Recap: Sorry it's been awhile guys…so to refresh your memories…Betty is in Italy for a work related trip and Gio is here at the same time. Gio planned a romantic evening for Betty, but things don't go according to plan. Now…someone is back!
"Henry, what are you doing here?" I looked bewildered as I asked him. He was smiling, but I didn't return the smile, merely because I was confused.
"Well, I wonder if you can talk in private. Out on the patio alright?" he cocked his head to the patio and I lead the way, without a word.
"I'm going to give you one minute. It won't make much difference, but being the person I am, you get the chance." I frowned and waited for him.
"Ok…where to begin…after I went to Tucson, I thought things would be better. For a while, they were and Charlie and I were able to focus on the baby. Well, about a month after I was there Charlie was getting some suspicious phone calls regarding the baby. I come to find out that it's not mine." He grinned when he finally announced that part. "Betty, do you understand what that means?"
"Oh what? I guess that means that you didn't sleep with Charlie then." I said sarcastically.
"Of course I did. Anyway, what does it matter? Charlie was my girlfriend."
"But you were leading me on! You didn't tell me until after the fact that I had met her. That's why this is a big deal." I grumbled and looked out onto the night's scene.
"What I'm saying, is that Charlie lied to me in order to keep me away from you. Betty, I am still in love with you." He came close to me and tried to kiss me, but I backed away and quickly made my way inside and then slammed the glass door in his face and locked it.
"Ha, how do you like being left now Henry?" I laughed darkly and then turned to my family.
"Betty, mija….what are you doing?" dad asked with a raised eyebrow.
"OMG…I saw this same exact scene in Days of Our Lives. I think Sami was mad at Lucas and she locked him on the balcony. He ended up falling five stories and surviving. Then again, that's not real life" Justin casually said.
"Fine!" I mumbled and looked through the glass at Henry. "Talk!" I proclaimed through the glass.
"Look Betty, I'm sorry for leaving you the way that I did. At the time, I thought it was for the best. I wanted you to move on and hate me." he looked sadly at me and inched closer to the glass.
"Henry, I waited for a few weeks. I moped around hoping that you would call and tell me that it was a mistake. I've been waiting for this moment, but that was over a month ago that I gave up on you." I shook my head, feeling disappointed in Henry. "So, what else do you have to say to me?"
"Well, can I come in first? It's really cold and a drunk Italian couple next door are laughing at me." Henry informed me.
"Right, well…I guess that's alright. You'd better be prepared to speak in front of my entire family because they're not leaving." I unlocked the door and let him in. He cautiously looked around and smiled slightly at Hilda, but she didn't return the smile.
"This is getting good papi. I guess we don't have to order a movie after all." Hilda sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Ok, so Charlie lied to you and you're back because…?" I was collecting the information he had been feeding to me.
"…because I love you. Wait…before you go off on me again…let me say one more thing." Henry seemed to struggle with the words and something in his pocket.
"Ok fine. What is it?" I rolled my eyes impatiently and shifted my weight.
"Betty, you know that I love you. I remember the first time I saw you in the butterfly costume and we talked about random facts. I've never met anyone like you before in my life." He pulled out a ring box.
"Put that back into your pocket!" I demanded bitterly and slightly out of breath.
"Betty…" he continued as my heart skipped about 20 beats. "I know that I've been a complete ass to you lately, but I've changed. I love you and I can make you incredibly happy. When you're happy, you have a certain smile than when you're pretending to be happy. It's just something I know." He paused and looked at me. "Will you marry me?" He opened the box and there a sparkling ring sat.
"Wha…what?" I stammered.
"I want to spend the rest of my life with you Betty. I swear to never leave you again. I'm just asking you to take a chance with your heart." He smiled up at me as he was on bended knee.
"Henry, I really don't know what to say. This is an incredibly big deal." I blushed and looked over at my speechless family. I had to admit to myself that I hoped one day for Henry to propose, but circumstances were different now.
"Henry, could you give Betty a night to think about it?" my dad cut in amidst the silence.
"Sure Mr. Suarez. Goodnight Betty. I'm staying at the Marriott down the street." Henry kissed me on the cheek and left. I stood there for a few minutes in silence.
"Well Betty?" Hilda looked at me and shrugged. "You have to admit that he came all this way so he must really love you." She suggested. I didn't understand where she was coming from. She was the one who pushed me first to be with Walter and then with Henry and finally Gio.
"I…I think I need a few minutes of fresh air." I didn't even look at them as I left. This felt like the longest ten minutes of my life. It was hard for me to express any feelings that I felt for Henry. A part of me wanted to say yes, because I did believe that he loved me and I understood why he had to leave me. Yet, at the same time, the other Betty wanted me to hold a grudge against it. It was that Betty that was mad at Henry because him leaving made me realize my feelings for Gio. I contemplated these thoughts as I walked through the hotel's gardens. The trees were lit up and pretty as I sat on a bench and looked at my reflection.
"I can't believe that a night with me has made you this depressed." Gio said suddenly as he sat down beside me. I had been thinking too hard for me to realize that he had come up behind me. I quickly wiped my eyes.
"Hey…Gio…how did you know I was here?" I asked sadly.
"I saw you heading for the gardens so I followed you. You dropped this." He held his hand out and in his hand he held my B necklace.
"Thanks." I said quickly as I took it and placed it around my neck.
