“They really love you here,” Marco says to me during a mid-afternoon lull.
“You know it’s kind of silly but I’m glad my memory is gone in moments like these. Hearing them say such touching things, it fills me up with joy,” I confess as I wipe down the espresso machine.
We get back to work when I hear the click, click, click of a pair of high heels and my eyes perk up. I haven’t forgotten my fashion sense—it sounds like Valentino. I turn away from the machine towards the granite counter and see a tall woman with long brown hair striding towards me. She’s wearing an extremely short dark blue Gucci dress, and she hasn’t cracked a smile yet. She definitely looks out of place in this caffé.
“Ciao, welcome to Stella’s,” I say, mustering my fakest customer service smile. She drops her blue Chanel clutch on the counter a little too violently and looks up at me with iced cold brown eyes.
“Buongiorno Elena,” she says in the highest pitched voice I’ve ever heard. Nails on a chalkboard kind of voice. She knows me? This woman acts nothing like the others I’ve met so far. If we’re friends, then I feel instantly embarrassed that I just welcomed her to the caffé like a complete stranger. Oh well, let’s blame it on the amnesia.
“I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name.”
“Elena dearie, I’m Victoria, your friend. I heard about your little memory issue,” she says, waving her hand around her own head, “And wanted to stop by to see how you were doing.”
Little memory issue? Did she put a strong emphasis on the word ‘friend’? This woman does not seem nice—why are we friends?
“Grazie for coming to check on me. Could you help me try to remember you? How did we meet?”
“Through my ex-boyfriend … Leonardo.”
Whoa what!? Why am I dating one of my friend’s ex-boyfriends? I think that’s against some kind of girl code. I have never been a homewrecker before. If I can’t get my own man, then I don’t want someone else’s.
“I’m sorry. You dated Leonardo? When did you break up?”
The woman huffs, sounding super bored with this conversation, and she picks at her long fingernails, avoiding eye contact with me.
“Elena, I’m sorry I don’t have time to go into all these details. I’m late for a luncheon. Get me an iced espresso with a dash of water.”
Damn, she’s bossy to her ‘friends’!
I work on her drink, but my mind can’t stop wondering about who exactly this woman really is. Did I end her relationship with Leonardo? She’s okay with me dating him and us being friends? Why haven’t any of my other friends mentioned her?
“Have you met Gabriella yet?” Victoria says, as I ring up her order and she hands me her credit card.
“Gabriella? Is she one of our friends too?”
“Well, now that I think about it, you don’t really like her. You caught Gabriella and Leonardo making out at his birthday party, a party he brought you to, but you know she may still be hanging around.” She quickly downs her shot, leaving the empty cup on the counter, completely ignoring the fact that she’s just dropped a bomb, and adds, “I can’t stand around and chit-chat all day. Some of us have hard work to do. Ciao ciao!”
And just like she click, click, clicked those Valentino heels into the coffee shop, she turns around and clicks away in a big hurry.
What the fuck just happened? I’m surely not in Michigan anymore.
Leonardo and I have dinner plans tonight that I should get ready for, but I just can’t stop thinking about what that Victoria chick said. Leonardo cheated on me? But I clearly took him back, right? Fuck this amnesia! I want my memories back right this second!
Before my pity party can go on, I hear a loud knock at the door. Time to get your answers, Elena! Don’t let him skate around your questions. This is the kind of pep talk I need because, outside of a boardroom, I’m not good with confrontation.
I open the apartment door and Leonardo stands there looking devastatingly handsome in a button-up dark purple dress shirt and dark black jeans with black dress shoes. He looks relaxed yet refined at the same time. His emerald eyes shine and light up his olive skin. Man, why does one guy have to look so sexy? Snap out of it!
“Ciao handsome!” I say, immediately regretting the flirting. I remind myself that I’m on a mission to get to the bottom of our relationship. Bottom … yeah that’s where I’d like to be. Oh my god, play a little hard to get woman! #Mortified #Horny
“Ciao bella, you look stunning,” he says as he puts his hand on my lower back and escorts me out of the apartment. We meet his driver, Mateo, at the bottom of the stairs on the small street outside and step into his black luxury town car. The car soon smoothly drives away.
“Did you have a good day at work?” I ask to break the silence. Is this the kind of stuff we talk about?
“It was non-stop meetings all morning, and then we had to host team members from around the country in our office to work on a big project we are about to launch,” he replies as he scoots himself closer to me. I can smell his cologne—leather, woodsy, and pure man.
“Meetings are the worst! I established a 15-minute ‘quick meeting’ rule at our company so that everyone can get in and get out with the best ideas without having to sit around and make small talk about bullshit,” I blab.
Not saying a word, Leonardo looks at me with his mouth hanging open like I have three heads.
“What’s wrong? Do I have something in my teeth?” I say while I hurry to reach for a compact in my clutch. Please don’t tell me I’ve got a piece of lemon pepper shrimp scampi from lunch stuck in my teeth! My luck would be to go on a date with a completely gorgeous stud and have spinach in my teeth.
“No your teeth are perfecto. I’m sorry, I’m not used to hearing you talk about your work. I like hearing your ideas, you are very smart, and it’s a turn on. I hope you can share more ideas with me about your company’s policies.”
“Wait, what? We are dating and I never talked about my work? I eat, sleep, and breathe my work. This doesn’t sound like me at all.”
If I didn’t win him over as a fellow CEO, then what the hell did we talk about?
He looks into my eyes intensely.
“I actually did not know what you did back in America until after the shooting when your sister told me in the hospital. I felt a little foolish finding out that way. I knew your work had something to do with social media, but that’s all you’d ever say. You never really told me just how successful you were. You seemed to avoid the topic when I’d bring it up, and I didn’t want to press you.”
I look out the window at the old buildings passing by and then back at Leonardo.
“Wow. I wonder why I didn’t say anything?” I look up at him and we both have puzzled looks on our faces. “Maybe I was trying to get away from the string of terrible boyfriends I had in America. I dated guys that only wanted me for my money or to connect them with someone they thought would make them successful too.”
I suddenly feel embarrassed for confessing this. Way to make yourself seem like a catch!
“Bella, I don’t know why you didn’t open up about your past life with me, but I do know that none of those things matters to me. You can work in a caffé for the rest of your life and I will love you. You can run a social media empire and I will feel the same. Your personality, your heart, your beauty, and even your sarcastic wit draw me in to you.”
Be still my heart.
This guy makes me feel like I’m a rock star. How does he find just the right words to say to touch my heart?
The car stops and we’re outside a cute restaurant that looks like it’s in the countryside. Twinkling ropes of outdoor lights make the patio look romantic, and I have this feeling in my stomach that I’ve been here before.
“Leonardo, have we been here before?” I say as I climb out of the door Mateo opens for me.
“Si, this restaurant belongs to a family friend of mine and I brought you here to meet him. Do you remember anything about yo
ur visit?”
Leonardo’s emerald eyes study my face. I know he’s hoping memories are flooding back in this moment.
“Sadly, no. I don’t remember being here before. I just had a feeling like I knew this place. It’s hard to explain,” I say, feeling a little defeated and hoping I don’t sound crazy.
“That’s okay cara, let’s go enjoy our date. We can make new memories here.”
Dinner is lovely—great food and great company. I can see why I made it a point to hit the gym—the food in Italy is ridiculously amazing and I could easily gain a good 30 pounds if I wasn’t careful. Tonight we started with a small serving of bacon and scallops potato gnocchi, followed by arugula and roasted fruit salad with panettone croutons, and then our main course of fettuccine Alfredo. And let’s not forgot about the endless bread dipped in olive oil! Oh. My. God. To freakin’ die for. #Mouthwatering #CarbsOverload
I meet Zio Armando and his granddaughter, Abrianna, for what I’m told is the second time. They both embrace me into tight squeezes and double-cheek kisses. I’m glad to add them to the collection of friends I’ve made so far. Speaking of friends, I don’t know how to bring up the subject of my very questionable friend and the gossip she dropped on me at work this morning. But there’s no better time than the present.
