Three days. He officially had three days left and he was dreading it. If you had asked him three weeks before now if he was anxious or excited to head back to the States, he would've told you an astounding yes. He missed the normal television (he had watched SNL religiously since he was 15), he missed the sweet and yummy, but very bad for you candies (he was a sucker for Sour Patch Kids and Nerds), and he definitely missed the flaming hot, spicy and mouth watering chips you could only find in vending machines at rest stops. He and Dez had stumbled upon them one weekend while on their way back from summer camp in the middle of Florida. At the time, finding those was the best moment of his life.Now, things were different and his answer had changed. Austin had never really been that guy who was clingy or had to be around his girlfriend all the time. His relationship with Jamie was actually the opposite and they could have been apart for days, weeks even, and would be okay with that.
Now, with Ally, it was new and fun and exciting and he found himself wanting to be around her all the time. He couldn't go an entire day without talking to her or seeing her or touching her. Ask him the same question right now if he wanted to stay in Venice longer. Do it, really. He'd tell you yes.
It was what he was telling Santo at this very moment as he sat across from his friend and tried to find any loopholes for him to stay for another week with Ally instead of heading straight to Los Angeles and back into the studio there. As much as he tried to find one though, he didn't. His arrangement with his record company was for three full months and when he tried to see if he could extend it by just a few days, they told him a resounding no. He couldn't blame them, they were taking a big chance on him and he was grateful that they were giving him all this time in the first place. Plus, Santo was off to Austria right after he left too. He had a few concerts he was playing there.
"It's not like you'll never come back here, Austin," Santo reasoned with him, sipping on his wine. "She is just a girl."
Austin shook his head at his longtime friend. "Not just a girl, Santo."
"Wow," Santo leaned forward into the table they were seated at a table in the corner at a little restaurant on the mainland. Santo had had an appointment with a student who lived there and Austin needed to spend every moment today with him to finish up all the Italian translations for the final songs on his album. He could've asked Ally, but he was too busy absorbing all of her to even bother.
Austin raised his eyebrow. "Wow what?"
"Wow, you fell fast. I never thought you were the one to fall in love to quick and so hard."
He choked back the drink he had just taken. "Woah, didn't say I was in love with her."
"Didn't have to," Santo smiled. "I'm glad things are going well with you two. Kind of smacking myself for interrupting you that one day. Just think of what would've happened."
Brushing away all the emotions and hundreds of other thoughts that were rushing to his brain, Austin turned it back to the music. He would deal with the love issue later...when he was back in the city and back with her; when he could really be sure if he was. The music was what brought him to Venice in the first place and because Santo said it was there or nothing and it didn't take long before Austin was on the plane just moments before the New Year started on a flight to the Floating City.
Now it was the end of his fellowship and they had completed around fifteen songs for his album and a few others for some other artists on his label. Three of the songs mixed Italian with English and were some of his favorites they had written. While Ally was hoping that "West Side Story" was his first single, he was secretly rooting for "Promise Broken". The song had come to him after he had first run into Ally without knowing it and once he had all the lyrics written down, ran back to the conservatory where the song was done in an hour time.
After Santo heard it, suggested looping Italian into it and once they did, it just all clicked. It was one of his favorite songs on the album and he couldn't wait for his fans to hear it. He definitely couldn't wait for his parents to hear it, or Dez, and definitely Ally. Maybe after she heard that song, or the secret one that was on the tail end of "Iris", would be her new favorite.
"Have you heard about the rights yet?"
Santo shook his head. "Nothing yet. I passed all the information you'll need for that to Adam. He's going to be point on this and you should hear back by the end of April. Still going to record it in Italian?"
"Why would I not? It loses all it's meaning in English."Santo smiled at him.
"It kind of does. You know, none of your fans will even know who you are anymore with this song. No one has covered this song in a long long time."
"It's Achille Togliani. I have to cover it."
The two friends talked about the rights for the songs they were trying to get for a bit longer, while eating a delicious meal before the two headed back to the city. Santo was off on another lesson (music was actually his entire life) and Austin was headed to Santoli's, to pick up some coffee before meeting Ally at his apartment. The Nicoletti's had come back the day before, but somehow, Ally was still staying with him and he wasn't minding one bit. He loved every bit of having her stay with him before he left. He loved waking up with her in his arms in the morning, he loved her making him pancakes and he loved coming home and seeing her dance all over the place with the music on...or at least try to.
