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Chapter Twenty
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Fourteen months later
“Welcome back!” Sophie gives me a one-armed squeeze before stepping to the side so that I can deposit my luggage into the trunk of her car.
She’s the only person, other than my family, that I’ve kept in constant contact with during my time in Italy. Mainly because she’s a very persistent person who called me almost every day to tell me about the drama happening at school, most of which revolved around one of our professors getting outed for having an affair with a student. Not that I could say I was surprised. Professor Johnson always gave me a weird vibe.
Sophie also went through a pretty ugly break upandstarted seeing someone new. So, suffice it to say, she’s had a lot to talk about and I was more than happy to listen.
Life in Italy was quiet, which was exactly what I needed, but it was also extremely lonely. I feel like I lost and found myself several times during my stay there. But at the end of the day, it was exactly what I needed.
To separate myself from Lucy and Alec. To have time to stand on my own two feet and figure out who I am and what I want out of life. I wish I could say that every time I pictured the future I didn’t see Alec in it, but that wouldn’t be the truth. In every scenario, he’s always there, smiling that dimple filled smile at me.
But what you want and what you need doesn’t always line up. Sometimes the things we want the most are the ones we have to let go of. And that’s what I’ve spent the last year doing...trying to let him go.
Despite his best efforts to stay in contact, I pulled away, just like I knew I would. And truthfully, I think I’m better for it. I never would have given myself the full Italian experience if I’d let myself be held back by what I left behind.
“Thanks for picking me up,” I tell Soph, slamming the trunk once I have everything inside. Considering she’s one of the only friends I have in New York, had she not agreed to come get me I would have been forced to take a car and pay out the butt for them to drive me the two hours to Hyde Park.
“My pleasure. I was dying for a reason to get out of the house anyway.”
“Uh oh.” I open the passenger door, watching Sophie make her way around the car. “Trouble in paradise already? I told you moving in together after less than six months was a bad idea.”
“Oh, there’s no trouble.” She ducks into the car and I quickly follow her inside. “Except for my vagina, that is.”
“Come again?” I choke out a laugh.
“We have too much sex. I swear my naughty bits are going to fall off if I don’t get a break.”
“Well, that’s a good problem to have, I guess. Though I can’t say I understand. I’ve never been in that type of situation.” My mind drifts back to the last time I had sex. Alec hovering over me always stands out the clearest.
“Yeah, you need to have sex first.” She snorts, shifting the car into gear.
“I’ve had sex.”
“Yeah, and how long ago was that? Because I know you weren’t hooking up with any hot Italians while you were away. If you had, maybe you would’ve had something more interesting to talk about when we talked.”
“Is that your way of calling me boring?” I balk at her.
“No, that’s my way of telling you that it’s unnatural for someone as hot as you to go two years without getting her tinkle tankeled.”
“My what?” I laugh.
“Your car shined. Your whistle wet.”
“Okay, yeah, I think I got the point,” I cut her off, wanting her to stop already.
“So when do you move into your new apartment?” Sophie asks as she merges out into traffic. “I gotta say, as much as I love New York City, I don’t think I could live in this.” She gestures to the bumper to bumper cars.
“In three days. Though I’m more nervous than I thought I’d be.”
“Of course you are. You’re moving to New York City, one of the biggest cities in the world. You know no one and you haven’t actually even seen your apartment. I mean, who does that? Who leases an apartment without seeing it first?”
“Well, it’s not like I had much of a choice. I didn’t expect to meet the executive chef ofHerrawhile I was in Italy, and I sure as hell didn’t expect him to offer me a job to come home to. I thought I’d be lucky to find work as a line cook, not to be offered a position training in a three Michelin Star restaurant in the heart of New York City. How could I turn something like that down?”
“I get it.”
