Page 60 of The Sexy Billionaire

Giorgio: I’m here with my sister for work, thought I’d say hi. But totally understand if you don’t want me to see her.

Callie goes radio silent for a little while before getting back to me.

Callie: I think it might be what she needs to take her mind off things. You want to come over to her brothers for dinner, say about seven? Bring your sister if you want.

Dinner? I wasn’t expecting that.

Giorgio: Okay, that sounds great. Let me know what to bring.

Callie: Yourself, wine, and maybe flowers. I’ll send the address.

Giorgio: Okay, I’ll see you then.

“I’m catching up with friends for dinner at their place if you’re interested,” I ask my sister.

“Aw, thanks, but I’m catching up with my own friends. There’s a new hot club they want me to try,” she tells me excitedly.

I’m relieved that she doesn’t want to go, but also, I wouldn’t mind the support. I’m nervous about seeing Paige again; I know we caught up at the funeral, but she wasn’t in a good way to fully catch up then.She’s not in a good way at the moment, either.I really need to work on my timing.

My driver drops me off in front of Smith’s apartment uptown in Chelsea. I grab my flowers and wine, get out of the car, and head toward his apartment. I message Callie like she asked me to when I arrive. She instructs me to stand in front of the door and when I’m in place, she presses the buzzer, which lets me in. Not sure why there’s all this cloak and dagger, maybe it has to do with her ex watching, or she’s just fucking with me. When I reach their floor and step out of the elevator, a beautiful blonde is standing outside waiting for me.

“You must be Giorgio,” she asks.

“And you must be Callie,” I say, greeting her warmly with a kiss on each cheek. She then inspects my flowers and wineand says, “Nice choice,” then proceeds to open the door to the apartment and asks me to follow. We step right in, and I realize it is quite a bit smaller than my apartment. We round the corner and I see Paige sitting with another beautiful blonde and her brother, Smith. They all stop and turn toward us, and I see Paige’s eyes grow wide.

“Thought I would introduce our special guest tonight, all the way from Italy, Giorgio Fiorenzo,” Callie states to the shocked room.

“Gio?” Smith says as he gets up to greet me. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“This is for you,” I answer, handing him the bottle of wine.

“Thanks, man. Wow. How the … what …?” he splutters, trying to work out how an old friend he hasn’t seen in fifteen years is suddenly in his apartment on the other side of the world.

“I’m here for work but thought I would come by and say hi,” I explain to him.

“This is fantastic. I missed seeing you at Lucia’s, thank you for showing up with your family. We really needed to stay in touch.”

“Yeah, we do. Need to get you back to Italy again,” I say.

“I’d love to. Work has been keeping me busy.”

“Saving the world,” Callie adds, rolling her eyes as she walks past the two of us and takes a seat beside a still-shocked Paige.

“Paige, these are for you,” I say, walking over to where she is seated.

“Oh,” she says, getting up reluctantly.

This was a mistake. I’m not sure if she is happy to see me. What the hell was I thinking?

“I wanted to see if you were okay,” I mumble.

Her brows rise at my confession as she reaches out and takes the flowers from me, our fingers touching and the old spark weonce had igniting again as electricity rushes up my arms; she must feel it, too, as she jerks her hands away from me.

“They are beautiful, Paige,” the other blonde states, giving her friend a not-too-discreet elbow.

“Oh yes, they are stunning, and my favorite, pink peonies. Thank you so much,” Paige says, shaking her head as if to clear the last bit of the surprise.

“How about I put them in some water? Savannah, wanna help me?” Callie asks the other girl.

---