Leonardo's POV.
I open my eyes and the blinding light coming from the big window falls directly on my eyes. I put my hand over my eyes to prevent the light from making me temporarily blind and make an effort to move and close the curtain. When I try to get up, something holds me back, not letting me go. I turn my head on my right, and see Amelia beside me, her leg thrown over my stomach, and her arm thrown over my chest. Her head is buried on the crook of my neck.
And I thought she wanted to sleep as far as possible from me.
I gently try to move her arm from my chest, but unconsciously she snuggles more and holds me tight. I take a look at her face. I can only see the half of it, but even the half of it look beautiful. I look closely at her small freckles on her nose and her long eyelashes, her pink full lips... Her mouth is slightly open, which causes her to do a light snoring sound. Her hair has fallen lightly on her face, and I tuck it behind her ear.
Beautiful.
Just in that moment, Amelia opens her eyes, and hers meet mine for 0.0001 seconds. She just continues to look at me, and me doing the same. Then she speaks.
"Um, what are you doing?"
Fuck, she caught me staring at her. "Um, what am I doing?" I ask innocently.
"Why are you on my personal side of the bed?"
I almost burst out laughing. And I thought she caught me staring, or maybe she did but didn't say anything. "Your personal space? I think you mean my personal space."
She makes an 'huh' kind of expression, and raises her head. She looks behind her and realises that she was the one who moved on her sleep and came to my side of the bed. She takes a look at me again, and then at her arm which is resting on my chest and her leg which is resting on my stomach. She makes eye contact with me and then gets up with the speed of light.
Which causes her to fall on the floor.
Bump.
"Fuck the fuck!" She says. I can't help but chuckle.
"Need help?" I say, looking at her from above the bed. I extend my hand for her to grab it, but she doesn't grab it very tight and when I make an effort to pick her up from the ground, I lose balance and fall on the floor too.
Actually, on top of her.
She lets out a squeal. I look at her and she looks at me. Then suddenly, we burst out laughing. Hard. After getting our composure, we just continue looking into each other's eyes.
"What a great way to start the day, huh?" She says sarcastically.
"Yeah, totally." I reply. But I mean it.
"Um, can you get off me now? Or do you want to stay like this all day?"
"Actually, why not?" I wink at her.
She blushes.
"Umm... You have a meeting ahead of you."
Shit. I check the time on my wristwatch. 14:25.
"What the hell?!" I exclaim, getting off from Amelia. I help her getting up, and I start searching through my wardrobe for a formal business suit. "How did we sleep for so long? Oh God, I have only twenty minutes left to go to the restaurant and meet him."
"What?" I hear Amelia squealing. "Oh God what will I do first in twenty minutes?"
We both start dressing up (of course Amelia changes inside the bathroom), fixing our hair and wearing our shoes. Amelia puts on a little makeup and we both run out of the hotel room.
"Good morni-" One of the employees starts to say but I run past him with Amelia behind me and almost throw him away.
We run out of the building and I quickly unlock the car. We both hop in and I press the gas pedal as hard as I can. I drive really fast and Amelia almost screams.
"If I die today, it is all your fault!"
"If I am late to the meeting, we will all be killed by my father!" I reply back, and press the gas pedal harder. I hear some honks towards me probably because I almost crashed into some cars, but we make it out alive.
We run toward the restaurant and I check the time. It is exactly 14:45. So it means I'm not late and thank Goodness. I see Mr. Jordan seated in one of the chairs around the table by the window, and walk towards him with Amelia hand-to-hand. I really need her support and comfort right now.
Mrs. Jordan notices me and gets up from his chair.
"Hello, Leonardo Jonathan McConnell, the son of Patrick McConnell. How are you?" He extends his hand toward me and I gently shake it.
"Hello, Mr. Jordan. I'm fine, thank you. But please, just Leonardo."
"And this beautiful lady is?" He asks, directing the question to Amelia.
"Hello sir. I'm Amelia, Leonardo's..." She stops mid-sentence and looks at me.
"She's my friend." I continue her sentence. Her eyes sparkle.
"Nice to meet you. Please sit." He gestures us. Amelia sits besides me and Mr. Jordan sits on the opposite side.
"So, how is your father?" He asks.
"Oh, he's perfectly fine. Busy with work, you know how he is when it comes to the company." I reply.
"Haven't seen him in a long time. I thought he was coming but then sent you instead. But I'm glad he did, because I have the opportunity to meet you face-to-face. So, I heard you got involved in McConnell's company lately. Why didn't you work there before?"
