This thought upset and confused her even further. She couldn’t know any of this for sure, and the way he was with her denied it, but it dawned on her that she had never seen him in his Mortal world, amongst his parents and siblings. He was probably very different then, different things mattered to him… Maybe that was the reason he hadn’t visited his family for so long. Because he knew they would remind him of who he really was and that he didn’t belong with her.
But now his family came to him.
As usual, they met in the band’s changing rooms. Lyndsay was there, chatting to Joe and Gary. She had a huge grin on her face. Against her chest, she pressed a little notebook, which no doubt contained all of the musicians’ autographs.
Daniel was talking to William, but as soon as he spotted Amari, he excused himself and came over to her.
‘Hi,’ he said, looking at her warmly. ‘How was your afternoon?’
‘Fine, thanks,’ she replied, managing to look at him this time. ‘Did you and Lyndsay have fun?’
‘It was good, thanks,’ he said. ‘Although I wish it had been you next to me all day.’
She felt a warm bubble swell up around her heart.
‘Really?’
‘Of course. I missed you like crazy.’
The bubble burst and spread the warmth all over her chest.
‘I missed you, too.’
‘You didn’t have to move your things,’ he said. ‘I got Lyndsay a separate room.’
‘I didn’t want to complicate things,’ she replied. ‘In case she walked in, you know.’
‘That was very considerate of you,’ he said, ‘but I hope it doesn’t mean I can’t see you tonight.’
‘No, of course not,’ she couldn’t be more relieved. ‘Come to my room when your sister goes to bed.’
‘I can’t wait.’
It was the only conversation they had in private the whole night, but it was enough. It connected them again. She knew he felt the same way about her as she did about him. So far, her concerns about his family seemed to be exaggerated. Still, she wouldn’t stop worrying until they were alone in a quiet room and had the whole night ahead just for themselves.
The concert seemed to last three times as long. Carpe Diem played an encore twice, something they rarely did, but the reaction of the Bangkok crowd fully justified it. She should be feeling pleased, as this admiration for the band was brilliant for their marketing, tickets sales and revenue. As their PR representative, she should be over the moon. But, for the first time in her career, she barely cared. All she could think of was Daniel and how soon she’d be with him again.
Finally, the concert was over and they could start wrapping things up. In less than an hour, Amari would be where she wanted to be the most.
‘That was brilliant, wasn’t it?’ Gary’s voice came from behind. ‘Come on guys, we’ve got to celebrate. Bill and Pat have invited us all for dinner and cocktails.’
‘Awesome!’ Lyndsay, bright red and sweaty from jumping in front of the stage for the last two hours, was about to explode from excess of excitement. ‘Folks back home will shit themselves jealous when I tell them I had drinks with Carpe Diem!’ she grabbed Daniel’s arm and jumped up and down like a puppy. ‘Isn’t it the best, bro?’
‘So long as you behave like a lady,’ Daniel said, not finding a suitable excuse in time.
Amaranthine didn’t have an excuse either. Not for both of them, anyway. They didn’t socialize with the band enough as it was, always sneaking away to be together. They had no choice, and had to put the clients first, no matter how badly they wanted to get away.
The dinner dragged on worse than the concert. They were in the best restaurant in the whole of Thailand, but Amaranthine ate mechanically, barely even tasting any of the delicacies that were put in front of her. She barely drank as well, whilst everyone else, except for Daniel, seemed to have decided to go through every item on the cocktail menu, so they were all getting pretty drunk. To make things worse, their party was interrupted a few times by other customers of the restaurant, who wanted autographs or pictures taken with the band members. Those people were, of course, big names in the world of business, art and politics, even some royal family members, so Amari had to entertain them – they were very influential people, whose support for the band could prove useful. She was rapidly running out of small talk, though, and struggled to make her compliments to them sound genuine. By the sixth celebrity, having to be nice felt like some kind of sophisticated form of mental torture.
Finally, the musicians decided they’d had enough, so they all headed back to the hotel. Amari felt exhausted, but the prospect of being with Daniel gave her a new kick of energy. She’d almost lost all hope of seeing him tonight, but now, when their reunion was only moments away, she felt the same warm bubble form in her chest.
All the way to their hotel floor, Lyndsay rattled on about how jealous her friends would be when she told them the story. She went on and on about how cool the concert was and how she loved the band members. With all her filters now completely gone thanks to the alcohol, she spoke with the speed of a machine gun. Amaranthine was starting to get a headache, but was grateful she didn’t have to say anything back.
They said goodnight and each of them headed for their room.
In less than five minutes, Amari heard a gentle knock on her door.
They clang to each other as if they hadn’t been together for months, although it was actually less than twenty four hours. They ripped the items of clothing off each other as fast they could, frantically untying, unbuttoning and unzipping, until nothing remained between them and nothing prevented them from uniting into one.
They collapsed onto the bed, interlocked tightly, not wanting to separate for even a moment. The hours of agonizing were finally over and the desire and emotions that accumulated since the morning were unleashed. None of them had ever experienced such burning desire before.
