Schismatics

The boys were so stunned to see David Nichols standing there, in the flesh in front of them, that they let go of Nina's hand instantly.

David thanked them, then turned to Nina, his hand extended in an inviting gesture.

“I believe you will be safer together with your friends upstairs,” he said.

Nina stood still, looking at that man surrounded by security. The old schism rang in her mind like a car alarm. However, as much as he hesitated, he could not remain at the table with Giosi and his cronies.

David, who was still holding out his hand to Nina, began to be squeezed by his bodyguards as a large crowd of people gathered around him. Nina didn't take David's arm, but he pulled her into his circle of security and the two began to be escorted upstairs, leaving a crowd of curious fans and Giosi with his henchmen behind.

Arriving upstairs, Nina saw from afar Lyon and Kara sitting around a fancy table, in front of flowers, snacks and many types of drinks. They were really enjoying the night. She had never seen them so happy!

Nina hurried up to them and asked if everything was okay.

"More than fine," Lyon replied.

— It seems more like a dream! Kara agreed.

"Don't you find this all very strange?" Nina said. "Like…too good to be true?" These things don't happen.

Lyon and Kara rolled their eyes.

— Guys, don't look at me like that, this is all surreal! exclaimed Nina.

David was already on another part of the floor. The co-workers around him tried to understand the reason for the turmoil of the past. But David didn't take his eyes off Nina. He was intrigued by her not looking at him; just there, with your friends, with your back turned. Maybe it was because of that woman's indifference to a famous Hollywood actor, but Nina had caught David's eye (he was used to men and women throwing themselves at his feet). He wanted to get away from the people around him—even if they were very important to his artistic career—and go to her, but he couldn't.

David had exactly the same qualities as a Taurus, who, according to the internet: “They don't get carried away by daydreams”. So, forget It!

But...

He wanted to go to Nina's desk, see her up close, hear the sound of her voice, just out of curiosity.

“When they propose to do something, they do it very well”.

As the night wore on, the three friends became distinctly inebriated. They were being treated as best as possible in the private area, with snacks and drinks that were brought to their table all the time. Still, Nina wanted to leave.

"Friend, we'll be heading back to our Cinderella castle again soon," Kara said, her eyes heavy. "And then everything will turn into a pumpkin."

Nina got up and told her friends that she was going to the toilet.

The bathroom in the private area, more luxurious than a hotel room, was decorated with a round white leather sofa that circled around a statue in the center of the room. Nina went in, did what she had to do, and when she came out of the box she froze at the sight of David Nichols standing at the foot of the statue.

Nina looked away, went to the sink to wash her hands, dried them, and in an attempt to maintain a sober-woman posture, she stumbled as she turned to leave, luckily holding on to the sink. David acted quickly and tried to help her. Nina, drunk and embarrassed, looked at him and said,

"High heels and blue drinks don't go together!"

David had a slight smile at the corner of his mouth at the phrase. Then he sat her down on the white leather sofa and tried to help her with her sandal. Nina was definitely sober. It had been a long time since she had been drinking, in Norway she just worked.

David had noticed that she wasn't acting normal. She was suspicious, a little embarrassed, and very defensive. Her schismatic behavior intrigued him. He then asked if everything was okay. She said yes:

— Drunk, on a couch more luxurious than my bed, talking to a “Tom Cruise” from the movies. Nina gave him a strange look and asked, "Did I drink so much I'm hallucinating or something?"

“No…” David replied. “I'm right here in front of you, very much alive.

"And what is a very alive man on television doing sitting in a bathroom with some nurse?" He smiled again at the way she expressed herself, and at the Latin accent when she spoke English.

“Well, I'm trying to say hi to you, stranger. Only that.

Nina still didn't understand that he called her weird not just because of the messages in the dating app. Her username was that. But also because of their conversations at Hangouts. The two stared at each other for a while, eye to eye, until David broke the silence:

"Hi, stranger!"

And she replied smiling:

“Hi…famous stranger.

