Chapter Twelve: "I'd Rather Catch Chlamydia."
IF I KNEW THAT ending things with Giulio was going to get him to avoid me, I wouldn't have done it. It's been like this for the past couple of days and I noticed it in certain ways. Eye contact?No longer there. Not at all. Little comments here and there? Nothing. It was like we were two strangers and a petty side of me wasn't going to strike up a conversation first.
I watched him from the side, relaxed in a chair his entire body splayed out. He was laughing, and stretched to the side, raising his arm up as he spoke to someone in rapid Italian. If he could spot me watching him, he did not show it. But he probably did, I wouldn't be surprised.
Someone slung an arm around me, turning my entire body away from where I was looking. "You gave the dick away for the benefit of the mind." Jake reminded me.
"Listen."
"I'm not going to listen," Jake retorted, rolling his eyes while taking his arm off of me. "You look like a puppy left out in the rain wanting to come back home. Hate to break it to you but Giulio is not your home, little puppy."
"Puppy," I repeated.
"Puppy." He said again.
"It's not that I gave the dick away for the benefit of the mind," I repeated his statement, noticing how the group of people looked at me with weird faces due to my sentence. "I just didn't think that we wouldn't stay friends."
"You've seen each other naked," Jake reminded me. "Who stays friends after that?"
"A lot of people do!" I exclaimed.
Jake crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes at me. "Name them."
When I couldn't come up with a pair of people, I walked by him. "Forget it."
"Octavia." He caught up to me and I stopped us, turning around so I could see Giulio out of my vision while talking to Jake.
"He's not talking to me. That's weird. It feels weird." I wasn't used to being ignored by him of all people.
"Okay, I see the problem. I see the situation. Don't worry. I'm on it."
"No," I immediately stopped him, both my hands holding onto his forearms. "Don't do anything."
"What?"
"Don't do anything."
"Why not?"
"The hell you mean why not? He'll talk to me when he wants to. Not-" My eyes trailed over to Giulio who talking to Kady, one of the assistants on set.
Jake's eyes slid over to what I was looking at. Kady had her hand on Giulio's shoulder. "What if he isn't talking to you because he's content with a new, uh, person."
"Person?" I asked, tearing my eyes from them to look at my friend.
"Her? Kady?" He gestured over to them. "Are we seeing the same thing?"
"Yes," I rolled my eyes. "We are but that doesn't mean they're sleeping together. Just because they're talking doesn't mean anything. I'm talking to you and I'm not sleeping with you."
"You wish," Jake muttered, and I patted him lightly on the cheek.
"Shut up."
I could almost feel Caleb without turning around. Maybe it was the fact that his presence has officially become overbearing since that day he was in my room. His cologne made me want to close my eyes and lean against him, but I sucked in a sharp breath, clearing my head of my thoughts, when he spoke, "What's this talk about sleeping with each other?"
"Do you think Giulio and Kady are together?" Jake asked him, and I turned around to face Caleb.
His brown hair was hidden under a New York Yankees baseball cap that was backward. The white shirt he was wearing did nothing to hide his tattoos I could see from how thin it was thanks to the bright sun today practically illuminating off his skin. Those words imprinted upon his chest and the designs on his arms.
He could wear a garbage bag and look good. That shouldn't be possible.
"They're just talking." I reminded Jake and Caleb stared at them, not even being discreet. This man was staring at them as if they were an experiment and he had nothing else better to calculate. I snapped my fingers in his face. "You're so obvious."
"Didn't know you knew the art of talking behind someone's back so well," Caleb said sarcastically.
"Anyways," I drawled out, removing my eyes from the half-smile creeping on Caleb's face. "They're not."
"Oh, they aren't," Caleb confirmed.
"How would you know?" Jake asked him.
"Body language," He claimed as if that were the answer to everything in the world. "Look at them. She's obviously interested in him. Can't blame her, Giulio is a fit man."
Jake and I stared at Caleb who shrugged. "It's suddenly illegal to call other dudes attractive? Since when?"
