Love Hurt, Love stings, love huuuurts. Vanessa tried to locate the source of the sound. Oh, shit, it’s my phone! She quickly fished out her phone and pressed on all buttons at once in an attempt to silence it. How could she forget to switch her phone off, during her mission? This was amateurish even for a beginner like her. She didn't dare look in Alex's direction, scared he might have heard the signal.
“Ouch!” A hard knock on the top of the table startled her, she jumped up and bumped her head in the table. Slowly she put out her head and looked right into Alex confused eyes.
“Vanessa!” Alex looked at her in astonishment. ”What on earth are you doing here?” He sounded so aghast she immediately regretted the whole idea of coming here.
“I, I just wanted to see what you were up to,” Vanessa suddenly felt defensive. “And it seems as my feeling was right. This is not a business meeting!”
“No, Vanessa you’re right about that. But still, I really don’t understand why you’re sitting under a table spying on me?”
“Hmm, well. I’m sorry about that part I guess,” Vanessa said apologetic. “But you have to admit you lied to me about the meeting?”
“Perhaps I was but it was to protect Mitch, It just comes by habit. We always have meetings in secret, because of the paparazzi.”
“Is it Vanessa?” Mitch peeked at her from behind Alex back. “I need to apologize to you, for what happened at the Gala. I wasn't myself. I was drunk, I never meant to scare you or offend you.” Mitch seemed so sincere Vanessa felt sorry for him.
“It’s ok Mitch, let’s just forget about it, ok?”
“Really? That’s such a relief!” Mitch's eyes were tearing up and he turned around sobbing. Brunetti patted him on his back and put his arms around his shoulders as he led him away while giving Vanessa an angry look as if the crying was her fault.
In the car ride back to the village both Alex and Vanessa sat quietly. Vanessa had so many questions for him, but she didn’t know how to approach him when he looked so angry. Alex had looked angry for over an hour’s drive. It must be exhausting to wrinkle his forehead like that for such a long time, Vanessa thought.
“Hey, watch out so you don’t end up with that wrinkle in your forehead permanently,” she said in a vain try of joking to see if that might change the atmosphere. It didn’t. Alex didn’t answer and continued to sit in silence.
Vanessa sighed. Perhaps it had been a stupid idea to follow him, but her gut feeling had been right. Something had been going on. It wasn’t a business meeting he had been attending, it was an intervention for Mitch. Apparently, Mitch was in real danger and even if Alex was both angry and disappointed on Mitch for his behavior at the Gala. Brunetti had convinced him of coming.
After Mitch and Brunetti had disappeared from the lobby, Alex and Vanessa had gone for a walk and Alex had explained what was happening. After the Gala Mitch’s staff had been worried about him as he’d started chain smoking and drinking constantly. When he had left for Copenhagen and accidentally overdosed on magic mushrooms. Is that even possible? Vanessa had thought to herself, but Alex looked so concerned for his friend, she’d decided to let it go. They’d felt obliged to contact Alex and Brunetti for support and it was nothing but pure luck the press hadn’t found out. If they had, Mitch whole career could’ve been in jeopardy.
They’d decided to go talk to him, and after a long and difficult conversation, Alex and Brunetti had finally managed to convince Mitch that he needed to check into a rehab. It was a place in the states called the Garden of Peace. Mitch was already heading there on a private jet and Alex hoped he would stay for the whole program.
Vanessa hoped so too. Even after what he’d done she couldn’t help but liking him. He had a good heart, she could feel it. She even had told him that when they said their goodbyes outside the Motel, which led to Mitch again falling in tears and had to be led away by Brunetti. Mitch had been sobbing and dried his eyes on the older man’s shoulder and Brunetti had pulled off his suit jacket with a disgusted facial expression and tossed it into the backseat of his car.
They had left Brunetti standing alone on the parking lot as Alex had refused to go back with him and instead leaving with Vanessa to go back to the village.
Vanessa didn’t know for how long they were supposed to stay there, but she was happy for Alex´s choice. His hand was placed steadily on the stick and she touched it with hers, to see if she would get a reaction. Alex immediately took her hand in his and held it tight.
“You need to start to trust me, Vanessa.” Alex said sounding hurt, his eyes focusing on the road. She could hear he was still angry, but at least he talked to her, which was a good sign that he might at least consider forgiving her for spying on him.
“From now on I will always trust you,” Vanessa promised and leaned over and placed a kiss on his mouth. She meant it, she wanted nothing else than to trust him. She wasn’t sure she knew how, but she gave a promise to herself that from now on she'd really put in an effort to be more trustful.
Chapter 3
For the next few days, Vanessa, and Alex didn’t mention anything about what had gone down at the scruffy Motel. They just enjoyed being by themselves and took long walks in the village, went bicycling in the hills and smelled the different scents from the flowers and herbs at the stands in the village market. Vanessa almost felt as if all was forgotten when Alex during one of their picnics suddenly decided to went the subject.
“Vanessa,” he said with a soft voice. A voice she by now recognized as the one where he wanted to tell her something and didn’t wanted her to overreact. Which was not necessary since she never overreacted, or at least rarely.
