A T H E N A
"Y yo seré tu princesa, todo la noche yo seré tu princesa."
° ° °
After room service came, we got dressed.
I walk out of the bathroom and am surprised to see Vincenzo dressed in a white T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, with his hair ruffled up and no gel and some black glasses covering his eyes.
I'm so used to him dressed in suits that it's almost weird to see him in these kind of clothes. But even in a burlap bag, he'd look like a Greek God.
This look suits him, it makes him look younger and more care-free. He sends me a smile when he sees me. "You look good," he compliments me.
"I could say the same," I say to him. He stands up from the bed and walks over to me. "Are you ready?" he asks.
I nod. He puts his leather jacket on and grabs the key for the suite. After we get our belongings, we exit the suite and Vincenzo closes the door behind us.
We get downstairs and walk out of the hotel. The same black car that drove us around yesterday is waiting for us again. Vincenzo holds the door open for me, and I enter the car with him following behind me.
"Where to, Mr. Amoretto?" the driver asks from behind the window that separates us.
"Downtown New York," Vincenzo answers. I scoot closer to him and snuggle my face in his chest. He smells so good...
"Today, we're going to all the stores you went to yesterday, and we're going to buy the things you wanted," he says, his voice vibrating in his chest.
"We'll see about that," I say.
I'm really not planning on abusing him for his money, and he knows that. The car drives us through the busy streets of New York.
I see all those yellow taxi's drive by, stopping for people who need a ride. I see all these people rushing to – probably – their work, I see them jogging and talking to other people.
I raise my hand and start fiddling with the necklace around my neck – the one Chris gave me.
I fucked Vincenzo while wearing this necklace. Embarrassment washes over me and I feel horrible. Vincenzo looks down at the necklace and furrows his eyebrows.
He raises his hand and brushes my hair away from my collarbone, exposing the necklace. "Cute," he mutters, and wraps his hand around the thin material before he gives a slight tug at it.
The little sting at the back of my neck makes me realize he ripped the necklace off of me.
I gasp. "What did you do?" I ask him and watch him hold the necklace in his hands.
"Chris gave it to me!" I exclaim and reach my hand to the necklace, but he takes it out of my reach. "I know," he says and puts the broken accessor in his pocket.
"But I can give you more than some stupid necklace with no meaning to it," he says.
What?
That necklace had so much meaning to me! And now he broke it...
The rest of the ride remains silent until we pull up at a busy street.
"We're here, sir," the driver announces. Vincenzo gets out and holds the door open for me.
I accept his hand and he pulls me on the sidewalk. We're in the same street I was here yesterday, with all the expensive and cheap stores placed next to each other.
The fact that he broke my necklace still doesn't sit well with me.
"I don't have to work today, so that means I can spoil you," he smirks and looks at me from under his sunglasses.
Or don't spoil me at all.
He swings his arm around my shoulder and just like, that we start walking on the busy street.
° ° °
What I've learned from shopping with Vincenzo is that I can't look at something for 5 to 10 seconds or he buys it.
Literally.
He bought a really expensive looking bracelet and a pair of earrings along with some clothes.
We didn't go into the stores where I saw the shoes and dress yesterday because I didn't want him to buy it. We entered the Armani store because he needed some suits – because it's not like he owns a hundred – and shoes.
Right now, we're walking down the street, looking at the stores.
Throughout the day, I noticed women checking Vincenzo out and I felt extremely proud and some sort of possessiveness when he pulled me closer to him, as if indicating that he's taken.
"Athena, I know what you're doing," Vincenzo suddenly says. I frown, and look up at him.
"What?" I ask, genuinely confused. He chuckles.
"You're avoiding the stores you went to yesterday. But don't worry, I told my driver to note everything you looked at or anything you wanted but didn't buy," he says casually. My frown deepens. Wait, does that mean that...
As if reading my thoughts Vincenzo says, "That's right, mia cara. That dress and those shoes are hanging in your closet right now," he smirks, triumphantly.
My lips part, and my eyes widen. "Don't tell me you spend all that money on some stupid dress that costs way too much and those shoes I don't even need? Vincenzo, that's crazy!" I say, clearly not happy with this. He shrugs.
"What can I say? It's nothing, Athena. Don't worry about this, I can afford it," he says reassuringly. "But..."
He cuts me off by kissing my lips. "Just accept it, it's too late now," he whispers against my lips.
Look at it from the bright side. At least you got a really pretty dress and shoes.
I sigh and decide to let it go. But I promise myself that this will be the last time Vincenzo's going to buy something that expensive for me.
