Code name: Athena [18+]

Code name: La ragazza con lo champagne

"It's not hard believing in you, Arabella," he whispered as his arms went around my waist. "You're passionate, driven, brave, caring, and strong; more than every single person in this place, combined."

•Mariano Salvatore•

I gently placed Napoleon on the sofa "What do you need to tell me, Aurore?" when I turned around her glass was empty.

"Mariano, have you ever liked someone so much that you can't get that person out of your head and then you start thinking that it might be unhealthy to have that certain someone in your head all the time?" she spoke so quickly.

"Yes," a weak smile appeared on my lips as I thought about when I met Lula. "Why? Do you need dating advice? Because I am the worst at it."

"Not exactly," Aurore approached me playing with her rings. "I like a guy, well he's a man," her cheeks turned slightly red "but I don't want to scare him, some of his friends have recently told me that he has had some sort of unfortunate experiences with love, recently." She cleared her throat looking into my eyes "Do you think it would be wise to let this man know how I feel?"

I nodded "It's not good to keep your emotions inside."

"Okay then," she took a deep breath. "Oh, mon dieu," her hands were suddenly resting on my pecs which is odd but I don't mind it. "Mariano, I like you..."

"No you don't, Aurore," I gently removed her hands from my pecs.

"Don't invalidate my feelings," she told with a frown. "I know what I feel."

"How can you know you like me if you don't know me?" I turned around and placed throw pillows around Napoleon to keep him safe.

"I do know you," she said. "You like having soft-boiled eggs for breakfast, your favorite color is dark grey, you hate leaving your daughters alone and that's why you've installed multiple cameras in your room here apart from always carrying around the baby monitor, you secretly draw with carbon pencils; you try to wash it off but there's always some under your nails," I immediately looked at my hands to make sure I scrubbed it off. "If you weren't Mr. DiStefano's underboss you would've been a kindergarten teacher because you love kids."

I eyed her over my shoulder. When did I tell her all
of that?

"You told me a week ago, while we watched your favorite movie: The Sound of Music."

"Okay," I turned around to face her. "You know some facts about me, Aurore, but I've done things," my throat tightened as the image of Lula's cold body cradled in my arms in the middle of our kitchen. "Inhumane things."

"I don't think you're capable of inhumane things and if what you say is true then there must have been a valid reason for you to be able to go through with it," she softly said looking into my eyes. "You don't have to tell me what you did, Mariano. We don't have to go on a date right away and you also don't have to give me an answer right now but at least everything is out in the open." Aurore picked up her glass and walked towards the door. "You should watch Money Heist, it was created by the same person who created White Lines," a sad smile curved her lips. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Mariano; everyone in the world has done, at least, one inhumane thing..." for a couple of seconds the room was silent as our gazes never diverted. "I'll be outside if you need anything," the girl walked out and closed the door after herself.

Shit. Aurore is a great person; anyone would be lucky to be with her but I'm not ready yet. There's always the possibility of taking it slow but what if I don't only harm myself but also her? The thought of always believing this, haunts me. It makes me question if I'll ever be able to be in a committed relationship again because I do want to love someone like that and it would be nice if someone loved me in the same way.