I think for a reply for some seconds. Of course I wasn't going to tell him what happened that made me take this decision. "Well, business world wasn't really my thing. But now, I am going to help my father with the company from now on, because it needs a devisee." I tell him.
"That's great. Your father should be really proud of you."
Yeah, he should but he's not.
Amelia looks like she noticed my hard expression and gently squeezes my hand from under the table. I look at her and she smiles. How can she make me feel good with just a smile?
"So, I guess now that you run the company, you have plans on getting married also?" Mr. Jordan asks suddenly, and I almost choke on my saliva.
"Marriage? Oh no, it is far away from my plans." I tell him, but he just shakes his head.
"Come on, your father has told me that you and Jennifer, the daughter of Mr. Bernardo Jerry, one of our partners will be your wife in the future. Are you engaged with her?"
Dad and his pride.
"No, sir."
Mr. Jerry frowns. "Okay Leonardo. But I'm telling you, you shouldn't let that girl Jennifer go. She is smart, comes from a rich family, is well educated, and a real young lady. She suits you. And of course you are going to marry a woman like her. You aren't going to marry a receptionist, or a housekeeper are you?" He laughs, but Amelia's expression changes. She clenches her fist under the table.
"Sir, don't get me wrong, but I would like to talk about the contract." I change the topic, and Amelia throws me a look which I can't decipher what it means.
"Okay Leonardo. Let's order something to eat meanwhile we talk."
***
The meeting ends two hours later. I say my goodbyes to Mr. Jordan and he tells me to meet him at his office five days later to sign the contract. Amelia on the other hand, just shakes his hand and leaves quickly. I follow her and grab her hand.
"Hey, are you okay?"
She looks at me with her eyes full of tears. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"It is because of what Mr. Jordan said, isn't it? Don't listen to him, he's just a old fat man." I try to make her feel better.
"No, I'm perfectly fine. I mean, why would I get his words personally? It's not like you're going to marry me and I might just happen to be a housekeeper." She wipes her tears away.
I grab her other hand and look her in the eyes. "Amelia, I just want you to know that you are really important to me. Rich or not, a princess or a housekeeper, I don't care. I just have to say thank you for being here with me today, and every day."
Amelia just continues to look at me straight into the eyes, and smiles. "I am?"
I smile back. "Yes you are, silly."
"Oh, you're making jokes now?" She asks, teasing.
"Well, a small joke never hurt anyone." I laugh, and hug her. She hugs me back and I inhale her hair.
Strawberries.
She lets go of me and I grab her hand. It was just a reflex for me these days. Her hand makes me feel secure and safe.
"Do you want to go somewhere?" I ask her.
She raises her head and looks at me, since she is short. Short, but cute. "Um, me and you? Together?"
"Yeah, I mean, if you want to."
"Well, okay then." She smiles. "How about we go to the cinema?"
I frown.
She looks at me with a puzzled expression. "What? You don't want to go there?"
"Please don't tell me we're going to watch a corny movie about love." I pout.
Amelia laughs. "Oh God, well I'm a romance freak so yeah. But we can watch something else if you want to. Like those sci-fi or action movies or something. Just please, not horror ones."
I laugh out loud. "Why? Are you scared of them? You can hold my hand, you know?" I say unconsciously, those words slipping out of my mouth.
"Oh, so we're going to watch a horror movie for your own benefits, huh?" She laughs it off, and I am glad that she didn't make a big deal out of my words.
"Let's just see what movies are available there." I suggest.
"Well okay." Amelia agrees.
We drive to the cinema and look at the posters to see which movies were showing up.
"The fault in our stars?" She squeals. "I love this movie!"
I roll my eyes. "What's with you girls and these romantic but impossible love stories?"
"A-ha!" She points her finger at me. "So you have seen the movie."
Okay, she caught me off guard. "Yes but only because my cousin Bethany wanted to when she came once to my apartment and made me watch it with her." I lie. God knows how much fun she's going to make of me if she learns that I watched this movie with my own will.
"Well okay then. I have seen it numerous times so let's find another movie. What about this one?" She points her finger to the 'Five Feet Apart' poster.
"Come on, it's the same as The Fault In Our Stars."
She throws me a look. "Did your cousin Bethany make you watch this movie with her too?"
"Yes!" I lie again.
She just rolls her eyes. "Okay then, what about this one?" She points her finger to the 'After' movie.
