“Yes, I am!” I shout back. “And you have to let me because it’s”—I glance back at the digital clock sitting on my nightstand—“almost noon and you have a shift today!”
Silence and then, “Fuck!”
I chuckle at the sudden sounds of metal creaking as Michelle climbs up to her room. I take my roommate’s abrupt distraction as an opportunity to get out of the shift and hop into the shower before she can gather her things and steal all of the hot water. She deserves an icy shower after making me take her shift yesterday and inadvertently getting me hitched to a psycho mafia man.
Despite my internal decision to let her shower in the cold, I hurry through cleaning myself and hop back out before half of the hot water is gone. Yanking on a pair of denim shorts and an oversize band T-shirt, I spot my Converse, half hidden beneath the bed, and snatch them up, too. Rolling on a pair ofmismatched socks, I lace up my shoes and pause when my eyes land on the elephant in the room—or rather the elephant-sized wedding dress.
Pipes squeak and clank as Michelle starts the shower back up. Biting down on my lower lip, I finally pick up the dress and find a hanger to stick it on. With little other space to put it, I hook it onto the back of my closet door. The train spills over the floor, half covering my book stacks. Folding my arms, I take a step back and just stare at it, trying to remember if I took it off myself when I came home last night.
Wait. How did I get home last night?
I remember passing lights and the soft, buttery feel of leather under my fingers as I sat in the back of the town car that Giulio had forced me into. I remember him telling me that someone named Alonzo—his driver, I assume—already knew where I lived. But as I search and search through my memories, I don’t recall ever getting out of the car or getting into my apartment.Did Giulio bring me home? Did he strip me?
He totally saw you naked, the mean bitch of an internal voice of mine says with a grin. Unfortunately, she might be right. I’d woken up in the shift I’d had on under the wedding gown, but the fabric is thin and nearly transparent. If he was the one to take off the ugly, big-ass wedding dress, he probably saw the outline of my nipples at least. A blush steals over my cheeks, and I press my palms into them to try and lessen the heat.
Even if Giulio did see me naked last night, though, that still doesn’t tell me what I’m supposed to do now. If he just brought me home and left me here, how am I supposed to reach him again? Am I supposed to try?
Concerned, I pop my head out of my room and glance up the hall. No dark, hulking figure with a gun pops out. The water in the bathroom shuts off a moment later, and I duck back into my room.
“It couldn’t have been a dream or hallucination,” I say absently. The dress and ring are proof that it was very much real.
As the sun comes in through the horizontal window at the top of the wall above my bed, the light glints on my keys sitting on my nightstand. My brow furrows as I cross the room; I don’t remember putting my keys there, but then I see the rest of the stuff sitting next to them and realize they must have been put there by Giulio.
I pick up the brand-new cell phone sitting alongside my keys, turning it over in my hand. It looks nothing like my old, cracked cell, which, now that I think of it, is strangely missing. I scan my bed and see my purse discarded there, but there’s no telltale lump of a cell phone in the small bag. The screen on the new phone lights up a second later, and I release a muffled shriek of surprise, nearly dropping it before I manage to shove the thing to my chest and keep it from slipping through my fingers. The phone continues to ring, vibrating against my boob with an insistent buzz. I pull it away and look down. The caller’s name is listed as “Husband.”
He. Did. Not.I check the phone, but the name remains the same.He totally did.
“Oh shit,” I mutter. “Oh fucking shit fuck. What do I do?” I look around like there’s a ghost somewhere in the room that might have the answer. When none magically appear to give me sage advice, I have to accept that I’m the only one with the power to make my decisions.
And I choose life.
I hit decline.
The phone screen goes black, and I release a sigh of relief.Crisis averted.
A moment later, the phone lights up and begins ringing again, this time somehow sounding more insistent.
Crisis reactivated.
“Are you kidding me?” I glare at the phone in my hand like it’s the spawn of Satan. “You can’t give me one day? Just one?” The phone continues to ring, uncaring of my request.
With a groan, I hit the answer button and then put it to my ear. “What?” I snap before thinking better of it.
A beat passes, and then Giulio’s low baritone rumbles over the line. “I’m glad to see that you’re alive and well, Daisy.”
“Are you going to let me stay that way?” I blurt.
Foot, meet my fucking mouth. Please don’t stick around.
Another moment of silence passes, and I’m not entirely sure if Giulio’s actually considering my question or if he’s laughing at me. When he speaks, he doesn’t sound as if he was laughing, so perhaps that was just wishful thinking on my part—people who laugh are less likely to kill you. At least, I hope they are.
“That depends entirely on you,” Giulio says.
“I haven’t told anyone!” I say quickly. “Well, except for my best friend, but she doesn’t count and she won’t tell anyone, but I had to tell her that I got married because if I didn’t tell her, then she’d kill me. I mean, not like you would kill me—please don’t kill me—but, like, in the way that would make me wish for death, you know? She threatened to get rid of my books.”
The words come out in a rush of air, and this time, I’m surethe quiet that follows isn’t laughter. It’s probably surprise or irritation. I hold my breath as I wait to find out. Instead of commenting on my words and the reveal that I told my best friend about us—which I mean… what kind of an “us” is there?—Giulio says something completely unexpected.
“I’m coming to pick you up in twenty minutes. Be ready.”
