𝕆𝕣𝕡𝕙𝕚𝕔

7: 𝕍𝕚𝕣𝕚𝕕𝕚𝕥𝕪

𝘝𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘺- naive innocence

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Giovanni's POV:

It all makes sense now; the pictures, the online shopping, and the dependency Rosary seems to of had on her now-deceased mother.

The poor girl, the first time she ever went outside her house, she was almost raped. How cruel can this world be? I know I'm probably not in a position to be saying that, but it's true. Yes I'm in the mafia, yes I kill people, but I don't rape girls. You have to be the lowest of the low to do that.

I don't know what to do in this situation. Obviously her mother was her only known relative, and I don't think she can live on her own. Rose is naive in all aspects of the word. She doesn't know the true nature of the world, and I couldn't live with myself if she had to find out the hard way.

Not only is Rosary naive but as I mentioned before, she seems to have been extremely dependent on her mother. I'm not confident that she knows how to take care of herself.

"Rose, I promise that if you go outside with me, nothing will happen. And, if it does, I'll be there to protect you."

"Okay...thank you," she says still a bit nervous about the whole situation. "Do I have to go outside now?"

"I don't want to rush you into anything, but if you would still like for your mother to be buried tomorrow, then yes. We have to go to my apartment today."

"Okay..." she whispers and I have this overwhelming urge to hug her. Why, I don't know. "You pinky promise nothing bad will happen?" She extends her pinky finger towards me. The anxiety is practically pouring out of her body at this point.

I intertwine our pinkies and speak, "I pinky promise." The ghost of a smile graces her lips and she abruptly hugs me.

Maybe this sounds cliche, but I'm not much of a touchy-feely person. I don't hug people, and people don't hug me. If they try to, I push them away. But with Rosary, it's different. For some unknown reason, I enjoy the hug. In fact, when she pulls away (much too soon might I add), I find a part of myself leaving too. What is this girl doing to me?

"Are you ready to go?" I gently ask. The girl simply nods her head. We both stand up and head over to the door. After putting our shoes on, Rose quickly excuses herself to grab something. When she comes back, a canvas tote bag is hanging on her arm.

"All set?" Again, she just nods her head. I slowly open the door so I don't frighten her. Her fragile, shaking hand carefully grabs mine and I look over to see her trying to suppress her terror. So brave.

I carefully pull her closer and wrap my arm around her waist; not in a romantic way, but instead to make her feel safer and protected. This seems to help some as her rigid body relaxes a bit after. Together, we slowly make our way out the door. She closes her eyes as I guide her to my car.

I open the car door for her sensing she doesn't know how to. After she sits in the passenger seat, I lean in and buckle her in knowing she doesn't know how to do this either. She whispers a thank you with a delicate blush coating her cheeks. I nod my head in return and get into the car myself.

"Would you like to listen to some music while I drive?" I ask, secretly hoping to find out what type of music she likes. I don't even really care about the music itself; honestly, I just want to know more about her. Every new detail I'm given about her life makes me want to know more. It's as if I'm a starved man being given true food for the first time in my life.

"Sure," she says with the adorable blush still evident on her face.

"What type?"

"Classical please," she pauses a second before continuing, "unless you don't like classical, then we don't need to listen to it. Mama said it was boring music and I don't want to bore you-"

I cut her off with a chuckle, "It's alright Angelo, classical is my favorite type of music."

Her face lights up at my statement and I can practically feel the pure joy radiating off of her. "Really!? Me too!" She exclaims.

With a click of a button and a twist of a knob, Mozart's Symphony No. 41 in C major softly fills the car. As I pull out of her driveway, Rose visibly relaxes and begins lightly tapping her foot to the beat.

My apartment is about ten minutes away from her house. For the first half of the drive, we sit in a comfortable silence with only the music she chose playing in the background. Her eyes are glued to the outside world as it passes by.  Maybe I could take her to a park sometime, I bet she would like that.

"Can I call you Gio? Your name is too long... it's okay if you don't want me to though." Her tone is laced with worry as she says the last part.

"Only if I can keep calling you Angelo," I look over at her and she nods, a sweet smile gracing her lips.

"I like it when you call me that," she says as she blushes again. "What does it mean?"

"Angel."

"Mama used to call me her angel!" Rose says with excitement lighting up her face.

"Really?" She nods her head with enthusiasm. "Well now you're going to have to be my angelo."

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