Addicted

Chapter 40

Marina Vettle

"Good morning." I said, hugging Giovanni from behind, kissing his back. He turned around, placing his hands on my hips, bending down, and kissed my lips.

"Buongiorno, Tesoro." He smiled.

"What are you making?" I asked, looking at the pan he had on the stove.

"I was trying to make some french toast." He said. "I heard that Americans are obsessed with them, so I tried giving it a try." He explained, while going back to the cooking. "Have you ever tried them?" He asked me, "Because I have never."

"Nope." I shook my head. I sat down on one of the stools that were around the kitchen island. The same question had been bugging me for a while, and came back flying into my head. "What happened to the Russians when you rescued me?" I asked.

He took a plate out, and placed the french toast on it, and turned around. "Well, most of them are dead, or if not, injured. And as far as I know, Faddei's son took the lead, and he looks more... How to say it. Not a fucking psychopath." He sat down next to me, sighing. "They are also still recovering from the attack." He said, plating me my portion. "That's what they have if they take my girl from me." He said, kissing the top of my head.

"Oh," I nodded. "This is too much." I said, seeing that he plated me almost as much as himself. "Don't look at me like that. I can't keep on eating as much as you." I exclaimed. I took two out of the four pieces, and placed them on his plate.

"Ok, not as much, but eat two and a half." He said, cutting one of the pieces that I placed on his plate, and brought it to mine. I sighed, being too tired to argue. "Come on, it's not that much." He smiled, winking at me.

When we finished eating breakfast, we got up, and cleaned the dishes together. I stopped, remembering something I had been wanting to tell Giovanni for a while. "Gio?" I called him, as he opened the door of his office, he turned around, and hummed. "I wanted to talk to you about something important." I said.

"Ok," he nodded. "Come inside, and we can talk privately." He said, placing his hand on the small of my back, letting me walk in first. He closed the door, and he sat down on his chair. I walked around, standing right in front of him. He smiled, pulling me gently to his lap. "What did you want to tell me?" He asked.

"I had been thinking for a while about my life. Since I left the hospital, now that I feel more like a human being, that I have a purpose in life, I wanted to prove it in my life." I said. He looked at me with a confused face. "I want to do something with my life." I said.

"What do you mean by that?" He frowned, leaning back against his chair.

"I want to do something productive." I said. "All I have been doing these past few weeks is sit down, while watching you work, or just do nothing aside from reading. And as exciting it sounds, it's starting to get boring." I explained. "So I wanted to do something, like work, or..."

"Or what, Tesoro?" He brushed my hair behind my ear, brushing his thumb over my cheek.

"I wanted to start studying." I said, looking down to my hands.

"Ok," he nodded. "Like want? You want to go to university, I'm guessing. So what do you want to enroll in?" He asked, making me look up at him and nod, while smiling.

"I have always enjoyed history and latin in High school." I explained, biting my bottom lip.

"That's amazing, Tesoro." He smiled, pulling me closer to himself. "Have you considered any university?" He asked me.

"Well, I have been looking through the websites of all I could think of, and as I did so, I saw one I really liked in Italy. In Rome." I smiled, remembering we had a conversation some weeks prior about how much he missed his life back in Italy and his family there. "I could learn European history, which is the one I have always been most passionate about, and never learned about. I could also learn Italian. And you could also be close with your family, as you have been wanting to." I explained.