ELIZA

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE: PHONE

I saw no reason to lie, so I thought aloud:

"Well, it's possible. She had her number... On the other hand, it's more likely she called me to see if I'd answer."

I looked at Cosmo from the side. I guess I underestimated him. It's obvious that he had spent the last minutes, if not hours, devising strategies for what to do next.

"It's okay. She's not sure..."

"She is," he interrupted me in mid-word. Seeing that I didn't comprehend much of it yet, he explained. 

"At the station, I took your phone out of my suitcase while you were in the toilet. She wrote you a message saying she was sure she saw you, but she doesn't understand why you ignored her."

"Because you unnecessarily pretended it wasn't me!" I snapped. As always, he didn't let me deal with it. "I could just tell her I'm on vacation and that's it."

"It already happened," he said, shrugging. "I need to find a safe place now. As soon as we reach Belgrade in half an hour, we'll leave the car and take a taxi to the airport."

"Another trip?" I groaned. I was sick of traveling in one day.

"Don't whine, we still have a dozen or so days ahead of us. I'm not going to forfeit."

His eyes glared at me for a few seconds, then were forced to go back onto the road if he didn't want to cause an accident. He really believed I would stay with him in these three weeks.

"Okay, I won't say anything anymore, just... Maybe we could spend the night here somewhere, visit the city at night, and go on tomorrow?"

Surprisingly, my proposal met with his approval. We rented an apartment for false IDs. Of course he had ID cards prepared for him and me. According to the new documents, I was Mrs. Fonda, and Cosmo was my husband. Eliza and Cosmo Fonda.

Our apartment (Cosmo spared no money, and to my even greater surprise he had Serbian dinars with him to pay in cash) was about a hundred meters in size. We had our own jacuzzi and a bed that would probably fit five people. And also a separate kitchen, bar and living room. A little too much extravagance for my taste for one night, but I pretended I didn't care what he was doing with his money.

In the evening, after dinner, which we ate at the hotel, a jacuzzi prepared for us was waiting in the apartment. Apparently the staff took care of it during our absence. A pleasant scent of aromatic oils reached my nostrils. Of course, Cosmo didn't ask me at all if I wanted to spend the evening with him in the bathtub, he asked the staff to pour water when I didn't hear it.

I considered the pros and cons of bathing with Cosmo. In the end, I decided that since I didn't have to parade around nude in front of him (he found a swimsuit for me in a suitcase), I could allow myself to do it if he wouldn't come close to me. He accepted these terms, so I had no cause for concern.

When I went to change to the toilet, however, I found a suitcase lying on the living room floor. I wouldn't be myself if I hadn't searched it. According to Cosmo's words, I found my phone inside when he was occupied with the jacuzzi. If he found me with a cell phone in his hand, he would probably immediately drown me in the water, so under the guise of getting changed, I ran to the other bathroom.

The heart began to pound madly. The phone was off, so I quickly turned it on.

Until I saw the display, I thought I was dreaming. But nevertheless, after a minute of tedious waiting, I saw a little piggy that I had always had on my wallpaper for as long as I can remember. I swallowed loudly, it felt like I was in a desert with nothing to wet my mouth with.

I knew I didn't have much time. I certainly didn't have it to read the news, so I immediately entered the contact list.

Theoretically, I couldn't call anyone, the arrangements with Cosmo were strictly defined. But if only I heard Tom's voice...

I dialed his number. Waiting for a connection was a nightmare, especially when I heard Cosmo's urgent voice from behind the wall:

"Come on, everything is ready..."

"Wait a second!" I croaked, searching for my swimsuit with one hand, and holding the phone close to my ear with the other.

"Hello?" I think the voice said at the last ring.

However, it was not what I expected.

"Hello?"

The woman's voice repeated as I froze. I put the phone down, checking in disbelief if I had dialed the right number. There was no mistake.

I hung up.