Chapter 1- Miss Allegra Carter

I woke up hours before my alarm clock, as usual, in my Manhattan’s apartment in another sunny day of mid-August. It was just 5 o’clock in the morning and I got up from my comfortable bed to prepare for my morning jog. I went straight to the bathroom and washed my face before drying it with a towel. I sighed, took off my pajama painfully slowly and throw it in the hamper. I went back in my bedroom and looked for one of my many running outfits. I decided to go for a black t-shirt and a pair of black shorts. I put on my favorite pair of running shoes, got my mobile phone and my keys, and left my penthouse.

Halfway through my run in Central park, I received a text from my best friend Laurence. I grumbled, took out my I-phone and controlled the text.

“Nobu’s, Tonight, 7 p.m.” the text said.               

I snorted and decided to call the man. Who is normal enough to send a text at what- 6 in the morning?

“Hey Chris, whatcha doing?”

I sighed, frustrated “How many times do I have to tell you that I would appreciate if you didn’t try to get on my nerves straight in the morning, especially by not speaking proper English?” I absolutely detest slang. Why can’t teachers teach proper English in schools anymore? People, nowadays, all go around saying things such as “wanna”, “gonna”, “coulda”, “shouldda”.

“You know that I love getting on your nerves, man. That is my first source of entertainment.” He laughed.

I sighed, deciding to ignore his playfulness. “What is your text about?”

“Well, tonight, you are having dinner with me, my girlfriend and her best friend.”

“Finally I get to meet the famous Giselle, the girl who was successful in enchanting the great Laurence.” I said sarcastically.

“Man, you still mad at me because I didn’t let you meet her sooner, aren’t ya?” he asked sheepishly.

“No…” Okay, I was still mad at him for that reason, but let’s be serious. You don’t date a girl for what, a year and a half, without introducing her to your best friend. At first, he had the excuse of me not living in New York, but still. I had moved back to New York City a year before, after having worked for a couple of years between London and Milan. “Anyways, I’d be delighted to meet her.”

“You’ll adore her, don’t worry. But please, don’t fall in love with her, okay? If you want to develop feelings for anyone, do it for her best friend.” he joked.

“Are you being serious, Laurence? How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t need a woman in my life, right now? I’m just 32 years old. Give me 5 more years and maybe I will start thinking about it.” Laurence and his attempt at making me date someone every time he dates someone so I’d be happy as much as he is. I swear if he wasn’t my best friend he would have been dead already.

“That’s what you think, man. However, we so know that you feel alone and that you need someone to melt that icy heart of yours.”

“Thanks a lot, Laurence.” I snorted “Listen, you’re making me lose precious time. I have to go home and get ready for work.”

“Whatever. You’re coming tonight?”

“Count me in.” I smiled.

If I had known back then that after that dinner, many problems would have risen, I sure as hell wouldn’t have gone, but I was happy. I wanted to meet Giselle, and I was curious about the best friend Laurence wanted me to meet.

Hours later, after work, I was driving to Nobu’s, one of my favorite restaurants in New York. I found the far eastern cultures interesting, and that was why I was studying Japanese. Therefore, I couldn’t say no to Laurence that morning when he asked me if I was coming to his dinner at Nobu’s.  It was 6.40 pm and just a traffic light was stopping me from parking and getting in the restaurant. I grumbled. Today couldn’t be more stressful for me. Different problems were being created at work because of some big deal we had to sign with a Chinese company that was to supply us with the best materials to create our products. However, everything seemed at stake after what had happened to the UN between the US and China. There was some dispute over the human rights committee and the economic and social one. For this reason, contracts with the ‘rival’ China were for the moment abandoned, in hope that the things would change so that anyone could do their job properly.

Finally I parked in the restaurant parking space and got out of the car. I walked in and instantly I was greeted by Arisa, a nice Japanese waitress that always waited at my table, when I came to Nobu’s.

“Good evening, Mr. Fitzwilliam.” She smiled

“Good evening, Arisa.”

“How are you, in this wonderful evening, Mr. Fitzwilliam?”

“I’m fine.” I gave her a small smile “And you?” I asked politely

“I’m feeling good.” She smiled back “What can I do for you? Do I have to lead you to a table, or are you here with friends?”

“Actually I am here with friends. The reservation’s name is Bedford.” I looked her straight in the eye and I saw surprise and disbelief overwhelming her.

“Laurence Bedford is your friend?” she asked

I looked at her confused “Yes, he is, since primary school.”

“The world is really small.” She whispered

“Are you a friend of Laurence?” I inquired, suspiciously

“Not really. I am friends with Giselle and Allegra.” She smiled, obviously embarrassed. “I’m so sorry; let me take you to one of the rooms.”

Rooms? I asked myself. I had never been to one of the rooms. I inwardly shrugged and followed her. We walked down a corridor until we reached a sliding door that she opened.

