I rest my head on the doorframe, exhausted.
As soon as Alessia is out of sight, I close my door and find my phone.Fucking Seth has only texted once since he landed in Germany, but I could use his advice.I pull up his number and call him.
“What’s up?”Sounds of the city create a busy soundtrack behind his voice.
“Where are you?Hamburg?”
“Munich.What do you want, Damiano?I’m between meetings with realtors.”
“I have a problem and I don’t know what to do.”
Seth says, “And?Is this a professional problem, or a personal one?”
“Personal.”
“Does it have anything to do with the black-haired Italian woman you have living on the eleventh floor?”His voice drips with censure.
Fuck.I’ve screwed up in more ways than one.“I was going to tell you?—”
“Just don’t hurt Madison.”
Oh, now he cares about Madison?But I’m too smart to say that out loud.“I’m not hurting anyone.”
“So Madison’s aware that you have your ex-wife holed up in an apartment in our building.”
“No, but I’m hoping to get Alessia out soon.”
“You’re sitting on a grenade.And Alessia already pulled out the pin.”He laughs.The asshole laughs.
“Never mind.”I end the call and look across my empty apartment.I’m not hurting Madison—this is why I haven’t told her.It’s too complicated and I really am working on plans to move Alessia to another apartment.Alessia insists my building is the “safest,” but her ex is in Italy, of all fucking places.She is separated from him by the Atlantic and an entire continent.I will get her out.Soon.
* * *
MADISON
My phone rings while I’m washing dishes in the kitchen.I quickly dry my hands and pick up the phone.Damiano.I haven’t heard from him since the apology he texted me last night.I responded that it was okay, but I’m not sure it is.Maybe he’s just not in the kind of place right now where he can pursue a relationship.If that’s the case, he should gracefully step back, shouldn’t he?
And if he won’t, maybe I should.
The phone rings again.I slide my finger across the screen to answer.“Hey.”
“Madison.”His low, rumbly voice goes straight through the speaker, into my ear, and tightens my nerves with pleasure.“How are you?”
I keep my voice as neutral as possible.Not warm, but not frosty, either.“I’m fine.”
“I apologize again for last night.I wanted to insist on staying, but I was trying to respect your wishes.I still feel it might have been better to stay.”
I scoff.“Not with your phone blowing up like that.”
“Fair.I’m hoping to make it up to you—dinner on Friday.What do you say?”
“I—I don’t know.I have to check my schedule.”
“Madison.”His voice deepens.“Be honest.”
“I don’t know, because I can’t trust it won’t end like last night.”I grip my phone and try to keep my voice even.I need him—every part of my body strains toward his voice.But remembering his abrupt departures stings like lemon in a cut.“Who’s to say you won’t have an emergency and need to cancel at the last second?Or you’ll have to leave in the middle of our date and strand me somewhere again?”
“I wish I could say I’ll silence my phone.But that’s impossible, with Seth out of the country.I have to be reachable.But I will do everything possible to have someone else be the go-to person in the event of a crisis.”
