Siempre Mío

t h i r t y s i x

Lorenzo POV

I ran my fingers over the small cut on my cheek, the skin slightly rougher compared to the rest of my face.

Grabbing the Dior spray off my shelf, I sprayed it on both sides of my neck and patted it in with my hands before reaching for my phone which had began ringing.

"Lorenzo speaking." I spoke, walking out of the bathroom as I put my coat suit on.

"Come to the meeting room; Don's calling us." Antonio said quickly.

"Be there in a sec."

I hung up and slipped the phone into my inside pocket, walking out of my room and shutting the door behind me as I went.

The meeting room was crowded despite the fact that most of them were seated.

I squeezed through the small crowds around the room and found Lucía sitting in my usual spot.

Seeing the seat opposite her was free, I took it and sat there. Her expression remained the same and her eyes were fixed on her phone which she was holding out in front of her, her forearms resting on the table.

A tattoo on her arm caught my eye and I instinctively went to reach for her arm to see the full tattoo, but held myself back.

I glanced up at her to see that she was staring at me, a look of confusion on her face. 

I motioned towards her arm, then pointed to my own as I mouthed the word "tattoo" to her.

Lucía looked at her arm and the realisation hit her and she told me when she got it.

"Two years ago, when I was in England." She whispered.

I laughed a little and nodded my head, my attention being ripped away from her as the Don walked into the room.

We all stood as he walked to his seat at the head of the table and sat in unison as he motioned for us to sit.

"So, Ivan and his team have been tracking Anastasia and her associate Alexei. They think they may have found the Russian's base here in Italy but we can't estimate how big their army is. We can't engage with them because of this, so for now we are standing down. Using this time, training is going to restart. Once a week, everyone will go through physical training and we will continue that until enough information is gathered about the Russian's mafia. Any questions?"

No one said anything or moved.

"Good. Training will start as of tomorrow, but until then you can rest. Lorenzo and Lucía stay behind, the rest of you are dismissed."

The rest of the men stood from their seats, the chairs making a scraping sound as they moved back on the floor.

Once the last person had left, the door shut with a click and Don took his seat.

"Now, I want you two to be leading the training. Lucía, you can take half of the soldiers and Lorenzo, the other half. It won't just be the men and women separately. I'll mix them up and draw up groups of equal numbers and you can take whichever. Okay?"

We both nodded.

"Is there any questions you have?" Don asked us, looking to both of us separately.

"Is there specific subjects we're training them on? Like hand to hand combat, shooting etc?" Lucía questioned.

"Both. We have time so go through them slowly. Start with hand to hand combat and work on the basics; disarming people, injuries and blackouts."

"How about my group start with shooting and long distance shooting so once we're done, we can switch and won't clash with Lucía's group?"

"You two can talk and work it out between yourselves, okay? Now, I have to go but let me know."

Don stood up from his seat and left the room, leaving both Lucía and I alone.

"If you don't mind, can I start with hand to hand combat and you take shooting practise first?" Lucía asked me.

"Yeah sure, that's fine with me. Also, can we talk?"

She nodded gesturing for me to go on.

"Let's take a drive; I'd prefer to have some privacy."

"Good idea, let's go."
___________________________

We were sitting in Lucía's car; she insisted on driving but I picked the location.

I put the address into the navigation system and she took off, driving us there in a music filled silence.

When we got there, we both got out of the car and I walked before her. She followed along and took a seat next to me as I sat down on the ground.

We were at the location of our first date, although it looked much more different in the light of midday.

"So, I know we apologised but are we really okay?" I asked her.

"I- well... yes. I wanted us to be, but to be honest- it's your call. You were affected the most compared to me so as long as you're okay with me then I am okay."

"Well yes, I am okay with you. You apologised, and I forgave you. Simple as."

"But why does it still feel wrong then? Like my 'sorry' wasn't enough for you?" She pleaded for an answer.

"It's," I sighed, "it's like when me first met. We were awkward, then tolerated one another and then we were okay. It's as if you and I re-met. Like we never knew each other before, and it's just a bit awkward. Over time, we will get more comfortable with each other and it will be okay. I hope."

"So, what do we do to get back to normal?"

I paused to think for a moment.
What would we need to do to be normal again?