“May I assist you with something?” one of the shop assistants says quickly.
Daniela flashes her a bright smile. “Something for me and my sisters. But when I see it, I’ll know.”
That’s Daniela in a nutshell.
Soon, Daniela and Camilla both have their hands full of clothes, moving between rails and mirrors, already debating colors when my phone rings.
I glance at the screen.
May.
An old friend from school.
It hits me for a second—how far away that life feels. Like it belonged to someone else.
I don’t really have friends from school anymore. They left when they realized I was never there to hangout. They labeled me “too much”, “stuck up”, which I genuinely understood. Somehow, May stayed.
We’ve kept in touch over texts and calls, but I haven’t seen her in years.
I step back slightly, touching Daniela’s arm. “I have a call.”
She nods absently, already distracted by a dress she’s arguing about with Camilla.
I slip out of the boutique, bringing the phone to my ear.
“Sienna!” She shrieks.
“Hi, May.”
Her excitement is contagious, and for a moment my shoulders loosen.
We talk like no time has passed.
She laughs about her two-year-old son—how he refuses to sleep unless the lights are on, how he’s suddenly obsessed with shoes that don’t belong to him, how he runs everywhere like the world is chasing him.
I find myself smiling as I walk.
The further I move down the mall corridor, the quieter it gets. Stores thin out here. People disappear. It leads toward the far end where the bathrooms are usually empty.
“Wait, he didwhat?” I ask, laughing softly.
May laughs too. “I swear, Sienna, I turned for one second and he had climbed onto the kitchen counter.”
I shake my head, still smiling. “That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.”
“He is a disaster,” she says. “A cute one, but still?—”
I round the corner.
And everything in me stops.
Alessandro.
He is ahead of me, standing near the end of the corridor, speaking to a man who looks like he regrets being born. The man’s posture is stiff, guarded, but not in control. Not even close. Fear is written all over him.
My smile fades slowly.
Because there he is again.