They had only been "living together" for a few days, but he liked it. He liked it a lot and he wasn't sure he was actually going to. Living with Dez when they first moved to Los Angeles was something out of a Zaliens movie so he wasn't actually sure how living with a girl would be. Again, it was only three days, but he wouldn't mind trying it for longer.
He was halfway to Santoli's when he said goodbye to Santo. His friend was off to Austria tomorrow and with a bro-hug and hearty handshake, Austin watched him pick up his step back to the conservatory. Austin spun on his own heel and made a mental note to pen a major thank you to Santo in his album notes. If it hadn't been for him offering or even suggesting he come to Venice for this record, Austin probably would've been stuck in Los Angeles trying to figure how he would be pulling this off. Santo was a good friend, one of the best.
Austin had a great support system in the States. His manager, his publicist and the people at the record label were a huge part of his success and he would be grateful for them every day...even if arguing with Scott, his manager, was a daily thing. Still, without them he would still just be a guy in Miami who was trying to get a billion hits on his first and only video. Austin would be citing Santo as a part of his team for a long time after this.
Stepping inside the warm cafe, he took a whiff of the pastries Suzetta was baking in the kitchen. There was a cherry and a strawberry, he could tell right off the bat and was still sniffing around and hoping she made a few blueberry ones that he could take back to Ally. Apparently, this is what love was. Love was not hoarding all the cherry tarts and making her eat them. It was letting the other customers have them in lieu of the blueberry ones, which were not his favorite, for her. Even if that wasn't the definition of love, he was still going to count it as a major boyfriend thing to do.
He hadn't been a boyfriend in a very long time and navigating that, plus deciding what to do about their relationship all while handling a music career was now starting to really worry him. Santo had brought it up during lunch and Austin hadn't known how to answer him at all. He was speechless about it really, and as he thought and thought about it in the back of his mind, the more he realized he really did not know what do to. Austin wanted to be with Ally more and more; and he was going a bit mad about how to work everything out.
Austin had figured out that her new job would be in New York City. The Big Apple. The City that Never, Ever, Ever Slept.He lived, and worked in Los Angeles. 2,448 miles away from her. 2,448 miles away from her arms, her new career and her new life. It was 2,448 miles too many.
"Sembri distratto, signor Moon," Suzetta's voice broke him out of his stare he'd been in over the pastries. He only nodded in agreement. He was distracted...and he could blame the kind, little, older lady in front of him. She was the one who first introduced him to Ally in the beginning, after all...kind of.
Austin watched Suzetta turn her back for just a moment before sliding over a cherry tart that had his name all over it. "Grazie."
"Uno di mirtillo per Ally, sì?" Austin nodded once more, silently hoping she would slip an extra in just because it was Ally and she knew Ally would inhale the first one like a vacuum.
"Si, e po 'di quel caffè celeste."
Suzetta nodded once more, filling up two cups to go just for him. He watched her do her thing, his mind now on just how much he'd miss this -- miss her and this little cafe. The same little lady who was filling him up with sweets and all she could make when he first arrived; like he was her guinea pig. It was a job he would quite possibly give up music for. All her tarts, muffins, anything that came out of her oven, he would always be a sucker for. Ally on the other hand...well, a part from a few sandwiches and her French Toast, he wouldn't say that she was the best cook on the planet. But, she was possibly the cutest.
"Quando parti?"
Austin looked up at Suzetta once again, digging out lire from his pockets to pay her with. "Presto. Nel giro di pochi giorni in realtà," he paused. "Io non voglio lasciare."
"Non vogliamo che tu vada neanche. Guisto e ho apprezzato averti intorno. Ally è troppo."
"Ho intenzione di perdere anche voi," Austin smiled at her, truly meaning what he said. He would miss both her and Guisto. Lord knows who he would be now if he hadn't. Austin was always a true believer about the people you surrounded yourself with being an influence in your life and without this couple, Austin couldn't even imagine.
"Ti manca Ally più di tutti," she pointed out. Austin blushed at her words which were very, very true. If it was anyone who he was going to miss the most, it was definitely Ally.
"Qual è il più lungo tempo sei stato lontano da Guisto?"
