Chapter Fifteen

Romano.

It was minutes past 8 am, and there was no traffic. Damn it! Where the hell was traffic when you needed it. I didn't want to reach my destination. I wasn't ready to explain to a woman who I had never met that she needed to come with me because her best friend was raising hell and making it impossible for Raphael to stay in his house in peace until she got to see and talk to her. How the mighty had fallen. I thought amusingly.

And to be honest, I was afraid she might start some waterworks. If she was anything like Soph, I might have a situation I didn't bargain for. As I maneuvered the vehicle to my destination following the GPS, I realized Sophie has to be the most directional challenged person I ever met. If I were to follow the directions she had outlined for me, I would probably end up in Italy.

At exactly fifteen minutes to nine, I was at the gate, waiting for the security guy to open up for me. After a few pleasantries, which included filling in my details and showing my id, I pulled up the car and parked. How the hell did I end up here and not Bruno? He would have been perfect for this. I thought as I got out and headed to the entrance directly to the elevator and pressed number five. I hope Sophie was right about that because she hadn't been right on how to get here so far.

I came into a huge reception area with a blonde at the desk. How cliche. I thought. Why do offices insist on having blondes in the front office? Was it for their vanity or the clients?

I walked towards her, and she had this practiced social smile, which I guessed was what she reserved for customers.

"Hi," I greeted with a smile of my own. I have been told on a few occasions that my smile can be charming. " Can I speak to Gabriella, please?"

"May I ask who is asking," she replied, giving me a flirty smile. Damn it! The damn smile worked.

"A mutual friend is asking for him.." I paused a bit, debating on what more I should say. "Just tell her Sophie needs to see her," I managed. I knew that would bring her running down here. If she loved Sophie the same way Soph loved her, she'd be here in no time. And I was right.

Damn! Do women still have this much hair? I thought as I stared at the beautiful creature running two stairs at a time. She looked agitated and afraid. I realized she probably thought Sophie was in danger, sick, or something along those lines.

"Don't look so worried; she is fine," I told her immediately she reached me. Her eyes looked troubled and tired like she hadn't slept for a while, which probably was the case.

My mind had formulated what I had to tell her to make her come with me, but that immediately Changed when some tall corporate-looking guy condescendingly told her to get back to her office and do what she is paid to do.

I have never been diplomatic, the only time the mafia becomes diplomatic is when they're trying to call a truce with the other families to avoid bloodshed, and even that wasn't my job; it was Raphael's. It comes with being the boss.

Gabriella looked fragile and miserable as she told her boss she needed a day off on a personal emergency. The fucker just looked down on her and told her a straight-up no! Who the hell tells a woman looking the way she looked NO and expected her to be productive? Which means he said it just because he could. He was the boss, after all. And he wanted everyone to know it. Well, let's see about that.

I took a protective stance in front of her and extended my hand to him, my eyes daring him to ignore it.

"Hi, my name is Romano, and I hate to be an inconvenience, but I must leave with Gabriella. When she said she is having an emergency, she failed to mention that it's a family emergency. " I said to him as I squeezed his tiny smooth, manicured hands with a smile on my face.

I squeezed him one more time because he was getting a pink flush and allowed him to pull it away, which he immediately put in his suit pocket.

"Oh, why didn't you say it was a family emergency? He asked as he turned his face towards Gabriella, giving her a strained smile. Please, take as long as you like."

"Alright. Thank you. She will," I said, turning to the blond and offering my hand to Gabriella, which I noticed was trembling.

We then walked out without saying a single word to each other.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw she walked with her face on the ground. She was ignoring me; I figured that much.

"Are you okay" I decided to ask her. Why do girls always think silence solved anything.

She said, sure, without even looking at me.

I snorted as I opened the passenger door for her.

I drove off as first as I could before this silence drove me to insanity. I loved silence, but I felt like she was judging me. Usually, I wouldn't care, but this situation was out of my league.

"Is she okay?"

Finally, she speaks. Her face was turned slightly to me though she avoided my eyes.

