it as much as me :) xxx)


I gazed into my reflection in the mirror; suit perfectly pressed and strawberry hair expertly curled, a slick of rare lipstick to complete the official look. After weeks of tossing and turning, the day was finally here – the presentation. If all went well, I would have the life of the orphanage in my hands; including the responsibility of making it all better and trying to fix the damage the council had caused in the past. Could I really do that all by myself? I didn't know. But I had to give it a good shot – the kids had suffered enough already.

"Are you ready?" Giovanna's beautiful eyes appeared around the door. "Your ride is here."

I leaned over the balcony to see Paolo waving nonchalantly from his car, beeping the horn a few times to let him know that he was around. Since that day when he had shared his past me, Paolo had become a great friend. He had showed me around parts of Italy that I hadn't visited before and had tightened up my lazy Italian too; we would sit around and eat ice-cream and I would teach him some English words and phrases. Inevitably, the conversation would travel to Will and Paolo was relentless – he wanted to know everything about the story, even the painful parts.

"Isn't it strange that you would meet across the other side of the world?" He had mused.
"Very," I had agreed.
"Well, things may have gotten a little bumpy on the road along the way but you can't deny that fate is trying to tell you something."
"What's that?"
"You two are meant to be."

I smoothed down my skirt, walking downstairs and into the sunlight outside. Giovanna's hand rested on my back, half-forcing me and half-supporting me as I stumbled out of the door way. We got into the car together and Paolo took off, steering us towards our fate.

---

The room was filled with old stiffs in suits, milling around and sampling the free refreshments; I felt angry that they could be careless and not think at all about what they were doing. If I were about to tear down an orphanage the last thing I would want is a egg salad sandwich. I pushed the plates away with disgust and took my seat near the head of the table with Giovanna next to me.

The atmosphere stiffened in the room as Alexander Hudson and his expensively squeaky shoes padded their way up the beige carpet towards me. He settled down into the seat at the top of the table and gave me an acknowledging smile before motioning towards the door. Naturally, Will followed like he had from day one, Alexander's lap dog, as he carried a bunch of files in his arms.

The last time I had saw Will was on the beach when I had shattered his heart into a million tiny pieces. I knew that this exchange would make for awkward viewing and braced myself for Will to be angry or business-like – anything apart from his old self. I glanced up and noticed he was doing the same, studying the files but not really reading them deeply. Instead, he caught my eye and smiled at me. That smile told me all that I needed to know; Will definitely didn't hate me. Infact, dare I say that he wanted me to do well in this presentation.

I curled the edge of the paper between my fingers and flicked it so that it made a tiny 'boing' noise; a bad habit of mine that I had kept up since we were in high school together. I remembered fondly the times he would tell me to stop in the silence or lay his hand on top of mine to make me stop. We stared at my hand together and I felt it come to a stop – a knowing smile on his face before he blushed at the paper. Alexander looked at us curiously before going back to his cup of coffee.

"Okay," He wiped his mouth quickly. "Before we get to our monthly company meeting minutes, we have a special guest dropping in today. The Southside orphanage has become an evident part of this small Roman community. In simple terms, the council and my company plan to use the space where the orphanage lies to make luxury apartments. With us today, we have Emily Masson, head of the orphanage, who will engage us in a presentation about what the orphanage can offer."

There was a mumbled hello and a quiet applause at the table as people looked in my direction. This was it, I realised. Now or never. Alexander nodded at me and I attempted to stand, nearly falling back down if it weren't for Giovanna's hand steady on my back. Will's hand twitched, instinctively ready to reach over the table and help me out of my chair before he realised it was inappropriate. I made my way to the front of the room in the eerie silence, a million sets of eyes on my back as I took a deep breath.

"Hello everyone," I managed to squeak out, my voice annoying to my own ears. "My name is Emily Masson and as mentioned, I am head of the Southside orphanage."

I stopped for a minute and let the fact sink in to all of those suit-wearing freaks. I saw the look of confusion between a few faces when they wondered how I could be so young and be managing somewhere like the orphanage.

"I-I-I...,Well, I," I stuttered, my speech quickly filtering out of my brain. And then it was gone, everything I had prepared and written down melted away and left a black, vacant space.

I stared around in panic, looking for a stray note card or something that I had prepared earlier but that was the point – I wasn't prepared. I had spent the whole time worrying about other things that I had forgotten my speech. My eyes widened and I caught sight of Will, who had now looked up from the files before in curiosity.

I wanted to walk right up there and be in his arms finally;, it was the only place I ever felt safe. I wanted to feel the tickle of his stubble on my cheek or the weight of his hand pushing a stray hair out of my face, just anything that made me know everything would be okay. But, I couldn't. Instead, I imagined everyone else disappearing into a blur – a melted mass of faces combined into one – with just Will and I left. I imagined us sitting somewhere in a field, together with only countless hours to spend together and nothing else. And suddenly, I felt a little better.

"Truthfully," I finally spoke. "I did have a speech prepared for today. I knew exactly what I wanted to say and how I should say it to get you to save my orphanage. But let's be honest...who really cares?"

I heard a small intake of breath from my audience. I'm sure that they were more used to formal speeches than the one I was about to give.

"Honestly," I bit my lip. "I've had enough. I listened to you all talk about nothing for weeks. I've come to your dinner parties and wore stupidly expensive dresses and tried to fit in but the fact is I just...can't. I can't fit into your world. I don't like expensive things or really tiny plates of food. And I certainly don't want to be around people who could put all of those innocent kids out of a home."