"Just continue." I exasperated and Caleb, our new clinical psychologist, went back to studying them.
"She keeps doing that tell-tale thing, you know hair flipping over the shoulder, touching him, see, see, she just touched his arm. She'll do it again in a minute."
"Why do you know female tell-tale things?" Jake inquired.
"Because like love, sex is a universal language, my dear friend. And that woman would like to have sex with Giulio."
"But would he have sex with her?" Jake asked the thought that was bouncing around in my mind.
Caleb looked at them again, still looking at if he was a kid watching something insanely intriguing. "Well, I don't think he would object to it. However, you know what you two could do?"
"What?"
"You could just," He dramatically gasped. "Ask him."
Jake and I exchanged a glance. "Nope." We both said.
Caleb shook his head. "Weirdos."
"We're the weird ones?" I rhetorically asked before facing Jake. "Did you know that he suggested for me to put a trampoline in my room?"
"That's actually such a good idea." Jake and Caleb high fived and I rolled my eyes.
"It's like the two of you want to break your heads open."
"Jake, you're in the next scene, remember?" AJ grabbed Jake by the arm, pulling him away from our conversation.
When Jake was taken away, my eyes were still on Giulio. Caleb nudged me with his finger, making me slightly jump. "Octavia." He said my name slowly, grabbing my attention.
"What?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"When are you available?"
My eyes went back to Giulio over Caleb's shoulder. "For what?" I said, distracted.
"Hey, hey, hey," He snapped his fingers in my face and I swatted them away as he snickered at my response. "Me. Focus on me. I've been told it's not hard to."
I shook my head, my head still confused about Giulio's sudden ignorance but focused on him "Available for what Caleb?"
"To hear the plot." I almost forgot the main reason why he's suddenly tolerable. The deal for me to help him out with his latest novel that was finding it's way from his mind onto paper.
I pulled out my phone, holding up a finger. "Let me just check my insanely busy-"
"You're not that busy," He cracked a smile and I laughed, a part of me pleased to see that smile on his face.
"How would you know?" I joked.
"I practically know your schedule. If it's a day shoot, you'll arrive here by eleven, leave a couple of hours later. You always get lunch at that place with Jake or sometimes you'll switch things up, get some sushi every once in a while. Then you'll go do whatever promo is lined up for you for the week. Didn't you have a commercial to shoot yesterday?"
He hit every single one of those facts correctly. "Didn't know stalking was a Romero trait."
I decided to pull my gaze away from him, still spotting how Giulio and Kady were speaking to each other.
"Have I ever mentioned how much I love with when you say my name," He said dramatically. I could see what he was trying to do. He was trying to distract me, and I didn't have the heart to scold him for it.
"What?"
"It just rolls off the tongue, you know? Say it again." That gleam in his eyes was back as I stared at him.
"No."
"Romero, roll the r. Come on, say it with me."
"No." My eyes still managed to pull over to Giulio when Caleb put an arm around me, almost yanking me in the opposite direction.
He proceeded to walk, waving hi to different cast members on this bright day of filming. One of the last days we were ever going to film during the day. The rest of the scenes were going to be at night and I couldn't wait. He took his arm off of me when we were a good distance away, his scent still evident. "Okay, listen up."
"Listen to what?"
"Listen to me, I am the only one talking." He said slowly as if I couldn't comprehend.
I narrowed my eyes at him and he put his hands up in defense. When he put his hands down, he looked a little surprised at my demeanor now. I couldn't help but be annoyed. Just a little bit at the sight.
"Wow," Caleb grinned, shaking his head in fake awe. "You're on a hook."
I raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"Breathe, Octavia. You're on a hook. Don't act like you're suddenly unaware."
"No, no, no. I just want to know what you mean by on a hook."
"You're on a hook for Giulio. I can't explain it. I'll just let you know when you're finally off of it," he waved a hand, dismissing the topic. "Now, how do you feel about Kady?"
I didn't know I was getting a free semi-counseling session.
"You're not my doctor, Romero."
