“Who are you texting?” Emily tilted her head to glance at Tyler, immediately noticing the suspicious look he was giving her. She couldn’t blame him though. She was smiling to herself. And actually, she had been smiling like that since past midnight. After concluding he was going to come over to pick her up from school later in the day, she and Giovanni said their good nights and both went to bed, a smile on Emily’s face as she went to bed. She was happy and pleased with herself and indeed had a number of reasons to be- though he tried not to show it, she could tell Giovanni was a bit happy. He didn’t nag for calling and instead, thanked her. His voice was also calm and soothing and for the first time in forever, he ended the call saying “Good night, Emily.” The excitement in her and stretched up to the morning as she got up from her bed with a half smile on her face. Giddy, she freshened up and headed to school and even throughout their extremely boring morning lectures, she coul
The ride to Emily’s majorly consisted of Emily singing loudly and off key more than half the entire time and Giovanni on the other hand, left with no choice but to sacrifice his eardrums for the day. She shuffled from playlists to playlists, enjoying herself more than she probably should have. To be fair, Giovanni couldn’t deny he was also entertained as he drove slowly on purpose so he could catch enough glances of her enjoying herself. She was bubbling with excitement and it was almost like it was her birthday and not his. He couldn’t complain anyways as her laughter and excitement were contagious, slowly finding their way to creep towards him. More often than not, he found himself smiling and at her every attempt to catch him smiling, he straightened his expression. She must have caught on though as every time that happened, her smile grew wider, followed by her singing even louder. It lasted a good while and after the Giovanni’s most chaotic drive, he pulled over in front of
All it took was a split second for Emily and Giovanni to realize they were kissing, indirectly. Eyes widened, body froze and before the seconds could turn into minutes, they simultaneously pulled away from each other, both quickly returning to their seats. The car suddenly felt hot, followed by an unexpected palpable tension between them. They couldn’t even bring themselves to look at each other, Emily immediately toying with her fingers while Giovanni stared at his gift over and over again. “Um,” Emily finally spoke up after a while of the most awkward silence. “That was accidental. I mean, of course it was an accident. My bad!” She let out a nervous laughter and to make things worse, Giovanni didn’t join her on the laughter. Immediately feeling flushed, she sat up and reached for the door. “I should go back in now,” she said. “It’s getting late so um- yeah. Happy birthday once again and you can eat the cake or do anything you want with it. Um, bye then. Good night!” Not waiti
“Sure. I’d love to.” On hearing Emily’s acceptance to go abroad with him for the weekend, Giovanni got into his car and drove straight home. The ride home was silent though oddly enough, he found himself tempted to play music in the car. It was late already but once again, he was doing things he never saw himself doing in a million years to come. Celebrating his birthday, having a cake and gift in his car, accidentally kissing someone, driving so late at night- the list was endless. And with Emily present, it just seemed like that list was only going to get longer. After refusing to give in to the temptation to play music, he finally got home and immediately reached for the barely eaten cake in the seat next to him. With a sigh, he reached for the bag containing his little gift and stepped out of the car, walking towards the front door. With gaze fixed on the door, he had only taken a couple steps when he abruptly stopped, catching a familiar figure in sight ahead of him. He was
Emily woke up the following morning to the sound of her phone ringing. Loudly. She rubbed her eyes sleepily as she reached for her phone that seemed to have no intention on going silent, the only thing on her mind being how to turn the phone off. With the phone finally in her hands, she opened her eyes slightly and just as she was about to turn it off, her eyes caught the sight of Giovanni’s caller ID. “Giovanni?” Her eyes immediately widened followed by her quickly sitting up. “Why is he calling so early?” Her eyes travelled to the time, the wall clock reading a couple minutes past seven. It was still early. Way too early for anything that wasn’t- “Shit, it’s today!” She jumped off her bed, remembering she was supposed to leave the country with Giovanni that morning. Though he didn’t give much details on it the previous night, she should have known better than to oversleep especially when her things weren’t packed yet. “Crap, should I pick up his call?” She had five missed call
The flight to Canada lasted a couple of hours and finally, Emily and Giovanni were at the city of Ottawa. Luckily, they still had about an hour to spare before Giovanni’s meeting. Enough time for them to get to their hotel and get settled in. “So let me guess,” Emily spoke up as they drove to the hotel Giovanni ordered the chauffeur to take them to. “Do you already have your room booked? Let’s say, five start hotel, premium suit and you already have everything you could need prepared in anticipation of your grand arrival?” “No, Miss Stark,” Giovanni shook his head. “Why?!” “Because this trip is an impromptu one,” he faced her as he replied. “I only made plans to come here yesterday so I wasn’t able to book my room in advance.” “Oh, interesting,” she was having fun teasing him. “Must be a first time for you. Since you’re so prim and proper and-“ “Sir, we’ve arrived.” “Shh,” he hushed her as the chauffeur pulled over in front of the hotel. “You talked all the way so how about yo
“Whoa!” For the hundredth time in the span of barely an hour, Emily let out another sound of surprise, in general awe of how huge and beautiful the suite was. Giovanni had left for his meeting moments ago and with the help of the hotel staff, she had gotten settled in. She had her luggage in and all that was left to do was stare at the room, taking her time to sink in the details of every corner. It wad even fancier than the exterior of the hotel. Though it was painted white, the furniture, chandelier and ornaments lurking around in gold and other colors brought even more light to the room. It was almost glowing, the effect money had on any space in full display. With a smile on her face, she plopped into the huge bed, immediately giggling at how soft it was. Full of excitement, she rolled on the bed, messing up the sheets as she kicked her feet and allowed herself get absorbed in the warmth coming from the blanket. “Tyler has to see this.” Immediately acting on her thoughts, s
“Mr. Rueben, are you listening to us?” A light groan escaped Giovanni’s lips as he glanced at his wristwatch, nodding in response to the question he was asked. He was listening but definitely had stopped listening a couple of minutes ago. “Yes, please go on.” His business partner to be in front of him went on speaking and all it took was a couple of words for Giovanni’s attention to slip away all over again. His mind travelled to the time and in the long run, Emily. He had promised to get back to the hotel by evening but with the look of things, that was going to be nothing but an empty promise. It was past 7pm already and he still wasn’t done for the day. He had no one but himself to blame though. He had made August tweak his schedule so he could fit everything he had to do in one single day. That way, he could have the following day to just himself and Emily without any work interruptions. “I believe that would be all for today. It is a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Rue