Only Time Will Tell (A Luberto Story)

Chapter 36- Portorosso Preparation

8:35 AM
1 day before the departure

Massimo woke up early in the morning like he usually did. This time was different, though. Instead of going on his daily fishing trip, he went to Luca and Alberto's island. He told Alberto the night prior that he would go to the island to grab some of Alberto's possessions that were left there. Here he was, taking his boat to the island at 8:35 in the morning, expecting to take a few thing and go. A simple in and out procedure.

When Massimo arrived, he took note of how the tower looked a lot nicer. Even the ladder was much more sturdy and clean. He was impressed that Alberto made these improvements all by himself.

Massimo climbed up the tower and grabbed a few specialty items; the Vespa poster, a pile of drawings that Alberto and Luca made, a deck of playing cards, a jacket and pair of shoes that belonged to Alberto, the knife that Massimo gifted Alberto on his birthday, and a bag containing a lot of Luca's letters.

Massimo grabbed them all and shoved them into a bag, before climbing back down and heading towards the boat. However, as he was about to leave, he noticed something washed up on the shore.

Massimo walked to the shore to inspect the item. Upon closer examination, he realized that it was a white envelope, most likely a letter of some sorts. It looked very damaged; it was very crumpled and had a lot of wrinkles. It looked like someone had stepped on it multiple times. There were a few tears, but they were fairly small. The envelope also looked like it had some water damage, so Massimo knew it had probably been thrown into the water on accident, before washing up on shore.

As Massimo reached down to grab it, he was surprised to see that it was not wet at all. In fact, it was very dry. If this letter had washed up on shore, it must've been on the island for quite a while. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been so dry.

"Why is this mysterious letter even here? Did Alberto drop it and forget to pick it back up?"

He turned it over to look on the other side, and his question was answered. There was a single name printed in ink, which was slightly fading due to the water damage.

'To Luca, from Alberto'
'Please Read as Soon as Possible'
_____________________________

Today was the last day.

It was the last day in Portorosso before Luca and Giulia would leave for Genova. Except this time, they wouldn't be alone. Alberto would joining them, and as terrifying as that was to him, Alberto was still very excited on the inside. He had very conflicting emotions about the whole ordeal, because he would be spending the rest of the year with his sister and boyfriend. On the other hand, he would also be leaving Massimo. It hurt him on the inside, but Massimo promised he'd be okay by himself. That reassured Alberto; he didn't want to break the old man's heart.

Alberto had almost forgotten that he spent the night with Luca. He only remembered when he opened his eyes and saw Luca peacefully sleeping next to him, his body facing the wall. Alberto smiled and watched Luca; he looked adorable.

Wait, is this what creepy people do? I'm not creepy, right? Right. This isn't creepy at all.

Alberto didn't feel like waking Luca up, instead deciding to try and look for a clock in Luca's room. He hadn't spend that much time at Luca's house, so he didn't really remember how everything was arranged.

On the side of Luca's dresser, Alberto found what he assumed was Luca's train ticket for tomorrow. Next to it was a small, red alarm clock that red 10:30.

Yikes, did we really sleep that late?

A couple of years ago, waking up at 10:30 (sometimes even later) would have been a pretty normal occurrence, but things had changed. Waking up early in the morning to help Massimo with fishing had become a routine, and it felt weird to Alberto not following it for once.