ONE ITALIAN LOVE

- Chapter 8 -

Oh! If one could describe the intensity of shock in Bianca's eyes the moment Massimo greeted her. She was fuming. She was livid. She was... embarrassed just as much as when she felt at the airport when he rammed into her and when she landed on her arse in front of him, twisting her ankle. And she loathed feeling this way.

Though, she had to admit the intensity of her gaze matched the intensity of purely cocky amusement in his eyes. It took her a moment to register Massimo felt comfortable with his impromptu new nickname. It took her a longer while to figure out he showed up unannounced, uninvited, and at an hour of the morning when no respectable man should dare to consider visiting someone who did not care for it one bit.

It... took a while of a completely different sort for her to figure out she stood before him in her white satin nightgown and robe, barefoot, with waist-long disheveled hair.

"What are You doing here?" Bianca offered Massimo a greeting far from any considerate level of politeness she usually offered to others.

"Who's there?" Elisabella asked, curious beyond words, waving a hand at her sister Annalisa to come back closer to the phone.

"He is." Bianca replied to her best friend, not at all surprised to hear Elisabella's loud and chirpy cheer.

"Oh! Piccante! He's interested! And brave!" Elisabella announced with joy, high-fiving her sister.

"No, he's not. And no, he's not," Bianca narrowed her eyes on the man standing before her, paying no attention to two faces dispayed on her phone screen demanding a better look at the man.

"I'd say I am - whatever the question entailed," Massimo mimicked Bianca's expression of narrowed eyes, looking down at her phone. "Elisabella, I assume?"

"Oh! He's interested, brave, and remembers Your best friend's name?" Elisabella chirped even more joyously.

"Who on earth could ever forget You?" Bianca responded to her best friend, yet because she was looking into Massimo's deep brown eyes, he assumed she was speaking of him. Much to Bianca's misfortune.

"You are a peculiar woman." He noted, tipping his head to the side. "You hiss at me, demanding I believe when You say You are not interested, yet You wave at me to come by, choose a rather forward nickname for me, and call me unforgettable."

"I did not!" Bianca exclaimed in his face.

"Yes You did." Elisabella and Annalisa laughed to spice up the conversation on purpose, causing Bianca's cheeks to turn pink - and not from affection.

"I did no such thing." Bianca grit her teeth, forcing herself to keep her temper at bay as much as she could.

"You did not just waive in front of the window facing the poolside?" Massimo raised his eyebrow.

"I... did," Bianca said in short. She despised lying. Truth, however uncomfortable, always found a way to see the light. Although, she knew her side of the story as well. "But I waved a hand at my best friend and my office manager, not at You."

"You knew I could see You from there, right?" Massimo asked, pointing in the direction of the bed and breakfast.

"Yes..." Bianca whispered, resigned, and petrified to think he could have seen her in the window the night before.

"I win." Massimo flashed his pearly whites, twisting knots somewhere deep in Bianca's stomach.

"That means nothing." Bianca puffed out air.

"Yes, it does," Massimo and both sisters on the other side of the conversation agreed in unison.

"Whatever." Bianca whispered but winced because she heard Elisabella's laughter at the word.