All Grown Up (20 page)

He smiled. "I know. I took them."

Then he leaned down and helped a woman out of the car. Chloe. Domenico waved and smiled quickly before wrapping an arm around her waist and leading her into the restaurant.

Domenico
was with Chloe.

Chapter Twenty-One
Italiano

Chloe

"You reserved the entire restaurant?" I asked in disbelief
, completely flattered.

"Of course," he smiled widely
, "this way, we have privacy."

"Oh," was the best I could come up with a
t first.

I leaned close to him.
"Domenico, you do realize that you don’t have to do of all this?" I said in a hushed tone.
Like I need to whisper in an empty restaurant. I’m a fucking idiot!
I wanted to slap myself in the forehead.

"Chloe,
please, call me Dom, and I have to impress you, don’t I?" He winked.

"
Dom, you don’t have to do this kind of thing to impress me, nor do you have to ‘impress’ me at all. I like you and had a good time with you last night." I looked down into my lap, hoping that he understood that I wasn’t trying to be unappreciative.

His fingers were quickly under
my chin, lifting my face to his.

"Please don’t hide your face from me," he gazed into my eyes. "I like to look at your beautiful face and I love that you say what’s on your mind." His Italian accent was almost enough to make me slide under the table
and kneel at the feet of this foreign God.
Whew, it’s been awhile.
I almost fanned myself with the menu.

"I really appreciate everything you’ve d
one. Please don’t think —" He placed his finger over my lips.

"You haven’t even seen what I’ve got in store for you tonight
, dear Chloe." He winked as a waiter approached.
Holy mother of swooning! I need water. Cold, cold water.
He then ordered in Italian and I wanted to lick his lips. It was ever so sexy. Once the waiter disappeared, I turned my eyes back on Domenico.

"What did you just say?" I smiled and bit my lip.

He sighed happily and then leaned very close to my face.

"Maybe you shou
ld take some Italian while you're in college." He smirked. I was about to tease him back but, before I could, he spoke again. "Then I can take you on a proper honeymoon in Italy." I closed my mouth quickly and my eyes widened. He started laughing. "Oh, if you would’ve seen your face." He chuckled.

H
e’s got jokes, huh?
I started laughing, blushing a very deep shade of red.

"You’re mean
." I scowled and continued laughing. He simply smiled.

The waiter returned to our table with a bottle of wine
and a bread basket. Music started playing softly in the background as I noticed violinists enter the room.

I took in my surroundings. The entire space was lit by the soft glow of candlelight and flowers were arranged on every table. They were the same flowers he had sent to me last night. I heard him lightly chuckle, breaking me out of my spell.

I turned back to him, "What?"

"Nothing."
He smiled, reaching over and brushing the back of my hand with his fingers.

"
How does one get flowers arranged and delivered so late at night?" I cocked an eyebrow. "You own a flower shop, too?" I took a sip from my wine glass.

His smile
broadened, becoming larger than I would have ever thought possible. "Oh, I have my sources."

"Hmm," I nodded. "That sounds kind of shady to me
." I winked at him. He laughed.

"Are you ready for dinner
, sir?" the waiter had appeared out of nowhere.

Dom
looked to me and I nodded. "Yes, we're ready. Thank you," he replied, the waiter disappeared into the kitchen.

The food was delicious, paired with the perfect complimentary wine and conversation.
I continued to ask questions, wanting to know everything about him, but he seemed more interested in learning about me. We continued bouncing back and forth between each other, talking about our past, family, current life and what we wanted in the future. I told him I was hoping to move to New York in the future, to really begin my career after college. At one point in the evening, he asked me to dance with him and we did, slowly. He nuzzled his face into my neck and we swayed silently.

When the evening was coming to its end
, he helped me into the car and held me closely, placing kisses on my temple during the drive. Arriving to my parent’s home, he walked me to the front door, asked me for my phone number in Seattle and kissed my hand.

"
Buona notte, Chloe." He smiled at me as I stood at the door, watching him walk backward to the awaiting car.

I entered the house and heard my phone. It was the text mess
age alert. Checking the message, it was an unknown number.

I would love to see you again very soon,
La mia Chloe. Dom

I smiled and quickly text him that I would let him know when I was back in Seattle.
A knock at the door tore me from my phone.

Still smiling from my text message I opened the door. My face
immediately fell. Leo.

"Hello
." He said in a very low voice.

"Hello
." I said quickly.

He rubbed the back of his head
. "Can we talk?"

"Leo, I just got home and I’m
pretty tired. Another time, okay?" I started to turn away and shut the door.

"Please
, Chloe?" He begged.

Anger bubbled over as I thought of the many times I asked him by text and voicemail to please call me or talk to me.

"You’ve had your chance to talk. Right now, I would rather just forget everything and anything that ever happened. Good night, Leo." I kept my tone controlled and didn’t yell at him the way I wanted.

Why couldn’t he just leave it alone? I
was having such a great night!

I closed the door, leaving him on the porch
, and headed upstairs.

I woke
the next morning by myself. At least, I thought I was alone. That was, until I heard the footsteps. Jumping into a sitting position, I looked over my left shoulder.

"What the fuck
, Leo?" I climbed out of bed and stood with my arms in the air. "Are you a stalker now?"

"Shh
...calm down before your Dad comes in with his gun." He put a finger to his lips. "I just wanted to talk to you before we leave, that’s all." He sat down on my bed.

