Twenty–Three

 

 

Aria

I wake up and for a second I forget about the events which took place last night. That is until I look over at Gio and see him lying next to me, his beautiful lips downturned into a frown. His thumb gently grazes my cheek and it stings. When I flinch, his frown deepens. I don’t even need to ask him if he was a part of what Weston did to me last night. I know he would never put me in harm’s way. I also don’t need to ask if Cecilia was a part of it. I know she was. Why a woman would stick an abusive rapist on another woman is incomprehensible to me.

“I didn’t know, Ari.”

I shake my head. “I know.”

“He’s dead. I can’t give you all the specifics but he will never hurt you again.” I would never wish death on anyone but knowing he can never get to me again gives me a sense of peace I desperately long for.

“And Cecilia?”

“She’s gone.” My eyes widen. Surely, he wouldn’t… “Not dead. She’s just gone from here. I fired her.”

Gio stares at me for a few minutes, a frown still marring his face, giving me a weird feeling in my gut like there’s more but he doesn’t want to say it.

“Can we get out of here?” I ask. “Let’s go away. Anywhere but here. Just the two of us.”

His frown deepens. “I can’t. There’s too many fires to put out and I need to do damage control.” He gets up from the bed and goes to the bathroom, that feeling in my gut intensifying. He didn’t kiss me and he hasn’t touched me. I could be overthinking this but something in me is screaming that I’m about to lose Gio.

I hear the shower running so I throw the covers off me, and ignoring the pain radiating from my body, strip my shirt and panties off. Gio’s shower is different from most. It’s a huge rectangular shape, tiled throughout but instead of having a shower door, it’s completely open, with two entrances you can step down and walk through. There are five shower heads that spray down and there’s a bench that runs along the entire back wall.

I step down into the shower room and coming up behind him, I wrap my arms around his middle. He stills for a second then turns around. “Aria, you should be resting. You were attacked last night.”

“Nothing happened.” I know I’m downplaying it but I don’t want him to push me away.

“You might not have been raped but you were still assaulted. Please go lay down and rest.” Standing up on my tiptoes, I wrap my arms around his neck but he reaches up and removes them, stepping back. “I need to get ready for work. Go rest.” His voice is no longer soothing but cold, devoid of any emotion.

“Don’t do this, Gio. Talk to me, please.” Stepping toward him, I put my hands on his chest but once again, he removes them.

“There’s nothing to talk about, Aria. You were attacked last night and you should be resting. I’m not going to fuck you right here in the shower mere hours after you were almost raped.” I flinch at the way he’s speaking to me. He’s never spoken to me like this before. Before he can see my tears, I turn and get out of the shower, grabbing a towel to wrap myself up in.

I grab the top outfit from my drawer and throw it on. Snatching my cellphone from the nightstand, I push it into my back pocket and run downstairs and out the door needing some air.

“Need to go somewhere?” I look over at Rome standing behind me. “I figured I would ask before you steal another vehicle.”

“I can drive, you know. And now that Weston is dead, I don’t need to stay here under lock and key.”

“That’s true but you don’t have a car.”

“Maybe I’ll go buy one today,” I challenge. He chuckles and shakes his head.

“Would you like a ride to buy a car, Aria?”

I sigh having no idea what the hell I’m doing then sit down on the curb on the side of the house. “I think Gio needs some space. Would you mind taking me over to Amber’s place?” I pull my phone out and dial her number. She answers on the second ring. “Aria? Nico just told me what happened last night! Are you ok?”

“I’m ok. I just need to get away from here for a little bit. Can I come stay with you?” There’s a pregnant pause and then Amber says, “Well, I’m actually living with Nico. A few of my roommates graduated this year so we had to give up the apartment.”

“Oh. Ok. No worries.” I feel like such a crappy friend not even knowing my best friend has moved in with her boyfriend.

“Wait. Aria. Why don’t you come here? I know Nico won’t mind. Plus, he’s out of town until the end of the week. We can do a girls’ night.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to cause any issues with you two. I didn’t even realize how serious you guys were. I feel like a horrible friend.”

“Stop! This just happened last week. I was so busy moving everything that I just haven’t had time to tell you. Get over here and let’s hang out.”

“Ok, cool. I’ll be over shortly.”

