Sink or Swim - Luca x Alberto

When One Plan Fails, Another Succeeds

He looks up from his book. "Alberto, hey!" he says, smiling at me. His smile makes my cheeks heat up, and I almost don't answer right away.

Oh, no. The sickness is getting worse.

"Hey, Lu." I mess with the whistle necklace that I haven't taken off yet. I look away for a second, just so I can calm myself down and stop blushing. "Whatcha up to?"

He smiles again and holds up the book for me to see. "Did you need something?" he asks, setting it back down.

A cure.

"Oh, no, nothing." I put my hands on my hips, looking away and sighing. "Just thinking about how epic that road trip was. I've thought about it all weekend, actually. We've got to make that like a monthly thing."

I glance at Luca to see what kind of reaction he'll have to that, but he doesn't say a word. He just grins.

Is that a good sign?

I stay quiet for a few seconds, trying to figure out what to say next without making this suspicious. When I turn towards Luca again, I'm surprised to see that he's got his complete focus on me now—chin resting in his hands and everything. I hadn't seen him move those entire few seconds I was thinking. Has he been watching me like that the whole time?

Luckily, I don't have to think of something else to say; Luca breaks the silence himself. "That sounds like an amazing idea."

"Yup. Once we're rich, we can have all the road trips we want.

My nerves get all jittery as I prepare myself for what I'm about to say next. Now comes the risky part of my plan.

I look right into Luca's eyes, my playfulness disappearing.

"You made Friday so much fun."

He stares at me now, and I can tell he's trying to think of something to say. He opens his mouth, then closes it, before turning away and smiling. "You made Friday so much fun too, Alberto," he finally replies, reaching backwards to pet Rosana.

I tuck my hands under my arms and hum a laugh to myself. My heart does a flip in my chest, but I clear my throat to keep myself calm.

"How?" I ask, grinning. I do it in a way that won't go wrong no matter what: if Luca likes me, he'll probably get more flustered, but if he doesn't, he'll just think I'm messing with him and laugh it off.

But he doesn't do either. He's ready to answer it right away. "Are you kidding?" he says, sitting up and laughing. "Without you, I'm not sure I could have the confidence to do all that. Dancing, spying on people, all that cool stuff. I felt so free."

My heart starts beating faster now. Hearing him say this about me makes me want to hug him so badly. He never fails to make me feel special.

I mean to respond right away, but here I am getting lost in his eyes like always. Luckily, I have enough self-control to break that trance before I seem weird.

I nod and snap my fingers at him, smirking. "What have I told you before? I'm an expert at pretty much everything."

He rolls his eyes and smiles, like he always does when I say that.

I want to keep the conversation going—give Luca even more motivation to write in his journal. But I feel like I've done all I can do right now. The longer this goes on, the more likely I am to mess it up. So, eventually, I just stretch. "Well, I'd better get back to helping Massimo outside."

"Hahah, yeah. And I'd better get back to reading." He taps his book.

I shake my head. "I couldn't think of anything better to do," I tell him. He reaches over and slaps my arm, which makes me move it away and laugh. "Okay, I'm sorry."