NOT GIVING UP ON FOREVER

Chapter 20

It was a peaceful night with stars strewing the sky and frogs croaking in the distance. The mountains sank into the shadows, and the moon shone generously on their tops. Trees merged in incomprehensible cloud forms, staggering and swaying in the wind as if slowly approaching giants. Everything changed shape to something mysterious and opaque.

Anna shivered. Even sitting by the fire, she could not forget the pervasive cold of the night.

Randall joined her and, putting his arm around her waist, wondered:

"What are you thinking, beautiful?"

Anna gave him a charming smile.

"A bit of everything," she answered honestly.

"Homesick?"

"Not, really. It seems to me I could live forever in this paradise."

"You just imagine it." Randall cleared his throat. "Even on idle existence, the one needs money."

"Is that it?"

"Is that what?"

"The money. Every time there's a financial issue, you grow somber."

"Bosh," snorted the lad, drawing with a thread on the ashes from the fire. "I'm not gonna lie, my finances are tight, but it shouldn't worry you. That's not what I meant. I just explained that such vacations are just a self-deception. Life is a groundhog day, where you get up in the morning, make money to spend it in the evening on something, just to get up again in the morning and continue in the same spirit until you find yourself the same unfortunate partner. Together you'd make children teach them to do all the same, while you can safely earn money for a decent funeral or get a little rest, allowing children to earn for your funeral because they will know perfectly well how to do it. If you have not taught them; if not, they can always ask friends, or neighbors, or strangers, because we all live by the same pattern of this warped system."

"There's nothing you can do about it, Randall." Anna sighed.

"I hate money," he grunted back. "I guess it's mutual because I never have any. But still, I am tenacious of life."

"Is that why Bernardo's here?"

"What?"

"You invited him because it's easier to split the costs?"

"Oh, nah. Bernie had nowhere to go these couple of weeks—he rents his apartment to tourists through the 'Host Association Milan Tours.'"

"Host Association?"

"Yeah. It is a platform for young people. If you have your accommodation in a tourist area or close to the center, you can rent it to tourists, unlike other sites, where users are mostly young people, students, or the creative elite. The owner can stay in the house and rent, for example, just rooms, or can leave, if it is his property, and get much more money, as vacationers will be left to themselves, without the supervision of the owners of the apartments and they just love it, trust me. Bernardo rents out his dead mother's house in the center of Milan, so he's usually with me, and we share the money."

"My, my. The Host Association. Intriguing," Anna responded admiringly. "Now I know why he's with us in such a... private journey."

Randall raised an eyebrow playfully.

"Aah... Now we know why you're so evil! Not enough... privacy!"

"What? I'm not evil!" Anna pouted.

"Of course, you are. You want me?"

"What??" she did not expect such an impertinent question.

"I'm kidding." Randall laughed as he touched her nose. "Didn't expect, did ya?"

"I do!" the girl barked. "Didn't expect, did ya?"

The next moment Randall was dragging her into the cabin, taking off both their clothes on the go.