Chapter 10 #2
I clinked my glass to his and said, “Saluti,” before taking a sip. He beamed at me when I told him it was delicious.
We arranged the pillows so we could sit up while we watched the sunset, and he pulled a blanket over us and rested his head on my chest. As the sky changed from orange to purple, he said softly, “I meant it when I said I’m yours.”
“I’m yours, too.”
He looked up at me and smiled. “That’s it. I’m calling you my boyfriend, whether you like it or not.”
“I love it.” My guilty conscious was eating at me, so I said, “But there’s so much you don’t know about me. There are things in my past that I’m not proud of. I made terrible decisions, ones I wish I could change—”
He sat up and gently cupped my cheek. “I don’t need you to tell me everything, Tory. Not right now. I see a lot of pain in your eyes, so I know you’re not ready to talk about this stuff. Please don’t force yourself to open up before you’re ready.”
“Are you sure?”
“The things you said you’re not proud of—you’re not doing them anymore, right?”
“Right.”
“So, we really don’t have to dredge up the past. Not today. Let’s just be happy and enjoy this weekend in this amazing house. Okay?” When I nodded, he kissed me and returned his head to my chest.
I knew we had to have this discussion sooner or later. He had a right to know who he was getting involved with, especially now that we were taking this to the next level.
But I agreed to put it off, because I was afraid the truth would ruin what we had.
Arie meant everything to me, absolutely everything.
And I kept thinking, maybe if we spent a little more time together before I told him everything, he’d get to know the real me.
I hoped he’d realize I wasn’t a bad person, even if I was a criminal.
Next weekend, we were planning to fly to San Francisco so I could meet his family. Kit was going to have a lot of questions for me, and I didn’t want to compound my dishonesty by lying to him, too. That meant I had to come clean to Arie sometime between now and then.
The clock was ticking, but I still had a week. And he was right, we didn’t need to talk about it now. He’d been so excited about this weekend, and there was no reason to cast a shadow over our time here.
Once the sun set, we went inside and took a shower. Then we both got dressed in comfortable gym shorts, T-shirts, and hoodies and moved to the outdoor kitchen.
He lit a fire in the pizza oven before turning on a music player and selecting an oldies playlist. When I commented that this wasn’t his usual choice, he said, “I’ve gotten into it lately, ever since you gave me that gorgeous jukebox.
My customers and I are loving it, by the way.
Our days are filled with music now, and everyone seems happier because of it.
” He kissed me before exclaiming, “It’s our song! ”
Sam Cooke’s “What a Wonderful World” had started to play. We put our arms around each other and swayed to the music, and I said, “I’ve never been sure how much you remember about the night we met.”
“I remember dancing to this song, and rambling on and on about god knows what. I also remember that you bought me cookies at that café where you got us some coffee. But I don’t think I ate them, and I have no idea what happened to them.”
“You should check the pockets of your tux. They might be in there.”
He wrinkled his nose. “They really might be. I’ll look when I get home.”
When the song ended, he started pulling storage containers out of the small refrigerator built in under the counter.
It turned out he’d made pizza dough and prepped a bunch of toppings ahead of time.
There were homemade apple tarts for dessert, and he started to assemble a big green salad while we waited for the oven to heat up.
I tried to help, but he stuck a beer in my hand and said, “I thought it’d be fun if we both tried making pizzas, but other than that I don’t want you to lift a finger.”
“I can’t let you do all the work, though.”
“We talked about this,” he said. “This is my chance to finally do something for you, after all the amazing dates you’ve planned and paid for. Besides, I could do this in my sleep.”
He really was extremely skilled. I couldn’t help but be impressed as I watched his knife flying over the cutting board while he made quick work of some vegetables.
At the same time, his hips kept time to the song that was playing. I wondered if he was even aware he was doing that. I leaned against the counter and told him, “You’re unbelievably sexy.”
He glanced at me and grinned. “I’ve never felt like that, but somehow you make me believe it.”
After a pause, he ventured, “When I called you my boyfriend… that’s more than just a word. I’m not going to date or sleep with anyone else, Tory.”
“I’m not, either.”
He turned to me with hope in his eyes. “Yeah?”
I drew him into my arms and admitted, “I haven’t wanted anyone else since the day I met you.”
“I was a hot mess the day we met.”
“You were beautiful, and vulnerable, and unlike anyone I’d ever known.”
“Well, yeah, because most people aren’t total walking disasters.”
“I’m serious, Arie. I always knew you were special.”
“But you let me leave that first night without getting my number,” he teased.
“That’s because I thought my life was too complicated to have anything like this. I instantly regretted it once you left, but then I decided to leave it up to fate. If I saw you again, I wasn’t going to let you go without asking you out. You showed up at my door a few minutes later.”
“So that’s what this is. Fate.” His smile made his eyes sparkle.
“It must be.”
Arie kissed me before saying, “While we’re on the subject of only dating each other, I was thinking about the need for condoms last week, so I went to the clinic and got tested. It was all good, so if you wanted to get tested, too—”
“I already did, about three weeks ago. It was negative across the board. I didn’t mention it at the time because I didn’t want you to think I was trying to hurry us along. But I wanted to be ready for this conversation, whenever it came up.”
That earned me another big smile. “Way to think ahead.”
A few minutes later, when it was time to make the pizzas, Arie handed me a smooth ball of dough and took one for himself. “I’ve never done this before,” he said, as he stretched it out and tried tentatively tossing it into the air. “But I watched a video online, so I get the basic idea.”
“I’ve never done it before either, but we’ve got this.”
We did not have this. The more we tossed the dough, the more it stretched and warped.
Mine grew to probably three feet in diameter and became paper-thin before it started to rip.
It was a total disaster, but it didn’t matter.
The worse it got, the more we laughed. Finally, his landed on the edge of the roof and mine hit the ground, and we grabbed each other for support and doubled over with laughter.
We collapsed onto the patio, gasping for air and wiping tears from our cheeks. Had I ever laughed this much? Maybe a lifetime ago, when I was still living in Rome and everything was happy and uncomplicated. Then my life got dark, and the laughter stopped—until I met Arie.
I turned my head and looked at his profile. He was so beautiful, and sweet, and kind. He was everything I could ever want, and far more than I deserved.
I was terrified of losing him.
That was why I’d put off telling him the truth about who I was.
It felt like I’d started living the day I met Armando Cortez. How could I go back to living without him, if he decided my past was unforgivable?