Chapter 15
SAMMIE
It was official.
I was a terrible person.
I was in a beautiful town in Italy and instead of focusing on the gorgeous traditional whitewashed conical-roofed houses, my mind was firmly in the gutter.
As we wandered down the pretty little streets, although I was thinking about how cute everything was, most of my thoughts were dominated by how great Romeo smelt and how amazing his muscular arms looked in his branded dark-blue T-shirt.
And when he mentioned that the word he’d said in Italian meant ‘fuck’, the first thing that sprang to mind was how it would feel to do that with him.
Jesus.
My poor match was laid up in bed suffering and I was fantasising about screwing another man. I was officially going to hell.
Thankfully, Romeo wisely changed the subject and now we were wandering around a trullo house that had been converted into a little museum.
It had cute rounded rooms including a kitchen and even a little bakery.
I held up my phone and took another round of photos.
‘Should I take one of you?’ Romeo offered.
‘Yes, please!’ I handed him my phone and he snapped away.
‘Later we should take some of you outside with the houses in the background.’
‘Great thinking. Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.
’ I turned to face him and reminded myself for the hundredth time not to look into his awesome eyes for more than two seconds.
‘I picked up the photos earlier and there were only two. Do you know what happened to the others? Pretty sure I saw you taking more.’
‘The photos?’ Romeo’s gaze dropped to the ground then shifted to the opposite side of the room. ‘ Sì , I… I did take more but… I… they did not come out very well, so those were the best ones. Scusa . I will do better next time.’
‘Could I see them anyway?’
‘No,’ he answered quickly. ‘They… I have already deleted them. Would you like to buy some souvenirs?’ Romeo asked.
‘Yeah,’ I said, wondering why he’d changed the subject so abruptly. Maybe I looked shit in them and he was trying not to hurt my feelings by letting me see how bad they were. ‘I should get something for my bestie, Stella. She came to the Love Hotel too.’
‘Really?’ His eyes widened as he led me to the souvenirs. ‘Which resort?’
‘The Spanish one. They matched her with her ex.’
‘ Cazzo !’
‘ Fuck , right?’ I smiled.
‘You are a fast learner.’ He smirked. ‘I am thinking it was a mistake to teach you that word. And an even bigger one to repeat it just now.’
‘Don’t worry. I won’t use it often. And only in the right context…’ I grinned.
‘ Va bene .’ He smiled and right on cue, the butterflies erupted in my stomach.
When I got that fluttery feeling at breakfast, I put it down to being hungry, but now I’d realised that it seemed to happen whenever Romeo smiled, laughed or said something funny, which was surprisingly often.
Happy Romeo was definitely much more fun to be around than Grumpy Romeo I’d met on the first day. The problem was that Happy Romeo was making my body react in a way that it absolutely shouldn’t.
‘So, they matched your friend with her ex? What happened?’ Romeo said as I sifted through some keyrings to avoid looking at him.
‘Yeah, but it all worked out well in the end. They’re madly in love now.’
‘ Fantastico !’
‘And I also know someone who works at the Love Hotel, Jasmine Palmer.’
‘Jasmine is the Love Empress in Spain, correct?’
‘That’s the one.’
‘I have not met her, but I have heard great things.’
‘Yeah, she’s amazing. And she fell in love with her colleague, Alejandro.’
‘ Sì , I read the article and it was discussed in our meetings. They have relaxed the rules about staff dating since then. But dating guests is forbidden.’
Romeo’s gaze met mine and his eyes darkened. I swallowed hard, wondering if somehow he’d noticed me perving over his muscles or staring at him for too long and was trying to remind me that nothing was ever gonna happen.
I mean, doh . Of course it wasn’t.
I was with Edward. And even though me and Romeo seemed to be getting on better, I was sure that he still thought I was a stereotypical Brit who got pissed on planes and suffered from frequent bouts of verbal diarrhoea. So there was no way he’d be interested in me.
His warning message was received loud and clear though. I’d make sure that I stopped staring, but first I needed to reassure him that he didn’t have to worry about me getting the wrong idea.
‘I can imagine,’ I said quickly. ‘I mean, we come here to fall in love with our perfect match. Guests can’t go around fancying their Love Alchemists. That’d be crazy !’ My voice shot up several octaves, which definitely sounded suspect.
‘Exactly,’ he replied.
My eyes locked with his again and we both fell silent.
So much for not bloody staring at him.
‘Anyway,’ I broke the silence, then picked up some fridge magnets, ‘I should definitely get something for Stella and my parents and my nan. She loves a good fridge magnet. Which one do you think looks nice?’
‘Um.’ Romeo scanned the display. ‘How about that one?’
‘This one?’ I pointed at a colourful one.
‘No, the white one.’
‘This?’ I went to pick up the magnet on the left of the display, before realising that wasn’t the one he meant.
‘Let me…’
Romeo reached for the other magnet at the same time I did and our fingers brushed against each other’s, sending a jolt of electricity shooting through my veins.
He quickly jerked his hand back.
‘Sorry, I…’ I stuttered as I attempted to recover from the aftereffects. We’d only touched for a millisecond, but it might as well have been minutes. His skin was so soft and the brief sensation triggered some kind of reaction that caused every nerve ending in my body to spring to life.
‘I… yeah.’ I attempted to speak again even though my brain cells had turned to mush.
‘I think that’s nice. I’ll get a few. I should get something for Edward too.
Poor Edward .’ I emphasised his name to remind my traitorous mind that he still existed.
