Page 131 of Someone Exactly Like Me (Wounded Hearts 1)
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Nicco
I searched for her, all over Naples. I went to every hotel I could think of. It was useless. I searched for hours and couldn’t find her.
Maybe I should leave her alone. Maybe I’m no good for her. But I can’t stop thinking about her, about our time together, about how I feel about her. I can’t just let her go without fighting for her. At the very least, she deserves to know what happened with Gigi and that it wasn’t what she thinks.
My current project has me so busy, by the time I’m in my hotel room, I’m exhausted and go to sleep. I don’t want to try to talk to her when I’m tired like that. Today we travel to a different location and I have some down time. When I call her, it goes to voice mail, again. I haven’t left messages before. Why won’t she answer?I’ve hurt her, that’s why.Fuck.
“Destiny, it’s Nicco. Please let me talk to you. I need to explain things to you. I don’t want to leave a message. Please. Call me.” I hang up. My heart aches for her.
I need a fucking cigarette.Sitting out on the balcony of my hotel room, I grab my pack, staring at it in my hand.Fuck.I take out a cigarette, but don’t put it in my mouth. Instead, I rest my elbow on my knee and roll the cigarette between my thumb, index, and middle fingers. I gaze at the tobacco tip, staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.Enough.Dad’s voice echoes in my head.
Putting the cigarette back in the pack, I get out my phone and call Destiny’s friend, Heidi, to make an appointment and see if she can help me finally quit smoking. It’s time.
Destiny
There was something in Nicco’s voice when I listened to his message. I can’t decipher it. But it tugs at my heart.
I feel bad not getting back to him. We’d become friends. And now I’m letting my wounded heart make me childish and ignore him. He has plenty of friends and now he has his relationship with Giovanna. I’ll be a distant memory soon enough.
The next few weeks fly by so fast my head is spinning.
I’m called in for a second interview at Creative Artists. While the interview goes well and I can do the job, the thought of being chained to a desk for eight hours a day makes my chest tight.
I publish my book and have the highest sales I’ve ever had on a release day, even earning #1 Best Seller once again. Not a day passes where I haven’t had sales.I’m back!Though I’m riding the high of success and a burst of income, I’m still on the fence about whether or not I should take the position at Creative Artists if they offer it to me. I don’t want to be reckless.
Bev and Tom make me an offer I can’t refuse. Taking out the formalities of going through Realtors makes the transaction pretty simple. They’ve also offered owner financing because of our long-standing relationship, making the deal manageable for me.
To celebrate, Henry invites me to dinner. With Nicco haunting my thoughts day and night, going to dinner with Henry might be what I need to start getting over him.
Henry takes me to Vespertine where we enjoy a delicious meal and I do my best to pretend to be interested in whatever it is he’s talking about. He’s a nice man with a good heart and he’s very well-meaning. I’m really trying to give him a chance. Forcing myself to pay attention to him isn’t working. My mind drifts easily, to Nicco.Let him go.
When Henry brings me home, I invite him in, which I’ve never done before.
“Would you like a glass of wine?” I ask, taking off my shoes and setting my purse on the bench.
“Yeah, sure. What do you have?” he asks, leaving his shoes on and following me into the kitchen.
“Honestly, just one red and one white.”
He releases a stuffy laugh. “I’ll take your red. Did you know that the grapes for cabernet sauvignon are…”
His voice mutes as the memory of Nicco’s adorable expression when he took his first bite of s’more enters my head. I pour our wine and we go out to my back porch.
“Would you like to go down by the water as the sun sets?”
He tugs on his suit jacket and adjusts his glasses on his face. “The sun’s almost down and I’m not really dressed for that. How about we sit here?” he suggests, sitting on my swing.
Nicco would’ve taken off his shoes and socks at the door and he’d be tossing his jacket on the swing, rolling up his pant legs, and running to the edge of the water, holding my hand and bringing me with him.Stop it.
“Yeah, I suppose you’re not.”
As the sun sinks into the ocean, liquified orange merging with the horizon, Henry drones on about the intricate process of how grapes become wine.
Setting his glass on the ground, he straightens the peaked lapels on his jacket and turns his body toward me.
“Destiny, we’ve been kind of seeing each other for a while and, uh, I — I’d like to know if it’s okay for me to kiss you.”
