L'affaire Bob

14. Trust Nobody

After the dinner was over, I searched for Samantha and spent some time with her. We talked for half an hour or so, and deep down, I was hoping this conversation could last forever.

But unfortunately, Sam had to leave, to take care of some complicated time-traveler's business.

As to me, I couldn't keep avoiding Francesco and delaying my return, which is why as soon as Sam left, I got back to my room.

When I entered it, I noticed that my roommate was already here, lying on his bed.

He, surprisingly, just nodded at me, being the well-mannered guy that he was.

Not knowing what to reply, I chose to ignore him.

-"Rude much?" he observed, raising one eyebrow at me.

-"Oh, don't mind me, I was just trying a few of your Mancini methods. The impertinence and insolence, I mean. I thought that since you're a professional, you might appreciate them, but oh well. Life is full of surprises, sometimes."

I was expecting a "Very funny" or another snarky comment of this type, but all I received was a cold, arctic glare.

"Of course he would only scowl at me," I mumbled to myself, rolling my eyes mentally.

He was Francesco Mancini, after all; I should have known better.

I took my favorite pajamas out of the closet, picked up my toothbrush and other necessities from what remained unpacked in my bag, and went to the restroom.

When I came back, Francesco was outside the door, leaning against the wall, and tapping his foot on the ground furiously. He had, apparently, been waiting for me to finish and get out and was not so pleased with me taking more than half an hour inside.

But hey! There was a mirror in the bathroom. How could I resist? My reflection was one of the best things I have ever seen in my life.

I simply loved how my wavy light brown hair fell on my face, and— when times were rough, and the barbershop was closed— covered my equally brown eyes.

Francesco cleared his throat, which cut my day-dreaming short, and brought me back to the sad reality.

-"Get out of my way," he ordered. And, against my will, I found my legs moving forward, towards my bed.

I lay down on it, and the usual stream of thoughts that preceded my going to sleep came back, stronger than ever.

Only this time, they weren't about my past nor about the famous incident that broke me six years ago, but about today's events and the future that awaited me.

It was weird how, in the blink of an eye, everything in my life turned upside down.

Up to this morning, I had some doubts about my so-called traveling powers, as well as everything Amanda had told me yesterday. But after executing my first time-travel, this mysterious power had stirred something in me.

I felt connected to these people as if I had known them my whole life. I felt that I could, to a certain extent, trust them.

And that was wrong.

In this cruel world, trust was a foolish thing.

I pitied those naive individuals who trusted blindly every new person they met.

"Pitied? More like envied," my inner voice scoffed.

Envied? Nah. I didn't. Trust always lead to betrayals and heartbreaks. So why would I envy those people?