"Yeah, she is. And before you ask me any more questions, please wait until you see her," I said as I steered the car to our destination. As luck could have it, she didn't ask; she just sat there in silence. I wondered what she was thinking about. Was she scared? Did she wonder who I was?

Negotiating the car to the gate, I keyed in the credentials and drove in. Before I could even stop the car, Sophie's hand was barely holding onto the passenger's door, trying to pull it open.

What the hell

By the time I brought the car to a halt. The passenger's door was opened, and she had pulled Gabriella into an embrace.

I walked to the guys and stood on Raphael's left side as we all watched the girls hug it out.

"How long is this going to last? " I asked after a few minutes. They still had arms around each other, and we could hear some mumbling.

"I have no idea, but I think women have been known to hug for about ten minutes." Bruno struggled his arms like all of us on his chest.

Maybe it's because we didn't have any experience having women in our home, but I found this need to hold onto each other weird and unnecessary. What could they still be mumbling about anyway?

"Do you think they want to kiss?" I asked, making two sets of eyes fixed on me. Raphael looked like he wanted to punch me and Bruno had a superior look on him like he knew something we didn't.

"Of course they're not, you perve; Gabriella is probably asking Sophie whether she is okay" Bruno was showing his superiority, smirking at me and acting like he was the handbook to understanding women.

"How the hell could you be sure about that?"

"He watches Oprah," Raphael murmured, his face still fixed on the two women.

"I do not watch Oprah, you bastard!"

I burst out laughing. This was funny.

They both simultaneously stared at me with puzzled eyes.

"Hey, don't stare at me like I'm an alien or something; Bruno is the one who watches Oprah."

"For the last time, I DO NOT watch Oprah," he emphasized. Glaring at both of us before he turned his attention to the two women again.

"Seriously, they're still on it. They must be planning to murder us in our sleep. It's the only explanation for such a prolonged embrace" I was now curious about what could be happening between them. What were they saying to each other? Didn't they feel a bit uncomfortable?

I waited for a few more minutes to see if they could let go of each other. It didn't happen.

It seemed like we were all going to spend the whole day outside. This was more than ten minutes. I guess the Oprah expert was wrong about that.

"Did you really watch Oprah?" I asked without looking at either one of them.

"Of course I don't," he vehemently denied, which Raphael contradicted.

"Of course you did."

"Shut up; it was one episode."

"I thought you said you didn't watch it."

"I said I do not watch it. There is a difference."

"Really, which one?" I was enjoying goading him.

He glared at me. And I looked at him with what I believed was my innocent face. If I had one, I imagined it was the one I was giving him.

Raphael was also enjoying it. I could see the corner of his mouth twitching like he was avoiding a smile.

"I have to ask. Which episode was it?"

He scowled at us and didn't say a word.

But Raphael was on a roll. Maybe he didn't want to think about what Sophie was feeling. Or he was afraid she was going to insist she wanted to go with Gabriella and force him into scaring her to stay or, worse, use coercion to make her stay. Whatever the motivation, I loved it.

"It was in 2014, I think, and we were both in Italy. She was hosting this woman who divorced her husband and decided to take a World tour to find her self."

"What was so special about this woman?" she wasn't the first woman to divorce her husband; I'm also guessing she wasn't the first to tour the world to find herself."

"Oh, did I forget to mention she wrote a whole book about it? It became a bestseller, I think. Right? He asked Bruno, who was fuming and completely ignoring us.

"I think it was called, eat, pray and drink." He continued his tongue in his cheek.

"It's called Eat, Pray, Love you bastards. And can you both shut up now?"

"Sure, if you can tell us whether she found herself." I smiled at him, which I knew was going to annoy him even more.

"Oh, I would love to. She found a woman," He smirked at us.

"What do you mean found a woman? I think I heard her say she fell in love on her journey. With a man!" Raphael glowered, daring him to contradict him.

"Oh, she fell in love with a woman, alright."

Oh shit. He wasn't lying.

We all suddenly looked at the tableau in front of us and found the women wiping each other's tears.

Oh. Fucking. Shit!