He clapped his hands, holding them locked to his chest. "Again, as much as I love when you say my name, answer my question."
I shrugged. "I don't know. I know literally nothing about her, who am I to judge her?"
"Exactly," He stated. "When did you first meet her?"
"The first day. The same day I met you."
"Did she do anything to you?"
"Not that I can," I trailed off. "She didn't do anything. She just pronounced my last name wrong. That's it."
"And we all know how important it is when you mess up the Octavia's last name," A cocky smile slid onto his face as he pointed to himself. "Can't relate."
"What's the point here?" I crossed my arms, truly wanting to understand where he was going with this. But with Caleb, he could probably go anywhere with his observations.
"Besides the fact that Kady can't pronounce your last name, at least forgive her for that, you're only mad right now because she has your precious fuck buddy's attention."
"Giulio's not-"
"Don't bother lying. A couple weeks ago, I could walk into a room and you two look like you'd be going at it like no one's in the room. It's not that serious. It's the 21st century many people do it. Nothing to be ashamed of. But clearly, by your situation someone has feelings-"
"I don't have feelings for-"
"Pause, pause, no one said you had feelings for him. It's quite evident that he is the one who has feelings for you but now that he's trying to move on like the good man should be doing you're not going to let that happen if he's focusing on someone else. I mean, is his dick really that good?"
"Do you ever shut up?"
"Never," He said, a smug smile on his face and the teasing mischievousness in his eyes. "However, don't be a brat." He shot my own word back at me and I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Let the man go," He continued. "I'm certain you can find a good piece if you tried. Hell, if you want to go with me just ask." For Angie's sake, it was a good thing I understood that he was only joking with me.
"I'd rather catch chlamydia then have sex with you," I muttered the outrageous outright lie.
Caleb made a face. "You don't still hate me, do you? It's hard to understand whenever you're being sarcastic or not."
"I was being sarcastic, and I don't hate you," I really didn't. After that talk, it was hard to hate someone like him "You just-"
"Annoy you?"
"Well when you keep interrupting me like that, of course, you fucking annoy me."
"You know," He tapped his finger against his chin. "I was once told that every time you swear, a demon crawls out of hell."
"Who told you that?"
"My Tia did when I was younger," he took the baseball cap off his head, letting the waves of his brown hair fall over in a way that made me want to- holy shit, I told myself, get your thoughts together. "That phrase never stuck with me. Clearly," He stared at me a moment longer. "If he's moving on is it a problem?"
I sighed. "No, it's not. That's not really the problem," It was part of it and the fact that it could possibly be with Kady was irritating me slightly but I shoved it aside. "Giulio and I are complicated."
"I doubt it. I think you guys can be very straightforward with whatever is going on here. I'm not going to get involved."
"You sure?"
"I merely inserted myself into the conversation," He put on an innocent face. "I've done nothing." The look his face suddenly disappeared when he tilted his head at me, gazing at me differently. I felt as if I've been put on display when he looked at me like that. I literally felt the energy between us change and because of his stupid need to look at people directly in the eyes during any conversation, I had to pull away, focusing on another house on the street we were filming on. "Can I admit something to you?"
I peered up at him. "What is it?"
"There's something about you I admire, Octavia." I hummed in response, taking a deep breath as he continued. "You're don't take nonsense and you tell people how shit is without sugarcoating it. Here I am pulling an Octavia. I'm telling you how you're acting. Seeing Giulio with someone else is bothering you even a little bit and I'm sure there can be more going on there but you know, you're going to get over it eventually."
"Also, you haven't looked at him once since even though we're talking about him, so mission accomplished." Caleb moved his shoulders up and down in a little happy dance and I held a hand over my mouth at how stupid he looked.
He grinned at my little laugh, putting the hat back on his head. "You're not afraid to call me out on your bullshit so I won't be afraid to call you out on yours. We got a little tag team going on here."
I almost pouted at the way his voice changed when he said team. I hate how he could be adorable especially with his accent but extremely hot at the same time.
