Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
He's staring at me with his eyebrows up to his hairline.
I say, "Finish up the call to your mother. We'll meet up later tonight. I'll call you when I'm––oh." I frown sheepishly. "I don't have a phone anymore. It broke in the ocean."
"I'll come to the embassy once I finish tying up these loose ends," Marco says. "Stay there. Okay?"
Nodding, I take one more swig from my drink, setting the glass on the table. The police chuckle at my action; except the woman, who seems annoyed. "Let's go," she insists. "If you're really not in danger, I want this off my plate. Waste of resources to be chasing after American girls who don't need saving."
Bristling at her comment, I keep my mouth shut. She leads me outside the bar, to a white car with a green stripe along the side that reads Polizia Locale like her uniform. The other officers join us. They're chatting with light smiles, clearly unbothered by the situation. I wish this woman was as relaxed as them. I wonder if she's the only responsible one on the team, or if this is her trying to prove something.
Either way, just go along and get this done with.
It's a quick drive since the curving streets are mostly empty. The embassy is a large, squat building surrounded by a tall, black metal fence. Multiple flags wave proudly on poles in the wind on its perimeter.
"This way," the police woman snaps. She opens her door, waiting for me to follow. I give her an annoyed look because she hovers over me as we walk towards the entrance.
"You don't need to stand so close, I'm not going to run."
"I don't know you. I don't trust you." She points as we enter the Embassy. "Talk to that man behind the desk. I will wait until he tells me you're confirmed as being off my list."
The man standing behind the desk looks as old as the massive furniture itself. His long hair drapes down to his shoulders in loose waves. There's a kindness in his small, beady blue eyes when he notices me. Eager to get away from my rude police escort, I walk to him. "Hi there. I'm Fillia, and I think there's been some mixup."
He looks over my head to the police woman. She says something blunt in Italian, I don't know what it means, but the tone is rude. The man chuckles, turning back to me. "I think you need to make a phone call to your father."
"My––" I cut myself off. "Oh god. I––dammit! Where's a phone I can use to make an international call?"
He grins, gesturing at the far wall. I see a row of phones hanging in red boxes. Rushing to the nearest one, I snap up the receiver and begin to dial. My fingers clutch the phone, shaking along with the rest of me.
How could I be so absent minded? Of course he reported me missing! We haven't spoken in...shit, has it been four days already? Suddenly my original plan to hang around with Marco until I could afford a cheap flight home returns to me. I'd completely forgotten my goal.
The line clicks. "Hello?" my father asks anxiously. "Who is this?"
My mouth is dry as I try to speak. "Dad! It's me."
"Filia! Oh, thank god! Are you okay?"
Wiping at the tears blurring my vision, I sniffle and laugh. "I'm so so sorry. I should have called, I know that."
"It's fine! Just tell me you're okay!"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm in Italy."
"I know that much. Or I hoped you were, since it was the last place your phone pinged."
My shoulders scrunch into my neck. "I forgot you had me on your Life Share app." My dad and I both could follow where our phones were at all times. He must have checked the app when he hadn't heard from me in too long.
"I was worried sick," my dad says. "You were supposed to be back in LA three days ago, after your last work-leg. I tried to call you but you didn't pick up."
"You tried to call me?" I scrunch my face in confusion. "Oh, I bet the cruise ship was too far away from any cell towers."
"The cruise ship?"
"It's a long story, Dad."
"What are you saying? Why are you in Italy? I called the embassy as soon as I found out you were in a foreign country. At first they brushed me off, saying you were an adult, so they couldn't treat you like a runaway child. But then I explained you weren't answering your phone, and then it went off entirely!"
"Probably when I jumped into the..." I stop myself. Dad is already in a panic, telling him I jumped into the ocean will send him spiraling. "You reported me missing, that's why the police dragged me to the embassy."