And Nina suddenly remembered the dating page. She remembered that the faceless man, "Strange" had written that way, and that's when she panicked... Everything seemed to confabulate with her fantasy brain. A thousand questions were forming in her mind at that moment, and she sure as hell wouldn't want to pay to see what made or didn't make sense. Flashes from the Hangouts conversations, so many David Nichols profiles flashing like a movie in your mind:

"Now can I go now?"

- Yes of course. David replied, frowning. "If that's what you want, you can go."

“And thanks for everything, thanks for the drinks, for the table, for the security. Everything surreal! Now I really have to go. Goodbye and have a good time!

They looked into each other's eyes for a moment and Nina ran back to her friends.

When David came out of the bathroom, he saw that the trio was no longer in the private area. The table where Nina and her friends were drinking was empty. Security informed him that his honored guests had left the place almost at a run.

“Why did they run away”? This whole situation made David very suspicious. So he also left the party and went back to his hotel.

Lyon and Kara couldn't believe Nina made them leave the club like that. They came cursing her all the way to the hotel. Nina explained that David Nichols called her a stranger, just as the man in the dating and Hangouts app's photo-less profile had.

"Besides, it's almost morning," he added. “We are very drunk.

Every time Nina said these things the two friends rolled their eyes.

David was undergoing some kind of post-stress treatment. He had just arrived there on the exact same day as Nina. After being blocked by her, in G-mail, he arrived at her house in London, rested, organized and decided to attend the session that Alexia, her advisor, had scheduled with her psychologist.

The psychoanalyst convinced him to treat himself for at least a month. No work, no interviews, no emotional outbursts. That was the price he would have to pay if he wanted to get better. David accepted on the spot, agreed to all the terms of the proposal without flinching. His only requirement was that this treatment, confined in a clinic, would have to be in Rome.

Alexia flew to London with her lawyers, resolved all negotiations with the entertainment companies involved, moved the premiere party to that date in Rome, and settled confidentiality agreements with the clinic where David would be treated during this period. Alexia did not understand the explicit happiness on her protégé's face. “He who was so reluctant”! He thought.

Niny and Dave were thinking about each other in their beds that night. The face of one haunted the other. They rolled from there to here without being quiet. An inexplicable excitement was building in both their hearts. Nina closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep while Dave looked at his photos from that night in his virtual library. A voice whispered in her ear: Beautiful! The most beautiful woman I have ever seen!

This made him even more restless. “She was like a ghost,” he thought. "How is this possible? Everyone else in the world would have reacted differently, she wasn't even dazzled or grateful,” he continued, lost in thought, trying to untie the knots that weird “creature” had tied in his mind. "She just wanted to get out of there..." he concluded before falling asleep.

The next day, David ate breakfast, hurried around the spa-resort he'd checked in that morning, and attended meetings with his medical staff. Back in his room, he was snooping around on his phone, it was stronger than he was, he was addicted to rummaging through Nina's life, hoping to find something that might help him get closer to her. This fact he had omitted from his psychoanalysts.

Zooming in on her graduation photos, guests, friends, the blue three-story cake, and especially her face, David Googled "Nina Dahl, Norway, nurse." Finally, there were some links to the college she had attended, as well as to a charity for foreign women, in which Nina was part of a dance group.

David called this organization from his hotel room in an attempt to get information about her marital status. He couldn't say who he was, of course, or why he was looking for her, so he pretended to be someone who wanted to hire her to dance on a project. The person who answered the phone did not want to give this information, stating that Nina did not participate in this type of private contract for presentations, that she only acted as a volunteer in the organization, that her classes were only for women from this institution, etc. But after David said he wanted to financially help such an association, the woman on the other end of the line, almost immediately, agreed to answer him anything she wanted about Nina.

David didn't find out much more than he already knew. It only confirmed how guarded she was about her intimacy. The woman on the phone didn't even know if she was married, but she claimed that in all the years Nina had been a part of the foundation, no one would have ever seen her with anyone. Dave was becoming obsessed, Nina was taking screenshots of almost everything, and the thousands of photos of men in her online archives didn't make him sure who his boyfriend could be. In fact, Kara and Lyon had taken these thousands of profile prints over the years on their friend's cell phone.