Afterwards, they cuddled tightly despite the heat and didn’t say anything until their pulses and breaths came back to normal, savoring the moment that they knew had to come to an end, but which they’d pay any price to prolong forever.
‘I missed you so much,’ Daniel finally whispered into her hair.
‘I missed you, too,’ Amari replied, realizing that he was the first person she ever said that to. No other man that’s ever been in her life had she longed for as much as she longed for him. No one she wanted to be close to at all times like she wanted to be close to him.
The conversation that she thought they would have to have seemed completely unnecessary now. They both felt exactly the same about each other and the present moment was everything that mattered. The differences between them were insignificant in the face of the feelings they had for each other. Problems could wait until tomorrow, until next week or next year. Right now they would just follow their hearts and not let any issues spoil their enjoyment of each other.
Amaranthine smiled to that thought and submerged in the warmth of his body, his arms that held her tight and his lips pressed against her temple. Every muscle in her body relaxed as she drifted off to sleep.
It seemed only a minute since she fell asleep when she was forced back into consciousness by a noise coming from the hotel corridor. A young woman was screaming. She couldn’t distinguish the words at first, but the voice sounded immediately familiar. She looked up at Daniel, who was also just waking up and seemed as confused as she was. In a matter of seconds, though, they both sprang up on the bed.
‘Lyndsay?’ Daniel’s voice was hoarse from sleeping. He cleared his throat. ‘What the hell is going on?’
He got out of bed and put on his jeans. Amari, still completely disoriented, grabbed the hotel bathrobe and wrapped it around herself.
The voice was clearly audible now, and accompanied by loud banging on the door of the neighboring room. Daniel’s room, the one they stayed in together before Lyndsay showed up.
‘Daniel, wake up, bro! Come o
n, are you dead or what? I need you!’
Daniel opened the door and went out to the corridor.
‘Lyndsay, for God’s sake, what’s going on?’
‘What? I would have sworn your room was over there. Never mind, I found you now.’
‘Lyndsay, wait!’
‘What do you mean wait, I need to talk to you right now, it’s important.’
‘You don’t understand…’
It was too late. The girl stormed into their room before he managed to stop her.
At the sight of Amaranthine sitting on the rumpled bed in her bathrobe, she stopped in mid-step and mid-sentence, shocked. Then she turned around and looked at her brother who followed her inside.
‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ Lyndsay looked at them in turns, quickly putting the facts together. ‘You? With her??? Have you lost your damn mind?’
‘I don’t mean to be rude, sis, but it’s none of your business,’ Daniel replied, crossing his arms on his chest. ‘Would you mind explaining why you’ve decided to wake up the whole floor by shouting and banging on the doors? You’d better have a good reason.’
‘You bet I’ve got a bloody good reason!’ Lyndsay had no intention of calming down or lowering her voice. ‘But since you’re so busy shagging your immortal mistress, I won’t bother you.’
‘Mind your language, Lyns,’ he hissed through gritted teeth, and sparks of warning lit his eyes. ‘Now you either tell me what’s going on or leave this room. Either way, be quick.’
‘As you wish,’ Lyndsay drawled out. ‘Not that you care about your family anymore – and it’s now clear why – but our sister had an accident and went into early labor. She’s having the baby as we speak, ten weeks premature.’
Daniel was at her in one leap.
‘What kind of accident?’ he grabbed her arms, as if he was trying to squeeze the answers out of her. ‘Is she ok? How is the baby? Where are they?’
‘I don’t know,’ Lyndsay was calm, now that she’d managed to get to him. ‘Mum called from the ambulance, she couldn’t talk. Plus I wanted to let you know ASAP, but your idatron was switched off.’ There was a clear note of blame in the last sentence.
Daniel let go off her and picked up his shirt from the floor.
‘Go to your room and pack,’ he said. ‘I’ll meet you down in the lobby in five minutes.’
Lyndsay obeyed, but she didn’t deny herself a final look at Amaranthine, now completely awake, but too shocked to say anything. Then she turned around and walked out without a word.
‘I need to go to my room and pack,’ Daniel said without looking at Amari, busy putting on his socks and shoes. ‘I am going to have to leave for a couple of days, maybe longer, I don’t know. I hope you understand.’
‘Of course,’ Amari managed to regain her voice. ‘I hope everything will be fine.’
‘Thank you,’ he came over to her and took her hands into his. ‘I will keep you posted. And I’m sorry about Lyndsay again. She’s drunk and…’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ she said. ‘If there’s anything I can do to help…’
‘I’ll let you know,’ he kissed her quickly. ‘Try and get some sleep, you must be exhausted.’
In the next second, he was gone.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Amaranthine glared at the door of the hotel room, behind which Daniel had disappeared. She was unable to take any action. She had no idea how long she remained motionless, desperately trying to process what had just happened.
