The Mafia Bride

40.

It was our second day in UK. Well, the first day was filled with long and excruciating travel. It was a dull day and nothing significant happened, except for Andrew and Gigi's constant arguments. Honestly, it made my migraine worse. Ever since we landed in London, the two of them were arguing and arguing. The entire two hour travel from London to Cotswolds, Andrew and Gigi's arguments didn't let anyone sleep even a wink. The moment we reached Andrew's mansion, we all hit our beds. I was so tired that I let autocorrect frame my 'We reached cotswolds' which ended up becoming 'we reached cowshed.' If he is my soulmate he better understand my garbled texts. I woke up and grabbed my phone, well Leo had replied— 'go to sleep.' Followed by an eyeball emoji. Aww, he is my soulmate. I got up and brushed, had bath and did my elaborate steps of day skincare routine. In Columbia, due to the stress of having our lives at risk, I had a bad breakout.

I heard a knock on my door and went to open the door. It was Nico at my doorstep. He had packets of potato chips and nachos.

"Hey, I thought we might start breaching my brother's privacy early on." He said, barging into the room. So much for common etiquette.

I shut the door behind him. He went on and flopped on my bed. He grabbed my laptop from my bedside and opened it. He typed and switched on my laptop. He even guessed my password, not that Leo Moretti was a very clever password in the first place.

"Sit, sit." He said, slapping the bed. "Treat it like your own room."

"Gee." I rolled my eyes. "If you hadn't mentioned I'd have never known."

He typed furiously in my laptop, ignoring my sarcasm. I thought he'd blurt a sassy reply. Instead, he offered me some potato chips.

"Potato chips before breakfast?"

"I hate English breakfast. Andrew's family is pretty traditional." Nico said. "And I doubt you'd like steak."

I took a handful of chips and stuffed them in my mouth. "People of my religion don't eat beef. So, I've never really had it despite staying in Trinity all my life. But from what everyone has described it, I would assume it is rubbery and chewy." I said.

"That sounds harsh." He said. "Didn't you feel the need to rebel and try beef?"

"Not really. My parents consumed all kinds of meat. They say you must adapt the dietary practices of the land you live in. They raised me with a very western upbringing and being atheists they didn't really care much about religion. But I was always curious about spirituality and religion. When I researched about Hinduism and vegetarianism as a form of non-violence, I knew I had to become a vegetarian. It was tough and I started slow by having at least one vegetarian meal a day. I turned into a full fledged vegetarian when I moved out. I could adopt practices of my culture in my daily life without causing inconvenience to my family's diet preference. My family never imposed vegetarianism on me, it was a conscious choice."

Nico nodded in understanding. "Supposing you get married, will you at least have beef sauce pasta for the guests? People in my family love beef and a wedding is incomplete without it."

Wait, what? Why was he suddenly speaking about marriage?

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Nico smirked mischievously. From this close, I noticed that he had such a young and boyish face with freckles all over his cheeks. "From what I read, I can bet anything that a marriage is in cards."

Oh my god! Was Leo going to propose me? What would I say? I know I love him but wasn't this too early?

Nico laughed. "Relax, I was kidding." He said, probably noticing my worried look. "Check this out. I've hacked into Leo's phone software and accessed his notes where he writes what he feels. It's pretty sappy stuff like poems, I'm skipping it and accessing the entry when you first met him."