“Giselle, here is Mr. Fitzwilliam,” she said blocking my view to my best friend’s girlfriend. I had a vaguely idea of how she looked. I had seen a few photos around Laurence’s apartment, but I wanted to meet her face to face, so to value if she was good enough for Laurence as much as he thought she was.

“Thanks, Arisa.” a soft voice murmured.

I stepped inside the room and finally saw her. The woman was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. She had a cascade of strawberry blond straight hair that arrived just past her shoulders. Her eyes were an intense brown color that became almost gold around the pupils. Yes, I could see her with Laurence who had red messy hair intense green eyes and freckles everywhere thanks to his Irish ancestors. Together they could make one of those perfect couples you always find on the cover of magazines.

“Hello, Mr. Fitzwilliam.” She stood up and walked up to me, looking nervous and uncomfortable.

“Please, call me Chris, Giselle. Can I call you Giselle?” I asked being as nervous as she was. I had just noticed that Laurence wasn’t there. How was I supposed to spend time alone with her? I didn’t even know her.

“Nice to meet you, Chris.” She smiled at me shyly.

“Nice to meet you, too.” I shook her hand and tried to smile warmly, but failed miserably.

We sat at the table and had some small talks while waiting for Laurence and her best friend, Allegra. She explained to me that Laurence had to go pick Allegra’s up, because her car was at the garage, getting some improvements.  We spent time talking and enjoying ourselves, although I was still a bit uncomfortable about talking to a stranger. Arisa, who had left us in the room shortly after announcing my arrival, reappeared.

“Laurence and Allegra.” She smiled sweetly before letting Laurence soon followed by a woman in the room. As soon as I laid my eyes on her I couldn’t look away. I stopped paying attention to my best friend whose eyes were completely lost on his girlfriend’s face. I stood up automatically when I saw Giselle do so, without letting my eyes wander away from her. Right in front of me stood a woman who should have been tall 5ft 8, in all her glory. Although she wasn’t my type of woman, I had to admit that she wasn’t bad looking. At all.  I checked her out slowly, lingering on her face and then staring openly at her body. Her skin was a nice golden, cappuccino color. Her hair a cascade of rich auburn brown waves that went way past her small back. Her eyes…her hazel green eyes were obviously Asian eyes clearly indicating that she had some Far East Asian relative. Her nose was really tiny, and her full lips were just inviting me to touch them, kiss them, and bite them. The creamy top and the skinny jeans she wore hugged her hourglass shape in the right points. Suddenly I felt my mouth begin to water.

“Allie?” Giselle interrupted the moment. Suddenly Allegra’s attention travelled from me to her best friend. She was staring at me! I had not noticed that.

“Yep?” Her eyes left mine and turned on a beaming Giselle “What?” she inquired.

“Erm…nothing?” Giselle bit her lip, shrugged while she kept grinning. Allegra rolled her eyes.

Awkwardness filled the room and we were all standing there, looking at one another, without uttering a word.

Then Laurence decided that maybe the atmosphere was a little pass the bearable “Chris, you’ve already met my girlfriend, Giselle Adams. This is her best friend Allegra Carter. Allegra, this is my best buddy Christopher Fitzwilliam.”

“Good evening, Mr. Fitzwilliam.” She said nonchalantly. Apparently she wasn’t affected by me…as I was by her.

“Good evening Miss Carter, or is it Mrs. Carter?” I didn’t know exactly why I wanted to know if she was married or not. I dismissed the thought of me wanting to know if I had a chance with her. I didn’t need a chance. She wasn’t my type and the only reason why I might have wanted to get to know her was that I wanted to bed her just once, yes, a one-night stand.

“No. It’s Miss, but you can call me Allegra, or Allie. Miss Carter makes me feel like some 80 years old spinster surrounded by a hundreds of cats.” She smiled warmly.

Involuntarily I found myself smiling shyly at her. She seemed fun, for now. “Okay. If I’m calling you Allegra, you can call me Christopher.” Why was I giving her the right to call me by my first name? Why did I want her to say something, to tell me more about her?

“Sure.” She smiled back, her eyes staring at my face.

We all sat down at the table and went through the menus, although the others did already know what they wanted for dinner.

The sliding door suddenly opened to reveal Arisa beaming at us “Are you ready to order?”

“You know what we usually take, but you should ask Chris here, what he wants.” Allegra answered while looking for something in her bag. It was her smart-phone.

She started typing furiously on it when Arisa took it out of her reach.

“Hey!” she yelled indignantly. Maybe she was a workaholic who needed to keep in contact with work, and that was why she was texting someone, or maybe she was texting an hypothetic boyfriend. I didn’t like the second option. “Give it back” she ordered menacingly.

“Iie.” ‘No’ Arisa answered looking amused.

