Elegance with Expense

47. Roma

I was sure that when I looked into the restaurant whilst I was walking up to the door, the windows were blacked out. I even noticed how they were dimmed from indoors. I wasn't able to double check because we were back on route.

It was obvious that the rest of the family had already arrived back home, our phones were vibrating every time we looked away, and the driver noticeably sped up. I had roughly ten minutes to explain myself so that I wouldn't have to do it in front of everybody.

'It was just someone I knew.' My eyes dropped down, I wasn't ashamed, but I had never talked about boys with anyone in the family, so I automatically grew embarrassed. At the time the embarrassment was immense, and I could have hidden as a child may have.

I had nothing to embrace, Milan was not my boyfriend, but we weren't only friends either. If somebody asked me what kind of relationship I shared with him, I would freeze on the spot. I would be afraid that one answer would be too vague, another answer would be too sanguine, and no answer at all would cause them to assume.

I was told that I couldn't have any relationship with any boys. Of course my family and childhood friends being an exception, but saying that I have a boyfriend didn't satisfy me, nor did it make me feel comfortable.

An image of romance so violent and male-dominated had always been pictured in my head. That is what Scorsese movies did to me.

Not to mention the fact that I lived with many men who also didn't appreciate the typical love affair with a long lasting partner, they preferred a quick fling with a stranger women they found at a bar to fulfil their...desires.

In the Rossi residence, they were often labelled as the women of the town- more of a formal way of tagging them as whores or hired prostitutes. Without a doubt, if I wasn't lurking around that house, they wouldn't use such decorous terms, they wouldn't be so careful with their words as if they were talking around an easily impressionable five year old.

Never did I get myself involved in such a conversation, it would flag down the wrong kind of reaction from me.

'How do you know him?' I expected Gio to be the one I could talk to with any drama going on in my life, even if it wasn't drama, I thought he would be somewhat interested in what is going on in my life. Not in a protective kind of way, but in the way that I could talk freely without fearing that I could end up with bodyguards walking around me at school the next day...

'From school.' I said quietly, not wanting to have this conversation.

'Is he your boyfriend?' Sam raised his eyebrows up and down. He was a very confusing person, one minute he would be acting as though the world will crumble if I am dating someone, the next, he wants all of the gossip that I have to offer.

'No, he's not.' I forced a grimace onto my face to make it seem more realistic that I wasn't attracted to Milan in that kind of way, even though the truth was far from that.

'Why is he in Italy?' Another question came from the cousin sat in the back with me.

'His family is from Italy, it was only a coincidence that I ran into him at the restaurant. We talked for 5 minutes, we only talked. Don't misjudge his intentions.'

'You're only friends, right?' Gio asked the question I knew would make me panic. I could lie, but I couldn't lie to such a question.

'Alessa, if you're not taking him, I'll gladly take him.' Sam turned from the front seat saving me from answering Gio's question, and raised his brows, expecting an immediate answer. 'I was feeling a little off today, but he's gone and turned me on again.'