“What?”
“You can’t call me Mr. Ferrari. I’m Fabio. Your boyfriend.”
“Oh, right.” Her cheeks turned pink. “That’s going to take a little time to get used to.”
“You have ten minutes before we arrive at the opera house.” I took her hand to test her. As I expected, she stiffened and tried to pull away, but I didn’t release her hand.
“What are you doing?” Her breathing picked up, telling me she was just as affected as me.
“Holding my girlfriend’s hand. What does it look like?” I laced our fingers and noticed her nails and the ring I picked out for her. Zia wanted to buy her diamonds, but I said absolutely no to a ring and suggested earrings.
The only diamond ring I would ever buy was an engagement ring.
“Right. I guess we should practice that. We need to appear comfortable with each other. But no kissing.” She didn’t even need to go there.
“Of course, not. We’ll be at public events. Making out would be tacky. Maybe fun but a Ferrari doesn’t behave that way.”
“No worries. I’m not a PDA person. I’m way too shy for that.” She laughed and it was a nice sound.
I released her hand, not sure how to reply. It was like she had unknowingly challenged me to kiss her in public. I hated to be told I couldn’t do something because I liked to piss people off. I would do the very thing they didn’t want me to do just to spite them.
Cyndee would never be my real girlfriend, but dammit, I would kiss her long and hard just to push her out of her comfort zone and piss her off.
Yeah, I could be a dick like that.
We sat in silence until Ross stopped in front of the opera house.
“Are you ready?” I asked her.
“No, if I’m honest. I’m just glad there won’t be any talking during the performance.”
“I’ll do my best to control the narrative.” Since nobody will ever see her after Christmas, I’d just make up answers to the questions my family would ask.
Ross opened my door. I got out and extended my hand to help Cyndee.
“Thank you,” she said. “Gosh, I’m nervous. Do I look okay? I should have checked myself before getting out of the car.
I took a step back to admire her better. “You look good. Nobody will ever think you’re my cleaning lady.”
She smiled but it didn’t seem genuine.
“Let’s go in. I’m certain we’re late.” Of course I wanted to arrive after everyone else, so we didn’t have an opportunity to chat before the performance started.
“Oh, no. I thought it started at seven.”
“It does, but I didn’t want to get here when my family arrived.”
“Right.” She nodded.
We entered the building.
“Oh my gosh, this is gorgeous.” She stopped and took it all in, mesmerizing me as she turned in a circle with glossy eyes.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, taking her hand and drawing her toward me. “You look as if you’re about to cry.”
“Sorry.” She turned her face away to hide. “When I’m overwhelmed, I get a little emotional. I’m sure the beauty and holiday magic doesn’t affect you because you’ve been here a lot.”
“I usually rush through to get to my chair.” I let my gaze move through the building and Cyndee was right. It was beautiful. “You don’t need to hide from me.”