Since the threatening didn’t have any effect, Allegra decided to try with the look women have mastered over centuries, the famous ‘I’m-going-to-burst-into-tears-if-you-don’t-do-what-I-want’ look.

“Girl, I need it. Onegai shimasu” for the little I knew of Japanese, Allegra had just said ‘please’ with an excellent Japanese accent. “I need it. My mum called a few minutes ago and If I don’t call her back, she’s so gonna kill me.”

“Are you sure is it not work?” Arisa asked, unsure of what was the best: believing in her friend, or not.

She shrugged “Go on and look at the screen.” She looked Giselle straight in the eye “She’s so gonna call you. Just you wait” A look of horror crossed Giselle’s face. I would have laughed if it would have been considered proper.

“Promise me that you will take it easy at work.” Arisa asked solemnly.

Allegra nodded vigorously.

Arisa surrendered with a sigh and gave her the phone. Allegra gazed at it adoringly before dialing a number.

“Mum, sorry if I didn’t answer you before but--” she was interrupted. She kept listening to what her mom was saying while rolling her eyes so many times I thought it was a skill “Mamma, tra me e Yuri è finita!” she whispered angrily. I instantly looked directly at her. I didn’t know she spoke Italian. That sentence was struck in my mind. She has just said to her mum that she and someone named Yuri were over. I felt satisfied, relieved, hopeful. She was single. Why was I experiencing those feelings? As minutes passed she was becoming more and more interesting to my eyes. I looked mesmerized as she talked fast to her mother on the phone in a mix of Italian and Japanese. I was too preoccupied in listening how her voice sounded speaking one of the sexiest language in the world to pay attention to the murderous stare she sent our way when she noticed we were staring at her. I had to admit that she was sexy, sensual, and my mind was already day-dreaming about her beneath me, in my bed, speaking sensual Italian words. Bad sign, I might say. I shouldn’t have been fantasizing on her, but although I was trying not to think of me and her in compromising positions, my thoughts seemed to have a mind of their own. She finally dismissed her mother with another eye roll and a quick “Mom, I gotta go” before hanging up.

“Okay…” she mumbled before sitting down and looking at everybody at the table. She put a smile that didn’t seem genuine “So..how was your week, Giselle?” she asked curiously. Her friend started illustrating what had happened.

I felt more and more uncomfortable, embarrassed and nervous as I still had a vivid image of how she might look in lingerie. I couldn’t stop imagining her cappuccino skinned legs without those pair of jeans I considered annoying and frustrating. I was lost, and I tried to avoid her eyes as much as I could, to stop myself from blushing.

Everyone, especially Allegra, tried to ease me into conversation, but I just felt like a complete geek, a loser who couldn’t go on without dirty thoughts about someone I shouldn’t even had any kind of feelings for, if not of a genuine friendship nature. Then add to the discomfort factor the fact that I am not a big philanthropic and I find it really hard to converse with people I don’t know and bingo! Therefore, although I wanted to talk more, I just couldn’t. I wanted to get to know Allegra better, her tastes, her ideas, what she did for a living. Speaking the truth I didn’t know why I cared. And that scared me. I didn’t want to develop romantic feelings for her, or at least that was what I was trying to convince myself with. I dismissed my non-physical interest for her in me wanting to know her because our best friends were dating, and that implied that we were to spend time together. While I was lost in my rational thoughts mixed with lust (yes, I admit I was lusting after her), the ladies in the room stood up.

“Excuse us, gentlemen. Giselle and I are going to the restroom.” Again her voice intrigued me. Fortunately I still had a sense of self-respect, otherwise I would have gaped at her. When she turned around, before she left with her friend, she gave me a perfect view of her back-side. I resisted the urge of licking my lips. I wanted to cup those ‘cheeks’. I should have been ashamed of myself, but my libido was quickly rising.

As soon as they left the room, Laurence smirked at me.

“I know you like her.”

“Of course I like Giselle. She seems the perfect companion for you.” I knew he wasn’t asking me about his girlfriend, but I decided to act clueless.

“Thanks man for your opinion. However I wasn’t talking about Giselle. When I said you like her, the subject of my thoughts was Allegra, and your obvious attraction for her.” He gave me a mischievous look.

“I’m not attracted to her, Laurence. She is not my type.” I tried to convince both of us. A part of it was true: she wasn’t my type. However, stating that I wasn’t attracted to her was stating a blasphemy, a profanity, but I denied the obvious anyway.

“And how do you know that? You kept staring at her throughout all this time, and when she came in you gave her a once-over for a good 5 minutes. And let’s not count how you looked at her as she was something juicy you want to eat badly.” He grinned in victory, a cocky expression on his face. Was he implying…? Or was it just me? Hopefully it was just me, because seriously I didn’t need to imagine that, really.