Suzetta came around the corner and pulled Austin with her to sit for a while. "La più lunga? Quasi dieci anni. Era nell'esercito italiano e appena prima di andarsene, mi ha chiesto di aspettarlo. Quando tornò, era più vecchio e stanco. Non voleva fare altro che sposarsi e mangiare," she paused, thinking of what came next in her own love story. "Mi è mancato tanto."
"Quando tornò era proprio come ai vecchi tempi?" He hoped it was. In his mind, Suzetta and Guisto's love story was the one he had made up in his mind with another older couple he spotted in Venice. The ones that were childhood friends who had been separated by family and fought like hell to get back to one another, sacrificing everything in between them to be together. It had Austin thinking that maybe his and Ally's love story would be like that...maybe.
They were still only 25...things could change in the future but right now, with the way his heart sped up, the way his smile just wouldn't go away and his palms got all sweaty every time he was within ten feet of her, this feeling wasn't changing. This feeling of love, he assumed. Yea, it was love. It came fast and suddenly for him, and he hadn't expected it at all, but it was a good feeling. One that he kind of couldn't wait to tell Dez about, or even his parents.
"No," Suzetta shook her head. "Dovevamo cominciare dall'inizio. Tutto era nuovo nuovo e abbiamo dovuto imparare di nuovo tutto l'uno dell'altro. La guerra cambia le persone, il tempo cambia le persone. Ma ne valeva la pena. Ogni bit di esso."
It was worth it. Austin smiled warmly at her. That's all he wanted to hear. If he went to Ally right now and even suggested they do a long distance relationship, Austin knew it would be worth it, but would she agree? Would she be on the same wavelength that he is right now? With her new job starting soon and that being a main priority for her, would she even have time for a relationship with him? Would he with her? It was no secret that his career would be turning a new leaf with a different sound, a different marketing campaign and a different promo routine...he knew his schedule was about to flipped around and torn apart and put back together like a 3-D puzzle. But if Suzetta and Guisto could do it, they could do it.
"Non c'è mai stato nessun altro per voi?"
Suzetta shook her head. "No mai," she answered quickly. It was always Guisto for her.
Austin thought about her words as he walked back to his place, hoping that Ally was already inside. Suzetta had told him more about how she met Guisto, how he proposed the first and second time and while he was sure if his brother was next to him he would've smacked him for asking all the gooey questions about love, Austin was grateful that he did. He found out their entire love story and would definitely be sharing it with Ally and he also found out that even if there was the smallest chance at a happy ending, you should go for it.
He didn't actually need to hear it from Suzetta to encourage him to go after a happy ending for him and Ally. He was going to do that anyhow. Slipping inside his building, Austin leaped over the steps to the third floor, and didn't even have his key in the lock when the door opened up and revealed Ally looking sexy as hell. So sexy that he was forgetting all the packages of treats in his hands and coffee in his other and wanting to drop them right there so he could have her closer.
It wasn't that she was dolled up in anything special. There was no drop dead gorgeous, skin tight dress around her body. There were no high heels on her feet making her taller than she really was. There was no makeup on her face. There was just Ally, in an oversized shirt from his suitcase with her hair pulled up into a messy ponytail and black-rimmed glasses resting on the top of her head.
"I heard you jingling your keys," she bit her lip, walking backwards as he came inside and towards the kitchen. "Sorry if I startled you."
Austin placed the contents in his hands on top of the counter and turned back just as quickly, pulling her close as she could get to him and captured her lips with his own. She wasn't expecting it, he could tell, but as soon as she smiled into it and slid her arms up his own and around his neck, Austin wasn't going to let her out of wherever this was going tonight.
His hands slipped down the shirt, bunching it in his fists as their kiss went on and on. His fingers crawled down to where the shirt ended and the top of her leg started. Austin moved it up and slithered his hand over her soft skin, smirking as he realized she was just in the shirt and her adorable boy shorts. "You usually study in just this?"
Ally, still with her eyes closed, smiled against his lips. "Sometimes even less."
Austin brushed a few stray hairs away from her face and smiled big down at her. "I could get used to this. Very easily."
She bit her lip, and with her fingers playing with his collar on his own shirt, she kissed him softly before backing away from him. "How was lunch with Santo?"
