Mafia

Past and Present

Three months later...

Paperwork. I was buried in it, day in and day out, there was so much paperwork that when I went to sleep at night I dreamed about it.

Turned out Luca owned an office building in the city, it was close to my apartment and while it worked as a front for the more shady part of his business dealings, the company the building was registered under was very much legitimate and highly successfull. It was an import-export business, he had hundreds of wealthy respectable businesses on his client roster and surprise of all surprises, at the end of all this it might actually look good on my resume.

Working for Luca was surprisingly easy, he was still the same pushy and domineering man he had always been, but he was giving me space and so far he hadn't overstepped any boundaries that I might have set when it came to our relationship. I'd been clear from day one that through the duration of our arrangement I wanted to keep things strictly professional between us. I couldn't do the job I was "hired" to do if I was constantly worrying about what his next move might be, still I couldn't shake the feeling that he was lulling me into a fake sense of security and was working some bigger ploy I couldn't yet see.

Taking a break from work before my head decided to explode I pushed away from my desk and stretched my hands above my head, craning my necks to work the kinks out of it.

Winter was fast approaching and every day the night descended faster and faster on the big apple. My office was on the top floor, right down the hall from Luca and it was spacious and felt like my own safe little bubble in this crazy new reality of mine.
The view from my office was amazing, several times a day I'd find myself standing by the windows, admiring the panoramic view of a city that was known for it's beautiful lighs and never sleeping.

I'd always dreamed about seeing the world some time, traveling across Europe and exploring the hidden treasures of the planet, but always I knew that I wouldn't ever be comfortable living somewhere else for a longer period of time. New York was my home, where I have my family and friends and so much history.

I was contemplating all of this when there was a knock on my door. I didn't need to turn around to know who it was, I was aware of Luca on a level I wish I wasn't, my skin heating and my heart speeding up at the mere proximity of having him in the same building, let alone the same room.

Spending so much time working closely with him had done nothing to diminish my feelings for him, if anything it had only served to remind of how good things had been between us once. He hadn't only been my first love, he was my best friend, the person I trusted most in the entire world and that wound had been almost as impossible to repair.

Turning around I offered up a genuine smile, no longer feeling like defying him at every turn, just for the principle of it.
"Hey, you can come in you know. You don't have to stand in the doorway,"
"I was just admiring the view," judging from his tone and the way he was looking at me, it was clear he wasn't talking about the view outside. He was still laying on the charm thickly, he flirted both subtly and outrageously, but he hadn't done anything else... yet.
"Yeah, it's really something isn't it?" Over the past couple of months I'd learned to casually play off his comments, of course he never let me get away with it.

"We both know I wasn't talking about the office-view," I watched him step into my office before I turned back around to the windows, glancing at him when he came up next to me.

It was still difficult figuring out how to relate to him; as my ex-boyfriend, boss, blackmailer, friend? I didn't know and it wasn't getting any easier either.

"Remember that night on top of the Empire State building?" I sucked in a breath at the quietly voiced question, bracing myself for the emotional impact the memory had on me... It was the first time he ever told me he loved me.