“I can’t stop thinking about Mitch and how he’s doing over there,” he said.
“I know, me neither, but I think we should've heard something if he had left or doing worse at that place and It’s supposed to be great for people with his kind of problems, you said so yourself.” Vanessa said and tried sounding more sure of herself than she was.
In fact, she wasn’t convinced at all Mitch had settled in at the Garden of Peace. What she had understood he was in such a bad shape when Alex and Brunetti had decided on doing an intervention that she wasn’t at all sure some yoga lessons would be enough.
“Yeah, you are right,” Alex didn’t sound convinced. He laid down in the grass and stared at the cloud free sky.
“Can you believe he actually lived in a trailer park for over a week? He’d stayed there ever since he got back from Copenhagen. That’s crazy even for Mitch,” Alex closed his eyes.
“That was insane, I was in shock when I saw the place,” Vanessa agreed.
“Lucky they found him, though,” Vanessa said comforting and put her head on Alex's stomach.
Vanessa wanted to bring up the subject of Brunetti so she could tell Alex what she knew. But she hesitated. She knew it would upset him, and what if he wouldn't believe her? For some reason he trusted Brunetti with his life, she couldn’t understand why but guessed it was because Brunetti taken the role as Alex father figure ever since his parents died in that horrible plane crash. But now, when Alex was a grown man and didn’t need him in the same way she didn’t quite get why he depended on him so much. Perhaps it was time for him to learn what kind of person Gian-Carlo Brunetti actually was.
“You know Alex, the night we stayed at the yacht after the Gala,” she said almost whispering.
“Mm?”
“I heard something when I sat on the pool deck, I couldn’t sleep and went out to get some air. I accidentally overheard Brunetti talking on the phone with Mitch.”
“Go on,” Alex didn’t move but she could feel his breathing becoming faster.
“I heard him say some awful things about me, about you and me,” Vanessa paused, not sure on how to proceed. How was she supposed to tell him his guardian and father figure wanted him miserable, wanted to split them up so he could get Alex to marry someone with a royal status, just to be sure not to lose his priv
ileges as a prince? Maybe it was too much to take in for him right now with everything going on with Mitch.
“I’m listening,” Alex said, “what did you hear?”
There was no turning back, she had to come clean about what she'd heard.
“Gian-Carlo wanted me to leave you and go back to NY without you. He doesn't trust me being with you for who you are but seems to think I'm in it for the money.”
There, she finally said it, at least parts of it. Alex didn't say a word. He probably needs some time to take it all in, Vanessa thought when she heard a strange noise coming out of his mouth. Oh my god, he’s having a heart attack. What have I done?
She sat up and looked at Alex in alarm who was now on his knees, rolling around in the grass in convulsions. Was he crying? No, the guy was laughing. Alex was laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe and had to sit up. Vanessa just looked at him. Had he gone completely mad? This was no laughing matter!
“Oh Vanessa, my sweet, sweet Vanessa, you think I don’t know Gian-Carlo´s ways by now. He’s always been this way. He just keeps going on and on about me marrying a princess so I won’t lose my title. This damn title, I couldn't care less, for but it's so important for him. It’s all about his promise to my parents before they died. He’s an old man who takes his word very seriously. But he would never do anything to jeopardize my happiness. Trust me he would never do that.”
“Oh,” Vanessa felt a bit stupid. Perhaps she had overreacted after all and if it was as Alex said she had nothing to worry about, and maybe, but just maybe Brunetti wasn’t as bad as she had thought.
She looked at Alex who had laid down again with a smile on his face. “I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too, and don’t you ever worry about Gian-Carlo again. He’s harmless. It’s you and me now and he just needs to accept that.”
“You know I think I will set up a dinner for us three so we can talk and get him to relax. Yeah, that’s what I should do,” Alex seemed pleased with himself.
“Ok if you think that will work, I’m in,” Vanessa said and laid down next to him again.
Chapter 4
“What wine do you prefer?” Alex looked at her over the large menu he was holding.
They sat in the garden of the village restaurant, run by two brothers, which age was impossible to define, they could be 50, or they could be 102. It didn’t matter, as the food was impeccable, not to mention their dessert of chocolate cakes and strawberries. It was lovely.
Alex phone buzzed. He took a quick glance at it and then put it back in his pocket again.
He saw Vanessa's look and just shook his head.
“Nothing to worry about, it's Gian-Carlo, but he will text me if it's something important. And if it’s not a matter of life and death, he won’t. He hates it, he thinks the phones is too small these days and that his fingers can’t write a message on those tiny digits. He misses the old telegraph I guess,” Alex smiled.
As an answer to that, his phone buzzed again; “What now?” Alex mumbled a tad annoyed.
Vanessa watched him as he read the message and then read it again.
“What’s he saying? Is it Mitch?” She asked worried that something bad had happened.
“Maybe, it’s not clear but it’ seems as if I need to fix a few things,” Gian-Carlo is writing that Mitch needs some paper transferred and I need to sign them.
“What kind of papers? That sounds strange!” Vanessa looked at Alex who stared at his phone with frowned eyebrows. He looked worried.