David had the woman he wanted anytime he wanted. But as he himself had publicly stated a few years ago: “It's always safer to go back with an ex-girlfriend than to try to start new romances. Nowadays, a simple flirting can be misinterpreted, and people of bad character can accuse a famous artist of harassment, just to get fame and money”.

This was one of the most controversial statements of his career. They made a mess of misinterpretations because of this comment. They distorted what he said and a barrage of criticism on his Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts was made in unnecessary comments by extremist and intolerant people.

He knew, of course, that when you're a public person, people have a right to give their opinions on any topic on the Internet. "Freedom of expression". So, for these and others, he was very careful about his private life, especially with regard to women.

But Nina was Nina. That anonymous woman, whom no one knew and, as she said, a random tourist, rejecting him like that... That stirred the taurine's pride.

David stared at his phone, and called Nina a dozen times, but no one answered. And it was killing him inside. Somehow she was getting into his mind, making her mark, and she wasn't even making the effort. She had just traveled to enjoy her vacation, just like him, although the two were totally different. He was being followed by specialists who had diagnosed him with physical and mental exhaustion.

Although David was on vacation, he had urgent appointments with a physiotherapist, a psychologist and a medical team that accompanied him in this super professional and luxurious spa. He had an appointment for everything, and his security team made sure nothing was leaked to the press.

David had already spent three days resting, and Nina hadn't returned any of the calls. He was already thinking about giving up. Your days are limited to sauna, massages, therapeutic conversations and contact with nature. I was doing a mental and physical detox. However, despite being in the midst of so much calm in a harmonious and refined environment, there was a thought that did not leave him alone: “What is the stranger doing now”?

David tried to let it go, but his celebrity instincts wouldn't let him ignore it. After all, he was rich, handsome and famous. Why did Nina treat him with such insignificance? That question didn't want to shut up his thoughts.

David thought and rethought the risks. He thought about using the clinic's phone, or one of its most loyal security guards, but gave up. He thought it best to use his own phone, for privacy reasons.

“Hello, stranger. It's me, the famous stranger. I hope your stay in Italy is safe and enjoyable, as mine is. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask me for help. It was a pleasure talking to you in the bathroom.”—David ended the message with a smiling emoji.

Nina got out of bed, got ready, looked at her phone and saw a dozen missed calls, but didn't open the messages. Kara insisted that she return the calls, but the hotel reception was unable to inform who had called.

The third day of vacation had arrived as quickly as the trio's hangover had passed. And there they were again, going from restaurant to restaurant, tasting typical regional wines and dishes; visiting the most famous places in the city; “touristing”, as Kara put it.

At the end of the night, when she arrived back at the hotel, Nina saw that she had a message on her phone, in addition to several others that her Norwegian phone company was sending, informing about 5G etc.

Nina opened the message to that unknown number full of + and zeros and was surprised to see it was from David. Her heart sped up, she scolded him, tried to hide it so her friends wouldn't notice, as she read and reread.

Nina was very thoughtful about how he had discovered her number. Perhaps some of her bodyguards had influence with the Italian mob, or the event's taxi driver, he informed him, as he had brought her with her friends from the club to the hotel that night. Maybe David already knew where she was staying. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Nina was freaking out! The truth is, she didn't know he was accompanying her on his cell phone.

Friends read the message too and were in shock. They really wanted their friend to live a torrid and epic love!

— Friend, the most desired and most handsome man in the world is contacting you, and you're acting like a fool, friend?! Speaks seriously! snarled Kara. — If it were, I would have already slept with him!

And the three Musketeers spent hours discussing Nina's attitudes. When everyone was in bed to sleep, Nina decided to respond to David's message:

- Hello strange. It's really weird that you know my phone number. I confess I'm terrified!

Nina didn't get an answer that night, for when she sent the message to David, he was already asleep; It was part of her rest schedule to try to sleep early and regain her strength.

The next day Kara had already prepared a tourist route for them. If they did everything right, they would have the rest of the vacation free to drink and relax.

