Letters to Italy

13. smile

It was still raining and I was still walking through it. Apparently, I only had half an hour left. It hit me and I realized half an hour was not enough time for everything I needed to do. I began walking back to the hotel, very fast. But even then, I wouldn't have enough time to do my hair and maybe replace my clothes for others that would fit better but certainly still not perfect.

Maybe I had to send Gianluca a message and tell him I would be later. Because of personal reasons or something like that.

I kept walking and raindrops kept falling. "Stupid weather. Why now?" It only made me more nervous than I already was.

"Oh sorry!"

I just hit someone because I only payed attention for the road below my feet and not for the other passengers. It was a guy, certainly Italian, not much taller than me. He wore sunglasses and a jean jacket and underneath a hoodie, with a cap he had put on his head. I wish I had one too, to protect my hair for the rain.

"It's okay!" he said, touching my arm for a few seconds while staring at me. I was a bit frightened because I didn't know this guy and he just touched my arm way too friendly. I didn't really trust it. But then I investigated his look, his posture and his face. He seemed familiar. His voice too. And right before I would've figured out who it was, he put his sunglasses a bit down on his nose. "It's me!" he smiled.

"Gianluca!" I said surprised.

"Ciao bella!" he said a bit nervous.

"Oh, hello! I was... I was", I stuttered and I pointed at the shops behind us, "shopping some new clothes because what I wear is not that great and, ehm I wanted..."

Gianluca put his finger on my lips to stop me from talking. "Shhh."

I only saw that in movies and I always thought that was weird but actually, in real life, it was great because I knew he didn't want me to talk further and I didn't had to explain anything more. Lucky me, because it didn't came out fluently a few seconds ago.

He took his sunglasses off and looked me deep into the eyes. "You look fabulous!"

Just three simple words out of his mouth and I already melted. Instead of thanking him or saying he was beautiful too, I said nothing. It seemed like I had a black out.
But there were three things I still remembered very clearly. First, that person right in front of me was Gianluca Ginoble. Second, he was the most beautiful person in the whole universe. And three: I was completely head over heels in love with this boy.

For a few seconds I thought we would be standing there for minutes doing nothing and feeling uncomfortable. But then he took my hand and started to walk away, he kept looking at me for a while. He put his sunglasses back on and looked again in my direction. Maybe he was still looking into my eyes. I couldn't see it because of the glasses. But it wasn't that bad to look at. They were very beautiful and stylish and full of little raindrops, falling down towards the ground beneath us.

It was raining a big hour now. But Gianluca seemed like he didn't care. He looked more relaxed than that one night. Now he was the Gianluca I knew from the videos I saw. Polite, friendly, romantic and very, very Italian.

"Where are we going?" I asked curious.

"You'll see when we get there!" he said.

But after saying that, he already stopped walking and turned his face to me. "Only if you are okay our 'date' has officially begun now!"

"Sure!" I said, curious about where he was taking me.

"Oh and just one other little thing", he said while making a gesture with his other hand at the word 'little'. "Right," I thought smiling, "I'm hanging out with an Italian right now, they use a lot of hand gestures."