Monaco Jet Set Chronicles
Chapter 27
Charlotte ran up the courtyard toward the palace because the night air was quite cold thanks to that Mediterranean breeze. She had slipped off her dress shoes and was holding them in her hands as she ran to the palace. She ran onto the grass and around to where she knew Andrea's bedroom was. When they were kids, they used to climb in and out of the palace all the time, sliding down drain pipes just like boarding school kids do and hopping around on the multi-level roofs and balconies until they reached freedom. So Charlotte knew exactly what she was doing and where to go as she climbed onto the palace and hoisted herself onto wide stucco veranda railings. Finally she stepped into the little mini balcony outside Andrea's window and knocked on the glass. She heard voices inside but they were so faint that there was no way to distinguish who they were coming from. But she could tell it was more than one person. She assumed Andrea and Pierre were the voices and they were hanging out in Andy's room playing a game on their Playstation II. How wrong she was! But anyway, let's not get ahead of ourselves...!! Oh hell, why not??!!
Charlotte knocked again. The voices disappeared. Suddenly she saw Andrea's face appear in front of the curtains. He immediately recognized Charlotte in the moonlight and the various floodlighting that was all over the palace grounds for security purposes. He was shirtless, Charlotte could see. She wandered why he was hesitating to open the window and let her in. He made a gesture like "hold on" and disappeared. Charlotte was a bit thrown by surprise, but soon she realized that he probably just wanted to put on a shirt first. She saw the light go on in the room.
Indeed, when he came back several minutes later, he had on a shirt, his favorite white Superman shirt that he loved to sleep in! (Remember from the F1 Grand Prix, I think 1999, LOL)
He turned the locks on the window sill and then lifted up the window. Charlotte climbed inside. She expected to see Pierre, but there was no one. Just an empty and, at first sight, perfectly clean room.
"What are you doing, Charlotte? Where have you been?"
Charlotte did not answer at first. She glanced around the room, mostly on the plush off-white carpet, as if trying to find her explanation. There were some articles of clothing on the bed, which aroused her curiosity, not to mention that she suddenly noticed that the room was not so "perfect" after all. The bed was put together, but the black and grey checkered comforter spread was all messy, like people had been rolling around on it. And there was a pair of socks left there. And a female watch. Charlotte walked over to the bed and picked up the watch. The face was shaped like a heart and it was gold and silver and the band was a twist, sort of like a pretzel.
"This is Val's watch..." she said. She turned to face Andrea. "So this is where Val came."
Andrea was speechless.