A smile is enough - Chapter 2

"Amelia", I shouted with far too much emphasis when I saw my friend through the peephole. I hurried to turn the key and pulled hard on the door handle moving toward the door expecting this to open wide, but it didn't. I had forgotten to remove the chain, but the realization came just when my head bumped into it forcefully.
Perfect. 
Amelia started laughing so hard when she saw me come out rubbing my forehead that, for a second, almost seemed like a cry.
"It's not funny, you know?"
"Isn't it? Are you sure?" saying that, she took my arm and, entering, she led me in front of my living room mirror.
My forehead was swelling and a big red spot heralded the bump that was about to come. Ok, maybe that scene was a bit funny after all. 
While I was taking a packet of frozen peas from the freezer, Amelia decided to  make herself comfortable on the couch, after throwing everything that was on it on the floor and carefully putting her new Gucci bag beside her. Typical.
"I'm exhausted, my dear. You've no idea what means having to move so far and for so long!"
In that moment I would have like to point out that I moved from Milan to London more than two years before so maybe, just maybe, I knew what she was talking about, but I decided to overlook it instead. It was surely the stress talking. 
"I guess nothing interesting has happened here, as usual, so let me tell you what happened to me! I have some juicy stories for you!"
"Well, actually something new...", but I couldn't even finish the sentence because Amelia had already started talking about the trip.
"So, first of all let me tell you about the apartment that was assigned to me. You should have seen it B, it was something spectacular! I had two bedrooms and a big room that could be used as a study. The kitchen was big as your hole of apartment and then..."
As my friend was going on with her praise to the house, I couldn't stop thinking that she just insulted my apartment as if it was an acceptable thing to do. I mean, yes, ok, it is a hole, but I'm the only one who can say that about my s****y room with kitchenette and a bathroom so small that resemble something only a kid could use. 
"...I mean, isn't that absurd? I should have made a scene to that stupid a*****e! But you know...I'm not the type that does those kind of things!"
I didn't get anything of what she said previous to that, but this in phrase in particular caught my attention due to its ridiculousness. I could list countless places in which I'm now afraid to show my face thanks to her behavior but, once again, I decided to let her continue without saying a word. She was clearly tired.
"... so? What do you think?"
S**t... and now? What was she saying? What was the subject? 
"Ehm... see... I...", come on B, just ask her politely to repeat!
"I KNEW IT! You agree with that b***h!"
"Actually I...", I was kind of shocked at that point. I must admit that. 
"Shut up. Ok. Maybe you're both right... I need to settle down with a good man. All these dudes might be funny but I probably need to grow up emotionally."
"Uhm... well, I'd be happy for you if you could find a good person who loves you... and who I could meet more than once", I said then, actually finding myself agreeing with what Tanya told her. Because the b***h could only be her, Amelia's best friend from the office. At least that's what she used to say in front of the other colleagues, but it was clear that deep down they hated each other.
"Are you mocking me?"
"No! I think that Ta... the b***h this time might be right"
"Well, easy for you to say!! Sure, for you finding a man is not a problem at all! She's married with her high school sweetheart and you... well, you're basically a nun so you don't even give a s**t."
SORRY? What am I?
"If you're so confident, you find me a man! But a nice, good looking, adorable and funny one. And hot. He must be hot. Oh, and with a good, remunerative speaking, job" continued her, before erupting in one of her typical loud laughs.
"Well... if you care to know, I met someone that's all those things!"
"Look dear, your coworkers don't interest me at all. I don't know how it's even possible, but all of you programmers have the sex appeal of a rotten apple. So..."
"He's not one of my colleagues. He's my new neighbor" I then said trying no to show my growing rage.
Sometimes, I must admit, Amelia could be a real b***h! Evidently going to Germany didn't help on this aspect.
Actually, to be honest, I wasn't so sure that I wanted to share Lucas with her, but rationally speaking I knew he could be perfect for her, and I knew she was feeling lonely since her last relationship ended badly. On paper they seemed to be made for each other . Both tall, both beautiful as the sun, and both with a successful job.
Amelia other than the high of a model, she also had perfect features as a cover girl. High cheekbones, intense cat eyes of a beautiful hazelnut color and shiny hair that she dyed at  the best hair salon in London of a splendid dark red with copper reflexes.  Basically she resembled a modern Jessica Rabbit.
If not only for the look, they were perfect also for the things they had in common, and the biggest one was interior decoration.
As I discovered soon after his arrival in the building, Lucas was working as interior designer, practically asking huge amounts of money to people who are color blind and that can't match things in their houses. At least that's how I imagine it, since the very concept of hiring someone to buy stuff for you was just absurd to me.
An abstract concept to me but definitely not for Amelia for whom home decoration had became an obsession, or maybe it was just a simple and easy way to spend the money she made as  marketing specialist for her father's multinational. Who knows...
The only certain thing was that, in the last year and a half, so since I met her, she already changed the living room look at least five times, four times in her bedroom and she completely renewed both bathrooms and the kitchen too. Apparently now her new project was her covered balcony which she converted into a lounge. 
Eureka!
"Listen... Lucas is an interior designer. Maybe..."
"OH-OH! PERFECT!! I love him already!"
"ok... I meant, you can meet him with the excuse of your apartment... as a consultation..."
"Yes! Yes! I really need to change all the furnitures in my living room. I got bored of the old ones!"
Old? They had barely eight months of life... Oh well, she seemed ecstatic and that's what matter.

Amelia didn't even want to know something more about Lucas. After I mentioned his job and which was his apartment in the building, she decided that he was the prince charming on a white horse that she was waiting for. 
I was definitely starting to question my friend integrity at that point, but I also new that, coming from a wealthy family, she probably had pressures from her parents to find someone up to their standards. 
After finishing the bottle of white wine which I used to make some Spritz, Amelia downed other two glasses of rosè before leaving on the notes of "sometimes you can be helpful too, who knew?!". She left laughing without noticing that I wasn't.

I stared at the open bottle left on the table for a while, thinking about my parents. The wine was a rosè of the Oltrep™ Pavese which they gave me as a present when I went back home for Christmas. I knew that if my mom was there, she would have already took her carpet beater of trust to use as improper weapon against my friend, and sometimes I wished she was there with me to do so.
I've never been strong as her. My character is exactly the same as my father's, a man docile as a newborn kitten and always accommodating.
I was shaking. 
I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath, but it didn't help so much to slow down my accelerated heart beat or to stop the tremor in my hands. 

As used to happen, my flow of thoughts was suddenly interrupted. It was the doorbell to make me wince this time and, after I wiped a timid tear flowed from my right eye, I walked over and opened the door.
There he was.
Puppy eyes, bags full of chinese takeaway and the Great Gatsby on dvd.
I welcomed him in and as the established routine, he went straight to the couch after inserting the movie in the dvd player.
While I was retrieving two glasses and the remaining wine, he turned in my direction with a questioning look.
"Did you have guests today?" said then, glancing at the lipstick stained glass on the counter near the sink.

I putted the glasses on the coffee table in front of him and raised my eyes to look into his. A thought glared my mind. Could this be the last night I was going to spend with him alone? What had I done? I looked down, suddenly conscious that I put myself alone in that situation, and I did what I had to do. I started to tell him about Amelia. 

Author's Note

Translating and adapting something written in another language is harder than I thought. Anyway I tried to do my best.