"You know that Anne Boleyn had a necklace just like this." Gio informed me.
"Yeah, right before the love of her life had her beheaded." I managed to laugh a little at the thought of that.
"I see that corporal punishment is humorous to you. I'll keep that in mind." Gio smiled and I could see from the reflection in the water that he was looking at me.
"Hey…Betty…is everything all right?" he asked, looking slightly worried. He grabbed my hand slowly, trying to be respectful of my feelings.
"Henry's back." I answered and looked up at him, trying to read his expression. I still held on to his hand, and was surprised that he didn't let go.
"Oh, and what does Egg Salad want?" he looked slightly frustrated.
"Well, he came back to tell me that he loved me and that…uh..." I trailed off, not wanting to hurt Gio with the rest of the news. "And…he sort of proposed to me." I looked over at him and his face was concentrating hard on a thought.
"You seem confused." He looked at me, but didn't smile.
"I am. I wasn't expecting this to happen. I feel like I'm missing a step somewhere and somehow something isn't making any sense. Somehow the facts just don't match up."
"Catch-22" Gio mumbled.
"How can you think about a book right now?" I demanded.
"No, I meant the situation is sort of a catch-22." He replied.
"Right…I guess if you think about it like that. I just don't know what to do, Gio." He suddenly let go of my hand and stood up quickly.
"So you're thinking of taking his offer then and agreeing to marry him? After everything that he has put you through. Wow, you are being stupid. Here, I thought you were beginning to wise up and grow some balls, but no…you run straight to Henry." Gio said bitterly, without even looking at me.
"That's not true. There's just a lot to think about, Gio. I thought you respected my feelings enough and so I trusted in you as I told you about Henry. Just because I don't know what to do, doesn't mean that I am going to marry him." I insisted as Gio began to walk away.
"Betty, it's hard for me to stand by and watch this happen…come back when you have more sense." Gio looked at me and walked away. All I wanted to do was crawl into a hole and stay there for a long time. The next thought that crossed my mind was to escape back to New York. I would be alone, which would give me time to think. I decided to head back to the room and write a letter to both Gio and Henry. Henry's was pretty easy to write, but Gio's…it was hard. I knew that writing the truth would hurt him, but I had to patch things up with myself first and take care of Betty before I took care of Betty's problems. I ran straight to the front desk.
"Can you see that Giovanni Rossi gets this letter?" I gave the concierge the addressed letter and he nodded.
"What is up with you Betty?" Hilda caught up with me in the elevator.
"I don't know anymore Hil." I shrugged as she hugged me. "I need some time to think. I have written both Henry and Gio letters and giving them both the answers they have been looking for. I've decided to go back to New York early. I know we have a week left, but I'm tired of being here already."
"I understand. Sometimes we all need a little time to ourselves." Hilda smiled.
I packed for the next hour and filled my dad and Justin in with my decision to leave early. Fortunately, my dad was supportive of the decision. I just needed to give both guys their space and me a little time to decide. Although my letters to both guys made it clear as to my feelings for the both of them, I felt that I needed to leave. As I left, I dropped off Henry's letter at the front desk.
At the airport, I managed to book a red eye flight to New York. By now, Henry would be getting his letter from me. Now he would know how it feels. As for Gio, I had no idea how he would respond. I admitted everything, but I wasn't sure if that would be enough. As I stood in line for coffee, I thought of Gio and the butterflies were flying around in my stomach. It was at that point, that I knew whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I suddenly looked at my watch and realized how much time I had let slip by.
"Please, I'm sorry, but I only have 20 minutes until my flight leaves…can I get to the front of the line?" I asked the security guard breathlessly as I made it to security. He laughed and shook his head. Ten minutes later I was running through the airport and more importantly, trying to find my gate. With five minutes to spare, I found it.
"Hi…here." I handed the flight attendant my boarding pass.
"Just in time. We were just about to close the door to the gate." She smiled at me as I made my way onto the plane. My knees went weak from running and I fell on a creepy greasy man in first class who grinned and said something in Russian. I forced a smile and apologized before trying to find my seat.
I waited as people were placing luggage into the overhead compartments and I kept edging toward the back on the plane. I glanced down at my boarding pass and sighed because I was nowhere near my aisle. Finally, I found it after waiting as a woman grabbed her wandering toddler. Without looking at my seat, I crammed my carryon bag into the overhead compartment. I grew frustrated as I shoved the awkward bag into the compartment. "Haha…stupid bag!" I said aloud as I closed the overhead compartment. I glanced at the person next to my seat, who was reading a paper. I fastened my seatbelt and waited patiently until we took off. I was nervous about flying and the person next to me seemed to be aware of this.
"I'm alright." I said to the newspaper person.
"Hmm." He replied.
"Flying makes me feel like….woa….haha….well….it makes me feel a little nervous. I don't even normally talk to strangers like this. Oh, am I annoying you newspaper guy?"
"Which section of the paper would you like?" he placed the newspaper down and grinned.
"Gio?" I was suppressing the urge to get excited that he was there. "What are you doing here?"
"All's fair in love and war. Now that I stand a chance, the tables have turned between Eggy and me. I'm determined to fight. I'm determined to be tenacious…like a bulldog. So, what section of the paper would you like?" he insisted.
"Living." I answered quickly and once I placed the paper in front of my face, I drew a wide smile that I had been holding in all night.
TBC…