Chapter 2

Alodia closed the black gate of the big white house. She paused to look around her. It was a sunny winter day. She knew it would be muddy later on because of the melting snow under the sun. She looked around her. There were only a few people around who were bustling with their daily activities—either going to work, school or somewhere else.

Her eyes rounded when she saw a man shoveling the snow from the path of his garage all the way toward the gate so that his car wouldn’t get stuck. Perhaps, the street snow cleaners were already done earlier that day and he had to shovel the rest of the massive snow drifts. His back was right to her and she couldn’t see his face. And yet, her heart was drumming so hard. She was about to go deaf because of the loud pumping of it.

Then, a handsome face of a man came into her mind. Yes, she recognized this man although he had his back to her. He was tanned as ever. He was apparently well built far more better than before. His slightly beaky nose was looking arrogant as ever while the set of his jaw and lips were strong and manly. More than ever before. His dark hair seemed thicker and curlier than in the past.

Didn’t he have a haircut at all? Just when did he arrive? Has he found me yet? she nervously thought and asked herself.

“Alodia, let’s go!” Nicu, the little Romanian boy, seemed to wake her up from her dreamy state.

She turned around right away before the man who was shoveling the snow could see her. She was really nervous… and afraid.

“Let’s go,” she agreed with the little kid, forcing a smile on her red lips.

They still had to walk to the bus station to commute. The station was about three minutes from the house. Unfortunately, one of her employer’s cars, the one she usually uses, was broken and wasn’t repaired yet, while the other one was used by her employer, Nicu’s mother, who was a career woman. They had been together for quite a while now. It was already about three years and they were quite close like friends or even family.

She wasn’t only Nicu’s stay-in governess but also his nanny. And she loved him like her own son. Therefore, she would do everything for him just like his own mother. Nicu was a sweet and caring boy. She was indeed lucky.

She would send and pick him up from school every single day. And whenever she finished every household chore, she would either cross stitch or cook for the three of them.

 “I saw you staring at that man back there. He’s our new neighbor,” Nicu observed. While speaking English, he got the other passengers’ attention. She was half- Filipino and half-American. Her late mother was a Filipino and her irresponsible father was an American, who turned tail upon learning her mother got pregnant and whom she never met in her entire life.

Alodia was not the only Asian in Iaşi City, she was always an attention grabber because of her unique features.

Even though Romania is not particularly a very rich country because it is also the world’s source of workforce around Europe and other rich countries, it is seldom that Romanians meet someone like her everyday. And there were also a lot of poor people in the country like the gypsies. Alodia learned and heard there were some opportunists just to get by. Not being racist or anything at all, but it was indeed true for some. Nonetheless, it didn’t take a particular ethnicity to be opportunists since it depended on the individual. Hence, she had nothing against the gypsies really.

Especially that there was this one particular Gypsy man she gave her heart to. It was Harman Mihalache. The man that she just saw shoveling the snow drifts merely across her employer’s house! And that wasn’t good news. At all.

“Are you listening to me, Alodia?” Nicu tugged at her scarf to get her attention when she didn’t answer.

“Huh? I’m sorry. Did you say anything, Nicu?” she inquired. She was lost in her thought while staring at the bus window. The grocery stores, pawnshops, flower shops and people walking on the pavements as well as others were not registered in her vision as her brain busily remembering that gorgeous Gypsy.

She thought that she had already forgotten all about him within those three years. But then, she hadn’t. And she had to remember that she had countless sleepless nights because of him. But she had to forget him.

And if they really loved each other truly, then she had to endure this another heartache in her life…

“I wanna surprise Mama. Maybe we could go to the mall first and then we’ll go to her office after school,” Nicu suggested.

She blinked without comprehension. “Why are we going to surprise her?” she asked the little blond boy with blue-gray eyes.

He sighed. “You really were not listening to me, Alodia. It’s Mama’s birthday! Did you just forget about it?”

She laughed half-heartedly. “Of course not!” But she did forget about it. It was gone if she did ever remember it earlier. It was because of Harman’s fault for appearing in her life again. She never expected it! “I was… uh… thinking if I could make some salad and bake a cake for her birthday,” she lied. The truth was, she was just thinking about all those now.

The boy nodded but his eyes were still full of doubt. She could not blame him for that. He was after all a bright kid. “I think you’re disturbed or something today,” he continued to observe.

Who? Me? Disturbed? her mind echoed. Then she laughed again at the little kid. She was of course! And not only disturbed, but she was also worried and stressed to the highest level!

What if Harman saw her because she was just living right in front of his house? Well, if it was really his new home now. She even left Bucharest so that their paths won’t cross again but here he was! In Iaşi! Where else in Romania could she hide from him? She wondered at another possibility to hide from him.

However, she couldn’t just easily get away as she wanted to. She had no other family other than Nicoleta’s.