Never Be the Same Again – Chapter 2
The elevator which Marco and Fio rode to the upmost floor of the hotel stopped. The pair stepped out in unison as the double doors flung open, both of them still clinging to each other like Gorilla glue on wood. Within a few steps, to the left of the elevator, they reached their room, 1201 – a penthouse suite, a kind only millionaires and other types of VIP's would stay in while on vacation.
Marco offered to open the door and let Fio in first. As soon as both of them went in, they couldn't help but ponder with a mixed feeling of awe and excitement at the view of the living room. The living room, the first area they stumbled upon when they opened the door, was structured as if in a typical home; it had a fireplace, 2 loveseats, a sofa, and home entertainment system (a 72" high-definition TV, a Dish Network box satellite receiver, enhanced speaker system, a combined DVD and Blu-Ray player, and 5 video game consoles – a Playstation 3, a Playstation 2, an Xbox 1, a Game Cube, and an Xbox 360, all being mutually connected by a 6-foot shelf containing games for both consoles as well as a lineup of DVD's and Blu-ray discs featuring plenty of the hottest titles previously shown on theaters - columns that included titles such as Bravo Two One, Pop Gun, The One that Ran Away, Saving Corporal Punishment, Bronze Sparrow, There's Nothing About Jenny, The Fighters**, Longbow Apache Down, The Thick Blue Line, G.I. Jane: Downfall of Viper, Orange Pulp Friction, Un-American Ugly, The Annihilator series, etc. - and some independent and B-grade titles that came straight to video or possibly just not featured on mainstream media). The pair also caught glimpse of the kitchen, one that had homely-looking cupboards, a gas stove with oven, a refrigerator, and a glass table by which 8 people can sit down and congregate on a nice home-cooked meal or just socialize in a mini party.
Fio could not help but marvel at the scenery, "Wow! Marc, who would have thought we would get to stay in a place like this?"
"How should I know, Fifi? One thing's for certain, though – it was at the expense of 2 sources, one – the fat cats over at the Congress in D.C., two – the greenbacks, copper pennies, and silver nickels, dimes, and quarters coming out of the pockets of every American old enough to work his or her butt off and pay taxes annually (including myself, mind you) across all 50 states," Marco claimed in a short rhetoric.
Fio looked at him puzzled followed by a short "Huh?" and the usual confused look of one eyebrow lowering and the other raising.
Marco further enlightened her, calmly saying, "Look, all I'm saying is we got 3 days to stay here while we carry out our task as so-called secret agents. Then, it's back to business in the frontlines for you and I, kickin' the asses of Morden and his never-ending posse of mindless rebels. Let's just make the most out of it, alright?"
"Right, right, right" Fio laughed out loud in agreement.
"Come on, let's check out the bedroom," Marco said as he and Fio then went to their suite bedroom.
The bedroom was elegantly decorated, its walls painted vanilla white and its surroundings illuminated with soft white lights at 8 points on the ceiling. It looked like one that a noble person during the Renaissance to the 18th century Industrial period would let him or herself rest in for quite a lifetime. Across the door in close proximity to the glass door on the other side was a king-sized bed with strawberry red quilts, maple pillars on all four corners with a covered overhead, and white pillows. Across the bed was a drawer with mirror. To the drawer's left was a refrigerator 6 and ½ feet tall, one that was large enough to fit a lot of moderately cool and frozen groceries in, and to the drawer's right was another entertainment system this time half the size of that positioned in the living room.
"What say we open the glass doors and enjoy the nightlife?" Fio asked Marco.
"Yeah, I'd love that," the Peregrine Falcons team officer replied. "Oh, I just thought of something," he added.
"What?" asked Fio.
Marco then walked towards the bedroom fridge and opened it up to find 3 bottles of Martini. He also saw that the ice maker/water dispenser was indeed up and running. "Duh!" he thought to himself, then, took out one bottle and grabbed a long, thin wine glass from the table beside the door.
"Fancy some champagne, my dear?" he turned his head back to Fio and asked her.
Fio raised her hands beside her to eye level and made the "Spirit Fingers" motion with them, exclaiming, "Oh, do I?"
Marco then proceeded to pour some of the sparkly Martini champagne to a half level of the glass he was holding then gave the filled glass to the young Italian beauty. He then poured some in another glass for himself.
"Shall we take pace into the balcony?" he asked.
"Yeah," Fio replied.
Marco proceeded to divide the curtains covering the double glass doors and open them, which led to the balcony. Fio then stepped out while taking of her red pointed high-heels. She then leaned towards the balcony's surrounding handle, facing the city below, with Marco taking a seat at a plastic chair to her left.
The pair could make out many of the landmarks the city could give them – the 101 Freeway, the commercial tower with its pointed top platform, the Hollywood sign on close proximity of the horizon, and many others – all illuminated by tiny sparks of light throughout the night.
"Isn't this a beautiful place?" Fio asked Marco as she stared into the city below her.
"Yeah, if you take out the blaring sirens of L.A.P.D. cruisers as they pursue crook cars and Bloods and Crips waging war against each other," Marco remarked in a slight sarcasm as he took a sip of his wine.
Fio giggled slightly and said, "You don't think I knew that already, do you?"
"Come again?" Marco asked while he looked at Fio, puzzled.
Fio sighed with a slight smile and gave him a bit of interesting explanation, something he never thought he would hear from her, "Marc, the first time I went here was a wee bit long ago, back when I was a freshman at Genoa Junior College. Part of my medical training took place at USC." She then pointed to where Jefferson Avenue is, near the 101 freeway. She then added, "I stayed at an apartment not too far from the campus, all expenses paid for by the school" and pointed to another venue close to another side of the campus down Childs Way, past the little market strip and few restaurants by that street. "To me, this somewhat feels like a second home no matter what anyone else might say. The City of Angels, next to good old Genoa. Now, I just have to find someone who I can be at home at with."
Marco stood up and touched Fio on the shoulder by one hand and motioned another to touch her chin. He then turned her face towards his, gazed at it passionately, and said, "Well, you don't have to look any further, mia piccola principessa*," he said as he partially shut his eyes, leaned towards her, and pressed his lips on hers.
Fiolina blushed all over as Marco kissed her for a brief moment that seemed like forever. Her heart raced, and she found herself shoving Marco away from her. At that moment, Marco slid a few steps back towards the edge of the balcony handle, turning around to frighteningly look down Hope Street below him, tiptoeing on one foot and swaying his arms back and forth in circles. A half-foot strand of snot poured out of his nostrils in silent panic. He tried not to scream and cause any unwanted fuss, but at the same time, he felt that way as his pulse increased, and he felt his heart rescinding from his chest and going up on his throat as he was about to take a plunge and squash his head, let alone his body, on the asphalt sidewalk meters below him, an end he did not even want to meet. Fio gasped in shocked and, within a nanosecond, flung both her arms around the hapless senior officer's abs. She could feel the hardness of his manly stomach buns, but there was no time to contemplate on that as she pulled him away from the edge of the balcony back towards the outward edge of the bedroom. The pair heavily panted gasping for breath as they both tried to recollect thoughts about Marco's nearly fatal dance with death and shrug it off. A rule of thumb for troops was that more soldiers die in peacetime than in a combat zone. This was one of those surreal applicable cases for that principle, and it happened to cross the minds of the pair as they wheezed and laughed loudly and openly about that ordeal.
-END OF CHAPTER 2-
*translates to "my little princess" in Italian
**parody of The Warriors, a 1979 gang warfare movie by Walter Hill based on the novel of the same title by Sol Yurick
