Chapter 194

“Iris, I mean like, jump down from the truck,” Frankie says, leaning forward towards me with a laugh. “Not jump off a bridge.”

“Okay, with how this plan has currently gone,” I say, staring at him with wide eyes, “I think you need to clarify these details, Frank.”

He laughs, grinning at me, and then waving his hand casually to me, inviting me to sit back down and relax. I do so, leaning against his leg as we wait for…cobblestones.

Whatever the hell that means.

But as soon as we hit them about an hour later, I definitely know.

“Oh – oh my god,” I murmur, sitting up straight as the truck begins to jolt back and forth a bit wildly. “Is this…a cobblestone street!?”

“Yup,” Frank says, leaning forward a bit, not wanting to be near the interior of the truck while it’s banging around like that. “Time to get up, Bambs – we’ve got to make our run for it.”

“Second of the day,” I sigh.

“Yeah,” he says, pushing unsteadily to his feet and offering his hands to help me up. I take them, needing it. “But this one is going to be way better.”

“How do you know that?” I ask, my feet still unsteady in the wobbly truck.

“Because I have a pretty good feeling I know where we are,” he says, smiling down at me. “And I think you’re going to like it.”

I can’t help it – as I stare up at him, I get a little caught up in the fun of it, the adventure. And I laugh, and he does too. And then I lean against him, and he wraps his arms loosely around me, and we wait.

When the truck comes to a stop we both crouch down, Frankie turning me lightly so that I’m in front of him.

“When I tell you to go,” he says, “you scramble out of this truck as fast as you can, all right? But don’t run, just try to look…cool. Casual. Unless I tell you to run, then you…”

“Run?” I ask.

“Knew you were smart,” he murmurs.

But there’s no more time for that, because the back door quickly rolls up and sunlight floods the back of the truck. Frankie and I crouch lower, still hiding behind the pallet, but from a gap between the goods I see one man come in and take a few boxes off the back, taking them into…a little shop? I honestly don’t know.

“Go!” Frankie urges after a moment of quiet and I do precisely as I was instructed – darting forward towards the back of the truck and then hopping down at the back of it, Frankie following me half a second later.

I look around, my eyes probably wilder than they should be in a moment when we’re trying to be cool, but Frankie just slings a casual arm around my shoulder as we move down the cobblestone street, away from the truck.

As we go we actually pass a man who I think is one of the truck’s one three workers – but he doesn’t even give me a second glance.

My mouth falls open as I look up at Frankie, who just smirks and keeps his eyes forward as we walk.

We get about twenty paces away when I hear the truck behind us start. And then to my shock it begins to leave without any fuss, anyone shouting for us to stop.

When the sound fades down the street I turn towards it. Frankie stops with me, likewise turning to look down the street as I gape because…

Honestly, did we just…do that?

Was it seriously that easy?

“Is this real?” I ask, looking up into Frankie’s face.

“It’s real, Bambs,” he whispers, lifting a hand to stroke my cheek with his thumb, smiling softly down at me. “We have officially fled the United States with…little to no trail. Except,” he shrugs, “well, that part where you talked to your sister-in-law and we’re trusting her not to report the fact that she saw us get onto a plane that left the Orlando airport a few minutes after we talked.”

I grimace a little, seeing how the trail is still present.

“But…here, in…wherever this is?” I say quietly, staring into his eyes. “And in Europe, more broadly?”

“That’s right,” Frankie replies. “We have no identification, we’re broke, we…just got dropped in the middle of a city on an anonymous truck that has no record of us as passengers.” He laughs a little. “I mean, we don’t have much but we’re going to be very hard to track.”

A slow smile spreads across my mouth. “Cool.”

“Very cool,” he says, dipping his head for a moment to press his forehead against mine. “We can do…whatever we want.”

“Um,” I say, turning my face away from him to study the street I’ve been too panicked, so far, to observe. “Whatever we want but…where the hell are we?”

“You can’t guess?” he asks, keeping his arm around my shoulders and tugging me forward again to walk slowly with him down the street.

I peer around, trying to figure out if any of this is familiar to me from any of the internet searches I’ve performed in my many dreams of visiting Europe. But none of it strikes an immediate bell.

But still, even if I don’t recognize it yet, it’s…gorgeous.

The buildings are tall and thin and almost every single one of them has a balcony that sets my heart dreaming of what it might be like to live here. Laundry stretches out from some of them, and even though the street is shadowy I can see bright sunlight stretching out in the square before us.

I laugh a little, turning back to Frankie, thrilled at the beauty of this place already. “No,” I say, shaking my head, “I have no idea – please – where?”

“Just…one more thing,” he says, grinning broadly and tugging me forward, “that might help you figure it out. And then I’ll tell you, okay?”

Eagerly I nod and he laughs, dropping his arm from my shoulder and grabbing my hand, tugging me forward into the bright square before us.

I gasp, immediately, at all the noise and the sun, the beautiful cafes filled with people, the bustle of the street and the way that all of the sidewalks are designed with these adorable little white square tiles –

But there’s hardly time to notice anything as Frankie pulls me through the square, towards whatever it is he wants me to see. I do my best to take it all in – the taxis and the cars, the incredible architecture, and even students walking by in – of all things – black capes?

What – where on earth are we!?

But all these thoughts are wiped from my mind the moment we break through the crowd and Frankie pulls me forward towards…the most incredible sight I think I’ve ever seen.

I gape, absolutely gape, at the wide blue river that stretches out before us, and the huge black bridge that crosses it, and the city that rises steeply on the hills of either side of the water, and the incredible gondola that lifts people from the shoreline all the way up to the top of a mountain. A beautiful city – white buildings, and pink, and yellow, and blue – all stretching on either side of the river with shops all along.

My eyes immediately fill with tears as I press my hands to the stone wall before me, leaning far over, looking up and down the river at what must be – absolutely must – the most beautiful city in the world.

“It – it looks like something from a dream,” I whisper, shaking my head.

“Do you know?” Frankie asks, standing beside me and likewise planting his hands on the wall, peering up and down the river with me.

I look up at him and shake my head. After a moment, Frankie looks down at me and smiles.

“Welcome to Porto, Bambi,” he says with a happy sigh, putting his arm again in its favorite spot around my shoulders. Quickly, eagerly, I step closer to him, looking up into his face with awe. “We’re in Portugal.”

I just stare up at Frankie, shocked and completely awed at the beauty of this place, the goodness of him, the fact that…that we’re here.

That he did everything I asked – that he took me away from that world, that life.

And brought me to a beautiful place that he knew I’d love, where I can shape a new life according to the things that I want.

A life for both of us.

And immediately, I burst into tears, and bury my face in his shirt.

Frankie just laughs, light and kind, and holds me tight, letting me have my little cry.