Four

For the past thirty minutes they just sat at the table, trying to avoid each other's eyes. Jasmine fumbled with her phone. Marcelo had two but couldn't focus on anything other than the beauty in front of his eyes. And when she'll look back, he'd turn his eyes away. He got frustrated with the silence and decided to force up a conversation,

"So, tell me a little about yourself chicca?"

"Uhm! What?" She wasn't expecting he would start up a conversation.

"Dios!" He rolled his eyes, "Just tell me about you. This silence is uncomfortable and I hate it." Marcelo grumbled,

"You! It's like you don't know how to tolerate people. You're so grumpy."

"I am just not a tolerant person and this..." He scowls and scans the ice cream shop where they sat, "this place is not my setting."

"You said I should take you to my favourite place; well, here we are."

"I only said that because I though you would take us to somewhere cool."

"If by cool you mean a club, then no thank you." Jasmine frowned, and turned back to her phone. This was not going  the way she'd expected it to and she was starting to regret coming. She thought of bailing out then looked up at his charming brown eyes that bore annoyance,

Dang it! Why does he have to be so cute?? She mentally slapped herself for staring directly into his irresistible eyes.

"What do you want to know?" She asked him, staring down at her almost empty ice cream cup,

"Anything!" Marcelo replied with a shrugged.

"OK. My name is hades and I'm the god of the underworld who is going to hunt your dreams at night if you don't give her your ice cream." He frowned at first, the chuckled at his realisation of the joke.

"You can have it all Chicca." He pushed the cup towards her, but pulled it back when she attempted grabbing it, "but only if you tell me real things about you"

"Deal." She seized the cup from his hold, "well I'm third in four kids of my parents. My big brother stays abroad with his own family. My older sister is still figuring out what to do with her life while partying all night, sleeping all day and failing all her classes. The little one is a devilish minion who keeps buying our mother's favour by ratting out all our secrets."

"Wow! And what are you in all that?"

"I'm that kid that almost goes by unnoticed but can change the course of the family in a snap." A wide smile flashed across Marcelo's face as he watched her make different expressions with every word she uttered.

"And your dad in all this?" He asked,

"He died." Jasmine's shrugged, very undisturbed by her confession.

"What happened?" His question took her by surprise. Most of the time, people just pitied that fact and apologized when they'd done nothing wrong. The act always raged her but she fought to keep her annoyance under control. For the very first time, someone was more interested in knowing her story than pitying her fatherlessness.

"He drowned. At sea. We found his corpse three days later. It was unrecognisable."

"Was he the only one?"

"No. They were others. Some survived. Others just didn't-" she sucked in a sob and blink harshly away the tears, "they just died and he was amongst."

The atmosphere fell a dead and yet comfortable silence. It was like the world outside had fallen silent as well. That was until Marcelo decided to break through the dead air,

"My father didn't kill my mother but somehow was involved in her death." Marcelo's revelation somehow released a little of Jasmine's nerves as she felt like her pain was been shared and no longer weighed as heavy,

"I don't understand,"

"Of course not; no one ever did. But he remarried and his second wife brought with her own daughter. They both made me what I am today. If not for them, I'd be lost."

"They seem like nice people."

"They are. But one of them is no more." He said so like it was just a friendly 'hi' to ones neighbors. Marcelo stared intensely at Jasmine, reading in her confused state. He stood up and let out a hand,

"Are we leaving already?" She asked. He just rolled his eyes and sighed,

"You're going to have to learn to pick up clues Chicca. I can't keep spelling it out for you all the time." Jasmine arched a brow upwards, "yes, yes! We're leaving. Now take my hand and get up." She hesitated, "unless you want me to say it writing."

"No thanks." She answered with an amused frown then shot up, ignoring his hand. They got back into the car and drove off.

Their drive was a silent one. Marcelo drove them back up to the resort. Once they stopped safely inside the gates, Marcelo turned to stare at the girl seated by his side. She was already unbuckling her seatbelt. She stepped out the car before he could and waited for him. Her actions just amused him as he cut off the engines and stepped out.

"OK. It seems like we're done right? I'll have to start going home now."

"No wait!" Marcelo said as he grabbed her gently by the arm. Yes, she had been a big bowl of unpleasant attitude all day but somehow, everything she did just stirred up strange emotions and needs inside him. All the time, he had just wanted to grabbed her by the waste and kiss her like there was no tomorrow. By caution not to drive her away or push her too far, his frustration from holding back gave him too an attitude. "Listen! I know it didn't quite go as I had hoped; but I'm happy you came and stuck with me till now."

"I had no choice, did I?" Jasmine mumbled,

"Yes you had a choice. You could have just said no, not come back here and then that's it. But-" he tucked her small choco-dark hands into his, "you came, you stuck with me, and I'm considering forgiving you."

"Forgiving me?"

"For breaking my nose and making inhale the horrible smell of ice cream all day." He gave her a cocky but yet mischievous grin,

"But-" she started, "But this was supposed to be for my-"

"Assolutamente no principessa." He cut her through, "Venire!" Marcelo said and dragged her to the back of the car,

(No way princess/come)

"Stop speaking in tongues," Jasmine grumbled, following him, her back hunched up, "What now Marcelo?"

"You're going to help me carry the bags inside. Last thing, I promise."

Jasmine's thoughts flew to that morning,

"If I wanted to do something bad to you...I'll be taking you to my room." Immediately her mind shifted to the present moment. Shaking her head horizontally, she blurted,

"I'm not going into your room Marcelo."

Marcelo who had been busy emptying carefully his booth of all the stuff they'd bought, suddenly he stopped and turned his focus on her,

"What?" He asked,

"I'm not helping you. I'm not going into your room. I'm going home." Marcelo rubbed the side of his right eye, the slid his hand through his hair, exasperated.

"What now Jasmine?"

"Have you forgotten what you told me this morning?" Marcelo's mental clocks started ticking, in search for meaning. Jasmine noticed. She realised he had no idea of what she meant,"You told me to harm me, you'd have to take me to your room." She felt she had been to close too this stranger in one day and if she stepped into an intimate setting with him; her mind did dramatic hand fanning.

Marcelo stared carefully at her, trying to read her face and decipher her thoughts. Clearly, he knew she was intimidated by his presence but he felt the was more.

"Close your eyes Jasmine?"

"What?"

"You trust me don't you?"

Just met you twice but somehow yes I do. She told herself mentally, "yes!"

"Then close your eyes."

She closed her eyes and waited. Marcelo's eyes didn't even blink for a moment. As he took in her vulnerability at that moment, her innocence, her beauty; a familiar uncomfortable feeling stirred up in his pants. He let out a heavy breath,

"se solo tu sapessi cose che mi fai!" In a slow movement, he brought his lips down to hers, circling his arm around her waist.