CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Paolo
As had become our custom, we ate breakfast together on the balcony.
She stirred some granola into her yogurt and popped some raspberries in her mouth.
She was people watching as the tourists, businesspeople, and joggers carried out their lives far below.
The sunlight shone off her glossy hair, and I saw for the first time that it wasn’t just black.
There were strands of red, brown, and blonde that the sun picked up.
She was so beautiful sitting there, eating her breakfast, and watching the people down below.
She had one leg tucked under her, and her dewy skin looked like porcelain in the early morning light.
I thought briefly of women I’d been with in the past. I’d had a lot of beautiful women.
More than my fair share, for sure. But I’d never slept over with them.
They’d been hookups, and I’d almost never gone back for seconds.
I’d never woken up entangled in their bodies, our legs and arms locked together all night.
And I’d certainly never eaten breakfast with them the next morning.
A strand of hair blew across her face, and I had the most insistent urge to lean forward, brush it from her soft cheek, and tuck it behind her perfect, shell-shaped ear.
It hadn’t happened all at once, I realized, but I’d fallen for her somewhere along the way.
She was so real, so herself. My feelings for her had stopped just being lustful. Now, I cared for her above anyone else.
Unaware of my thoughts, she closed her eyes and turned her face up to the sun, sighing happily. I sucked in a breath at how gorgeous she looked in that moment, as if the sun itself had chosen to caress her face the way I wanted to.
She stretched, drawing my eyes to her breasts, yawned, and opened her eyes. She froze when she saw that I was watching her.
“Quit being weird.” She frowned and threw a raspberry at me. It bounced off my forehead and fell to the patio below, sure to be a treat for a lucky pigeon later. I smiled at her.
She had no clue what she was doing to me.
She’d already resumed people watching on the street below us. She seemed very interested in who was buying flowers so early in the morning at the florist shop a couple of doors down.
“Do you think they screwed up really bad last night?”
“What?”
“Like, who needs roses at seven in the morning? I feel like they’re apology flowers, you know?”
“Jelly.”
She looked at me.
I pushed a box towards her.
“What’s this?”
I grinned. “Why don’t you open it?”
She ripped the paper off carefully and folded it as she set it aside. I briefly wondered if she was one of those ladies I’d heard about who saved all their wrapping paper. I didn’t think this was the most ideal time to ask her; I’d have to save the thought for later.
She lifted the lid and gasped. “Oh, it’s beautiful!” She pulled the delicate bracelet out of its box and held it up. “They look like little stars,” she said, a big smile on her face.
“That’s exactly what they’re supposed to represent,” I told her, reaching across the small table to help her put it on.
Star shaped diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires were affixed between two thin platinum bands to make a gorgeous cuff bracelet.
I’d seen it, thought it would suit her, and it did.
She held it up to the sunlight, and prisms shot around the floor of the balcony. She gasped. “So, so pretty. Magical, almost.” She jumped up and gave me a hug and kiss. “Thank you so much, Paolo. I love it.”
“I’m glad.” I took a deep breath. “I, uh, wanted to talk to you about something.”
Her eyes widened and she looked nervous.
“Why are you looking like that?”
“Nothing good ever starts that way.”
“This is good,” I assured her, reaching for her hand. “Our contract will be up in less than a month.” It had flown by. At the start of it, four months had seemed impossibly long. Now it felt like four years wouldn’t be close to long enough with her.
She looked down. “Oh. Was this like a goodbye bracelet?”
“No. Not at all. I… well, I…” I wasn’t good at this. I rubbed my sweaty palms on my sweatpants. “I want you to be my girlfriend. I want us to continue to date after the contract is up. I can’t imagine being without you now,” I finished simply.
She stared at me long enough, that I was afraid she was going to tell me that’s not what she wanted at all. “You’re serious?” The smile on her face told me she thought this was a good thing.
I blew out a breath of relief. “Yes. Very serious. I want to be with you, Jelly. I don’t want to scare you, but I think I’ve fallen in love with you.”
She turned pink, grinned, and hid her face behind her hands. “I’ve fallen in love with you, too,” she said from behind her hands, her words muffled.
I pulled her hands away. “Could you repeat that?”
“I’ve fallen for you, too.”
“So, we’re on the same page.”
She nodded happily. Then a cloud seemed to come over her face. “But what about your reputation? What about your family and you needing to date a woman from a certain background?”
“Fuck ‘em.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Bold statement. Are you sure you’re going to be able to stand up to them?”
“Of course.”
“What about the hospital board? Don’t you think they assume you’re going to settle down with some charity gala throwing guru?”
“Is that a thing?”
“Pretty sure it is.”
