𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐏

𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

After a nine-hour flight, I land in Rome at 12:30 pm the next day.

I only manage to get to the hotel at 2:00 and although I'm tempted to go to sleep, I decide to make use of the gorgeous bathroom in this place and take a shower to freshen up, before going to the restaurant and ordering a chicken salad. I take it back to my room and eat on my balcony while trying to FaceTime Maia and Nate on my laptop.

They're eating breakfast when they answer, ready to go to school. We talk for a while before they need to leave and I need to get ready for my meeting with Alessio.

I order an Uber to take me to Venus and as soon as I step out, I'm surprised at how different it is. It's much more beautiful and bigger in person.

Alessio is waiting for me outside, "Buongiorno, signorina Thompson. Tutto bene?" I shake the hand he's offering. "Si. Questo posto è bellissimo. Sono sorpresa."

(Good morning, Miss Thompson. Is everything okay?) (Yes. This place is beautiful. I'm surprised.)

He smiles at me and motions for me to walk in. He shows me around, pointing to all the details I specifically asked for. "Tra qualche minuto arriverà il signor Chiesini. Era l'architetto che ha disegnato tutto questo."

(In a couple of minutes, Mr Chiesini will arrive. He was the architect who designed all of this.)

I nod, nonchalantly, still focused on the club. This is exactly the same way I felt about Strip, but compared to this, Strip is a much smaller project.

My thoughts are interrupted by someone walking in. I turn around to be met by a face I haven't seen in a very long time.

"Leonardo?" I ask.

"Angela? What the. . . What are you doing here?" He pulls me into a tight hug.

My mom loved Italy. It was her favorite country to visit, and she hoped to live here one day, once she retired. Every summer, as soon as school ended, she and I would be on the first flight here. That's how I met Leonardo and his family.

Once mom died, we stayed in contact as much as possible, but I didn't have a phone - because I was six - and dad didn't think that it was necessary for me to stay in contact with people who cared deeply for me, so he stopped answering their calls and eventually we lost contact.

That was until I got a bit older and created a Facebook account and the first thing I did was find Mrs Chiesini, who gave me her number and her son's number.

We got to see each other every time they were in the US, but as we grew up, I and Leonardo started to lose touch, whereas I and Giulia, his mom, stayed in constant contact, between birthdays, Christmases and other small celebrations.

This is the first time I'm seeing Leo since the summer when we were seventeen.

Alessio pulls us back into a conversation and they start to explain the different features.

"Where are you staying?" Leonardo asks as we get in his car. He has offered to drive me back to my hotel. "It's the Rustica."

Once we get to my hotel, I invite him upstairs but he turns down my invite, which I appreciate because I just want to sleep right now. "You should come over tomorrow, it's my turn to just family dinner. I know my mom would love to see you again."

I accept his offer, telling him to send me the address.

My outfit falls to the floor and I shove it in a corner, tired and ready for bed. I change and get into bed, biting on the apple I'm having as dinner.

The twins are still in school right now and Hanna is at work. My finger hovers over the only number I know isn't at work, right now.

The phone rings twice, before I hear his voice, "Hey."

"Hi," I reply, glad that he answered. "Just called to . . ." Why did I even call him? "To make sure you were alright. Is this a bad time, you sound tired?" I ask, and he did.

"No, it's not a bad time. I just had an encounter that ended up badly today, so I just want to finish my work so I can leave."

"I'll let you get to it, then. I'll-" he stops me, "No. I'm done with this. Stay on the phone with me, please." The subtle pleading tone in his voice tells me there's something else going on, but I don't pry and do as he asked.

"How's Italy?" He asks once the phone call switches to FaceTime, as he gets into his car. "It's the best. The place is even prettier than I remember and the club is coming along so beautifully. It's done and ready for Friday." I go on a rant, about how things are going to work, how the security guards are going to be stationed everywhere, how there will be some themed nights.

"Sorry, I'm ranting." He looks down at wherever he has placed his phone to briefly smile at me. "It's okay."

I ask about his day and he gives me a vague and brief reply, turning the conversation back to me.

He's back at his place now and after he drops his key and jacket, he moves to his room, where he places his phone in a way that I can get a full view of him.

He starts to undress, probably thinking that I'm still watching the show on the TV. The sight of him in just his boxers does things to me, that I refuse to say out loud to avoid inflating his ego.

He quickly gets changed into shorts.

"I'm going to the gym downstairs, do you want to stay on the phone?" He asks, making his favorite vanilla protein shake - which he spends a ridiculous amount of money on.

"Stay on the phone, if you want to. If I fall asleep before you're done, just end the call. Your presence calms me."

The morning after, I wake up, my phone still in the same position. I remember looking at Alessandro workout for a while and then I fell asleep.

Sleep well, Tesoro.
Let me know when you wake up.

His texts put a smile on my face. However, the Twitter notification right under it wipes it right off. Because of the scandal with Strip, I get Twitter notifications on Alessandro now, so, Twitter thought I'd want to know that:

Sophia Briceño was spotted with her ex-fiancé, Alessandro DeLuca, twice today.

This causes me to fall into a rabbit hole about their relationship and why they broke up.

Sophia is a runway model and apparently, they've had an on and off relationship for seven years now.

I don't care that he was with her, I just think it's weird that he was getting cozy with her, less than two hours after we were on the phone.

I leave Twitter and reply to his texts.

My first two texts have an accusatory tone, so I delete them and retry until I find a normal reply with a normal tone.

thank you all so much for 10k reads on this book.