Caroline walked down the cobbled side streets of Barcelona, clutching her iPhone and letting the musical stylings of John Mayer play loudly through her ear buds. Her friend Matteo had just gotten a new job at a cafe in Ciutat Vella, something he was quite good at. She had been absolutely swamped for the past few days at work, and agreeing to answer emails while he bused tables beside her had been the agreed upon solution to their recent lack of hangout time. But her music was soon interrupted as the map on her phone alerted her that she had arrived. She swung open the door to the small cafe on her left and was greeted by Matteo standing with one hand on a broom and the other on his hip.
"Aye! Mi primer cliente!" She let out a short laugh and bowed in front of him before standing and staring open-mouthed at the room in front of her. The cafe was beautifully decorated. The ceiling was composed of patterned gold tin panels, the walls painted a burnt orange and accented with antique looking candelabras. The seats were all plush and velvet, draped in wine colored tapestries and adorned with beaded pillows. A series of several paintings hung on the wall, both in contrast and perfect harmony to the decor surrounding them. To Caroline, this was coffee heaven.
"I have to say, of the six jobs in two months this has got to be my favorite"
"Gracias guapa", Matteo said, speeding over to the espresso machine to make her a drink. Caroline leaned slightly against the back of a small chaise lounge near the window, pulling her laptop out of her bag. "Donde esta mi Katherine?", Matteo called from across the room, walking towards her with a small cup and saucer.
She rolled her eyes, "Your Katherine is the same place your Caroline should be, su oficina"
"En mi opinión both of you girls work way too hard. You have no time for life! For sleeping or eating o drinking conmigo", he said, sending an exaggerated pout in her direction.
"Well I suppose that's one of the disadvantages of not quitting your job every few weeks", she quipped, sticking her tongue out. He simply winked at her.
"Work is boring. Matteo does not live a boring life", he said before walking back to the counter and wiping down all of the appliances before opening. She laughed and leaned further back in her seat.
"Tienes razón, al menos uno de nosotros debería ser el amigo divertido" (You're right, one of us should be the fun friend). He simply raised an eyebrow at her use of Spanish. "Que pasa? I've been studying!" She let out a small sound of triumph and turned back to her screen, mindlessly filtering through the spam that had made its way into her inbox before something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention.
It was one of the paintings on the wall, three of them actually. The artist was different than the ones up front that much was clear. Their style was more distinct, less...settled. The piece that had caught her eye was a depiction of a woman sitting on the edge of a cliff. She was facing away from the viewer, and at first glance it simply looked like a pretty girl overlooking a pretty landscape. Caroline pushed her laptop to the side and walked over to the painting. Upon further inspection the scene was much more insidious. The girl's legs didn't simply dangle off the cliff, rather two strong hands gripped her calves and attempted to pull her down into abyss while her fingers dug into the mud of the rocky edge and the muscles in her arms were tense with fear. It was definitely grim, surely why it had been hung so far towards the back, but Caroline was absolutely taken. "Matteo, who painted this?"
"No sé, todo el arte is a gift from the manager's compañero, some rich hombre de Inglaterra"
"Is there anyway you could find out?", she asked.
"Para vos? Anything", he said with the wink. "I think he keeps his business cards somewhere in back, espera aquí" Caroline's phone began to ring loudly and she turned around, riffling through her bag before making a face at the screen that read Tyler.
Tyler and Caroline could be called dysfunctional high school sweethearts, completely on and off since Junior year. She was the head cheerleader, he was the varsity quarterback, and no matter how many petty fights they had at school dances, they always found their way back to each other. It wasn't until college graduation that Tyler had finally expressed to her the desire to be in a serious, adult relationship. Caroline suspected it had everything to do with Tyler's prospective future in politics and a few lectures from Mr. Lockwood about the importance of family appearance, but she loved him anyways.
For the last two years, they'd made it work. When Caroline got her first job as an assistant to a prominent art curator in Manhattan, Tyler had moved with her. He took a position at a law firm in the city while still managing to handle a few cases at his father's practice back in Mystic Falls, and everything was perfect for about two years. Eventually a downtown realtor she had bought some sculptures for came to her about a gallery space his friend had recently refinished in Spain, saying that he'd be willing to invest in the property if she ran it.
Owning a gallery had been Caroline's life goal since switching her college major to art history, and figuring out how exactly to throw away her biggest dream made that next week absolute hell. She considered asking her best friends but nobody could really understand where she was coming from. Matt was Mystic Falls born and bred. To him, even their move to New York might as well have been NASA level space exploration. Bonnie would probably try to read her tarot cards or something. And Kat, well Kat would forever maintain that the most important person in Caroline's life was Caroline (besides her of course) and probably start the Visa application for her. But, if there was one person she knew she couldn't tell for sure, it was Tyler.
He was sweet the majority of the time, but anger management had never been one of his strong suits. Tyler liked plans, and at that moment the plan was an engagement in a year or two, eventual partner at the law firm, and a smooth transition into a congressional career. Caroline was sure the idea of uprooting their lives for Europe would most likely cause irreparable damage to their relationship and their apartment.
That weekend, Tyler left for a business trip back home with a colleague. He was helping his father out with a large estate settlement for one of the town's founding families, and another lawyer from the New York firm had come to help with their normal case load. Caroline spent nearly her whole week alone crafting an offer rejection letter. It was only two days after his return to the city that she learned Tyler was joined on his work trip by a pretty young first year attorney, and that their duties included far more pleasure than business. It only took one day to pack all of her belongings, and a day later he would admit what she already knew.
