Meg Cabot - Every Boy's Got One

And what did you mean by that explains an awful lot?

Holly

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To: Holly Caputo

Fr: Jane Harris

Re: His Mother

Nothing.

Oh, so you’re saying he has a heart after all?

J

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To: Jane Harris

Fr: Holly Caputo

Re: His Mother

Come on. He’s a nice guy. He’s had a crappy time with women—I guess his mother left to “find herself” when he was still in high school, and lately, his little sister’s followed suit. He was just put through the wringer by another model, and spent the past decade recovering in places where they don’t have cell phone service. Or working toilets. Can you blame him for being a little rough around the edges?

Besides, he can’t be THAT bad. Mark says Cal’s always been a real ladies’ man—that he’s got a girl in every port, if you know what I mean. In fact, Mark was sure you two would hit it off right away. He said you’re just Cal’s type. Apparently, he’s partial to brunettes.

He really must not like you.

Holly

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To: Holly Caputo

Fr: Jane Harris

Re: His Mother

Wow. That’s really nice to know. Thanks so very much for that.

J

PS Oh, and thanks for trying to fix me up with him, but even if I COULD stand him, which I can’t, he’s a modelizer. You KNOW once a guy’s had a model, he can never go back. So, nice try.

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To: Cal Langdon

Fr: Mark Levine

Re: Benvenuto

The girls are emailing back and forth about us.

Mark

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To: Mark Levine

Fr: Cal Langdon

Re: Benvenuto

That is blatantly obvious.

Cal

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To: Cal Langdon

Fr: Mark Levine

Re: Benvenuto

What do you think they’re saying?

Mark

___________________________________________

To: Mark Levine

Fr: Cal Langdon

Re: Benvenuto

I honestly could not care less.

Cal

___________________________________________

To: Cal Langdon

Fr: Mark Levine

Re: Benvenuto

Don’t you like her? Jane, I mean? Holly was sure you’d like her.

Mark

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To: Mark Levine

Fr: Cal Langdon

Re: Benvenuto

She seems harmless enough.

Cal

___________________________________________

To: Cal Langdon

Fr: Mark Levine

Re: Benvenuto

You don’t like her.

Mark

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To: Mark Levine

Fr: Cal Langdon

Re: Benvenuto

I didn’t say that. All I said was that she seemed harmless. Much in the way an anaconda seems harmless, when it’s wrapped around a tree branch ten feet above your head.

Cal

___________________________________________

To: Cal Langdon

Fr: Mark Levine

Re: Benvenuto

She’s not like that.

And she already has a boyfriend, anyway.

So get over yourself, fathead.

Mark

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To: Mark Levine

Fr: Cal Langdon

Re: Benvenuto

Fathead. Harsh.

Cal

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To: Cal Langdon

Fr: Mark Levine

Re: Benvenuto

Seriously. ARE you seeing anyone—anyone SPECIAL—these days?

Mark

___________________________________________

To: Mark Levine

Fr: Cal Langdon

Re: Benvenuto

They’re all special, my friend.

But special enough to shackle myself to her for the rest of eternity, the way you’re doing?

No.

But your concern for my romantic well-being is, as always, greatly appreciated.

Cal

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To: Cal Langdon

Fr: Mark Levine

Re: Benvenuto

Look, it’s just that I know how tough things were for you after—

___________________________________________

To: Mark Levine

Fr: Cal Langdon

Re: Benvenuto

Oh, look. The hotel. Stop e-ing me, please.

Cal

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RICEVUTA TAXI-ROMA

Percoso:

Da… Fiumacino A… Hotel Alexander

Firma

Importo Corsa 80.00 Euro

___________________________________________

___________________________________________

Benvenuto al nostro albergo!

(Welcome to our Hotel!)

Gentile Ospite,

Nel porgerLe il nostro cordiale benevuto, abbiamo pensato fe FarLe cosa gradita offrendoLe, al suo arrivo, un assaggio di acqua dalle proprietaria salutari.

Dear Guest,

We wish to express our warmest welcome to our hotel. Given our genuine care for our Guests, we invite you to enjoy the healthy qualities of this bottled water.

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Travel Diary of Holly Caputo and Mark Levine

Jane Harris

We’re HERE!!!!!!!! At the hotel, I mean.

It’s the sweetest little place, tucked into a side street that isn’t wide enough to let a car coming from the other way pass by. And packed with people! I thought it was a pedestrian walkway and that the taxi driver was going the wrong way. But it turned out it was the Via di Buffalo, which is the street our hotel is on.

Still, it was kind of scary when those Italian school kids kept knocking on the car windows. I wonder what the driver yelled at them to make them run away like that. This is what comes of not having enough social programs for young people. Those kids should have had something better to do on a Saturday than stand around the Via di Buffalo, knocking on tourists’ car door windows.

Not that I want to tell another country how it ought to be bringing up its children, or anything. But still.

All I wanted to do was get to my room and take a nap, but Cal had to start arguing with the taxi driver when he saw the receipt. He said over his dead body was he paying 80 euros for a ride from the airport and that the taxi driver might think he could bilk the tourists that way, but that he, Cal, had been to Rome before, and he knew the fare from the airport wasn’t a cent over 40 euros. In English. Which it turned out the driver perfectly understood. And after a lot of grousing, he finally agreed that 40 euros would do.

So it’s good Mark invited Cal along with us. I guess.

Anyway, my room is so adorable, a tiny little blue-and-white thing with gold curtains that, when I opened them, turned out to be for a window that looks out over the most beautiful courtyard, with white doves flying around it, and bougainvillea spilling from window boxes all over the place, and a sky stretched over it that, I swear, looks bluer than the sky over Manhattan, somehow. It is EXACTLY like Helena Bonham Carter’s room in the pensione in Room with a View . Only there’s no view. Well, except for the courtyard and the sky.

And there are big bottles of water right here in my room, for later, and I turned on the TV, and everything was In Italian!

I mean, I knew it would be. It’s just SO WEIRD!

I thought I would be way too tired to want to go out and sightsee, but now that I’m finally here, I’m really stoked! I want to get out there and see EVERYTHING. After all, we only have about 24 hours in Rome before we leave for Le Marche.

On second thought, I didn’t sleep very well on the plane, thanks to The Armrest Nazi. I suppose I shouldn’t call him that anymore on account of him having been so tragically jilted all those years ago by that model.

But seriously, what did he expect, marrying a model? Modelizers get exactly what they deserve.