When The Sun Goes Down - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Chapter Twenty-Six

"So wait, wait, wait." Stacey said and waved her hands back and forth. "He was the one?"

"Not the one." I argued back.

"No, no, not like that. But like, the one you've been bitching and moaning about all this time?" Disbelief was clear on her face. Hell, it was probably clear on my face too.

I had gone over this a thousand times. I had gone to work, done my show, come home, showered, taken a nap, woken up, and it was still real. I tried reasoning with myself that I was drugged and my memory was warped. I thought maybe I had dreamed it, fathomed it in my mind. But when I woke up from my nap and his shirt was still thrown hastily on my dresser it was hard to argue. I thought, perhaps in my drunken stupor I had pulled his old shirt out of my closet. I pulled everything out, found the buried box deep into the hellish flames that was my closet and pulled the box out that I had stuffed Alessio's shirt in two years ago. It was still there.

Now here I sat as a complete basket case with both of his shirts on my lap and Stacey confirming that he was really there. Where did I go from here?

Probably no where. He would probably just disappear again.

"I wasn't bitching and moaning." I argued. Barely, I had totally bitched and totally moaned. "But, eh, yes. He's...the guy."

"Oh my God." She practically screamed.

"Stacey please. He disappeared for two years, what makes you think he's going to stick around this time? Besides. I'm so over him. It was definitely all in my head. There was really no chemistry between us." I shrugged.

I had a sudden flash of him pulling me into him at the bar and the way that in that moment everything else around us melted away and all of my real untampered memories flooded back. The way he held my face and rested his forehead against mine and somehow managed to sort to insanity that was always my mind. There was much more than just chemistry with us.

"You're like fire engine red right now."

"I am not!" I gasped.

"You can't honestly tell me nothing happened last night. I mean, I dragged you out of there in nothing but his shirt. And oh my God, you're even redder now!"

I slapped my hands over my face. "Nothing happened!" I yelled, my voice coming out muffled from under my hands.

"Kate." She said in a serious tone. I dropped my hands. "This could be fate."

"He disappeared before. Who's to say it won't happen again?"

"If it's true love it won't."

I laughed. "I've never even kissed the guy Stace. It's not love. It's an infatuation. He's mysterious and dangerous and was forever going to be a what if. It was never about him. It's always just been one of those you want what you can't have things and he was just there in a time I was really just out of touch with the rest of the world so I just latched onto him. There's nothing there." I repeated to her what I had been repeating to myself for the last two years.

"Sure. Keep telling yourself that." She rolled her eyes.

"He's probably already packing his bags to get the hell out of dodge." I said and crossed my arms over my chest. I bit my lip to keep it from trembling.

"Katie." Stacey said frowning. She stood and came over to sit with me and wrapped her arms around me. "What if he doesn't leave? Or he comes and finds you again? What then?"

"That's not going to happen." I said and my voice cracked. "I don't know what the hell is wrong with me." I must still be drugged.

"But what if it did? What if he showed up right now?"

"I don't know." I sighed. "I guess I'd maybe believe in your stupid fate thing."

"Would you really?"

"Sure. Why the hell not. It's not gonna happen anyway."

She hugged me tightly. "Stop crying and put your nice bra on. Pietro texted me and they're outside."

"They're what?" I gasped and stood up. "I'm going to faint. Wait, how does he know where I live? Did you tell them?"

She shook her head quickly. "I thought you would have!"

I walked across the apartment to my window and pushed two blinds apart. A black SUV was parked on my street. I pursed my lips thoughtfully. He either found out where I lived, or he had known all this time. If he had known that just made it that much worse that he hadn't come to find me in all this time.

"Should I be worried?" Stacey whispered suddenly at my side.

"No." Probably. "I must have mentioned it when I was drinking and just forgot." He has his ways.

"That makes sense. Hurry up and get dressed!"

I stared thoughtfully out the window for a long time before letting the blinds come closed and obliging in changing my clothes

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HAPPY MONDAY!

This was a pretty short chapter, so I don't have a ton to write about in the authors note...I'm going to be posting what I consider to be a roughly important author's note here in a few minutes though.

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