CHAPTER 5 Tanzi
The first text comes an hour after I return to my tour group. It”s a picture of a conference room filled with men and women I”ve never seen before. Then a message.
RIO: Miss you.
I send a picture of the interior of our tour bus. It”s not nearly as swank and there”s not a tailored suit in sight. We”re students, after all. Even if some of our parents employ enough people to populate a small country.
TANZI: Me too.
We text each other at least a dozen times a day. Sometimes a dozen times in an hour. He calls at least once a day, but sometimes twice.
He surprises me at the ferry terminal in Civitavecchia and insists on driving me to Rome. This time we don”t have chaperones in the car.
That”s when I learn he travels a lot for his job.
We spend the night together in his hotel suite and when he drops me off at the airport way too early for anyone to be awake, but especially me, Rio parks his car to walk me inside.
”You could have just dropped me at departures.” I yawn, barely getting my hand up to cover my mouth in time.
Yep, way too early.
”No. Even if I did not want to spend every last second with you, and I do, I would never simply drop you off like that.”
”Somebody trained you with impeccable old-world manners.” Maybe he”s got a billionaire dad who grew up in a traditional European family too.
Still reluctant to know all his secrets because that means sharing mine, I don”t ask and I don”t Google his name either. Dylan already did and I trust my friend to tell me if there”s anything I need to know.
He doesn”t answer, but swings me around and kisses me. Right there in the arrival terminal. Okay, so not so old-world.
It”s my last coherent thought for several very pleasurable minutes.
When he draws back from me, someone claps. Another person whistles. I”m pretty sure it”s Dylan.
I ignore it all. So does Rio, his eyes fixed on me and me alone. ”I”ll be in New York in a couple of months.”
”For me?” I ask, disbelieving.
He grimaces. ”For business, but I really want to see you.”
That actually makes me feel better. If he promised to come just for me, I don’t think I would believe him. It”s enough that he wants to carve time out of what I now know is a seriously busy schedule.
”Okay.” I don”t play games.
I won”t pretend to be busy when I”m not, but I won”t rearrange my schedule for him either. Maybe.
Back at college, my friends tell me not to expect my Spring Break romance to last into summer.
Everyone but Joni, surprisingly. ”If it”s meant to be, it”s going to happen. That”s how love works.”
I haven”t used the L-word yet. Not even in my head. Neither has Rio. Out loud anyway. I don”t know what words he uses inside his mind.
It”s coming though. For sure for me. Maybe for him too.
I don’t tell him my dad is a multi-billionaire. He doesn”t tell me anything about his family”s finances either. Stuff he says makes me think we have a lot in common in that regard.
We talk about the truly important stuff though. I know how he felt growing up a triplet. He doesn”t like being the last born. He refuses to call himself the youngest. Which I totally get.
He doesn”t give off youngest child vibes at all.
I don”t either. Even though I”m the youngest and only girl, my parents expect as much out of me as my brothers. Dad is convinced I”ll use my psychology degree to make me a better C level manager one day.
Mom says do what I need to be happy, but she doesn”t get normal either. And that”s all I want to be. Not a supermodel like mom. Not a corporate shark like dad. Not at the top of any pyramid.
Rio gets it. He says I need to follow my own path or who I am will get ground to dust on someone else”s. He sounds like he knows what he”s talking about.
When I ask how, he says their family have certain expectations of each child. He is supposed to play a support role, but he”s blazed his own path in business and that”s how he likes it.
I tell him how much I love my small extended family and even the highlights of my mom and her twin”s bizarre story. He reveals that his own family isn”t nearly so small, but they”re just as close.
Despite the role they expected him to fit into, he doesn”t just love his family, but he really likes his parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and even his cousins.
That”s something we have in common.
We discuss the belief we both harbor that neither of our parents meant to put such pressures on us, but life doesn”t always allow for personal autonomy and choices.
No, I don”t know the precise details of his background, but I know what matters and he knows what matters about me.
The fact my dad makes the big tech billionaires look like small fish in his shark-infested waters isn”t what matters. The fact I adore my dad? Yeah, that does.
That he wants me to follow up my Bachelor of Science in Psychology with an MBA so I can take over part of his global empire? Is too problematic for me to deal with, much less share with anyone else.
Regardless of what the future holds, I miss Rio with ridiculous intensity.
Yeah. The L-word is definitely sneaking around the back of my brain getting ready to pop out of my mouth.