Just walks past me like I'm background furniture.
I smile. My head drops. Shame crawls up my spine.
He hates me.
He's disgusted with me.
He probably laughed all night with Lorenzo about the shit I said, how pathetic I was. I want to melt through the floor. I want to cry.
"Darling," my mother says, leading me a few steps forward, "this is Lorenzo. The young man I told you about, you three will be going to Spain together."
I make myself look up. Lorenzo's smiling at me.
Like we didn't share the most humiliating night of my life a few hours ago.
He offers his hand. "Nice to officially meet you, Rava."
I shake it, because what else can I do? My palm is clammy.
"Yeah. You too."
I let a few minutes pass before I risk another glance at Gio, just to check.
Just to see if maybe, maybe he's looking at me too.
I look up. And the exact second my eyes land on him, he turns away. Heat hits my face.
Embarrassment?
Shame?
Humiliation?
Who knows.
It all feels the same right now.
I look away just as fast, pretending I was looking at the wall or the ceiling or the air. Anything but him. We sit down.
Me across from Lorenzo. Gio next to him.
I can't focus on a single word anyone's saying. All I can think about is how Gio looked right through me like I'm nothing. Like I never even existed.
That hurts worse than if he'd punched me in the face.
The meeting starts. God, it's so boring. So painfully boring I'm reconsidering every decision that led me here.
And I hate admitting this, but Gio's bullshit actually kept me awake all this time. Turns out without all that, I'm just dying in silence.
I drop my gaze across the table. Gio looks like he'd rather be in prison. He starts folding the seminar handout.
He makes a little paper boat.
A whole paper boat. In the middle of a corporate meeting.
I bite back a smile. Screw it. I pull out my phone under the table and type out a quick message.
ME:
