Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 163540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 818(@200wpm)___ 654(@250wpm)___ 545(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 818(@200wpm)___ 654(@250wpm)___ 545(@300wpm)
15
Olivia
“So?” Giorgio sits back on the chair in my office. His mischievous eyes hold mine and I have a sneaking suspicion that he already knows. “What have I missed?”
“Nothing much.” I roll my lips to hide my smile.
“I’ve missed nothing?”
I pretend to type.
He lets out an exaggerated sigh. “Why must you torture me, my darling?”
“Torture?” I smile as I type. “How so?”
“Have you seen Mr. Ferrara?”
I turn my attention to him for the first time since he’s been in my office. “What do you know about Mr. Ferrara? How do you know him?”
“Rico and I have been friends for years. I knew his father.”
“And how exactly did it come about me coming to Milan?”
“Rico called me.”
“And said what?”
“He asked me if you had applied for a job there two years earlier. I said I would check it out. I found when I searched your name that you actually had a current job application in place. I called him back, and he asked me if I could arrange for you to be in Milan.”
“But why wouldn’t he call me himself? Why would he need the excuse of Valentino?”
He cringes. “I know, I thought that, too. How exactly did you two meet?”
“Our eyes met across a crowded room. He came over and translated the menu for me, and then he joined me for dinner.”
Giorgio smiles as he listens.
“We ended up spending the weekend together before I left for Sorrento. I’d arranged to meet my girlfriend Natalie there. Enrico and I agreed to meet up again two weeks later.”
“Natalie is your friend who is moving here?”
“She’s here already. She arrived on Friday.”
“Wow.” He swings on his chair, clearly happy for me.
“But get this; the day I left for Sorrento happened to be the same day his father and grandfather were killed.”
His face falls.
“I didn’t hear from him for the entire time I was away, and then when I got back to Rome, someone had planted drugs in my bags.”
Giorgio’s mouth falls open. “Was it him?
“I hope not,” I scoff. “But I didn’t know any of this when I was arrested at the airport.”
Giorgio’s eyes widen. “You were arrested?”
“Yes, and I saw Rico at the police station, but he left me.”
“What do you mean… he left you?”
“He organized for a lawyer to get me off the charges, and he called the embassy, but he never came back and saw me again. I was put on a plane home by his lawyer, not him.”
He presses his fingers against his lips. “Extraordinary.”
I shrug. “I mean, even if we were nothing to each other but friends, you wouldn’t just leave someone that you spent the entire weekend with in prison, would you?”
“I wouldn’t have thought so, and especially not him. His loyalty is his strongest trait.” He thinks for a moment. “So, you hadn’t spoken to him since?”
“Not until I ran into him when I was on my Tinder date and he went feral crazy.”
Giorgio’s fascinated eyes hold mine. “What did he say about all of this? How did he explain this?”
I shrug. “He said that he was dealing with the deaths and he just couldn’t handle me and drugs. He said he was in the grieving crisis.”
He frowns. “In all fairness, he was.”
“Did you see him back then?’
He nods. “He was very angry for a long time. He disappeared from the social scene altogether. His brothers both moved back home to help him.”
“Help him with what?”
“As the oldest child, he had to take over the family business. This would have been traumatizing for him.”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
He sits up and straightens in his chair. “Nothing really, just a lot to get his head around, I imagine.”
“I guess. Anyway, we had a big fight, and then he came to work and waited outside. I don’t know. We’re seeing how things go.”
“Oh, I love this story.” He claps his hands together. “It’s like Cinderella going to the ball.”
I roll my eyes.
“So, what now?”
“He’s away for work for the week. He wants to go away for the weekend.”
“Oh.” He stands. “I’m fitting you out with a new wardrobe. You must look incredible for Mr. Ferrara. You are now officially my hobby.”
I smirk and turn back to my computer. “Actually, his favorite outfit for me is my birthday suit. He prefers me naked.”
Giorgio presses the back of his hand to his forehead and pretends to faint. “Dear God, darling I can’t even imagine what he would be like in bed. His intensity is on another level. You can feel it from across a room.”
I giggle. “Giorgio, you have no idea.”
It’s late on Thursday night. I scroll through my phone, flicking from Facebook to Instagram and back again. Earlier tonight, I went to the gym with Natalie and noticed two men in a car across the road.
I think that maybe they were his men.