Alexander looked shocked, even more so wounded. Unfortunately, I didn't seem to care – he had been kind enough for me but I had to be honest. I had to let all of these crooks know what they were worth, even if it ruined my chances of saving the orphanage.

"I've worried for weeks about this," I threw my palms up and let out a small chuckle. "For what reason? I could give the best speech ever and we all know you're still going to tear down that orphanage. Right?"

I turned to Alexander and his eyes flitted all around the room, anywhere but on me. I had known it deep down but his answer proved to me I was right; Alexander had never had any intention to save the orphanage. He had simply bought me some more time to stay goodbye.

"Well that's settled then," I said finally. "Then I'm sure you won't mind me telling you all about it since it's a lost cause anyway. It's easy to think that people like me and those kids, stuck on the outskirts of town all alone, need pity from people like you. I mean, you have all of the money and the big family and the white picket fence life, you couldn't possibly be happy without all of that, right? Wrong. Those kids have a smile on their face every day and they are the biggest inspiration to me. Even if they do get put into a state home, I'll visit every single one of them every day for the rest of my life until they get families of their own because that's what good people do. The funny thing is that you don't realise if you pulled your heads out of your ass for once that you are the ones who truly have nothing. And you know, I almost feel sorry for you because you will never truly appreciate what it is like to love someone and make sacrifices for them because they mean that much to you."

I looked at Will, who struggled to keep the proud glint out of his eye. Alexander was horrified, his head in his hands at the end of the table. This man that I had thought was nice all along, had really just been fooling me. Sure, he thought he was helping with buying me some time but overall, he had lied about it.

"I'll never give up," I said quietly, still looking at Will. "If I want something I fight for it – no matter what it takes. And this won't be the last you see of me or those kids or that amazing girl sitting at the end of this table."

I pointed straight at Giovanna who blushed wildly and sunk further into her seat. The rest of the table looked equally as aghast and ironically, fixated on me as I continued my rant.

"So, screw my speech," I said finally. "You never deserved it anyway. Tear down that orphanage if you think it's going to make you feel better but just know, you'll always be hiding behind this table whilst the rest of us can walk out in the open with our heads held high."

At the most inappropriate moment, Giovanna began to clap; hollow and resounding round the echoing walls of the room I had first seen Will in all of those months ago. Now, here we were together again for very different reasons. Gi took the hint and stopped clapping and I mouthed a thank you to her anyway. Will's mouth twitched at the corner, stifling a smile at the worst time.

"Well, thanks to Miss Masson for that rather...enthusiastic speech," Alexander finally choked out. "I think now we should vote. All in favour of the orphanage demolition and construction of new apartments, say aye."

One by one, a new arrow to my heart every time, a hand rose and thundering "aye" was announced around the table until it seemed like everyone had voted against me. I closed my eyes and kept very still for a while, breathing deeply and knowing that I had to go home and explain it to the kids killed me.

"Okay," Alexander said finally. "I'm sorry, Miss Masson. But the plans for the demolition of the orphanage are now confirmed. Let's take a break, everyone. God knows we need it..."

A funny thing had happened: I realised that more than anything I didn't want the men in that office to save us. I knew from experience and meeting stiff Will a few weeks ago that those people lacked heart, they bled money and still chased it afterwards. I would never beg to anyone like that.

"I'm sorry, Em," Giovanna sniffled next to me. "I thought we really had a chance."
"We do," I pulled her close. "It's just going to be in a different way. We can't give up yet."
"But, they're going to tear us down!"
"Then we'll find somewhere else. Trust me."

As if by magic, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to notice a nervous looking man in a grey suit behind me. He stuck out his hand sharply in my direction and let out a small smile. His salt and pepper hair brought out the icy blue quality of his eyes perfectly.

"Emily Masson?" He enquired.
"Yes," I nodded. "That's me. And you are?"
"I am Meyer Jones – planning permission director of the council. And I would like to make you an offer you can't refuse."

---

The group filtered out of the room slowly, chatting between themselves as I lingered behind for a little while. Will picked up his numerous files and stood idly around too, acting like he had a purpose until everyone had disappeared apart from Giovanna and I.

"I'll wait outside," Giovanna squeezed my shoulder and gave Will a sympathetic smile before disappearing.

The silence was so deep between us that you could have heard a pin drop. He stuck one hand in his pocket casually and tried to muster up that beautiful smile of his. The worst part was that I could tell deep down he was going through hell and I had been the cause of it.

"I'm sorry about the orphanage," He looked at me sadly. "You know, even when I told you that you couldn't do anything in a month I knew you had a chance. You never give up, Em. That's what I love about you."
"That's okay," I felt my cheeks redden. "Honestly, I'm just sorry...for everything."
"You didn't do anything wrong."
"Well, I'm just sorry that we didn't work."
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that too. Really sorry."

He crossed the room and touched my face lightly, as if he were making sure that I was completely real and truly in front of him.

"I meant what I said," He said. "I'll always wait for you."
"Will you really?" I looked on sadly.
"I promise."
"Well, if you trust me just know that I'm going to put this right," I felt my own hand reach upto his face. "You're right – I never give up and that's including you."
"I'm glad," A small smile crept onto his face. "Goodbye for now, Emily."
"For now, Will."

I kissed him on the cheek quickly and ducked outside – I couldn't tell him what I was planning just yet. But I knew time was ticking with the wedding coming up a few days later. I had to work fast if I wanted to get Will back. More importantly, I had to punish Olivia Hudson in the process. It was payback time.