“Also Leo will be there for that meeting you asked for.”
“Oh. Okay.” I nodded, pensively.So that’s what this is all about?
“Are you going to be prepared?”
“For the gig? Yeah, sure. Anything in particular you want me to play?”
“I meant for Leo.”
Was I?I guess we’ll see tonight if I am.
Chapter26
Lina
A burgundy red dress cascaded along the bedspread, awaiting me in my room as I got out of the shower.
I got it out of the bag, the feeling of the pleated shimmer satin elegant and luxurious. This must have been the softest thing I’d ever touched in my life. My glance fell on the tag, and I swore.Valentino.
I put it down so carefully and stepped away. Then I put my hands together, as if praying to the divine dress.
“Oh my God!” Nicky’s squeal pierced my eardrum as she came running to me.
“Exactly.”
“It’s so beautiful!”
“It’s so expensive.”
She saw the tag and screamed.
“I can’t wear this.”
“You can’t not wear this. You’re so wearing the—” She screamed again. “Matching shoes.”
I followed the path her eyes just took and got blinded by the sparkling beauty of the red pumps by the foot of the bed.
“Uh…Lina? Has Mr. Bellomo just bought you underwear?”
I looked up, guilty and flushed. She was holding a new, red, padded bra and panty set and dangling it down my face.
I snatched it and held it behind my back. “He did, yeah. For the dress. I didn’t know what kind of dress he was going to get so I didn’t know what set of underwear would match it. It’s totally normal.”
“Yeah. Not even a Valentino could conquer a bad bra day.” She pursed her lips. “I bet you were as red as a tomato when he asked you about your cup and panty size. I know I would.”
He never asked me, and I forgot to tell him, my mind preoccupied with what I was gonna say to Leo. “Yeah. You should’ve seen my face. Hope he got it right.” I tucked my hair behind my ear and held the dress by the hanger only. “I’ma go try everything on.”
In the dressing room, I checked the size of the dress and underwear. They were accurate. Too accurate for a guy to just guess. He got me a thirty-eight B and a half bra. The only cup size that fit me right but so rare to find. I mostly got a C or a B because that was all I could find. How many guys knew the difference between a B and a half and a C cup in the first place?
Tino must be quite a ladies’ man, who had bought a lot of women’s underwear before, and, well, he’d been doing a lot of staring at my boobs so…
My face matched the dress at the fresh memory of that moment in time that was awkward, scary and embarrassingly arousing. Tino’s expression of overprotectiveness could be dark and angry and disturbing but somehow it played the strings of my soul, hitting all the right notes, singing to the dark corners of my heart, dancing around the wounds that wouldn’t heal. His dark melody spoke to me in ways I didn’t understand before.
Ways he knew and taught by heart.
I looked at myself in the mirror. The dress was so beautiful and classy and—of course—covered me from neck to toe. Except for my arms, nothing was showing. I was glad he chose a sleeveless dress so I could move my arms with ease when I played. I wondered if he thought of that when he made his choice. I knew he did. He paid attention to everything, even the simplest detail of the minor comfort a sleeveless dress could give a violinist.
And the perfection of a B and a half rather than a C cup on her boobs.
