I was completely frozen. I couldn't even turn to face him, but I knew it was him.
"Hands off the lady, buddy." A random drunk on my other side interjected.
Alessio ignored the guy and leaned forward so his body was practically shielding my own from the rest of the room. "You cut your hair." He said casually and took a strand around his index finger. He twirled it easily as he spoke. "You look...well."
I stared dumbfounded at my cup. I couldn't even look at him.
"I said hands off!" The guy on the other side said and stood up and stumbled over. I finally glanced to the scene. He pushed Alessio who looked moderately annoyed but God, did he look...well, as he so delicately put it. He was dressed to perfection as always in a completely black suit with a bold red tie, and though he had a bit of stubble around his jaw that he didn't have the last time I saw him, he looked wonderful.
"Friend, I will break your hand if you touch me again." Alessio put his hand to the fedora on his head and readjusted it. I knew he wasn't lying. He'd do it here, in front of everyone without a second thought.
"It's fine. He's...he's someone I used to know." I told the random bar stranger who then stalked back to the stool beside me grumbling. His hero ego obviously wounded.
"Dai." Alessio said and motioned for me to follow him. When I didn't he frowned. "Come on."
"I can't leave Stacey."
"She's with Pietro. Come."
"No. If you want to talk to me you can do it like a normal person." I crossed my arms over my chest.
"Now you know I'm not a normal person." He chuckled. "Come with me."
"Nope. I'm going back to my table." I said defiantly and uncrossed my arms to grab my drink. He grabbed it first though and took a step away giving it a little swirl. "I'll just buy a new one." I challenged and leaned up onto my toes to talk to the bartender over the table.
He set the drink back down. "Katherine." He sang out in a bored tone and approached me until he was practically on top of me. I flinched when our bodies connected and he pressed his lips to my ear. "I'll just throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here kicking and screaming. Do you want me to make that scene?" He said in a low sensual voice to only me.
Yes, yes I did. Very much so.
"You wouldn't, not in front of everyone here." I shot back I peeled my body away from his. Before he could hold it hostage again I snatched my drink up from the bar. I turned and took an unsteady step towards Stacey and Pietro but Alessio grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him.
"Would you like to place money on that bet?" He teased.
I pursed my lips and sat back down on the bar stool. I took a long drink from my glass, smacked my lips together after I was done and let out an over dramatic but very necessary ahh of satisfaction after my drink. "As a matter of fact, I would."
He chuckled at my defiant show and turned to the annoyed looking bartender. He'd been my buddy all night and Alessio was just the annoying drunk guy harassing me. I sent the bartender an award winning smile just to reassure him that I had a handle of this.
"Fine, I'll play your game." He waved to the bartender who looked slightly miffed now. "Scotch. Make it a double." He tossed a fifty dollar bill on the bar and my bartender friend immediately switched sides.
"Coming right up!" He said pleasant as ever.
Traior.
"So." He said taking the seat next to me. "You've been a busy girl."
I glared.
"What? What is that sour face for?"
I scowled.
"It's good to see your career thriving so well."
I flipped him off.
At this he laughed. "Don't be angry with me. You have no idea the troubles you've left me with."
"The mess I left you with!" I gasped.
"Oh yes. You're quite the target these days you know. Don't get me wrong, your outing was great for me. Business is up 20% since you stepped into the lime light, but boy have I had to whack a few to keep you from getting popped."
"What are you even talking about?"
"You're just about as annoying to the mafia as the feds these days."
"I'm just a reporter." I scoffed.
"And we both know that isn't true." He said and we locked eyes. My heart fluttered again and I instinctively put my hand over it and then grimaced.
He didn't point out my idiotic move like I had expected him to do. He looked at me with a curious expression, I searched my memory desperately for what it reminded me of. He had looked at me before. Once upon a time. But why?