“Yeah, but it’s probably nothing. I will just get Gian-Carlo to sign them and send them over.”
“Ok, great,” Vanessa was relieved. For a second she thought Brunetti would ask Alex to come to the city and she was starting to get quite tired of being interrupted at all times by that man.
Alex tapped in a message and then put his phone away again.
“Let’s see what’s for dessert shall we?” Alex sounded keen on not letting Brunetti destroy their romantic dinner.
Just as, their hot chocolate cake was about to be served, his phone buzzed once again. Alex ignored it and took a spoonful of cake, smiling at Vanessa.
It buzzed again.
“Alex, please just answer him. He won’t stop if you ignore him, you know that.”
Alex looked relieved, took his phone up again, and dialed Brunetti.
“Just a second babe, I’ll be right back to you and that chocolate cake,” he blinked at her and went up to make his call.
“That was quick,” Vanessa said as Alex approached just a few minutes later. “What did he want?”
Alex sat down on the chair next to hers, he playfully took her spoon, and fed her some of the chocolate.
“I have to go, Vanessa. Trust me when I say I don’t want to but I have no choice. It’s regarding Mitch. Apparently, he’s had some sort of breakdown at the facility over in the states and he’s ushering me to sign some legal documents stating I will be making all decisions regarding his medical situation in case he ends up on life support.”
“Life support?” Vanessa was shocked. Was Mitch in such a bad state he was considering suicide?
“I’m sure this is just one of these times when Mitch is being over dramatic, but I must sign the papers otherwise he will never calm down and might even run off from the program.”
“I’ll take my car and drive down to Nice tonight. I’ll be back in a few hours. You can finish up your dessert and walk back to the B & B and I’ll be back in time to tuck you in,” Alex winked and placed his hands around her waist.
“Hmm, I guess I have nothing to say on this matter,” Vanessa said in a low voice, afraid if she spoke louder, he would hear how angry she was. She knew it was wrong of her and maybe even childish to be jealous of Mitch and Alex friendship. However, she couldn’t help it. He would do anything for that man, but he would he do the same for her? She must learn to trust him. If he says he loves me, he does, she said to herself in her head as she gave Alex a kiss and told him she would wait up for him.
Alex looked pleased and headed out of the restaurant.
“Drive safe,” Vanessa called out after him.
“The faster I’ll go the faster I’ll be back,” Alex answered, winked an eye at her and blew her an air-kiss. “Love you babe, and see you soon. Don’t eat all of that cake now,” and with a smile he was gone.
Vanessa rested her back at the chair and sighed. Well, here she was again. Full of strange thoughts about Alex not being as truthful to her as he should be, but why? Had he ever lied to her? Yes, he had actually and that was the case, she couldn’t forget about it no matter how hard she tried. It had been for her own good when Alex had pretended to dump her and then convincing her boss at the hospital to sign her off to go with him as his personal nurse to France. He had later confessed he had been in no need of any medical staff and the reason to bring her was just to be alone with her and get her away from the hospital. Brunetti had put him in that situation when he had threatened to tell the hospital about their love affair and in order to protect her from being fired he promised Brunetti to break up with her. It had all been a fraud and as soon as they were on his private jet on their way to Cannes, Alex had told her all about it. She couldn’t forget her pain, though. She had felt a pain in her heart she almost thought was physical, but she understood it was just her heart aching for Alex. She had been devastated.
However, it wasn’t only that. She had a hard time not thinking about Alex past as a playboy, hitting all the nightclubs around the world with Mitch and Victoria Secret Models in tow. If she were honest to herself, this was her main problem when it came to trusting him.
Deep in thoughts Vanessa walked through the village to the B & B and for the first time she didn’t even noticed the beautiful stone buildings, the small antique boutiques, and the bakery where they used to buy fresh baguettes in the morning. It all had lost its shimmering filter somehow when Alex wasn’t there to coo over it with her. She felt alone and s
ad.
Back at the B & B, Madame Dupont had made their bed with fresh linen that smelled of a lavender field. She felt exhausted, all her thoughts were tiring, and she lay her head on the pillow without even bother to undress. Alex would be back soon, he could get that honor she thought, and with a smile, she fell asleep.
Slipping back and forth into sleep and consciousness Vanessa woke up, her head ached, and she felt confused. What time was it? Why did she have all her clothes on? She sat up to look for Alex when she remembered. He had gone off to Nice, he had been called in by Brunetti and interrupting their romantic dinner to head back to the city to sign papers for Mitch. But he should've been back by now? She reached for her cell to check the time. It was three in the morning.
She felt a sudden hint of alarm in her belly as she dialed Alex´s number. It went straight to voicemail. What was happening, was he safe? What if he had been in an accident again? That’s how they had met. Please don’t make this be the universe pulling a joke on me ending this in an ironical way the same way it all started. Vanessa couldn't help but think the worse. She hated that she always did that, but it came so naturally to her it was a hard habit to let go. She had to call Brunetti. No matter how much she hated that man she had to. She dialed the number, no answer. Oh no, this wasn't happening how could this be?
Romance: My Italian Prince, Undercover Love: Sweet Romantic Comedy Page 2