"Fine, say what you h
ave to say. I need to get ready." With a huff, I sat down at the other end of my bed.

"First, I’m so sorry
." His words were shaky.

Good!

"I really don’t have a good excuse for what happened and why I ignored you. Other than to say I was young, dumb and insensitive." He sighed. "I really am sorry about how everything….ended."

"Ended? I think you mean how everything
just stopped." I corrected him. After letting out a frustrated growl, I took a deep breath. "Okay, look, apology accepted. Neither of us was innocent and we’ve both moved on. Let’s just call it what it was and not come back to this again. Okay?"

I looked over at Leo
, who had a weird unreadable look on his face. It disappeared quickly as he nodded. I stood and he followed my lead.

"Thank you
, Leo." I said politely as I walked over and opened the door to the balcony.

He nodded as he walked toward the door, stopp
ing in front of me. Before I realized his plan, he wrapped his arms around me and hugged tightly. The heated current spiraled around us.

"I
, truly, am sorry." He whispered in my ear before pulling away and heading out the door. I closed the door behind him and then stood there frozen.

How could he still have that
effect on me? How could I let him have it? The electric current that generated between us didn't get the End of Relationship memo. Crap!
I stomped to the bathroom and jumped into the shower, hoping that it would rinse away the resurfacing feelings.

Once we got back to Seattle
, our routines returned to normal with one exception, Domenico. We had gone on a few more dates; dinners, dancing, a play, launch parties for artists on his label and afternoon lunches. It was surreal with him. There seemed to be nothing that he couldn’t get or do. I felt insignificant compared to him and all that he was. He seemed to sense my moments of insecurity and went out of his way to compliment me, thank me for spending time with him. He treated me like I was the prize rather than him. It was very flattering.

The rest of the relationship
came so quickly, I needed to slow down somewhere. So, I kept a slow pace on our physical relationship. There was heavy kissing and make-out sessions, but I never let it go too far. He was very understanding, but he was also a man. I knew I couldn’t keep it at bay for too long. Besides who would want to keep an extremely hot Italian man on the backburner for too long? Not me, that's for sure, and definitely not my libido.

Tonight
, Dom wanted to have dinner and a movie somewhere I'd never been, his house. He said it would be very casual, so I dressed casually – jeans and long sleeve, off the shoulder top. I asked for directions to his house so I could drive myself over, but he wanted to pick me up.

When I opened the door
, he stood before me in a black sweater, dark worn blue jeans, and a smile. I wanted to lick his teeth.

"
Ciao, Chloe." He smiled.

Returning the smile, I
kissed him quickly as he grabbed my hand and led me to his car.

I had suspected that he had a large, nice home
. Expected that it was probably expensive and a bit lavish. However, when we pulled up to the large black gate, I was immediately intimidated by the thought of what was behind that gate. He punched in the security code to open the gate and we pulled up the rounded driveway. I looked up to a magnificent home. It was at least three stories high and white with large, white columns in the front. There was a fountain in the middle of his driveway. Suddenly, I felt very out of place.

"Come on
, beautiful," he took my hand as I got out of the car and led me into his home.

Once inside,
I was awe struck, it was unbelievably large and everything looked untouched and expensive. It was almost like a museum. I pulled myself tighter to his side.

"It’s a bit much, I know," he laugh
ed. "But, it’s just home to me."

He led us through the large entryway t
o a larger room full of couches and chairs, continuing through a set of large, wooden doors. On the other side of the doors was a very warm living room and kitchen, like a large great room. The furniture and décor in these rooms was much warmer and looked comfortable. I relaxed a little.

I heard a clanging noise coming from
the direction of the kitchen and looked over, finding an older woman in a white uniform. She smiled warmly at me before continuing with her preparations. Before I could get the question out of my mouth, Dom answered.

"That is Mrs. Jones, she runs the house."

"Runs the house?" I raised an eyebrow. He laughed at my expression.

"Well, I
’m not married and someone has to keep the place in order since I work quite often," he shrugged.

"So, you expect your ‘wife’ to take care of ‘running your house’?" I had both eyebrows raised now.

"Only if she chose to. Honestly, I would prefer the woman that I love to take care of ‘our’ home and to give me an incentive to get out of work and come home," he smiled at me and pulled me in closely putting one hell of a kiss on my lips.

"Ahem," I looked up to see a man in a black uniform standing behind me at the doors we entered through.

"Yes, Paul?" Dom directed to the gray haired gentleman.

"Dinner is ready when you are
, sir," he replied very formally.

"Thank you," he smiled to
Paul and then turned to me. "Hungry?"

"Starving," I smiled.

"Good," with our fingers still laced, he led me to a large dining table where there looked to be five different main dishes along with other side foods.

"Is this just for us?" I knew my eyes were very large
, taking in all the food.

"Of course," he shrugged and pulled a chair out for me.

"And what happens to what doesn’t get eaten?" I was concerned about the waste. It was how I was raised.

"Oh, I’m…I’m not sure. I don’t usually have dinner like this, it would be a first," he smiled nervously
and sat across from me. I wasn’t a big fan of the formal sitting but I went with it. It was his house.

"Oh.
" I responded. 
I am so out of my element.

"I’m sure I can figure something out for it. I have plenty of help around this house, I’ll have Mrs. Jones package it up in the fridge and let the staff have at if for lunch tomorrow." I smiled at his answer and his nervousness disappeared.