After hanging up the phone, I head back up to the room. Gio isn’t there anymore, so I grab a suitcase and fill it with some clothes and toiletries. Then I go back to the first floor to his office. He’s not in there either so I write him a note letting him know I went to stay with Amber for a few days.

Rome is outside waiting for me when I walk out. He grabs my suitcase from me and throws it into the trunk. “Where am I taking you?”

“To Nico’s place, please. Amber is living there now.”

The ride to wherever he lives is quiet and I use this time to have a mini-evaluation of my life. Everything has changed so much this last year and a half. I went from being a college student to being kidnapped to being saved by Gio. I told a man for the first time I love him only to have lost him because I was attacked. I thought for the first time in a long time I was finally in a good place. Even after Weston attacked me, I woke up this morning and wasn’t going to let it bring me down. I can’t control what others do, but I can control what I do, what I say, and how I choose to handle what life throws at me. I wish Gio would tell me what’s on his mind so we can work through it.

“Aria, we’re here.” The hotel comes into view that Gio encouraged me to stay away from.

“He lives in this hotel?”

“Yep. Just go to the East elevator and type in this code.” He hands me a sheet of paper. “It will take you right up to his suite.” He gets out with me and hands me back my luggage.

I thank him and say goodbye then head through the front door and to the East elevator. The code works as Rome said and a minute later, I’m face-to-face with a guard standing outside the only door on the floor. “Is Amber here?” He nods and knocks on the door for me. “Thank you.” Another nod. Ok then…

Amber swings the door open and pulls me in for a hug. “Eeeeek!!! Get in here!” She slams the door shut behind us and grabs my luggage, throwing it to the side.

“You didn’t tell me Nico lives here, and what’s up with the mute guy standing outside your door?”

“I didn’t know! The night of the charity function we went for a drive and after that we spent time at my place. I didn’t know he lived here until he asked me to move in, and that guard is a requirement. Nico said it’s to be on the safe side.” Amber parks her ass on the couch and I plop down next to her. “So, what’s going on, Aria?”

“If that isn’t a loaded question.” I laugh nervously. I explain to her how good things have been between me and Gio recently. I tell her about our shared confessions of love, and how everything finally felt good. Then I tell her about last night, about Cecilia being fired, and how cold and distant Gio was to me this morning.

“Maybe he feels responsible. You just might be overthinking this, chica.”

“Maybe but it just all felt off—I had to get out of there and give him some space. He yelled at me like he does to his employees when he’s mad. He was just so cold and distant. I want to put what happened to me behind us but he wouldn’t even talk to me about what’s wrong.”

Amber bounces in her seat. “You know what we should do? We should go clubbing!”

“And how will that help fix my Gio situation?”

“Oh! It won’t but we will have a blast! We are both finally over twenty-one. Weston is out of the picture and we need to have some fun. We can call Giselle and Natalie and Sierra! Oh, and I can call our friend Vicki!”

“I don’t know…”

“C’mon! Some drinking and dancing. It will be a fun girls’ night.”

“Gah! Ok! Fine.”

Amber jumps from her seat, grabbing me in a hug and pulls me up so we are dancing around the house. “Call the girls at the club and I’ll call Vicki. Tell them to meet us here and then we can all go get manis and pedis!”

We spend the day hanging out. We go to the nail salon, to lunch, and then everyone comes back to the hotel to get dressed and ready for tonight. All of us are dressed similar, tight dresses in various styles and colors with high heels. Throughout the day, I kept checking my phone hoping Gio would text or call but he hasn’t once. It makes me sad that after everything, this is how it will end.

Since we will be drinking, we are having one of Amber’s guards, Mack, drive us to the club. She said Nico promised her she wouldn’t be guarded around the clock but since he’s out of town she will be with a guard until he gets back.

When we walk up to Club Ten, Natalie has us follow her. Apparently, she knows the bouncer and he lets us in without waiting. We find a table and order a round of tequila shots from the waitress when she comes over.

“What are we drinking to?” Vicki shouts over the music blaring throughout the club. We all look around to each other and laugh when not one of us can think of a single damn thing to drink to.

“To each other?” I shout back. Everybody nods in agreement and shouts, “To each other.” We down the shots then make our way to the dance floor. Forming our own little clique, we dance our asses off as each song flows into the next and we get lost in the music.