"I haven't seen this one." I say.
"Me either." She shrugs.
"So, are we going to watch it?"
She nods.
I go to buy two tickets, and after bying them, I also buy popcorn and a cotton candy for Amelia. I give her the cotton candy and she seems surprised.
"You bought me cotton candy?"
I shrug. "Yeah, no big deal. I thought you liked cotton candies."
Amelia smiles excitedly. "I do, thank you."
We get inside the cinema room and take our seats. Soon, the movie starts, and we focus our eyes on the big screen.
***
The movie ended and me and Amelia left from the cinema to take a walk. Amelia still had tears falling from her eyes.
"Jesus Christ, what are you even crying for?" I ask her.
"I'm crying because the movie was very good and there's no way I'm not going to cry when I see a romantic movie." She replies, wiping her tears away.
"Even if it has a happy ending?" I ask.
"Even if it has a happy ending." She repeats my words.
"Girls." I roll my eyes. "Actually the movie was pretty messy."
She stops walking and sits on a bench. "I think it was pretty good."
I sit beside her. "If you call 'good' sleeping with an asshole you met in college while you have a boyfriend and later break his heart and tell him you don't love him anymore, I don't know what to say to you."
"Well at least she was honest to her boyfriend about it. And yeah, the college guy wanted to take advantage of her but later fell in his own trap. And later they were a couple."
"She didn't even get together with that asshole in the end."
Amelia furrows her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
I turn to face her. "Well, she just came back to college and sit beside him on the dock and they just stared at each other and bam, the end of the movie. They didn't say anything so how can you know they got back together?"
"The eyes chico, the eyes never lie." She crosses her arms over her chest.
"So you're telling me you know they got back together because of the way they were looking at each other?" I ask.
"Yes, just like that. You can clearly see when someone loves a person by the way he looks at him or her. It's a fact you can't deny." She says.
I listen to her words carefully. How can a young girl like her know so much about love?
"Can we go back to the hotel now? I think it's starting to rain soon. The sky is full of gray clouds." Amelia says.
I get up and grab her hand. "Let's go."
She looks at our hands for a moment, smiles, and we go towards the car. We hop in and some minutes later we arrive at the hotel. Soon, it starts raining and we hurry up to get inside as fast as possible to not get wet. Thankfully, we don't get wet and go to our room. We start changing into some comfortable clothes and then throw ourselves on the bed like little kids. We start giggling like crazy.
"Okay, what's wrong with us?" I ask, still laughing.
"I don't even know, I think the rain made us go nuts." Amelia replies, looking at me.
We get our composure after some minutes.
Silence.
"You know?" Amelia says, looking at the ceiling.
"What?" I ask, looking at the ceiling too.
"I like this version of you better."
I get confused. "What do you mean?"
She exhales, and then continues. "You know, you seem more chill and full of light now. You have started making jokes, also you have started laughing more often. And I like this about you. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the other side of you: the authoritative and firm is bad. But I like to see that you seem more full of life right now, at least to me it looks like it."
She's completely right. I've changed.
Lately I have been more vivid, more lighthearted. And it's all thanks to Amelia (and her stubbornness). She changed me for good, and I am glad she came into my life. Before she was in it, I was lost. My mind just kept thinking about Tamara and how my life would've been with her. But, there is no point in holding on to the past, but to see forward to the future. I will never forget Tamara, of course she will be the girl I loved the most in this world, but I have to continue my life.
Tamara wouldn't have wanted to see me suffer.
***
The days went by, and it was the time to sign the contract with Mr. Jordan. I met him at his office and of course all the media was there to publish the news that two of the most powerful companies in the world are working together from now on. As always, Amelia was beside me. She assured me with her amazing smile that everything was going to be just fine, and of course I felt more relieved. Paparazzi took pictures of me and Mr. Jordan and before I knew it, we were on every news channel and on the first page of every magazine and newspaper.
My phone goes off and I press the green button.
"Hello?" I answer.
"Hey son. I saw that you signed the contract. Congratulations!" My dad speaks from the other side of the phone.
"Yeah, of course you heard. I am everywhere now."
"If you want to come home, now you can. If you don't want to, you can stay a few days more, you deserve some vacations for your good work!" My dad congratulates me.
"I'll see and decide. Bye dad, talk to you later!"
"I'm proud of you son!" I hang up the phone, and slam it lightly on the table, which makes Amelia flinch a little. We are having lunch in a restaurant, to celebrate the occasion.