“I’m telling you that I don’t like her. I don’t even know her.” I justified myself. For goodness’ sake, why couldn’t he believe me and let it go?

“You so like her, dude. Come on, it’s extra obvious. You even had that dreamy look on your face, the one you have when you are having really naughty thoughts….but don’t worry. I’ll talk to Giselle and she’ll help you get a date with her.” He grinned goofily at me “Allie and Chris, sitting on a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” he sang in a pinched tone.

I rolled my eyes “Listen, Laurence, I don’t want to date Allegra. To tell you the truth I don’t feel like dating anyone, alright? So I would deeply appreciate if you stopped trying to set me up with someone.” I stated quietly, trying to make him understand how I felt about the ‘dating’ matter.

“But you like her, don’t you?” he asked worriedly.

I grumbled and tried to ignore him, but I already knew it was impossible. His mind was set: he believed I liked Allegra, and nothing I would say or do would have made him change his mind.

“What do you think of Giselle?” he asked me out of the blue. Was he stupid or what? I had already told him that I liked her, although she seemed too shy, but who am I to talk? The antonomasia of the anti-social person, or as my sister say, the Emo personality of the year?

I sighed “She is really beautiful. She seems a pretty good person.” I said, flatly. No emotion in my voice. Laurence was seriously getting on my nerves.

“She really is. Well her best friend Allegra is beautiful too. And she’s really outgoing. She tried to make you feel less uncomfortable so many times I lost count. What do you think of her?”

I knew he wouldn’t leave me alone. I snorted “Yeah…she’s okay, I guess. It really depends on a man’s taste on women. In my eyes she is barely tolerable.” My last sentence full of arrogance and nonchalance. 1 for me, 0 for Laurence. He stared at me wide-eyed, his mouth agape. Obviously, the back of my mind was yelling at me for being so stupid. I did feel attraction for Allegra, and my fantasies were the clear evidence of my prominent attraction and lust related feelings I had for her. But I would have never said so to Laurence. My life was already complicated, and I didn’t need a match-making Laurence to mess it up even more.

And then, as he was about to say something the sliding door opened, revealing Allegra looking careless, her chin up in the air, and a Giselle who seemed embarrassed and quite mortified.

They took their seats without uttering a word. I followed Allegra’s every move and was surprised to see her taking her I-pad from her bag and ignoring us, while being too preoccupied doing whatever that she was doing.

I huffed. That was rude. Dinner is made for individuals to interact and make conversations, not for anyone to care about their own businesses. I saw Giselle and Laurence exchanging nervous looks, and I couldn’t understand why.

“Excuse me, Allegra?” I asked cautiously.

“Excuse you what?” she snapped and I was a bit taken back. She had been nice all evening. What the heck had happened?

“I know what you are doing may be really important, but can you please do it later, after the dinner is over?” I said in an annoyed tone, a sarcastic smile on my face.

Laurence, who was sitting right next to me slapped my arm jokingly “Chris, you don’t wanna…trust me.” He laughed nervously.

“Why?” I demanded confused “I don’t understand, really. We are here to spend time together and she is being rude—“

I got interrupted by her sending me daggers “Dude… you better watch your mouth, ‘kay?”

“Or what? You’re going to kill me with some gangsta move?” I instantly raised my voice, half-amused and half-offended.

And then it happened. A storm of insults overwhelmed me.

 “You worthless piece of trash…” she started, her voice shaking with anger and rage “If I’m working while dining, there ought to be a reason, don’t you think? For example, the company of one person in this room may be very annoying for me, so I need to distract myself!” Had she just said that I was annoying? “And then you have the courage to say I’m rude, when you’ve been nothing but rude to everyone, party-killer. You look like you have something up your ass, and despite everyone at this table tried to make you feel comfortable, you still have that snobby freaking attitude.” Was she for real? How could she said that? I was not a snob. I just didn’t open up as easily as others. “ Me! Rude! After you said that I am barely tolerable, you dare say that I am rude.” I stared at her, mouth agape. She wasn’t supposed to hear my comment. It was a lie, a stupid lie to get my friend out of my case. “And the gangsta comment! You racist prick? I am a gansta just because I’m half black?! I so am leaving!” she stood up, shoved her I-pad into her bag and looked at Giselle “I didn’t want to come to this stupid dinner.” Then she glared as much as possible at me. “Thank you, jerk, for the horrendous night I spent in your miserable company. I’ve never been insulted this much in my life since primary school.” She took her glass of red wine and before I could realize what was happening its content finished on my face and my 200$ shirt. “Here is your rude, God’s nightmare to women.” She gave me the middle finger, flipped her hair and dramatically opened the sliding door and walked out of the room. I was insulted, deeply insulted. My pride was wounded. However the only thing I was thinking of was her backside going from side to side. The woman was seriously sexy. Too sexy for my own good.