"It was good. We went to that pizzeria you recommended in Mestre. The Settovece..."
"Sottovoce Pizzeria Hostaria," Ally finished for him as she closed up her books on the table.
He snapped his fingers. "Yea, that's it. It was good. We ate, talked more music and him heading off to Austria tomorrow."
"Wait, he's leaving too?"Austin nodded, coming back to her side with the coffee still in his hands.
"Yea. He's got a few concerts there next month."He watched Ally bite her tongue, refraining from saying what was on her mind. He'd ask her about that later, putting it at the back of his mind for now.
"Remember that one day in Santoli's when we first actually met and you told me that you had no clue about how Suzetta and Guisto came to be Suzetta and Guisto?"Ally nodded, following him as he headed into the bedroom and stripped of his jacket and shoes, tossing them on top of his suitcases that were still ready to go.
"Did you find out?"Taking a seat on the bed, he looked back at her with an almost Cheshire Cat like smile."You did?! You have to tell me. Suzetta barely told me about their son, let alone their love story. Please tell me, please..."
Still smiling, Austin turned towards her as she bounced over to him on the bed, her knees tucked underneath her. "You want to hear the once upon a time long fairytale version or the short, straight to the point version?"She raised an eyebrow curiously at him and tucked a stray hair that had escaped from her messy bun behind her ear.
"Did you get a fairytale version? The whole once upon a time, a gorgeous girl met a handsome guy and then something tore them apart and they were reunited years later and the birds started to sing again and the sun started to shine and they indeed, lived happily ever after? That kind of fairytale?"
"Are you sure you don't know their story?" Austin eyed her and smirked at her, leaning back on the bed with his hand supporting his head as she got comfortable beside him. She shook her head and just as he started the story off with the Once Upon A Time, she stopped him, scurrying out of the room really fast before returning even faster.
"What was that?"
"Just wanted to make sure the lights were off. Now you can tell me my bedtime story."
He had to laugh at her. It had been a long time since he had told a bedtime story to anyone. The last time, if he recalled, was to his two year old next door neighbor Max in Miami years ago and after a full day of playing outside with him during a holiday weekend had come straight to him for his bedtime story. Max already had a story picked out -- one filled with dinosaurs and monsters of every kind. For Ally, though, Austin wasn't planning on putting her to sleep with this story. If anything, he was telling this to her to romance the hell out of her.
He told her about Guisto's depression and how when he returned from his service in the military, Suzetta stayed by his side until it tore her apart. How the moment she left was the moment he woke up and raced after her. Their fairytale wasn't all sunshine and roses -- it was sacrifice and hardships and it took work and at the end of it all, was totally worth it. Everything they had endured -- from his depression, to watching child after child escape their grasps, to even when their only born son was taken from them only a few years ago -- they had stayed together and took on everything together and as Austin told Ally all of it, he found himself wanting the same. Not the hardships with having children, not the depression, not any of that. But he wanted the love worth fighting for and part of him was hoping it was with Ally. Even if it wasn't though, he still wanted it.
Ally rolled onto her back beside him, a deep breath escaping her lips. "She told you her love story. I've been pestering her for so long about it and she tells you instead."
"Is that a bad thing?"
She turned to face him, her hand landing on his t-shirt. "No, not bad. I just really want to hear it from her. It's a girl thing, I think."
"It must be," Austin smiled down at her, closing the gap between them and letting his lips dance over hers. He felt her lean into him and he pulled her closer, his hand running over her side and to her covered back. Her tongue slithered across his bottom lip just as he lifted her shirt up, going higher and higher and revealing more of her smooth skin he was itching to touch.
"Aletta..."
"Still don't like my name."
"Too bad," he teased her as he kissed down to her chin and to her neck, his hands crawling up her stomach from inside her shirt. "Because I love it."
+++
His favorite color was orange. He could play basketball blindfolded and once tried to set a Guinness World Record by spinning one on his finger. He could never write his own songs until he was forced to write an essay on Shakespeare in the seventh grade. Apparently, after reading sonnet after sonnet, something just clicked. Ally smiled into his shoulder after he told her that little tidbit about himself.