“I don’t think the hospital board cares, baby, as long as I settle down with a wonderful woman.”
“You want to settle down with me?”
I grinned. “Yeah. And I want to take you to the charity gala at Salazar Nights that’s coming up. I picked a dress out for you… well, Madeline and Carmen picked out a dress for you… and I’m very excited to have you go as my date.”
No words were necessary. Her smile said it all.
We went inside to get ready for work and happened to take an extra long shower where I might or might not have fucked her against the tiles until she screamed.
It was a perfect morning.
***
I tucked Jelly’s arm into mine as we walked the red carpet into Salazar Nights.
Tonight’s charity gala was advertised as a black and white ball, but the invitation had stated navy and red were also allowed.
Jelly, who looked fucking astounding in red, was wearing a beautiful dress in that color.
I wore a tux with a red bowtie to complement her gorgeous dress.
As I looked down at her, I was so damn happy to have her with me. I could tell from the looks she was getting from all the men around us, I was one lucky fucker, too.
Her hair flowed down her back in glossy waves, her makeup was elegant, her dress was classy—I was proud to be seen with her. I couldn’t believe that I’d ever been worried that she would make me look bad.
Fucking ridiculous.
“Mr. Lanetti,” a reporter’s voice called, “who are you here with tonight?”
Jelly and I stopped for them to get some pictures of us. She opened her mouth and got out, “Je…”
I quickly interrupted. “My gorgeous date is Ann Ray.” I said, smiling, as I directed Jelly into the club.
“Ann Ray?” she asked under her breath, a smile fixed on her face.
“Well, you know why we couldn’t say your name is Jelly. Come on.”
The hurt look on her face didn’t escape me, but she was just going to have to get over certain things if she was going to be with me.
“What about Ray Ann Pinkoe? That wasn’t good enough, either?”
I gave her a look. “Come on, Jelly. You don’t even like that name. It sounds… ridiculous,” I said waving to a few people I knew. “Too country, you know?”
“Right,” she mumbled, her smile dimming.
“Don’t be like that. You hate your name. I was doing you a favor.”
She looked at me sharply. “Yeah. Sure, you were.”
“Going by a slightly different name beats the hell out of me bringing a different date tonight, though, right?”
Hurt flashed across her face. “So, if I don’t like something I just put up with it or you’ll ditch me?”
My mouth opened to refute what she was saying, but there was a bit of truth in there, whether it made me uncomfortable or not. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Yeah, well, you’re kind of being an asshole.”
I didn’t like that one bit. But was she right? I clenched my jaw, smiling at one of the members of the hospital board over her shoulder.
I chose to drop it. We could talk about her name later if she was still upset about it. But I felt sure she’d come around to my way of thinking when she’d had time to process it all.
Almost immediately, we were pulled into a group of friends and colleagues.
“Honey, how the hell did you end up on the arm of this guy?” an older, retired doctor asked with a grin.
Jelly just smiled at him. Several of the men directed questions at her, but they were mainly rhetorical. None of them actually wanted to hear her answers. It only took her a couple of minutes to figure that out. After that, she stood quietly at my side while I talked with them all.
The strains of Louis Armstrong’s “Wonderful World” started up from the central dais in the room, which held a jazz band.
“Gentlemen, I’m sure you can understand that I’d like to dance with my beautiful date.”
They all laughed and called out several reasons why Jelly should be with them instead of me, and it was all very good-humored.
I held out my hand to her. “Dance with me?”
She smiled, nodded, and put her hand in mine. I pulled her into my arms and began dancing with her.
“Are you having a good time?”
She looked up at me, a glint in those blue eyes. “You’re kidding, right?”
I did a double-take, looking at her in surprise. “You’re not?”
“It’s fine,” she shrugged. “It’s just those guys didn’t expect me to have a brain, you know? I was just supposed to stand there and look pretty.”
“Get used to it, babe,” I said as I spun her out and back to me, “that’s the main role of society wives and girlfriends.”
“I seriously doubt Carmen or Gloria Salazar stand around and look pretty on their dates’ arms.”
“They’re the exception, not the rule, darling.” I gave a chin nod to a couple of guys I knew.
After a few moments of realizing I was looking around the room and dancing on autopilot, I glanced at Jelly. She was being uncharacteristically quiet.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
She smiled and nodded, but it looked forced. The smile didn’t light up her eyes like her genuine ones did.
Was this still about her name? I was about to press her further, when the song ended. The organizer of the event took the stage to talk about the charity and give thanks to the Salazar family for hosting. I walked Jelly off the dance floor.
I had seen my parents at a table and knew I had to introduce her to them.