Page 69 of XOXO

“Levi,” he said, smiling, pulling me in for a hug.

He smelled familiar, his embrace hadn’t changed. I sagged against him, my eyes tearing up from the relief I felt, that we might be ok.

“I’ve missed you. Milan isn’t as fun without you,” he said.

“Yeah, I missed you too. The apartment was lonely,” I said, as we released each other.

He chuckled. “Paola said she missed you and to say hello. She also asked if she could come on the boat with us.”

“Hell no,” we said together, and laughed.

“I miss her,” I said, as they called our group.

“She’s a pain, but I love her anyway,” he sighed, looking for his ticket on his phone while we walked up to the gate.

“So, how was Milan?” I wondered if he was going to tell me he saw Vi.

“It was good,” he said as we boarded the plane. “Paola and I ran into Violeta and guess what?”

“Oh no, what happened?” I got slightly jealous again.

Vi didn’t tell me much, just that she ran into Matteo and sent a few pictures of Lake Como.

“Paola had actually met her in London and I got roped into taking them to Lake Como,” he said, as we found our seats.

I put my suitcase in the overhead bin and sat down in the aisle seat next to Matteo, who had the window seat. It was only a two and a half hour flight, but we booked business class because we needed the room.

“You can say you were bullied by your sister,” I chuckled.

“I couldn’t say no to the both of them,” he sighed.

“So… did you guys have fun?” I asked, when he didn’t say anything else.

“Yeah, Paola ditched us the first night for her booty call,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Then the second night I was stuck in hotel hell with a system that failed us and we had to go back to using paper for almost everything. Paola said they had fun the second day and I had to stay back while they went home the following day.”

“Well, I’m glad she got to see Lake Como,” I said, trying to appear nonchalant, but I was desperate to hear more.

“Yeah, she looked completely enthralled when we arrived; I think she almost cried too,” Matteo said, grabbing a folder out of his bag.

I didn’t know what else to say, letting the silence grow louder. My mind raced with different ways to start a conversation, but I would chicken out before I even opened my mouth. The lull of the plane was relaxing. I was exhausted and fell asleep after we received our drinks and snack, waking up on Matteo’s shoulder when the captain said we were landing in Athens.

“Shit, sorry.” I straightened up immediately.

“Doesn’t bother me,” he said, reading papers he had in his hand. “It’s not the first time you've done it.”

He smirked and my stupid face felt hot.

“Yeah, planes make me sleepy,” I said, running my hand over my face to finish waking up.

“That’s an understatement,” he chuckled. “I don’t think I’ve ever been on a flight that you haven’t slept on, maybe unless it was under an hour. Makes me jealous. I wish I could sleep as soundly as you.”

“It’s my special gift,” I shrugged, glancing at him.

“Yeah,” he said, smiling softly.

“We are about to land so please raise your table trays,” a flight attendant said to Matteo.

“Will do,” he said, putting his papers away.