ONE ITALIAN LOVE

- Chapter 1 -

Then again...

Bianca blinked and grit her teeth. She seldom did favors for anyone, let alone a complete stranger. And yet... her first order of business once the plane would land was something she was talked into, whether she liked it or not. Not only talked into - she was duped into. As it stood, she promised her grandmother she would pick up someone from the airport. Someone she never met before. Someone she never heard of before. Someone she already disliked for the simple fact of taking up time in her busy schedule.

She looked at her phone to go over the information she received from her grandmother about the man she was supposed to greet and drive to his hotel once his plane landed.

Massimo Toscana...

That name meant nothing to her. Nothing at all. So, she searched for any information she could find online. Although the search came up with information, it also came up with well over two dozen photographs of men matching that name. As such, Bianca locked her phone back and set it down. And frowned at the fact that the bothersome Massimo Toscana unnerved her even before they met.

From what she had learned from her grandmother, Massimo was a young lawyer coming from America to spend a few days in Italy. And, as instructed by her lovingly stubborn grandmother, she had to pick him up, drive him to the hotel, and send him off on his merry way.

Simple enough, right? Not to Bianca.

Why on earth was she forced to chaperone a grown man? Why? This was the 21st Century after all. She began to refuse her grandmother's request, only to be reassured by the grandmother that the arrival time of Massimo's international flight correlated with hers, and that he was related to a dear friend of the family from a past that had long been forgotten yet was still dear to her grandmother's heart. Since the man was flying in at the same time Bianca was, to the same airport, she eventually, albeit reluctantly, agreed since she wouldn't need to wait too long for his flight.

Once her plane landed, Bianca made her way out of the gate. She was glad to be back home, and intended to be back to work in no time, minus a few annoying bumps on the road. She looked around the arrival terminals for the plane landing from America. She nodded to herself when she saw the gate number, and made her way across the airport. She made no more than 10 steps when a lovey-dovey couple walked right into her because they were too occupied with one another to bother to look up. That didn't raise her temper. The fact that she dropped her phone did. She picked it up, and much to her immediate disapproval, noticed that her phone screen cracked, glitched, and refused to unlock. Bianca puffed out a loud puff of air, and grit her teeth.

Perfect! Just perfect!

How on earth was she going to call the man arriving shortly to make sure he landed if she couldn't even use her phone.

Just perfect!

With a temper simmering under her skin, Bianca stomped her high heels toward the area near the gate of the plane set to arrive from America. Much to her frustration, she did not see anyone. Not one suit. Not one business man. Not one man fitting her grandmother's description of Signore Toscana, as her grandmother dubbed him. She waited 10, 15, 20 minutes, and nothing. No one left or came by the gate. Bianca grit her teeth and decided to ask the airport representative at the information kiosk if Signore Toscana had arrived, only to be told to wait as the kiosk attendant was speaking with a representative of one of the International airlines and could not help her just yet.

Resigned, and unnerved to say the least, Bianca made her way to one of the airport pay phones and called her grandmother. If the man was gone, then he was. His loss. Her gain. And Fate always knew better - according to her grandmother.

"Good evening nonnina," Bianca greeted her grandmother Gia Foxx in the kind of voice she rarely used. This in turn revealed to Gia that her granddaughter's mood was far from positive.

"Ah, Bianca Mia, I see that Your plane landed safely in Roma," Gia spoke softly, directly, and tried her best to hide her amusement at the fact that her granddaughter allowed herself to show her feelings.

"Mine did." Bianca puffed out air without trying to hide it. "And apparently, Signore Toscana's plane landed as well."

"That is good news my dear," Gia replied, nodding to herself while twisting the cord of her wall-mounted telephone. She was a woman set in her ways, who seldom changed her old habits, and changed old things for new ones even less.

"Apparently not," Bianca shook her head, adjusting her perfectly braided waist-long raven hair.

"Why not?" Gia asked with a little smirk. She knew her granddaughter well, and she knew Bianca was not happy about picking up a stranger at the airport who did not fit her busy schedule.

"For starters, the man is gone," Bianca grit her teeth in disapproval.

"He's not gone. He's probably looking for You," Gia gestured with her hand and smiled. Would it have helped the situation if she revealed to her granddaughter that she already spoke with Massimo? Yes. Was she going to do that? Of course not. "Why don't You call him? I will give You his telephone number."

"I am not sure that will help me," Bianca responded with a resigned sigh.

"And why not?" Gia narrowed her eyes.

"Because my phone broke." Bianca looked down to the palm of her hand at the crushed screen of her phone.

"If Your phone is broken, then how are You calling me?" Gia narrowed her eyes even more.

"From a pay phone, and I've run out of change," Bianca replied bluntly. "Didn't You see I am calling from a different telephone number?"

"My telephone does not have a Caller ID, Bianca Mia," Gia scolded her granddaughter. "I come from a generation that did not need to screen incoming calls to decide whether the caller is worthy of my time."

"Yes, nonnina," Bianca apologized. "But I really don't have any more change to make another call. You will just have to call Signore Toscana Yourself and tell him I am leaving."

"Please, Bianca Mia, write down Massimo's telephone number. Perhaps Fate will come to You in the form of a stranger willing to offer You some change and You will be able to call my guest," Gia pleaded with her granddaughter. "And try looking for him again."

"All right, nonnina," Bianca agreed in the end. She wrote down the number in her notebook with a silent hope of not finding anyone who she could ask for change. She ended the call and shoved the notebook in her white designer tote bag.

Lost in her thoughts, Bianca turned around, and swore not-so-silently because she felt someone ram hard right into her. She looked up with her perfectly pointed nose at the poor soul who dared to tempt his Fate and their own bad luck by running into her. The moment she did, she found her own reflection looking back at her from the most unforgettable set of deep brown whiskey eyes she had ever seen...