More Than This by Dominique Wolf
CHAPTER 39:
Giovanni
“C
an I make you some coffee?” I peeped my head into the bathroom as Isabella was showering.
“Yes please, I'm almost done,” She shouted over the running water.
“You'll find me downstairs.”
I closed the door behind me and couldn't help but smile. She was here again and as selfish as that was, it made me happy. This was what I had always wanted. We still had so much to figure out but something about last night felt different. She didn't leave with Lorenzo when it came down to it. She chose me and I knew she would continue to choose me. All the outside elements aside, we were meant to be together and I wasn't going to let her go without a fight. I tried to let her move on with her life. I tried to stay away but I couldn't. I couldn't live with the hollowness that was inside of me in the absence of her in my life.
I reached for a hoodie from my closet and pulled it over my head as I strolled downstairs. The sound of the elevator opening caught my attention and I stopped in my tracks trying to think of who it could be. I seriously needed a front door. I didn't want another unwelcome guest while I was with Isabella so relief quickly washed over me as my mother turned around the corner.
“Mama, what are you doing here?”
I was surprised by her arrival. I didn't know she was going to stop by today. I hadn't seen her since the last time I was at the house and I learned about her affair. I hadn't confronted her about it either. Alvaro and I agreed to deal with this after the Christmas party so I had to keep my mouth shut.
“Hola, cariño.” She walked over to me and kissed both my cheeks. “¿Cómo estás?”
“I'm good. I was just about to make some coffee, can I make you a cup?”
She followed me into the kitchen and stood by the counter, placing her bag down. “Sí, por favor.”
I brought the kettle to a boil and grabbed three cups from the cupboard, placing them on the counter in front of her.
“I haven't seen you in a while,” she said with a flicker of sadness in her voice. “Not since what happened with your father.”
I kept my face as neutral as I could manage as I reached for the tin of coffee and a teaspoon.
“Yeah, Alvaro said you went to stay with him for a couple of days.”
She nodded. “It was nice to have some time to think.”
I was dying to ask her what she was doing. Was she planning on leaving my father? When did her affair start? Why didn't she leave him earlier? So many questions were running through my mind but I couldn't breathe a word of it to her. She pulled herself onto the barstool and I noticed she wasn't the same today. She was usually so full of energy and a positive light in my life but that had started to dim since I told her what happened. It saddened me to see her like this. She deserved to be happy, too.
“But what about you?” she asked. “Don't think I haven't seen the news, Giovanni. Are you really having a baby?”
I sighed. This wasn't the first time she asked me about this. I had plenty of messages from her that I didn't know how to reply to. I had avoided her questions long enough. I didn't want to disappoint her but I couldn't get out of this one. Not with her sitting right in front of me. She peered at me from behind her glasses and I half expected there to be judgment in her dark brown eyes but instead, there was only concern.
“It's complicated, Mama.”
“What about you and Isabella? She seemed so lovely.”
I reached for the kettle and brought the hot water to the cups. “I really want to explain everything to you but I don't think now is the be-”.
Before I could finish my sentence, Isabella strolled into view. “I hung the to-”.
The rest of her sentence disappeared as she noticed my mother sitting at the counter.
“Isabella!” My mother exclaimed.
“Hola, Mrs. Velázquez.” She pulled her in for a hug.
“Mrs Veláquez,” she scoffed, “Please call me Marcina.”
Isabella looked over at me and smiled before she followed my mother back towards the kitchen counter.
“I didn't expect to see you here.” My mother's eyes lit up at her presence. “It's so lovely to see you again.”
My mother knew what Isabella meant to me. I had told her all about her and it was the first time I had ever introduced anyone to her. There was no one else that measured up to what Isabella meant in my life. I couldn't explain everything to my mother right now, especially not with Isabella here. I didn't want to bring Casey up in front of her. I was terrified to bring up anything that might cause her to leave again and I was hanging onto every moment with her for as long as possible.
I noticed she had helped herself to one of my jerseys. It sat oversized on her body and I loved to see her in my clothes. I was so taken with her. She didn't even have to try and she was breathtaking to me. She didn't have any makeup on and her wet hair had started to curl. Having her here just felt right.
I placed a cup of coffee in front of her.
“It’s lovely to see you too. I'm sorry to interrupt, Giovanni didn't tell me you were coming by.” Isabella said.
“I didn't know,” I interjected.
She wrapped her hands around her cup and leaned casually against the counter.
“I was in the area and I had to drop off the keys for this weekend.” My mother fished out a set of keys from her bag. “Papa rented out a couple of the cottages on the property for us to stay after the party.”
The Velázquez Constructa Christmas party was this weekend and there was no getting out of it. It was tradition and the one event of the year that we were expected to all attend - as a family.
“Party?” Isabella looked over at me, a confused look on her face.
My mother jumped in before I could answer. “The Velázquez Constructa Christmas party. We do it every year and this year's theme is 'casino'.”
She placed the keys on the counter and reached for her cup, bringing it up to her lips. “Oh please tell me you're coming, Isabella? It would be so wonderful to have you join us this year. Giovanni has always been the only one without a date over the years.”
“Mama, I haven't even told her about it.”
I tried to get my mother's attention with my eyes. I didn't want to put Isabella in an awkward position, but my mother had no boundaries.
