AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The view had snatched my breath from my body. I cursed myself for not bringing a camera. I’d never been anywhere overseas.
When I applied for my passport it was for a road trip with Vivian to Toronto, Canada.
She’d read some weed magazine that bragged about the country having the best marijuana in North America, so we planned a trip there on her erratic whim. And I’d made it a point for us to actually do other things in Toronto besides her smoking and me watching, which meant lots of eating and art gallery hopping.
“Wow.” I gazed at Jaipur, which was the capital of Rajasthan, India. Bright colorful fabrics decorated the women and girls. Layers of color glowed in the sky—flaming orange, flamingo pink, and soothing sky blue. Vivian would have spent all day trying to paint just this sky. I wished she were here.
I stood on a corner directly outside of our hotel, waiting for Lucy to finish whatever she had to say to the receptionist.
As soon as we landed, Lucy shadowed me the whole time. She’d followed me off the plane, helped me check-in, took me to my room, helped me unpack, and now insisted we explore the area together.
The only reason I’d allowed her invasion of my privacy was because Chase gave me space each time he’d seen her near me.
And I definitely need to stay away from him.
Besides, Lucy was fun and enjoyable to be around. Whenever I needed/wanted a time-out during work I loafed around in her office and joked with her. I was confident we’d be close friends if I made it through the year.
“Okay. We’re all set.” Lucy rushed out, wearing huge cheetah print sunglasses. Even though she had dark red hair, for some reason she reminded me of Audrey Hepburn. “Are you ready?”
“Yep.”
Hundreds of people with skin browner than mine crowded the streets. It was thrilling and amazing to see such a different group of people and way of life.
I hope I can ride a camel before I leave.
I’d spotted tons of them. The only time I’d ever seen one was in the zoo. It blew my mind to watch them stroll along with people. Even cattle filled the streets. Loads of people rode bicycles, motorcycles, cars, and buses. Everything seemed so packed as people bumped into me and I edged around others.
And the whole place symbolized an odd make-up of things. On some streets dilapidated buildings, abandoned and carved out with a hollow emptiness, stood on our right. On our left, grand structures that looked like castles existed. Homes appeared to be thousands of years old as if each brick owned its own history. When we were on the plane, I’d noticed that the desert spanned across certain areas. In other spots lay grassy landscape amid buildings.
We walked through a people-littered market, brainstorming what we should buy a twenty-one-year-old son of a wealthy Indian family. Apparently, his birthday was the reason Chase had flown us out here. Chase wanted to show public support to the family and further cement their business relationship, because the family invested large sums of money into Stone Industries’ business ventures, especially the ones in India.
“I can’t believe he waited to the last minute to assign the gift buying.”
“Yeah,” Lucy said with a strained smile.
“What’s wrong?”
“Do you promise not to say anything to Chase?”
“Sure.” I furrowed my eyebrows.
“I already bought the present for the birthday boy a month ago. It was delivered here last week.” She displayed a weak smile. “Chase wasn’t even going to come to the party. He actually decided to leave this morning.”
I struggled to calm down my anger. “Why are we here then?”
“He said you couldn’t run from him in a foreign country.”
“Awesome.” My voice dripped with sarcasm.
We remained quiet for a while.
So again Chase has managed to wrangle my free time for his own desires. And what is his plan for this trip? Will he be keeping me in India until I say yes, or will we be flying off to Russia or Spain next?
Lucy glanced at me. “I told him you would be pissed.”
“I’m not.”
“You look like you’re going to kill him.”
