When The Sun Goes Down - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Hey!" A male said to my right.

"Taken." I said without shooting him so much as a glance. Where the heck was Stacey? I was already nursing my third drink and she was almost an hour late. It wasn't exactly out of character for her to run a little late, but this was just ridiculous.

"So much for celebrating, huh?" I said to my drink. After a moment I decided to have my drink talk back to me. It's not like I had anyone else to talk to right now anyway. I made the cup 'dance' by teeter tottering it back and forth from one side of the bottom to the other. "I'll celebrate with you Kate. I think you're awesome!" I said taking on a deep voice for my cup. "How about a drink?" The 'cup' continued. "Oh, why, you're right, a drink sounds-"

"Hey you-" A male voice started.

"Sorry, I'm a nun." I said and set my drink back down.

"What?"

I turned in the stool to face him, gave him a quick once over.

"It's just a few seconds ago you said you were taken, and now you're saying you're a nun. I mean, if you're going to give excuses you should stick with the same one, or at least make sure you're not giving the same person different ones."

I laughed. "Okay, you caught me. I'm sorry. I'm just supposed to be celebrating with my friend here and as you can see...we'd agreed on no guys."

"I wasn't trying to hit on you." He said quickly. "I mean, it's not because you aren't hot because...well...I was just going to ask if you were that reporter?"

"Oh. Well, yeah. Always nice to meet a fan." I laughed.

"I won't keep you from your friend, I just wanted to say that one time you got stuck in a tree sky diving and that police chase started going on? It was soo cool when you cut your parachute off and landed right on the guy!"

"Could you believe I actually got fined for that?" I laughed.

"You should be a cop or some sort of private investigator."

I thanked my fan I turned back to the bar. "Another." I waved to the bartender.

"I'm so sorry I'm late!" Stacey sounded from beside me. "I was on my way here and all of the sudden my tire like exploded. Literally. I was on the side of the road like, having no freaking clue how to change a tire and of course I'm in a complete deadzone so I can't even call a tow company! So I'm like stranded there when this fello came and saved the day."

I spun to face her and nearly fell out of my seat in shock. "P-Pietro?" I gasped looking at the tall Italian standing beside my best friend with a knowing expression on his face.

"Oh great, you know each other. That's great then you won't think this is a set up or something." She laughed and put her hand on his arm. "Let's go sit at a table?"

I glanced around the bar but didn't see Alessio. "S-sure." I muttered and threw the content of my drink down my throat. I was going to need all the alcohol I could get tonight.

I couldn't understand why I was even drinking. I never drank, not unless I was feeling particularly upset. I shouldn't be upset, not after getting my dream contract with a company I hadn't even kidded myself into thinking they'd ever want me. I was at the top of my game. Even before Stacey had been late and Pietro had showed up. I was downright miserable. And so I was drinking. It didn't make sense.

Stacey seemed really interested in Pietro, but I knew if Pietro was here Alessio would probably just be around the corner. I had sat patiently at the table waiting for something to happen. The bar to burst into flames, Pietro to pull a gun out, when I excused myself to the rest room I was half hoping I'd be kidnapped. But nothing. It was really just casual drinks and Stacey gushing about how he saved her life. Could it really just be a coincidence?

I went back up to the bar to order another.

"Excuse me miss."

My drunken little head was spinning and I was not in the mood to deal with the barhookup kind of guys tonight. "Sorry, you don't want to talk to me. I'm that crazy cat lady. Seriously, can't even count them with my fingers." I said waving the stranger away without bothering to look at him. I was just not in the mood for this right now.

The bartender, who I actually was starting to get a little familiar with tonight, set my drink down.

"What are you drinking?"

This guy couldn't take a hint. I sighed heavily. "Satan's piss." I grumbled and took a drink.

I could still feel him standing next to me and it was really starting to get on my nerves. I had many phases included in my drunken stupor. Anger and defiance was one that came usually relatively soon before the water works began. If this guy didn't bugger off he'd be experiencing both. I'd probably kick him in the stomach and then cry about it or something along those lines.

A hand was suddenly low on my back. I practically gagged trying to swallow my drink so that I could turn around and give him an earful but then he spoke again in a soft whisper directly in my ear. "Mia cara."

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Hey guyss. I did not even proofread this chapter so if it's a mess I apologize.

I KNOW it's short, and because it's short I'll make this a double update week. So you guys can expect a second update sometime before the week is over and it'll be longer. NOW, onto the actual chapter.

Who do you think could possibly be speaking Italian sweet nothings into Kate's ear? (;
As if we don't already know. He'd better have a damn god excuse for being gone so long, am I right?

Or could Pietro's appearance actually just be a really strange coincidence?

Anyway, I'm going to make when this next update is up to you readers. You all know I always update once a week every Monday. But as I promised, I'll update again this week, and I'll let the first few to comment decide when I update. If the first few people all agree they want another update TODAY it'll be up before Midnight. JUST REMEMBER, if you choose to have a second update today then you'll have to wait a wholeeee week before the weekly Monday update gets here again. Whereas if you wanted the update on say, Thursday (is usually when I do my extra updates) then you'd only be waiting a few days between this update and that update and then only another few days before the weekly Monday update.

Anyway, VOTE && COMMENT