They woke up early, had breakfast and left. Nina kept checking her phone inside the tour bus. Kara, ever attentive, nudged Lyon, showing him Nina's interest on the phone, signaling that her friend was giving in. Around two in the afternoon David replied:

“Wow. Terrified? Do not stay. It's not that hard to find people on Google these days. I just wanted to say hello and ask you if you're okay. You disappeared from the club all of a sudden... I hope the sandals were ok.

“Yes, they are fine. Anyway thanks for worrying. Very nice of you. Have a nice day.

David stared at that answer on his cell phone screen and didn't give up.

- What are you doing now?

“I'm on a tour bus with my friends. Nina wrote, as Kara shouted, "Write, 'What about you?' Right, friend! “So Nina wrote it before sending it.

- I'm bored. How about we talk? ordered David.

"But we're talking…!"

And the friends beside him rolled their eyes at that answer.

"Yes, we are," David sent. "But don't you prefer a face-to-face conversation, no strings attached?" One coffee? A dinner?

- Like you? I honestly don't see why. Sorry.

Nina's friends were stunned. Literally from drooping jaws. Even David was stunned by this answer.

She confused him. He hated arrogance and felt a note of it in that answer.

"Yes, with me," David replied. "What's so much about it?" Isn't that how normal people know themselves?

"Yes, the normal ones," Nina agreed.

"Are you saying that you're not normal?"

Nina quirked a smile at the corner of her mouth at that answer.

“No. That's not what I meant. Yes I am normal, a mere mortal. I don't know why someone like you would want to have dinner with someone like me. To be quite honest...

— Define a person like me and a person like you...

“Oh, you know. It's weird that a superstar like you is so insisting on having contact with an anonymous like me. This is at least a prank. A joke in bad taste.

"Then come find me." You will be able to draw your own conclusions.

The more he wrote, the more Nina thought it was all improbable. And he began to speculate aloud: — A super-famous person wouldn't write such things like that for just anyone. Unless it's not from your phone.

Lyon and Kara no longer paid any attention to that matter. They already knew Nina very well, and they knew she was very capable of actually sabotaging this date. So they left her talking to herself.

- Of course! If you have any problems, he says it's all fake and that's it. Clever! It makes sense,” Nina told herself.

"Now she's talking to herself." Look, Lyon, the state of our friend…” Kara said.

Nina ignored them and decided to dial back.

—David Nichols. I am very grateful for your interest, patience and consideration for my humble person - he wrote. “But I'm not dating.

David spent some time thinking. Then he decided to send a photo of him with the following caption:

- It is me. Are you still not convinced!?

“Yes. The star of the movie screens and Google photos, they really look like you in person. But, you have to agree that, the fact that you contacted me at Hangouts, after appearing in Rome precisely at the party I'm with my friends, all of this, is at least strange! Anyone would be intimidated.

- I can call you?

"I prefer messages if you're a mobster impersonating David." That way, at least the police will be able to track these conversations in case I disappear.

David laughed.

“You will have to trust me and come to where I am,” he wrote. “I can't appear in public.

“What if you're a psychopath? There is everything in the world.

“I'm one of the most famous actors in the world, Nina. I would never do anything to compromise my name. I'm a businessman.

"The fact that you're rich and famous doesn't prove anything!" Lots of billionaires keep showing up in scandals all the time. Many use drugs, are out of control, megalomaniacs, controllers... and I don't find any of this funny. People only believe when they see it printed in the newspapers. How can you prove to me that you're not like this actor who's been in the papers now, accused of cannibalism?

David lost his patience.

— Now, enough! What's your problem, woman?

— Not my problem! I'm the one who asks you: What's your problem, man!? This unreasonable insistence is terrifying me.

"You're kidding, aren't you?"

"Of course not," Nina replied. - In what world do you live in? In the real world thousands of things like this happen every day, you know? I've worked with this before, in a support center for abused women. I don't risk myself for anything or anyone!

Suddenly Nina's phone started ringing. David Nichols was calling...