‘He’s stuck at the hotel on his own, so the least I can do is bring him back a souvenir.
And once I’ve bought this stuff, I should message him. See if he’s feeling any better.’
A fresh wave of shame washed over me. We’d been here over an hour and I’d barely given Edward a second thought.
I wouldn’t be surprised if when I checked my phone there was a text from the devil letting me know he’d reserved a special place in hell for me.
‘That is a nice gesture. I hope Edward will appreciate it,’ Romeo said, then ground his jaw. That was the second time he’d done that, which was strange. I still couldn’t understand why he’d be angry at someone for being sick.
Edward, on the other hand, would definitely be pissed off with me if he knew I’d been having inappropriate thoughts about Romeo.
But it was fine. In just over half an hour, we’d meet up with the other guests so I wouldn’t be alone with Romeo any more.
Then, after we’d had lunch, we’d head back to the hotel, I’d go and see Edward, who’d hopefully be feeling better and if he was, maybe we could go for a walk on the beach.
Yep. Good plan.
I might not have been proud of my thoughts since I’d arrived at this cute town, but from now on my mind would be purer than a bottle of holy water.
* * *
We’d just pulled up at reception. The rest of the time that we spent in Alberobello was great.
Once I’d bought my souvenirs, Romeo took some photos of me on my phone with the trulli houses as a backdrop and this time I checked they’d come out okay.
It was going to be weird to have a memory book with just photos of me on my own, but I still wanted to document the trip.
I’d thought about asking Romeo to join me in the photos, but the memory book was supposed to show the highlights with my match, not my Love Alchemist.
That’d reminded me to message Edward to check on him. He still hadn’t replied, but he was probably resting.
After taking more photos, Romeo took me to visit a church. We bumped into some of the other guests there, so we’d hung out with them until it was time to meet the others, then we’d gone out for lunch.
Thankfully we were on a big table, so I was able to chat to other people instead of sitting at a table for two with Romeo which would’ve been awkward.
Once lunch was over we’d got back on the coach.
During the journey I’d admired the views and replied to the messages Stella had sent asking for feedback on the designs she’d created so far for a romance library who’d recently hired her as their freelance graphic designer.
Then, before I knew it, the driver was pulling into the hotel.
Everyone filed off the coach and as I stepped off, I saw Romeo was chatting to the guests and checking that they’d had a good time.
Once he was alone, I went over.
‘ Grazie again for walking around with me today.’
‘ Prego . I know the day did not turn out as you hoped, but did you still enjoy it?’
‘I had a great time, thanks to you ,’ I smiled. I was telling the truth. I’d smiled and laughed a lot today. Romeo wasn’t as up himself as I’d first thought. He actually seemed like a decent guy.
‘You know that I did not create the Alberobello or build the trulli houses, right?’
‘No?’ I clutched my chest in mock surprise. ‘You mean you weren’t born in the fourteenth century?’
‘Surprisingly not,’ he smirked.
‘That’s a shame, because I was going to ask you what anti-ageing cream you used to keep you looking so young and hot.’
Oh, fuck. I just called him hot.
‘Sadly, I was only born in the fifteenth century,’ he said, thankfully ignoring the fact that I’d just admitted that I thought he was fit. ‘And you do not need anti-ageing cream. You look beautiful exactly how you are.’
My eyes popped and my brain froze.
Did he just call me beautiful?
‘I, er… grazie ,’ I blushed. He was just being polite.
‘Sorry,’ he winced. ‘I hope that did not make you uncomfortable. It is just… I have strong opinions about how society judges people just for getting older. People are beautiful and that beauty comes in many forms, not just the standardised image that is presented to us in the media. And now I am rambling,’ he laughed.
‘We were having a light-hearted conversation and I turned it into something heavy. Forget I said anything.’ He waved his hand away dismissively. ‘I am just glad you enjoyed the trip.’
‘I ramble all the time.’ I flashed him a reassuring smile. ‘My superpower is that I always speak before I think. I’m surprised I can walk anywhere because my foot is permanently stuck in my mouth!’ I cackled. ‘I really enjoyed the trip, so thanks.’
We held each other’s gaze again and I swear I felt a crackle of electricity pulsing between us. Must be the sunshine frying my brain.
The sound of a phone buzzing snapped us out of our trance.
‘ Prego .’ Romeo pulled out his phone. ‘I must get this.’
‘Okay. I’m going to check on Edward.’
He nodded then waved, before walking off to take the call.
I headed to Edward’s room. I’d asked Romeo earlier to give me his room number so that I could check on him without having to go to reception. For some reason he seemed reluctant, but I’d persisted and eventually, he’d given it to me.
When I got to the door I knocked, but there was no answer. I knocked again.
After trying a few more times, I phoned Edward, expecting to hear his ringtone through the door, but still no joy. Maybe he had it on silent so he could get some rest.
But what if something bad had happened? He could’ve passed out and be all alone.
I raced to reception. Someone must’ve spoken to him.
Just as I stepped into the main building, I saw Romeo walking towards me, his face looking harder than stone.
‘Samantha,’ he said and my stomach tightened. ‘I was just coming to find you. It is about Edward.’
‘I was heading to reception. I’ve been knocking on his door and calling for the last ten minutes but there’s no answer.’
‘That was what I was coming to tell you.’ Romeo paused, like he was struggling to find the right words and my heartbeat rocketed.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘He…’ Romeo paused again. ‘The reason Edward did not answer is because he has left.’