“Leonardo, who is Gabriella?” I whisper because I can’t believe I’m throwing this topic out there so ballsy. Do we talk about intimate things? We didn’t even talk about what I did for a living.
“Elena, where is this question coming from? Who told you about Gabriella?” Leonardo asks as he puts his napkin on the table. So he’s not denying her existence. Maybe he really did cheat on me. Not again with another cheater!
“Does it really matter who told me? That doesn’t change the fact that I asked you about her. I’d like you to answer me, please.”
He hasn’t even answered yet, and I feel myself shrinking back into my old defensive shell. I shut down completely when I feel I’m being treated like I’m worthless.
“Cara, Gabriella was a woman I went on dates with before I knew you.”
“What about at your birthday party?” I fire the question out at rapid speed, trying not to lose my strength.
He wipes his eyes with his hands, like this conversation is draining him, and then reaches across the table to grab my hand. I pull mine back quickly and place it in my lap. No, no, no! I didn’t take a bullet for a cheater.
“My birthday party was a mistake. You and I had not established yet that we were going to be exclusive. Before you, I was never exclusive with anyone—no one ever meant anything to me. At the party, you saw Gabriella and I kissing and you stormed off. We had a huge fight and we split up, but I promise you that we talked and worked through all of this. We now have a better understanding of what each other wants and what we can give.”
I feel my hands tighten into fists out of frustration. “Please enlighten me, what exactly do we want and what can we give? This doesn’t sound like me whatsoever.”
“We decided, after you turned down my offer to be lovers, that we would be friends.”
So many things are wrong with what he just said. #WTF
“Lovers? Friends? I thought you were my boyfriend!?” My head is spinning and I feel like I may throw up. I think I have tunnel vision or a bad case of vertigo. I grip the table because my dizziness may actually cause me to fall out of my seat.
“Elena, this is so hard to describe. Our relationship means the entire world to me, but I don’t want to lie and tell you that we were something we never officially defined before the shooting. I could lie and say si you were my girlfriend. But we never said that.” He pauses to look me square in the eyes. “I never did ‘friends’ with a woman before you. I never did anything official with anyone either. I never did long-term. That was not the man I was or wanted to be. We wrote new rules together for our relationship. But I can tell you this, before the shooting I was ready to make you mine, and then you ran off—”
“I ran off? We fought before the shooting?”
“Si. You tried to break up with me out of nowhere and then you ran across the street to flee. The paparazzi noticed me and started taking pictures like crazy, and then the next thing I know you are rushing back across the street screaming at the top of your lungs.”
“I wanted to break up with you but I still took a bullet for you? Why?”
I didn’t mean to say that aloud. Why can’t you just think in your head for once Elena?
Even though the question is valid and I do want an answer, I wish I didn’t say it to him. Leonardo’s face falls, and he looks like I slapped him. I bet he’s already been kicking himself thinking the same thing, so why did I have to go ahead and put it in the air between us? #Asshole
“I’m sorry for being so rude. I need to go home now. I’m feeling really dizzy and would like to just lie down and think about all of this. It’s a lot to take in. Everything I’ve been thinking seems to have changed in an instant.”
Leonardo doesn’t push me to stay longer or to talk anymore. We say ciao, ciao to both Zio Armando and Abrianna, and then Mateo drops me off at my apartment after a quiet car ride.
5
My brain will not shut off. Leonardo dropped me off a few hours ago and I just can’t sleep. I’ve tossed and turned in my king bed without being able to wrap my head around tonight’s dinner conversation.
At 1 a.m. I decide to do what I should have done right away.
“Hello,” says a very groggy sounding Sophie over the line. I didn’t take into consideration I’d be calling my best friend at 7 a.m. in Michigan on a Saturday.
