Carlo

Chapter 42

A mother's love is something every child needs. But doesn't always receive. Whether it be that she is there but doesn't act like it, or she's not there at all. I always thought about what it would be like to have my mom here, to be there when I turned a teenager. Or when I couldn't sleep and I just needed my mom.

Yet here I am eighteen years old, turning nineteen soon. Without my mom and only now experiencing what it feels like to have a mom again.

"It's Christmas next month." Rose says out of nowhere as we finish up eating.

"No it's not. We're in October." I reply dumbly.

Rose bursts out laughing. "Adelaide. No."

I look on my phone and we are in fact in November. "Um... what do you want for Christmas?" I ask.

We walk out of the little cafe and start to walk down the street towards some stores.

"Some help in the kitchen?" She questions.

"No, a present."

"I'm not sure. Surprise me." She smiles and walks into an art store.

I walk inside with her and stare at all of the paintings and the old fashioned paint brushes. I stand in front of one landscape painting of a lake with the sun setting in the distance. To the side of the lake is a single swing with a child on it leaning backwards.

"Hey" A voice sounds from beside me.

I look to my side and up to see a familiar face. "Hello."

"Adelaide. Right?" He questions.

"Rye. Right?" I mock, as I look at the guy I danced with at the club.

He chuckles softly and stares down at me. "How have you been?" I ask, breaking the silence.

"Good actually. Well, even better now I've seen you again."

Little cringe-

I laugh awkwardly and look back at the painting with my head tilted to the side. There's just something about it that makes me feel safe.

"Can I have your number?"

I look back at Rye and see his cheeks turning a little red. Before I can answer, Rose comes and stands next to me. "Are you ready?" She smiles politely at Rye and then back at me.

"Yeah. It was nice seeing you again, Rye." I smile at me and his cheeks turn a light shade of red.

With a chuckle Rose and I walk out of the store and start walking down the street. "Who was that?"

"Some guy from a club." I answer shortly.

She nods her head. "What shall we do now?"

"I'm not sure."

****

"Snap!" I shout in excitement and take the card pile.

Rose groans in annoyance since I'm winning yet another round at Snap. After we stood in the same spot thinking of what to do for five minutes we decided to come back to the house and go to the Men's game room. We played a few rounds of pool until we found a pack of cards and started playing snap so far I'm winning:

15 : 4

"You need to stop winning." Rose huffs and takes a handful of popcorn.

I laugh and start to shuffle the deck of cards in a random order. I split the cards and give Rose her cards. We start to play again when Giovanni walks in with an old fashioned cigar in his mouth. "What are you two doing?" He questions.

I put down one of my cards and it's the same as the one on top of the pile. "SNAP!"

Rose looks back at me and glares. "That doesn't count. I wasn't watching."

"Tough." I laugh.