"Let's go over there," Vincenzo says and takes us to a what looks like a jewelry store. And it looks expensive. We enter the store, and start looking around. With still Vincenzo's arm around my shoulders, we look at some watches and bracelets.
My eyes fall on a golden necklace. It's so simple, yet so beautiful. It has a small diamond pendant and the material looks really fragile. I make the mistake of staring too long.
"You like it?" Vincenzo whispers, his mouth close to my ear. "No," I lie. He chuckles.
"Nice try," he says, before he calls over a worker of the shop. I screw my eyes shut, and scold myself for even looking at the expensive jewelry.
"How much?" Vincenzo asks the worker, nodding at the necklace. The worker tells us the price, and my jaw hits the floor while Vincenzo just nods.
"I want it," he says. I look up at him, with a look in the eyes that's probably telling him how crazy he is. "Vincenzo, I don't want it. I really don't want it. You don't have to..."
"But I want to," he says, with a tone that demands that I shut my mouth.
Which is exactly what I do. The man gets a key from his pocket and opens the lock to get the necklace. I grip Vincenzo's arm when we walk up to the counter.
"You really don't have to do this," I whisper to him, but he just ignores it and pays for the necklace.
That man is crazy.
The worker wraps the necklace in some thin paper before he places it in a little black box. He hands us a little black bag with the box in it.
"Thank you for your purchase," he says with a friendly smile. I return the smile before we both exit the store. Vincenzo's carrying all the bags with the things he bought, like a true gentleman.
I wrap my arms around his waist and let myself be happy. I actually like this, us walking around without anyone knowing or judging us.
And even though I know this is wrong, it also feels kind of right. I'm happy with Vincenzo. And I like walking the streets with him, not worrying about what others might think. I look up to him, at his sculpted face.
His sunglasses make him look a little more mysterious than he already is. He looks down at me and smirks, which I return by looking down at the ground with red cheeks. I lean more into his touch – if it's even possible.
After having entered more shops – Vincenzo bought a Rolex and some suits and shoes – we went back to the hotel. "Are you happy with the things we bought?" he asks. I lay my head on his chest.
"Yes, even though I told you several times you didn't need to buy them," I murmur against his shirt. He brushes the strands of hair away from my face, and places a kiss on my forehead. "Like I've said before; I wanted to," he says.
We arrive at the Four Seasons and get out of the car. Vincenzo walks to the back of the car and gets all our bags out of the trunk.
I ask if I can help carrying it, but he refuses and we both walk in the hotel. His arm is back around my shoulders. "You know," I begin when we walk into the lobby, "we also could've bought suits, shoes and all that stuff at Walmart or Target? That way it could've been much cheaper."
He chokes on laughter.
"Cosa? Walmart? Target? Baby, you think I'm going to buy my clothes and shoes there? Why stoop so low when I can afford Armani?" he chuckles with amusement, like those stores are like a disgrace. I scoff.
"Well, I happen to buy at a lot of those stores and I never heard you complain when I was wearing clothes from Target," I fire back. We arrive at the elevators, and I press on the button.
"A girl like you deserves better, and from now on you don't need to buy anything from there," he says.
"Oh my God, Vincenzo. What if I like buying stuff from those stores?" I ask. He sighs. "There's nothing I can do to stop you, can I, amore mio?" he asks sarcastically and raises his eyebrows.
I grin. 'Nope," I answer and stand on my tippy toes, pressing a kiss to his lips. The corners of his lips turn up into a beautiful smile.
Right then, the doors of the elevator open and we step inside. This time we're alone and Vincenzo presses the button for the top floor. My phone suddenly pings in my pocket, signaling I got a message. When I get my phone out of my pocket, I see it's Lucy who sent me a message.
I unlock my phone and go to messages, checking what she sent me. My eyes widen as I take in the content of it.
Lucy; Guess what, I was shopping yesterday and do you know who I ran into? Funny thing, I ran into FUCKING CHRIS! You have some serious explaining to do, young lady. I managed to hide before he noticed me, because I'm guessing you ALSO told him you were on a trip with me? Where are you Athena? I'm worried about you.
"Shit," I curse under my breath, and rake a hand through my hair. "What's wrong?" Vincenzo asks from behind me. I turn to him.
"Lucy found out about my lie."
First Nate finds out about Vincenzo and me, now Lucy knows I lied to her.
I fear who else is on the list of finding things out. I could've all avoided this if I told the truth. I should've told Chris but I was too much of a coward to do so.
Lucy is my best friend and normally I tell her everything but I was too envious of her beauty and what she could do. And my parents...
I turn to Vincenzo.
"I think it's time to tell them the truth."