Page 73 of Better Left Unsaid

“I’m sorry. Paolo Gicchio, as inthePaolo Gicchio, sent you flowers?” Bianca asked, clearly trying to wrap her head around this, her eyes growing wide as ever. She slapped a hand on her thigh. “Shut up!”

I chuckled and shrugged a shoulder.

“Okay,” Jade said, looking around the room. “I feel like I’m missing something.”

“I’m sure everyone feels that way,” Allie inserted, her eyes narrowing at me.

Geez, her stare made it feel like it was below zero in here. What happened to my one-night-stand-with-my-roommate fun sister? “Turns out when you design a lingerie collection together you realize how much you like a person,” I replied, acknowledging Jade’s question, too.

Jade nodded in appreciation, rolling her lips. “Nice.”

“You’re so lucky,” Bianca gushed, staring up with a glazed look. I prayed for Knox.

Allie came over and stood in front of me. “You like him? You like Paolo?” she asked, her tone inquisitive but also judgmental. Let’s be real, Allie’s question held a lot more than my sisters may have thought. Unfortunately, I knew she knew about me and Dom, and I knew what she was actually asking. Translation:you’re going to date another man when you could turn this benefits crap with Dom into a real relationship?

I licked my lips. “I don’t know. I don’tnotlike him,” I answered honestly. “But he seems to like me.” I was simply reading between the lines here. “He wants us to get together while he’s in New York this summer.” Don’t get me wrong, at first, I thought it was pretty innocent, as I’d told Dom, but then the second vase had come, and it had me questioning my original assumption.

“Get together.To me that meansget together,” she said, waggling her brows. What? That was what I’d just said. “But what does that mean to him?” Bianca inquired.

I couldn’t speak for him, but I had a feelingget togetherdidn’t mean the same thing to me as it did him, or even Bianca. Again, I shrugged, not entirely sure I could answer for what Paolo meant by it. “I don’t know.”

“Well, you need to find out,” Perla said, stating the obvious. “Call him.”

Wait, what? Call him? No. I mean, that didn’t seem like a good idea. I didn’t know, should I? Maybe I should call him. That would be the right thing to do, right? That way I could thank him for the flowers.

Gone and back in a flash, Bianca shoved my phone at me. “Here. Call him now.” Now? That seemed soon. Maybe I should have thought about it more.

“Nah, I think I’ll sleep on it,” I said, pushing the phone back to her.

Bianca rolled her eyes, and a snore fell from Jade’s lips. I knew what both of them were saying without words—don’t be so boring.

“Paolo is so dreamy. He’s got that sexy, sophisticated older man vibe. Oof, that gray hair around his temples, too. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to just run my fingers through it,” Bianca said, bringing a finger to her lips as she obviously gave the fantasy more thought.

“Hey, back off. You have a man,” I teased, plucking my phone from her hands. My gaze scanned the room, but it fell on Allie, who looked perturbed. I knew what she was thinking, but it wasn’t like that with me and Dom, and she needed to accept that. “Are you sure it’s not too late?” I asked, looking at the time. Yeah, that seemed like a good reason not to call. He could be sleeping. Okay, so it wasn’t that late, but some people liked to go to bed early to get an early start on their day the next morning. I knew I was one of those people—typically.

Jade’s eyebrows furrowed first. “Um, no. I’m with them, you need to call him. Sex with a mature man is—” She stopped short and gestured an explosion with her hands.

Let’s just say that I was immensely happy that Isabella went to bed. “You’ve slept with someone who was older than you?” I asked curiously.

Jade nodded, smacking her lips. “He was thirty years older than me actually. I still get hot just thinking about that night.” As if for effect, she fanned herself.

And we’d reached the point of too much sharing, thank you very much. “Okay, then. I still think it might be too late to call him.”

Swinging her arm over my shoulder, Bianca eyed me. “Listen, Grandma, just call him.” She tapped the phone in my hands before turning to pluck a rose and stick it between her teeth.

“What do I say?” I questioned, arching a brow.

“That you got the flowers,” Bianca said and rolled her eyes like I was a lost cause. I thought about that, but then what? Crickets? “Then let him do the talking,” she added, as if she’d read my mind.

I could do that. Yeah, I got this, I gave myself a very necessary pep talk. Then I dialed his number and waited while it rang. Once. Twice.

By the third ring he finally picked up. “Ciao.”

“Paolo, hi. It’s Maria Morelli,” I said and turned my back to my sisters. I couldn’t have a conversation like this with a man with them watching me.

Paolo chuckled. “Si, lo so.”

Ahh, I was screwing this up. Of course, he knew it was me, he had my number.

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