"So, it was your dad?" She asks.
I nod.
"Why are you, I don't know, angry?" She asks hesitantly.
I drink some water before replying. "Sorry. It's just that, he has never been proud of me before, but now he is just because of a piece of paper."
Amelia swallows. "Well, better late than never." She laughs to brighten up the atmosphere, but I don't feel like smiling.
"When I won the race in second grade, he wasn't there. When I won the science award in fifth grade, he wasn't there. When I won the singing contest in the first year of high school, he wasn't there. And even when I used to tell him how happy I was because I won all these prizes, he just said to me: all these prizes mean nothing. The biggest prize will be when you work beside me in the company and everyone will know you." I clench my fists.
Amelia grabs both of my hands, and smiles lightly at me. "Maybe your father was proud of you but he didn't show it."
I furrow my eyebrows.
"Maybe he thought that if he spoiled you since you were a kid, you would turn into a vain person. And he wanted you to work hard and see you running a company to finally tell you he is proud of you and has always been."
I consider her words for a moment, but debate with her. "No, he has never been proud of me. Even if he didn't want to show it, at least I would have felt it. But I never saw a hint of light and happiness in his eyes. All I saw was arrogance and coldness."
Amelia sighs. "Well, let me say I am proud of you."
I bring her hand to my mouth and kiss the top of it. I see a hint of blush on her cheeks, but she tries to hide it behind her hair.
"So... You won a singing contest?" She asks suddenly, and to be honest I feel a little surprised that she paid this much attention to my words.
"Yeah, I was in the first year of high school and was very passionate about music. I can play the guitar too, but now I have neglected it." I say. I can't remember when it was the last time I played the guitar.
"Can I hear you play it sometimes?" Amelia asks, smiling.
"Why not?" I shake my head. "Also dad said we could stay here for a few more days if we wanted to."
She thinks for a moment. "It would be great but I think we have to get there before Christmas. I have never spent it without Jonah so it's better if we get back."
I nod. "Okay, I don't think there is a point staying here for a few more days too. Let's leave tonight."
She nods.
After finishing the lunch, we leave from the restaurant and go back at the hotel. It is 3:25 pm, and the flight is at 7:30. So we have four hours until then. Amelia starts packing her clothes to not leave it in the last minute, and I do the same too. We finish packing, and sit on the couch and watch a random movie.
"So, it's Christmas tomorrow, huh? She asks rhetorically.
"Yeah, to be honest I never celebrate these holidays."
She looks at me. "Why?"
"Because it's December, the month I hate the most." I say, referring to the event which took Tamara away from me.
"Oh..." Amelia sighs. "What do you usually do these days though? I mean, do you go somewhere or just lock yourself up in the apartment?"
"Mom and dad go visit their relatives, meanwhile I just stay in the apartment with Jason and Parker. In the New Year's Eve, I just disappear." I let out a humourless laugh.
"Where to?"
I sigh. "Nowhere in particular. As I said, I just disappear."
Amelia notices that I don't want to talk about it, and lets the topic go.
Hours pass by, and I realise it is the time for us to leave and go back to New York. I call my personal pilot to tell him to get the jet ready.
"Hey Robert, I am leaving to New York right now. Get the jet ready."
"Sir..." Robert speaks.
"Yeah?"
"There is a storm coming in the next hour, we can't risk and fly back to New York. The synopticans said that it is going to snow and the weather will go crazy."
"Oh, okay then Robert, thanks. We're leaving tomorrow night if the storm is going to calm down." I hang up.
Amelia comes inside the living room. "So? Are we leaving?"
I shake my head. "There is a storm coming and we can't fly. Maybe tomorrow night."
"Oh, okay... I guess I will spend this Christmas away from Jonah." Amelia says sadly.
"Hey..." I get up and walk towards her. I raise her chin with my index finger, making her look me in the eyes. "We can call him and explain to him the situation, I'm sure he will understand. And also, you're not alone. You have me."
She just looks into my eyes, and smiles. "I know."
__________________________________________________________________________________
I can officially say, the next chapter will have the sweet tea y'all have been waiting for. So be prepared ;)
Also I'm going on a trip with my friends soon and I am really excited :D (this has nothing to do with the book but just felt like telling you guys)
ALSO I HAVEN'T THANKED YOU GUYS FOR 1.56K+ READS. I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU <3
PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT <3
-Love, Angela 💫