It was deep into the night, and she could see the stars glitter outside the tiny window across from the bed. She was pushing all the thoughts of him leaving in just a day to the back of her mind and realizing that he was trying to tell her everything about himself that he could before he did depart. He was telling her more about his family, about his grandfather who was still trying to convince him that a basketball career wasn't a longshot and a father who secretly wanted him to take over the mattress kingdom instead of his brother Chris. He told her about how after pancakes, pudding was his favorite food; and after that, his best friend's drum chili, with a glass of milk, because it was apparently the hottest he had ever and will ever taste. He doesn't do well at trivia, but if you did quiz him on music, he'd ace it, obviously. He told her how he gets incredibly cranky and cross with people when he hasn't gotten enough sleep.
Austin told her about getting stuck in a freezer full of ice cream one summer and it had been the greatest day of his life, how he once wanted a pony, but realized that riding them was not his forte; he even confessed to her about his middle name, which he still despised. What kind of middle name is Monica? his words echoed in her mind. But then again, my brother's middle name is Anne, so we're even there.
Ally had laughed at him for that and then melted all over again when he revealed he had a soft spot for stuffed animals -- even at 25. His favorite was a dolphin that he called Dougie and may or may not be on his bed at his condo in Los Angeles.
"I have a parakeet," she whispered, not really sure why. "His name is Owen. He lives with my dad in Miami and whenever I go back home, we have full conversations about all the days we spent apart. He loves popcorn. I have a gorilla named after me in Africa somewhere. I liked Shakespeare, but I love Frances Moore. I read 'Little Women' every Christmas," she rattled off to him.
"Wait, you have a gorilla named after you? How'd that happen?"
"My mom is an animal behaviorist and since I was 14, has lived in either Africa, India or Malaysia. I actually haven't seen her since I was 17," Ally told him, moving on to the gorillas before more questions were asked. Her and her mom's relationship wasn't the best, but it was okay. "But when she was in Africa, one of the gorilla's she was studying, Lula, gave birth to twins. She named one Ally, because she was creative and the other one she named after my best friend Trish. That gorilla was tough and bossy apparently, and slept a lot."
"I've never had an actual animal named after me. I think you win that one."
"We're keeping score?"
"Not really, but if we were, you'd win."
Ally felt his fingers brush through her hair. She had her arms folded, laying on top of his naked form and her fingers trickled across his defined chest. It was a quiet moment and one that she would soak up. As much as she tried to keep it in the back of her mind, him leaving was creeping back into the front...and she couldn't really avoid it any more. That panic and worried state she was in just a few weeks ago was back and it was swelling up in her throat. "Are you ready to go back?"
Austin's hand slipped over her head and down her bare arm. "No," he answered quickly. "Not ready at all."
"I graduate next week."
"We should meet in Miami," he told her. "Before everything is booked for me. I'm in Los Angeles until June and my family, we have this big thing in July every year. It's almost like the Fourth of July lasts the entire month for us. We do fireworks every weekend...it would be every day if my grandfather and great-grandfather had anything to say about it. We'll meet there and I'll show you off and take you out on the boat for a midnight ride and..."
"I thought I was supposed to be the girl in this relationship," she smiled up at him, lifting her own nude form up and crawling up to be closer to him, slipping next to him close. "My job starts in June. I'm not exactly sure I'd be able to take off like that."
"What if Austin Moon, the pop star, called in a favor?"
"As much as that would make my day..."
"Yea," his breath was heavy. "Douche pop star move there, right? I don't know when I'll be in New York though. My promo schedule won't be decided for weeks."
"You really want to make this work?"
"Don't you?"
"God yes," she told him, her own deep breath escaping her lips. Now she could be that stereotypical girl. "I want this to work so much. I didn't plan on you, on this. I don't think you planned on me either, but now that we have it, I don't want to give it up. I don't want to scare you away by saying stuff like this."
Austin smiled down at her, stealing a kiss from her in the middle of her rambling. "I would've run away the moment you scared off my fans if I was truly scared. I want us to work."
"Me too," Ally smiled back into him again, his lips so close to her own before she backed away a bit and looked up at him. "Wait, why weren't you scared away after that? I mean, I actually scared away your fans."
"Um...I don't want to say," he bit his lip before she used some less than charming antics to get him to confess. "I'm a guy. The way you were working that workout gear was more than enough for me to stay interested."
Ally playfully punched him. Yep, he was definitely a guy.