When in Rome by Giusti Amabile

Author:Giusti, Amabile [Giusti, Amabile]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-01-26T08:00:00+00:00

TEN

Should I talk to him or keep ignoring him?

Through his bedroom door, I hear Luca typing on his laptop. Keeping up the silent treatment would probably be best. He doesn’t deserve my trust or even a shadow of forgiveness.

Yet here I am. I reach out to touch the door handle, then pull my hand back. I do the same thing several times. I’m just about to retreat when the door suddenly opens. Luca winces and frowns when he sees me. Damn it. It would be so much easier if he could just look gross once in a while. But he never does. He’s wearing the same ripped jeans he wore when we first met, a cotton V-neck sweater, and no shoes or socks. He runs one hand through his hair, holding a cigar stub in the other. After a moment of surprise, he steps back into his room.

“I thought you were out,” he murmurs. Everything and anything could be written in those eyes, but I can’t decipher a single word.

“Can I use your computer for a second?” I say bluntly. “My laptop’s been dead for a while, as you know . . . I was going to go to an Internet cafe, but it’s raining.”

He nods and invites me to come in. Our bodies brush momentarily as I pass by, and for a split second I feel like he touched me with his shoulder on purpose. Obviously I’m imagining things.

Luca’s room smells like cigars and grapefruit-scented aftershave and looks like a typical guy’s room. There are no added frills, just a bed, a dresser, and a desk. Nothing is on the floor except a stack of papers, an empty beer bottle, and a dune of cigar ashes in a glass. Now that I think about it, there haven’t even been any women in here the past few days. After his erotic encounter with Erika, he stopped having houseguests. He comes home late every night like always, but he’s alone. Once upon a time, I would have been thrilled. But now, with what I know about Paola and the conversation I overheard in the park, his metamorphosis isn’t comforting. He isn’t bringing home girls anymore because he’s falling in love with her. Other girls have become invisible.

I swallow a spasm of pain as I approach the computer. Just then, Luca squawks and rushes over to close an open file that he obviously does not want me to read.

“Don’t worry. I won’t look at your masterpiece,” I say curtly. But I did see that it was a letter. Perhaps to Paola. I hope it wasn’t to Erika. I clench my fists. Luca’s still hovering. Does he not trust me? I’m the one who doesn’t trust him, until he’s proven me wrong!

“You can relax,” I say. “I’m not going to go through your stuff.”

“I know that,” he says, but less rudely than before. He puts out the cigar in the glass of ashes and waves away the smoke as if to keep it away from me.

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