<-I-L-A-<<<
I was speed driving through the streets of New York. It was eight in the morning when Marcella called me saying that Leo has left to pick up Matteo after he landed back in the U.S with his sister. It was a good thing she had someone drop off the car, like she promised, an hour prior. I had to make sure I get back to the mafia house before he does.
I looked at the rear view mirror before going into the far right lane to exit on the highway. As I did, I caught a glimpse of my messy bed hair and it reminded me of what I was currently wearing. I was driving as fast as the streets of New York would let me in my pajamas. I was out of my apartment once I got that call from Marcella. I dashed right out without thinking twice about my appearance. I didn't even leave I note for my brother. I sighed as I thought about Emmet. I don't know how I was going to tell Matteo about my brother but I rather not have him find out by realizing that I was not at the mafia house.
I decided to call Leo through the car Bluetooth system. It rang three times before he answered.
"Hey, Leo. Am I on speaker?"
"What's up, Ila?" He answered.
I frowned. I couldn't tell him to take his time without Matteo hearing.
"Morning, Ila." Matteo greeted me. It was obvious he was in the passenger seat.
"Hi, Matteo. Where are you at right now?"
"Leo just picked me up. We are on our way back to the mafia house."
"So like 30 minutes?" I asked.
"Yes," Leo answered.
I looked at my navigation. The estimated time of arrival to the mafia house at my surrender pace was also 30 minutes.
"We'll see you in a bit," Matteo said.
"Okay, bye. Drive safely and slow, Leo."
"Never," Leo replied.
>>>-M-A-T-T-E-O->
"Step on the accelerator, would you?" I asked Leo.
On my phone, Ila's tracker was advancing toward the mafia house. If Leo continues to drive like this, she'd get there before I would.
"I would but there is a car in front of me."
I looked up from my phone and saw that we were driving behind a slow car.
"Do you know why Ila would stay at her apartment when I was gone?"
"No clue, man," Leo answered.
Since I was on the tracker app, I looked for my sister. Right as the plane landed, she quickly grabbed her things and left with her friend, Roxany, before I could even a say a word. It showed my sister and Roxany heading to their other friend's house. Mona happened to live in Ila's neighborhood. I stopped looking at Serena's tracking and focused back on Ila.
I thought of nothing when I was in Italy and saw Marcella and Ila's trackers heading into the city where Ila lived. However, when I looked again while I was on the plane ride back to New York, it showed that Ila had stayed at her apartment for the night.
I fought the urge to call her and decided to handle it once I landed. In fact, I was going to go over to her apartment but Ila's tracker moved towards the mafia house and I decided to get there before she would.
I eased in my seat once I knew we were ahead of her.
We arrived at the mafia house before Ila and I told Leo to park in the garage. I quickly jump out of the car and headed out of the garage.
"Uh, Matteo? Your bags?"
"Worry about them later, I want to get out of this suit," I told him.
I got to my room and quickly change out of the suit and into sweats. I made sure to grab my ring of keys and my phone before exiting. On my way to Ila's room, I checked on my phone where she was at. She was about five minutes away.
Thanks to Marcella's OCD, the ring of spare bedroom keys were organized and I was able to open the locked door of Ila's bedroom. I walked to the far side of the bed and tucked myself under the covers, sitting up on the bed. Checking on my phone again, it showed Ila just arrived. I leaned over and peaked through the blindfolds of the window. Ila drove up the driveway and then parked, and quickly ran into the house.
I settled back into the bed and waited for her to come. Within a minute, I could hear Ila outside her door, breathlessly unlocking it. The door swung open and revealed a surprised Ila Archer.
"Matteo, what are doing here?" Ila asked, trying to recover from her shock.
Satisfied with her reaction, I smirked. I patted the empty space next to me, telling her to come and lay down with me. I visually took all of her in. Seeing her after 24 hours, I felt somewhat relieved and happy.
"You're scaring me," She said as she crawled under the covers.
"How so?"
"I expected you to be mad," She whispered.
"Who said I'm not?" I asked as I laid down, putting my arms around Ila to take her down with me.
"I-"
"I'll ask about it later. For now, I just want to sleep." I nudged her to come closer to me and she did. Ila had her head on my shoulder and her hand on my chest. I leaned my head on top of hers and smelt her hair. Her scent was different, probably from the different shampoo she had at her apartment.
"Do you want to sleep because you're jet-lagged?" She asked me, her breath fanning my neck.
"Yeah," I said, covering up the fact that I missed her.
<-I-L-A-<<<
Matteo was the first to fall asleep. I was scared to move my hand off from his chest, afraid that I'll wake him up. So I settled for watching my hand move up and down from the motion of his chest rising and falling as he breathed. Eventually, tiredness overcame me and I fell asleep to sounds of our breaths and the ticks of the clock that interrupted the silence.
I woke up to Matteo's arm around my waist, hugging me as we spooned. I wiggled from underneath to face him. The sunlight was hitting his face and I saw his closed left eye twitch. I moved my hand from under the covers and shield the sun from his face.
"You don't need to do that," Matteo said, opening his eyes. His voice came out husky and low as if he was trying to whisper. "I'm already awake."
I lowered my hand onto his cheek, cupping his face. This was supposed to be an intimate moment right? A moment that's supposed to build whatever we had going on between us. Even though things don't seem unclear when we are together, I'm uncertain of what we both wanted.
Matteo started into my eyes, occasionally moving his to scan the rest of my face. I closed my eyes, waiting for what I was expecting to happen. I'm certain of one thing: I was drawn towards Matteo and that'll hurt me. His lips finally landed on mine, he was kissing me like I've never kissed before. It was slow and deep, sending the heat from the blush on my face to every part of my body. Matteo maneuvered his way on top of me, hovering over as we continued to lock lips.
We pulled away from each other due to the lack of air in our lungs and he said, "I'm not going to pretend that it isn't bothering me. Why did you stay over at your apartment when I was gone?"
I gently nudged Matteo off of me. He unknowingly brought up my brother and that put me out of the mood. He flopped beside me and I answered him.
"My brother, Emmet, came to visit me."
"Why?" He asked.
"I was really hoping that you weren't going to ask that."
<~>
Yikes... how you all doing, boos?
Please like, comment, share, and follow :)