At work, she often had to deal with emergencies, find solutions to problems that arose in the process of organizing an event or marketing it, and one thing she has learned about herself was that in moments like these, when everyone else panicked and had no idea how do cope with the crisis, she managed to stay completely focused and think even clearer than in a non-stress situation. Her quick and accurate actions saved the day on more than one occasion and her bosses, colleagues and clients regularly complimented her on it. Right now, however, she was utterly lost.
She had never come across an emergency involving human life or health, especially life or health of someone her boyfriend cared about. His family. She had never had a boyfriend who would be so close with his family. All the men she dated were guys whose parents gave up immortality to have them, in the hope, of course, that their children would remain mortal and make them grandparents. Most of them were up for a bitter disappointment, however, with the majority of 25-year-olds deciding to become Immortals. In most cases, the day they took their first dose of the Cure was the last day they had anything in common with their parents. Many never saw their families again. There was no room for family ties in a life of a new Immortal; all that mattered to him or her was establishing themselves within the Immortal community. Their parents, after all, would die within a few decades, whereas they had the eternity to look forward to.
Daniel, of course, was completely different from anyone she had ever dated. He was a Mortal and he had a big family he was close with. She knew that already, but his reaction to Lyndsay’s news brought it all to full light. She knew that in that moment, he was prepared to give up everything that mattered to him and run to the rescue of his sister. She saw fear for her life and the life of her baby in his eyes and his every move, she heard it in every word he uttered since learning about the accident. She knew he would run any risk to save them.
As sad as it made her to see him go, and as lonely as she felt without him, she couldn’t help thinking that this must have been his exact reaction to finding out that she was in grave danger. When the terrorists attacked Manhattan on April 23rd, he was on the other side of the US. And he did the same thing then as he did tonight – he rushed to the rescue, because he cared.
That thought suddenly made her want to run and try to help as well; she wanted to do something as big for him as he had done for her. If only she knew what to do and how… But she had no idea what actions were required and there was no way she could find out. She had no connection to the world of the Mortals apart from through Daniel; she would have to wait to hear from him, which she knew would be an agony. There was nothing worse than the feeling of being powerless when someone you cared for so much was distressed. She couldn’t even do so much as be with him for moral support; Lyndsay’s reaction to their relationship didn’t hold any promises that his family would accept her. Her presence would probably make it even harder for him and the last thing he needed right now was her trespassing on his family affairs.
It was long before dawn when she went over to the bathroom to take a shower. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and saw a pair of swollen, blood-shot eyes looking sadly back at her. She didn’t sleep at all after Daniel left, and couldn’t stand the thoughts that went swirling in her mind. She hadn’t heard from him, but she expected him to be busy, plus she knew he wouldn’t want to wake her up. He weren’t to know that she was awake all that time.
The make-up machine in the hotel was not able to hide the signs of her tiredness, but Amaranthine wasn’t sure if even her own one would have. She didn’t worry about it too much, though – Daniel’s team, as well as the band and Gary would probably see it as a good thing that she lost sleep over Daniel’s family problems. After all, they were Mortals like him and all of them had their own families; they could relate to the situation much easier than she could.
She considered how much she should tell the team; should she just give them the usual, dry announcement that Daniel ‘would be absent for a few days due to an urgent family matter?’ That would be a professional thing to do. No details, no speculations. As soon as they gathered around the table in the conference room, though, she changed her mind. Angela, Frankie, Maddie, Tom and Gary were more than Daniel’s colleagues; they were his friends, almost as close to him as his family. They deserved more than the usual corporate script.
‘I have got some bad news, I’m afraid,’ she started. ‘Daniel’s sister, Susan, has had an accident and she went into labor ten
weeks prematurely. Daniel and Lyndsay left last night to be with her and the rest of their family. He said he would keep us posted on their progress, so as soon as I hear from him, I will let you know. In the meantime, the best thing we can do is try to attend to business as usual, so that Daniel can focus on his family and not worry about a thing here.’
There was grave silence around the table, five pairs of eyes open wide and filled with shock and concern.
‘Any idea how they are?’ Gary asked quietly.
‘Unfortunately not. Lyndsay got a phone call from their mother who was in the ambulance. She couldn’t really talk and I don’t think she knew what Susan or the baby’s status was.’
‘Let’s hope everything will be fine,’ Amaranthine said, trying to finish the announcement on a positive note. ‘I’m sure they have been taken care of. Let’s not worry ourselves until we have heard from Daniel. It will be good news, you’ll see.’
Her words did not seem to have the effect she expected. Instead of hope, she saw doubt and even deeper concern. She didn’t understand why, but since no one said anything, she couldn’t ask.
‘Ok, let’s start,’ she said, switching on her idatron. The agenda for the meeting appeared on the display.
‘I’m sorry, Amaranthine?’ Maddie said.
‘Yes?’
‘I wonder if you’d mind… well…’
‘What is it?’
‘Would it be ok if we said a prayer for Susan and her baby?’
‘Right now?’
‘Yes.’
Amaranthine had no idea how to react to the request. But there was something very honest in Maddie’s voice that made up her mind.
‘Of course,’ she said, switching off the idatron again. ‘Go ahead.’