“Well, what more is there to tell?” she asked. “It's just outside the city. The party is on Saturday, but people usually make a weekend out of it, hence the keys here. Your father has booked it out for you guys from today till Monday.”
Isabella didn't say a word and instead just smiled politely as she sipped on her coffee. I wouldn't have even thought of asking her to join me. Of course, I wanted her to but we were broken up and I didn't have that kind of privilege with her anymore.
“And you can order a dress from the family designer, I'm sure she can ge-”.
“Mama,please,” I stopped her as politely as I could. “I'll chat to Isabella about it but I'm sure she has plans already.”
Isabella's eyes met mine and I couldn't figure out what she was thinking. Her face remained unchanged, but I noticed a flicker of disappointment in her eyes before she looked back down at her coffee.
My mother reached out and squeezed Isabella's hand. “You're still here with him after all this, there must be a reason.”
God, she was relentless.I ran my fingers through my hair and let out an exasperated sigh.
“Mama,I love you, but Isabella and I have a lot to talk about.”
She realised she had started to cross a line and she covered her mouth in surprise. “Lo siento, I didn't mean to-”.
Isabella reached out to her. “You don't need to apologize for anything. Thank you for the invite.”
I was thankful that my mother's phone started to ring, giving us a break from her running commentary. I didn't want to get into anything with Isabella this morning. I was just planning on having a casual breakfast with her, but now there was awkward tension surrounding us that we weren't going to be able to ignore.
“That was the new driver, Edmundo, he's downstairs with the car so I have to get going,” my mother announced and reached for her bag, slipping it onto her shoulder. “I just needed to give you the keys. Your father and I are headed out to Vic later this afternoon.”
The question of where their relationship stood was partly answered in the fact that she was traveling with him tomorrow. Her eyes met mine and I could tell she was begging me not to ask any questions. My whole family was living a lie right now and we just needed to get past this weekend before we would all be forced to deal with the reality of it. I walked around the counter and pulled her in for a hug. No matter what, she was still my mother and I loved her. All I wanted was for her to find her happiness again.
“Travel safely, I'll let you know when I leave.” I pulled her in for a hug.
She cupped my face with her hand and smiled before turning to Isabella, pulling her in for a hug.
“It was so nice to see you with Giovanni again,” she murmured.
“Take care, Marcina,” Isabella replied politely.
We said our last goodbyes to my mother as she stepped into the elevator and the doors closed her off from us. There was definitely a palpable awkwardness in the air and as much as I wanted to avoid it, we couldn't.
“I'm sorry about my mother,” I said.
“You don't need to apologize.”
We strolled back into the kitchen and she brought herself onto the barstool in front of the counter. I leaned against it on the opposite side of her and reached for my cup.
“So, you're going out of town this weekend?” she asked.
“I'm supposed to. The Christmas party is on Saturday and it's a family affair,” I scoffed at that thought. “My family is a fuck-up right now, but we have to show face on Saturday and pretend that all is well in the Velázquez household.”
“And you're going to have to see your father then.”
“I saw him yesterday when I met Nate.”
“And? What was it like?”
I shrugged. “Like nothing had changed. My family has a very good way of brushing things under the carpet, but that's not going to continue much longer. Alvaro and I agreed to get through this weekend, but then we would call a family meeting because I'm sick of pretending that everything is fine when it's not.”
“Are Alvaro and Penelope going to be there?”
I nodded and took a sip. “They've hired a nanny who is going to come with them to take care of Mateo during the party.”
She didn't say anything further. Instead, she sipped on her coffee and I watched her intently, trying to figure out where she was at. I couldn't get a good read on her today and it was making me nervous. I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to say the wrong thing and have her leave. Was I supposed to invite her to come with me? Was she mad I didn't mention it in the first place?
“How far away is the place you're going to?”
“Vic is about an hour out of the city.”
She kept fishing around for information and was tapping her nails against the counter the way she always did when she was nervous. Good to know I wasn’t the only one feeling it.
She brought her mug to her lips and peered at me from behind it. “Do you need me to come with you?”
I was surprised by her offer but I tried to keep my face expressionless. I didn't want to seem too eager and have her go back on her offer. Even though we broke our own rules last night by not staying away from each other, I didn't expect that she would want to extend our reunion.
“Do you want to come with me?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I know how you feel about your parents right now and you could probably use a…” she paused for a moment before saying. “Friend.”
Friend?
I hated her use of that word. Isabella and I could never be just friends. She made that perfectly clear in the past and now with all that had happened between us, it was even more true. But if she was offering herself to me for the weekend, the last thing I was going to do was reject her offer. I'd take anything I could get.
“Are you sure you want to come with?” I asked softly.
I needed to make sure this was what she wanted. I would never want to put her in a situation where she was uncomfortable or where she was somewhere she didn't want to be. That's the last thing I would want.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
I laughed. This back and forth could continue forever. I placed my cup back on the counter and walked over to her. “Of course I do, but I don't want you to feel obliged to have to come with me because of my mother, I'd really understand if you do-”.
“I want to come.”
A flicker of happiness came to life inside of me and I tried to hold back my smile. I didn't want to seem too eager but this was giving me hope that we still had a chance here.
“But I do have a problem,” she said.
“What's the problem?”
“I have nothing to wear.”
I chuckled and pulled her into my arms. “I'm sure we can sort something out.”
