The Devoted Gentleman (EDITING)

Chapter 3

Valeria put on her burgundy flowy dress with golden belt and placed a pair dark brown sunglasses on herself. She applied a little bit of soft pink lipstick and sprayed on a light floral fragrance behind her ear and on her wrist. Pulling the drawer on her vanity, she took her piaget altiplano watch in a classic rose gold with brown leather strap on her wrist, hooked a simple dangling golden necklace and put her low ankle boots on to finish her look.  She had gone to the hospitals every two days every since Alessio was admitted and there had not been any sign of progress yet. She was getting more and more worried as each day passed by, and it had resulted in some sleepless nights followed by tears and loss of appetite, it haunted her almost every hour, whenever her mind was not occupied by work or a company of a friend, it would automatically directed itself back to Alessio, but that day, just for one day, she wanted to forget about the incident for a little while.

As she expected, Valentino knocked on her door right on time when she was just about to call him. He was seen dressed casually in a black t shirt with leather jacket and denim jeans. He flashed a smile at her and held out his hand toward her. On the way, she had no idea where he was taking her, because he refused to tell her about it. Valentino wanted to make it a surprise.It turned out, he was taking her to no other place than Villa Borghese. Despite having been staying inside the city of Rome for the vast majority of her life, Valeria had not come to the place in a long time. He parked his car near the

"Do you remember, when you were a teenager, you told me one day that you had a huge fight with your father over your study matter. He wanted you to get into business school like your brother, but you insisted on going to a music school, so he punished you by not allowing you to play the piano for the whole week. So the next day, I visited your home and sneaked you out of the house, and both of us ended up going to Villa Borghese." Valeria laughed at the memory. She remembered that day, when she went back home, her mother gave her a scolding but fortunately her father was absent at home. Garzia kept the matter silent from her husband.

He bought two tickets and held her hand tightly as they passed through the crowd, he made sure that she would stay as close as possible to him, because he knew one of the bad habit she had was her bad sense of direction, she was someone who could get lost easily whenever she traveled somewhere she was not familiar with, which was why he made sure he had her under his watch, Valeria missed the place so much, she had a few memories from her childhood when she traveled there together with her family.

The first thing they did was to enter Galleria Borghese which was near their entrance. The gallery held some of really fantastic art and statue pieces, what Valeria was most excited about to see again is the famous Apollo and Daphne statue by Bernini. As a young child she was fascinated by the story of Apollo, who thanks to cupid's arrow, was madly in love with Daphne, the forest nymph who was made unable to love him back, he kept on chasing her, until she turned into a tree. She find it almost ironic how one could be fooled by a one sided love to the point of destruction. Another piece that fascinated her was a painting by Titian called Sacred and Profane Love, which depicted two women beside each other, one was seen naked yet carrying a smoking lamp, a symbol of divine purity, while the clothed woman was seen holding a myrtle plant, a sacred symbol of the goddess of love, Venus and Demeter, the matronly deity of agriculture. The way she interpreted the painting was as a sign of duality, similar to the yin and yang in taoism. It showed that there was more to life than black and white.

He stood beside her as she took a good stare at the picture, Valentino could see her fascination with the piece, he was not someone who was really into renaissance art, but when his eyes found her, it was like he saw a masterpiece, the way her eyes stared so innocently, her lips slightly parted, and her long wavy hair fell on her dress, she looked so pure and tender, like a goddess who appeared from heaven, just for him.