Ben wished he could feel relief, but at this point he could only suspect the worst. Maybe they were being driven to some mafia hideout where the professional cleaners would make short work of them. His muscles remained tense and his pulse throbbed until the neon hotel sign finally came into view. The taxi pulled over before reaching the u-shaped driveway.
“Get out,” the driver ordered a second time.
Ben wanted to, he really really wanted to, but another thought had occurred to him. The second they stepped out of the vehicle, it would drive away, taking their luggage with it. There was something he had worked very hard on in that luggage, and he wasn’t willing to give it up.
“Take our bags out,” he insisted. He wanted to look at Jace, but he didn’t dare take his attention off the two men up front.
The driver’s brother appeared about to snap and carve his initials all over their bodies. The muscles in his jaw tensed as his eyes bored into Ben’s, but the unblinking gaze that he received in return broke him down. He stepped out of the car, slamming the door loudly behind him. He opened the rear hatch of the van and took their luggage out, tossing it carelessly to the side of the street. As soon as it was out, both Ben and Jace followed suit.
“Crazy Americans!” the brother spat, literally this time, at Ben’s feet before reentering the taxi and speeding away.
A cool breeze blew across them as they watched it disappear around a corner.
“You were amazing!” Jace said, grinning and picking up Ben in a hug. “Jesus! You should be a hostage negotiator!”
“Well, that was bullshit,” Ben said, his voice trembling. His braveness had fled along with his adrenaline, returning the fear he had been ignoring. His legs were feeling shaky, too. “Come on. Let’s go,” he said, removing himself from Jace’s embrace and picking up his luggage. He just wanted to get into the hotel where they were safe before the thugs came back to gun them down or something.
Check-in went by in a blur. Ben repeatedly looked out the lobby windows for any sign of trouble. The receptionist barely blinked an eye when Jace explained how his credit cards had been stolen. A couple of calls had to be made to cancel the cards and to secure the reservation. Jace switched to Italian again and must have found some way to work it out because they got their room.
Ben sat down on the bed and tried unsuccessfully to hide his trembling hands. Jace noticed and kneeled before Ben, taking them in his own. “It’s okay,” he soothed. “We’re safe now. We just got into the wrong taxi. I should have known better and been more careful.”
“It’s my fault,” Ben said, refusing to let him take the blame. “No, screw that. It was theirs. That was really fucked up.”
“It was,” Jace agreed. “But you shouldn’t let it ruin our trip.”
How could it not? All Jace’s money had been taken, and relaxing in a country where you could get robbed just by getting inside a taxi didn’t sound possible. “I think I want to go home,” Ben blurted out.
Jace smiled sympathetically and sat next to Ben, wrapping an arm around him. “I know you’re shaken up. You have every right to be, but that was just bad luck. Italy is a wonderful country, and the people are fantastic. We just ran into a couple of bad seeds, something that could happen anywhere. I can’t let you leave now. I won’t let you go home with a bad impression of this place.”
Ben sighed and leaned against him. The idea of the long flight home was almost worse than being robbed. “Okay,” he agreed. He was starting to feel better. Being near Jace always made him feel safe.
“You did great with the luggage.”
“Well, I didn’t want to lose your present.”
“My present?” Jace asked. “Sounds good, but look what else you saved.”
Jace unzipped his bag and dug around until he found a cheap figure of a plastic cat. The toy split in half like a Russian doll revealing a wad of cash inside. “Never put all your eggs in one basket.”
“How much is that?”
“Pretty much the whole vacation budget,” Jace laughed. “I only had enough in my wallet for the taxi and a meal out somewhere.
Ben smiled with relief. He thought he had only been saving their clothes, but now he was especially proud of his actions. Feeling more like himself again, he dug into his own bag and brought out a small cellophane-covered basket. He handed it over to Jace and waited nervously for his reaction.
Jace pulled away the plastic to reveal a basket full of fortune cookies. They were a little misshapen but came in a variety of different colors.
“Wow! These look amazing,” Jace exclaimed. “I love the colors. Look, a blue one! Where did you get them?”
“They’re homemade,” Ben explained. They were a huge pain in the ass to make, but the expression on Jace’s face was worth it.
“No way! What about the fortunes?”
“Check it out.” Ben smiled as Jace broke one open and tossed half into his mouth.
“Mmmm, good. What’s in my future?” He examined the scrawl on the little strip of paper and raised an eyebrow. “A thousand kisses will soon cover your body.” He raised his gaze from the fortune to look at Ben. “Let’s see if we can make this one come true.”
* * * * *
Before leaving for Italy, four nights had seemed too short a visit. By the third day, Ben’s leg muscles were shredded and his feet felt on the verge of falling off. He couldn’t imagine his condition had they stayed for a week or longer. There were simply too many sights to see. Ben found it impossible to rest for very long before the urge to continue exploring overtook him again.
Rome was a fascinating mix of old and new. They visited the obligatory sites: the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Pantheon, and the Circus Maximus. Ben’s favorite had been the ancient ruins of the Forum. While there he imagined travelling thousands of years into the past, the crumbling buildings restored and proud again, the streets teaming with Roman people going about their daily business. Being in the midst of the ruins brought home the reality of this bygone era.
Modern Rome had much to offer as well, especially for a shopaholic like Ben. They ducked into designer fashion stores where the price for a pair of jeans was more than what Ben paid for rent, but they also found some smaller stores where he picked up a couple of shirts he was certain never to see back home. The grocery stores were more humble, full of variations of familiar Italian staples but new items as well.
The quality of Italian restaurants varied wildly. For the first couple of meals, Jace took them to back streets where the menus weren’t even in English. The food here was exquisite and gave credence to Italian cuisine’s reputation as being among the best in the world. Once, Ben was impatiently hungry and allowed a pushy proprietor to pull them into a restaurant near a tourist attraction, where Ben’s pizza was flavorless cardboard and Jace’s pasta microwaved.
Having learned his lesson, Ben let Jace choose from then on. Today he had managed to find a lunch café that looked like a tourist trap, but was visited almost exclusively by locals. Jace ordered for them in Italian, loving the opportunity to show off his language skills. Ben was more than happy to allow him, enjoying the helpless feeling that came with not being able to read or speak the local tongue.
“To the bravest boyfriend I’ve ever had,” Jace toasted once their wine had been served.
“You’re not still going on about that?” Ben blushed.
“I don’t just mean the way you handled the taxi drivers,” Jace said. He considered the wine as he swirled it around the glass. “How old were you when you first came out?”
“Fourteen,” Ben said after a moment’s calculation.
“I’d say that’s pretty damn brave.”