I spun on my chair to face the room again. Stacey and Pietro appeared to be in a deep and entertaining conversation. She leaned into him as he spoke with a light in her eye that I envied. His lips moved and curved into a smile as he spoke. Stacey threw her head back and laughed, she leaned forward and into him and put a hand on his arm as she laughed and with the physical contact he laughed as well.
"I didn't even recognize your voice." I admitted out loud as I faced away from him.
He spun my stool so quickly it made me dizzy and pulled me off of it and against him. I instinctively buried myself into him. I could be embarrassed and humiliated tomorrow, but tonight? Tonight I just wanted to feel him.
"Am I going to see you after tonight?" I asked with my forehead on his shoulder.
"You really are drunk aren't you?" He muttered and ran his hand up my spin and the back of my neck and into the bottom layer of my hair. "I like the hair."
I didn't actually have a choice in getting my hair cut. It was another drunken mishap. It was Stacey's birthday, and once we were both heavily intoxicated we decided to make her a cake. A series of unfortunate events, and hilarious stories, later and my hair was just about thirty kinds of stuck in the beaters of the mixer. I'm sure with enough time and energy we could have detangled the mess and restored my hair. But I had simply laughed, proclaimed "I got this" and started cutting.
I didn't even care that much the following morning. We'd gone to a salon and they'd fixed my mistakes. It was just hair. And now it was short hair, falling right around the end of my ears and very lightly stacked with layers.
I'd thought about Alessio almost constantly for the past two years. I'd become essentially infatuated with him. The reality of whatever sexual tension we may have had had long since left me. I had no clue as to whether or not we had actually had anything, or if over the past two years I had just created something in my head. The more I thought of the events that happened for the months I was with him, the more they changed.
I was starting to struggle with what was real, and what I had created out of my own imagination. Where my memory was blank I had simply filled in my own accord. I thought that there had been something between Alessio and I. Something fierce and brooding, but something nonetheless.
I couldn't remember the way his hands had felt against my skin much as I tried. So I imagined it to be like fire. I couldn't remember the way he had said my name. So I imaged it coming out like silk. I couldn't imagine his lips against mine. And then I did remember. They never had been. So then I tried to imagine what it would have been like. I filled my mind with what if's, on a relationship that I may have completely fabricated.
With my body wrapped around his now, I could remember. I remembered his shooting my phone when we first met. I remembered his yelling at me. His telling me how unspecial I was, his telling me he wasn't there for me to talk to, him specifically stating that he wasn't interested.
But then on the other hand I remembered him holding me, the way he was holding me now. The way he had saved me and even killed the guy who'd tried to attack me. I remembered the way he had said I want you, desperately. I remember the giant stuffed bear, and the feel of his hand in mine.
I was, sufficiently confused. And drunk. And it was making my head throb. "I'm not drunk." I lied.
"Oh sure." He chuckled and I pulled away from him to look him in the eye. He gently brushed my bangs away from my face and I suddenly remembered that curious look. It was the one he had watched me with all the time when I first arrived down under. "Any minute now you're going to start sobbing hysterically and then calling me all sorts of dirty names."
The worst part was he was probably right. "I don't cry over men who aren't worthy of my time."
"Is that so?" He teased.
With all of the strength I had I pulled away from him completely and picked my drink back up. I downed the rest of it and wiped my lips after. The alcohol burned my throat going down. I turned back to Alessio with dreary eyes. "Why are you here Alessio?"
He smirked.
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I'm not going to lie....I am a fan of this chapter.
And really the last two chapters had like no Alessio in them, and that's just not right. So maybe that's why I liked this one so much, just because he was there. For whatever reason, I am a fan.
I'm glad to have been able to share this chapter early with you guys too! Especially since the last one was so short and the one before was late. I love updating.
Are you dying to know why Alessio was gone for so long? Is the anticipation KILLING you? I wrote a piece that won't come up for another few chapters (I don't write in chronological order, I write as ideas strike me and this one hit me awhile ago) but I'm superrrr stoked to start getting to some of these parts that are my favorite.
The next update will be on Monday as usual!
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