"Are you okay, though?" He asked me, reaching a comforting hand out to my shoulder. Fuck, his hand is warm on my skin.
"I'm okay," I told him just as another assistant told me I was needed.
Caleb pulled his phone out, already walking away. "I'll talk to you later, October."
"How many times have I told you to stop calling me that?" I said to him.
"Not enough." He yelled back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was texting my sister back, one hand on my phone, the other holding a dart. I took my eyes off the screen, tilting my head slightly as I watched Krystal prepare herself.
She's not going to hit it.
By the way her arm was positioned, the way she held her own posture. No, there was no way. I felt that in my gut.
I merely looked back down at my phone to see the three bubbles pop up, indicating that my sister was typing back. When I heard the slew of curse words fumble out of Krystal's mouth and she groaned. I glanced back up to see her lean against the table in almost defeat. The game just started but I knew after another round she was going to sit down at the table, go on her phone, and forfeit.
Classic Krystal behavior.
I picked up a dart of my own, staring at the board for a quick second before throwing it.
I heard Krystal groan even louder when she stared at the dartboard, her mouth wide open. "How the hell do you keep doing that?"
"Practice."
"Not practice, witchcraft."
"No, no, practice." Years and years of practice help especially when my brother loved playing this and I loved winning.
Krystal picked up another dart, just as I thought she would when Angie came down the stairs. I haven't seen much of her this week. Maybe because she was with Caleb so often when she wasn't at work. Whatever she was getting out of hanging out with Caleb seemed up to par because she had a bright smile on her face as she strolled through the room.
She raised an eyebrow, eyes dancing from the dart to Krystal then to me then back to Krystal. "Why do you bother going up against her?"
"Because I'm going to beat her one day." My platinum-haired friend stated as if it was truly obvious.
"Ignoring the false hope," Angie muttered to herself before giving us her best smile. "Friends."
"Oh, no." I already started, and Krystal put the dart down, pushing her hair over her shoulder before she stood beside me, crossing her arms.
"What the fuck did you do?"
"I haven't done anything!" Angie defended herself.
Keeping my eyes on Angie, I leaned towards Krystal and whispered. "She slept with her boss' husband."
"Or she slept with her boss."
I took my eyes off Angie this time, enjoying the teasing. "Or both."
"Interesting. She'll have leveled out the playing field if she did that one."
"Oh, but don't you remember, our dear Angela has done this before."
"Twice I think."
"Our opinions, Krystal?"
"We don't care."
"We just want her to be happy." Our gazes went back to Angela who looked up to the ceiling, a hand on her temple.
"I did not sleep with my boss or her husband," She huffed, knowing we were messing with her. Partially. "This time. Besides, they were divorced already! Stop saying they were married."
We laughed but only because it was so hard not to love and tease someone like Angie.
"I was going to ask when we're going to that party Giulio invited us to. I need new clients, and this is a great time for networking. Krystal can work her way up to kissing people's asses to collab with her and Octavia can have Italian directors kiss her ass as they try to get her into their movie."
There's a party happening? I stared at Angie for a second longer than I should have at what she had said, not trying to feel the slight emotion in my chest. Even to my friends, even to Giulio of all people, they all knew I loved a party. I loved a good party. No matter what it was, I would find a way to have fun at a party, by my standards.
So having Angie tell me that there's a party happening that Giulio had told her and possibly Krystal about but didn't tell me?
There's was no way in hell anyone was going to get a reaction out of me.
But a side of me that couldn't contain it in, just had to ask, "Giulio invited you both to a party?"
Angie looked confused, hell even Krystal stared at me puzzlement all over her own expression. "I thought you knew."
Trust me, girl, I am highly unaware of what is going on. "When is it?" I asked, dodging the question when my phone buzzed in my hand.
"Tomorrow night." She said.
I looked down at my phone, answering my sister's messages while asking. "Angie?"
"Yeah?" She asked, slowly almost cautiously as if was about to snap. There was no anger anywhere in my mind. But if Giulio was avoiding me, that seemed like a perfect setting to get an answer as to why.
"I need a dress."