Next thing she knew she had her name on the deed of an art gallery in Barcelona and a one way ticket to the El Prat airport. Fortunately her best friend agreed to come with. According to Katherine, one of the benefits of being a successful freelance photographer was that she could work from anywhere, and anywhere Caroline was worked for her. Two weeks later Tyler was found on the cobblestone stairs to her apartment doing something she had never known a Lockwood to do, begging. Against the advice of Kat, Caroline took him back, upon the conditions that she stay in Spain and he prove that he could be trusted. Hence her confusion when she realized he was calling at 3am. Matteo noticed her expression.
"¿Quién es?", he questioned
"Mi novio", she mouthed, sliding her thumb across the screen and accepting the call. Matteo scrunched up his nose like he had caught a whiff of something disgusting and pushed open the doors to the back room. The night she met Matteo he was just a bartender who gave out way too many free drinks, but two hours and one drunk Petrova later he was their new best friend who knew far too much about Caroline's love life, including her "scummy wet dog ass of a boyfriend" according to Kat. Care tried her best to do damage control on that one but hadn't quite worked her magic yet.
"Tyler?", she questioned, putting the phone to her ear.
"Hey Baby", he slurred in response, holding out the last vowel for several seconds. Caroline instinctively put her hand on her hip and sighed. He was drunk dialing her. On one hand, Caroline couldn't spite him. Her and Kat were no strangers to a pitcher of mojitos. But on the other hand the idea of a drunk Tyler in a club full of beautiful women on a Saturday night made her stomach drop.
"You're drunk", she stated unamused.
"Chill Care, I've only had like 5 beers." He tried to snap at her but his voice was slow and lazy.
"Yeah Tyler I can tell. Where are you?" She tried to keep any inkling of insecure girlfriend out of her voice.
"Standing outside of the bar, just calling to make sure my girl can pick me from the airport on the eighteenth" A wide smile tore across Caroline's face.
"You booked your tickets?" After his recent promotion she knew Tyler's next few weeks were hectic, and she was almost sure he was going to back out of his monthly visit this time.
"Actually my assistant booked my tickets. You're dating a junior exec now, and junior execs have people to do that shit for them" She cringed slightly at his arrogance, mostly because no matter how proud she was of him, Tyler's need to be the alpha in every situation could be exhausting. Secondly, Caroline was 80% sure his PA was a very unfortunate unpaid intern. Still, the smile stayed put.
"Well Junior Exec Lockwood, I am very pleased to tell you your girl can definitely pick you up from the airport." It was then that Caroline heard a familiar voice cut through the noisy background.
"Ty come back inside." Caroline's face drained of color and her smile quickly faded. She knew that voice like the back of her hand and she choked slightly on her next few breaths, trying her best to stay calm.
"So uh who are you out with?", Caroline asked. She already knew the answer, but what mattered was the answer Tyler chose to give her.
"Oh uh just some of the team from work." At least these days he had the sense not to lie directly to her face, but she wasn't appeased.
"Is she there?" She could tell Tyler was unsure how to diffuse the situation.
"Care-"
"She is isn't she?" Tyler sighed on the other line.
"Care it's really no big deal, today was Derek Fell's first case win, everyone is out" Caroline loved her boyfriend, truly. At the start when things were hard at the gallery, she could count the dozens of times she wanted to give everything up and book a flight back to JFK. But it was the moments like this, the times where he made her feel crazy for being suspicious, treated her like a paranoid lunatic, acted as if the past didn't exist, that really tested her.
"I just think it's funny that you feel the need to hide things that aren't a big deal Ty", she barked. There was a low growl from the other end of the line.
"Caroline can we not do this shit right now? I called to give you good news the least you can do is have some fucking faith in me okay?", Tyler shouted into her ear. Caroline could feel the tears prickling at her eyes and bit down on her tongue to hold back a small sob.
"You don't want to do this right now? Fine", she said calmly, pulling the phone away from her ear and tapping end.
She wasn't one to lose it in front of others. Teenage Caroline had been a sort of emotional mess, always crying over boys or her parents, and as a business woman the only emotion Caroline could afford to show was confidence.
These days she mainly reserved her tears for drunken cry sessions with Katherine but the second she saw Matteo looking at her from the counter across the room she broke down.
"No no no no no mija, no crying", he said, rushing across the room and pulling her into a hug. She punched his shoulder slightly and shook her head.
"Why? Why are men so stupid? Why am I so stupid? Why can't I just trust him?"
"If I knew the answer to that mija, maybe I wouldn't be single". He pulled one of her hands from her face and folded something flat in her palm. It felt like some sort of paper. Caroline opened her eyes and peeked down. "El número, for the agent", Matteo said.
Caroline looked up at him and sniffled, all her thoughts of Tyler drifting awake like smoke. "Oh my god you are the best!", she cried, rushing back to her seat and throwing her laptop back into her bag and tossing her jacket over the crook of her arm. "I have to get back to the office but you", she shouted holding the card up in the air, "you are amazing!"
Caroline all but sprinted back to the metro, shoving her way through the turnstile and hopping up into the train car just as it began to signal the closing doors. She took a free seat next to the exit and let her heart rate slow for a minute before glancing down at the card in her hands. Caroline immediately wished that she hadn't.