Scheming Heart (Available on Amazon Kindle)

Chapter 32

CLAUDIA

We walked in silence in the busy street of Greenwich Village. We'd been walking for a few minutes now and not a single word had been spoken since leaving the restaurant of my grandmother. I noticed that I am still wearing my apron because Alfonso hastily pulled me out of the restaurant. I untied it from my waist because people gave me a weird look.

"Tell me the truth," I said sternly. "Who snitched that I am here in New York? Anna? Gianna? Or was it my parents?" I wanted to know so I would know who would receive my wrath once I got back home.

He remained silent, protecting the blabbermouth.

"Are you going to talk or what?" I asked tartly, draping the apron in one arm.

He took a deep breath and looked down at me with a slight smile on his handsome face. "Let's find a quiet place before we have this conversation, shall we?"

Drat it, he was dead serious ignoring my question. I shrugged nonchalantly and followed his suit. I still can't believe that he tracked me down this fast. It only took him a few days I was hoping that it would take him a week or two at the least before Anna would spill that I went here to visit my grandparents.

I wonder what kind of tactics he used. Did he threaten Anna or perhaps blackmail her? Nope, my best friend was not the type of person who could easily be cowed like that. Wealthy or not, she didn't give a damn about their social status so it makes me wonder who let the cat out of the bag?

I glanced at him sideways, studying his profile while he was busy staring ahead finding the perfect location. He was still as handsome as I remember and he never fails to set my heart into a hard-pounding state. I've met so many people in the restaurant of my grandparents but no one ever made me feel this way but him. It makes me wonder why my heart behaves like this when he's the complete personification of what I hate about a man.

"Are you still smoking?" I asked offhandedly when I sniffed the faint smell of cigarette smoke in him.

He became conscious and sniffed the sleeves of his jacket. "Oh, I am trying to quit smoking just like you suggested and I only smoke now when I am stressed."

"So you are stressed now?" I queried in an amused tone.

He gave me a look as if I am asking an absurd question. "What do you think, Claudia?"

I don't know but however, but I tried so hard to stop the stupid smile from slipping off my face that it still manage to escape. "Don't tell me you're stressed because of me?"

"Yes," he answered straightly, his eyes pointedly looking at me. "What do you think I should feel knowing that you flew to America all of a sudden and your friends and family refuse to tell me where you went?"

My eyebrows drew together. "How did you know that I was here then?"

He was about to open his mouth to answer me but then he decided to shut it last minute as if remembering something important. "It doesn't matter now, does it? All that's important is that I finally locate you after a few gruesome days in Rome."

"I don't understand why you bother to find me here when your actress is finally home from shooting abroad. I mean, that's what you want from the start, right? To have finally had some time alone with her."

"Don't start with me, Claudia." There was an unmistakable warning in his baritone voice that I couldn't miss.

"What did I do?" I feigned the look of innocence but deep inside I want to irritate him at every opportunity that I have. After all the feeling of resentment that I have felt when he runs in the direction of that woman with just a snap of her fingers, I think it's time for him to feel those horrible feelings, I felt that day he went to Lake Como.