“Soph, I need to talk to you.”
“Elena, is everything alright?” Her voice becomes clearer, and she’s sounding alert and worried.
“I had a talk with Leonardo tonight after some woman came into the caffé saying she was my friend. I brought up what she told me to Leonardo at dinner and was pretty surprised what I learned.
“I confronted him about an ex-girlfriend named Gabriella, who I guess he cheated on me with. Then I found out that we weren’t really ‘boyfriend-girlfriend’ like I assumed we were. Also he says I was breaking up with him before I got shot. And—”
“Okay girl, slow your damn roll. Let’s start with this so-called friend. Who is she?” Sophie asks me as she cuts off my endless ranting.
“She said her name was Victoria.”
“Victoria! That stupid cunt. I can’t believe she’s back and messing with you again. You have freakin’ amnesia! I am going to call Delta and get myself a flight out there immediately so I can punch this bitch in her face!”
I move my phone away from my ear because Sophie is screaming into it like a lunatic. I’ve never heard her this fired up before—and I’ve seen her work some killer deals in a boardroom to land major clients. She kicks ass—but this Victoria person seems to have hit a nerve even with her.
“Soph, I have never heard you call someone the ‘c’ word before. What has gotten into you? Who is this Victoria chick anyway? I need to understand what’s going on. Lucy, you’ve got some ’splain to do …”
Sophie pauses before she starts to give me the details. I know this is going to be good; it’s rare when she’s quiet.
“She’s some super nasty bitch who was trying to move in on Leonardo the whole time you were with him. You are definitely not friends and you do not like her. She does not like you either. I’ve personally never met her but I’d love to. She’s a friend of Leo’s super nasty mom and they weren’t nice to you. But I thought you were growing a pair and not caring about what those women have to say about you. And I have no idea about the breakup. You never mentioned that you were thinking about doing that.”
“Leonardo’s mom doesn’t like me?” I ask, feeling defeated.
“Elena, after everything I just said that’s what you have a question about? I don’t understand why you are still like this.”
“Like what?”
“Feeli
ng like you aren’t good enough for anyone. You run the world in business, you literally take names and crush competitors, but when it comes to men you never give your heart away because you’re always on the defense, acting like you aren’t good enough.”
“Well when you say it like that I sound like such a catch.”
I know she didn’t mean to hurt my feelings, but she did. I scan through my past boyfriends and realize, even though I hate to admit it, she’s right. I do feel like I don’t measure up when it comes to men, even the losers and the cheaters. When I looked at Leonardo in my hospital room, my first thought was how could a guy like him be with a woman like me?
“Elena, you know I love you! You also know I speak the truth and want the best for you. Listen, I came to Italy after the whole thing went down at the birthday party with Leo and that model whore. You were a mess.”
“You did?”
I’m shocked to hear this. Sophie came all the way over here just to be with me. #ILoveHer
“Hell yes I did. You didn’t think I would let someone upset my best friend without showing up to smack some bitches around?”
“So what happened?”
“We went to Milan with Alessandra, you got groped by some nasty doctor, we lost you at Juliet’s balcony, and we found you helping some lost little boy, and then we went home and you made up with your man.”
“Wait—what doctor? What little boy? So much of that sentence makes absolutely no sense.”
“Elena, we don’t have time to discuss all of that, I have a dentist appointment to get to soon,” she says, cutting me off. “But the main thing is Leo must have proved his worth to you in some way. I’ve never known you to date a guy twice.”
She’s right there, but then why did I try to dump him?
It’s like she reads my mind when she says, “I know you went to a party with Leo before this apparent break up. You were texting me from the bathroom upset. I guess Victoria and Leo’s mom were talking crap about you, but you heard Leo putting them in their place. I’m going to guess you pulled some martyr bullshit and broke up with him because you still didn’t think you could be Mrs. Italy, or whatever it would be if you marry Leo.”
Fighting For Mr. Beautiful: Eternal City Love, Book 2 Page 3
