Page 14 of Bound to You

“Oh, you are just gorgeous!” Her eyes glitter up at me as she ignores my question. “Where did this riff raff find you?” she asks, throwing her hand in Caio’s direction. His head hangs as he lets out an embarrassed chuckle.

“That one’s a bit of a long story.” Caio runs his hand through his hair.

She looks between us curiously. God, how many times am I going to have to tell this story in one evening? Everyone wants to know how and when we got here, and honestly, I can barely explain it myself. Today has been a whirlwind. It’s been anything but what I’d expected, but isn’t that what we came here for?

“I haven’t been down to visit in a while. How is everything going at the gallery?” Caio changes the subject before she can ask any more questions.

Nora lets out a sigh. “You know how it is. People have busy lives, and they don’t have time to make it to the studio as often as they used to. I’ve been doing as much as I can, but the place just doesn’t get as much traffic as it used to.”

I feel a warmth leave my back as Caio grabs Nora’s hands in his. Was his hand on my back that whole time?

Another server approaches me, offering a second glass of champagne.

“Thank you,” I say, before returning to the conversation in front of me. “No one comes to your gallery?” I ask.

“Oh, people come, but people go too. People used to stay. I had many people who I’d see every week in the studio, who I spent hours painting with. I don’t know where those people went.” She sighs. “I guess life gets too busy sometimes,” she shrugs.

Sorrow rushes over me as I imagine this bubbly woman in front of me all alone in her art studio. Yes, sometimes studios are meant to be peaceful. I love painting alone. But sometimes you need some company, someone to fill the silence around you on the days when your creativity doesn’t flow quite the same.

I quietly sip on my drink, zoning out to the rest of their conversation as they talk about the event tonight. My eyes track the room and I spot Marina flirting with a handsome man who’s tending the rounded bar at the end of the room. She looks like she fits in a scene like this.

I’m dragged back to the conversation in front of me as Nora grabs my hand. “It was lovely to meet you, dear.”

I smile back at her as she gives Caio a juicy kiss on his cheek and makes him promise to go visit her again soon before she spies someone else and hurries off, leaving us alone again.

Caio puts his arm up again and I link my own through it without thought. It’s become our little routine.

“She’s a character.” I peer up at him.

“She definitely is,” he agrees, smiling back as we meander through the crowd.

“You two seem close.”

“Nora is someone who’s looked out for me since the first day I landed in town.” He chuffs a laugh. “She’s like my very own Italian grandmother.”

“Don’t you have one of those already?” I immediately regret the question, but the words have already slipped out. God, I can’t help but be nosy about this guy.

He sucks air in between his teeth. “No, actually. Uh, my mom...she is from a little bit north of here, but her parents died when she was young.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

Well...that’s not entirely true.

“It’s okay,” he assures me before offering a genuine smile. “I didn’t know them anyway.”

I fiddle with the ends of my hair with my spare hand, waiting for him to continue.

“My father is from America.”

“Ah, the land of the free,” I joke. He smiles again as he looks down at me and I look away. That explains why he’s so fluent in both languages, swapping between the two seamlessly.

“So, my mom met him and moved there to be with him, and that’s kind of that.”

By the way his eyes dart around the room to avoid mine, I don’t quite believe that’s the end of the story, but I don’t press it.

“Now I get it,” I say.

“What?”

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