One week had passed since Emmanuel has appeared at the school and four since he had moved in with Dalia. After the incidents on the first day a routine was established. Dalia had taken up running again, so she woke up at four, ran for an hour or an hour and a half. When she got home she set the coffee pot, had breakfast and went to her room to get ready for work.
While Dalia was getting ready Emmanuel would go downstairs, have breakfast and disappear before the woman left for work. She didn't really know what he did with his time al throughout the day, but by the time she got home, he'd be at the back porch, working on his computer. They had barely said four words since Monday, and she was more than content with the situation.
When doorbell rang on Friday night she was in her room. She yelled at Emmanuel that she would get it. She closed her bedroom door and went downstairs to find Emmanuel at the door, Monica still outside, looking at the man puzzled. Dalia rolled her eyes and motioned at him to let her in.
"Emmanuel, this is Monica" She motioned to her friend "Monica, this is Emmanuel" she motioned at the man and the shook hands.
"So you're the creep that stalked Dalia all across the world" the poison in her words made Dalia feel proud of her friend. She wanted to high-five her, but that would've been childish an immature. When the blonde turned to look at the man, he looked confused.
"Dalia?" he asked, raising both eyebrows at the princess.
"She figured it out" was the only response she gave him and she took her friend by the arm and lead her to the kitchen. They were going to cook that night, so they secluded themselves in the safety of that room.
"You didn't tell me he was hot" her friend whisper-yelled at Dalia, who in turn rolled her eyes, taking the fish out of the refrigerator and then a couple of vegetables. "You can ignore me al you want, but you can't ignore the fact that you are living under the same roof with a Greek god" Dalia turned to look at Monica and started laughing as loud as she could.
"Let's just cook, please" she was still laughing while organising the ingredients "Do you want some wine?" her friend nodded and she filled two glasses and started chopping the vegetables.
"I'm just saying you're on dangerous territory. I at least hope it's a hot and steamy one as well" And with that, the both of the got to cooking. For a while they were just talking about work, but then Dalia started telling her parts of her story. Mainly about her university years when she had started planning her escape. Monica never once judged, all her questions were posed because she wanted to understand Dalia better, not because she thought ill of her.
The princess felt relaxed, not because she was out of danger, but because she felt relieved that the closest person to her on the island knew her secret, that she had at least one person she didn't have to lie to. After an hour of cooking the food was ready. Dalia was setting the plates on the table when she turned around to her friend, who was looking at her pointedly. The blonde sighed, understanding what her friend meant.
When she climbed the stairs she dragged her feet the whole way. She knew she was being rude to someone she didn't have a right to be rude at. She knocked on the door and Emmanuel opened it, a tired expression on his eyes. She wanted to apologize for disturbing him, but he was still looking at her with a questioning expression.
"If you want to join us for dinner, you are welcome." She said on her practised diplomatic voice. She had learned how to be polite from a young age; it came almost natural to her at that point. The man looked at her surprised, but took a step out of the room and closed the door behind him.
At first dinner was quiet, no one said anything other than 'pass me the wine'. After a few minutes Monica got tired of the silence and started asking Dalia questions about the choreography that she was doing with the kids at school, but the blonde only gave her generic answers, so the brunette moved on to a different conversation topic, with Emmanuel.
He seemed almost as surprised as Dalia at first, but he relaxed and started talking to her with ease. He was telling her about what he had done after he had graduated high school. Dalia made it seem like she wasn't listening and was focused on her food, but she was hanging on every word.
"I graduated when I was fairly young, so I worked for a while with my mom, she has a shop in the beach in the south of the country, in Peora. I mainly took care of the accounting. I joined the army when I was seventeen. I stayed there until I was 25. After that I joined the intelligence service, did the two year course and got a job in the royal family detail, until the fired me for losing a whole princess" when he said that Dalia choked on her food, coughing loudly to try and compose herself. She drank some wine to pass the food and took a deep breath. When she looked up, both of them were looking at her amused.
"She can be quite something." Monica said looking at Emmanuel, but the man was still looking at her.
"You don't know the half of it" his eyes were still trained on her, so she forced herself to look back down at her plate, which was almost empty at that point.
The dinner dragged out for another half an hour. Monica received a call from her brother, some kind of emergency, so she had to leave. She excused herself and said goodbye to both of them. Dalia gathered the plates and took them to the kitchen. She was in the middle of washing them when she heard a knock on the kitchen door.
"Your phone's been ringing nonstop" she turned around to see Emmanuel holding her phone in her way. She wiped her hands and took it, mouthing a thank you to him before answering.
"He's calling" Susanna said as soon the call was connected. At first what she was saying didn't connect, but as soon as realization dawned on her she started running to her room like a maniac, almost falling down the stairs twice. She opened her door frantically and took out from under her bed the piece of luggage she had on herself the day she ran away. She rummaged through a bunch of stuff before she found a burner phone she had bought almost two years back. She always made a point to keep it charged.
"Pass me through. You know what to do" while she waited for the phone to ring, she ran back downstairs and out the back door. When the phone started ringing in her other hand, she ended the other call and took a deep breath before answering.
"Hello, Christopher" shegreeted.
YOU ARE READING
72 Hours
Romansa"That was so corny" That was Dalia's response. He took the bracelet and locked it in her wrist "And we've been engaged since I was 5" "Yes, I know. My parents felt the need to wait until I was in love and off age to tell me" he retorted. "See. I hav...
