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I turn on him and jab him in the chest. “I’m angry with myself.”
He cups my chin, and I swat his hand away. “Why are you angry with yourself?”
“For trusting you!” I spit.
He looks momentarily stunned. “Valentina? I’m not following.”
“I just… I just thought I could do this, just… forget, but I can’t stop thinking about it. And now that I can see youdon’tfeel the same way, I’ll go wallow in my unrequited quest for love somewhere else.”
His eyes go wide. “Unrequited quest for love? Val, we both agreed…”
I slap myself on the forehead. “I know, and I’m stupid, I always do this. I always launch myself at whatever it is I can’t have. Instead of learning to love what’s good for me, I do a complete one-eighty and go in the opposite direction to complicated and hard.”
He shakes his head as I avoid his gaze. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
I know I’m being petulant and a little ridiculous, but I can’t help it.
“I’m not. I’m making coffee.”
He steps back, and two seconds later, Marco enters the room.
Enzo is already hunting around in the cupboard, pretending to look for something.
“Valentina,” Marco says, ignoring Enzo. “Nice peace offering, are you ready?”
I nod, grabbing my coffee from the machine and taking a sip. “I was just making a coffee.”
He looks at Enzo. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for a mug.”
I roll my eyes.
He’s a fucking P.I. and Angelo’s head of security, as well as a mastermind who created his own security app and restructured Fortress Security into the multi-billion-dollar industry that it is today, and that’s the best he could come up with?
I snort. “There’s one on your shoulders, E, you don’t have to look too hard.”
He looks up at me, narrowing his eyes. “Very funny.”
“Just keeping it real.”That’s what we’re doing right? So nobody gets suspicious that we’ve both been to heaven and back with each other’s bodies.
“Valentina, I got the report you emailed me. I’m very impressed. Those numbers look fantastic,” Marco goes on. It’s rare I ever get any praise from him, so I take it with a smile.
“I have another hotel interested in hiring me after seeing the photos that we took of the presidential suite. It looks like if I get it, I will be expanding my team.” While I’m a long way off from doing everything in-house, I am working with a great girl on the boutique hotel job after this. Her name is Carly, and she has her own interior decorating team. She mainly flips houses and renovates rundown properties, but when I showed her the photos and proposal of the small hotel, she jumped at the chance. I know people who she’s worked with who say she’s one of the best in the business. So if I can keep her on my team, I’d be really happy about it.
“That’s great, Val,” Enzo pipes up.
I narrow my eyes as we look at one another.
“He’s right, you have worked hard. You deserve the praise and any new client who is lucky to have you,” Marco goes on.
I frown as I look at him. “Okay, Marco, what’s going on, and what do I have to do?” I reach out to his forehead as I pretend to feel it. “You do feel a little hot. Are you coming down with something?”
He shakes his head, and I know that Enzo has probably talked to my brothers about being a little nicer to me, because that’s all they’ve been doing the last few days since I got back.
I really don’t need Enzo going to bat for me, but I can hardly tell him off in front of Marco.
“No, but I have been a little stressed lately, and I don’t mean to take it out on you.”
