“You look really nervous. Have a drink or something. We can get a cab later. Remember, it’s not like a real engagement or anything.” She tried to comfort me with a smile as she walked back into the party hustle.
I touched my sweaty forehead, telling myself to snap out of this shit. “You’ve known her for a week. One fucking week.” My gaze darted at the ring nestled inside the box so fucking innocently not knowing what havoc it was wreaking inside my head and my heart.
I snapped the box shut and shoved it in my pocket. But taking it out of my sight didn’t get the crazy thoughts and out-of-reach desires out of my mind. And I knew, against all odds, after tonight had passed, and she’d returned that ring, I’d go and buy it for her myself.
But she’d never know I did.
CHAPTER41
Gabrielle
“Who would have thought Michael Fletcher cared so much about your engagement to throw such a marvelous party to celebrate it?” Rina taunted.
I chortled. “Not me.”
She laughed in response. “I really like you, Gabrielle.” She pointed her champagne flute in the direction of Fabio, who finally decided to join me. “And him.”
“He’s amazing. I keep discovering something new about him every day that takes me by surprise. The good kind. I’ve never thought when we met that we’d ever be a thing, but here we are.”
“He really loves you. It shows. It’s all in the eyes. The way he looks at you is inspiring.”
A grimace hooked my brows. What was she talking about? Loved me? It showed in the way he looked at me? I snorted in my head. There was no such a thing. He was just very good at what he did.
“Buonasera, ladies,” Fabio greeted, planting kisses on the back of every woman’s hand in the circle. “My favorite literary geniuses all in one place. Rina. Nora.” He wrapped an arm around my waist, his tender gaze on me. “Amore.”
I just smiled, a sliver of anxiety sneaking up on me.
“Have you read the collection?” Nora asked him.
“I loved it, especially Veils and Shadows.” He held my gaze. “You confine your spirit within the broad kohl, yet your eyes buy new wings and chalk out new bridges of thick charcoal. You’re chained and peeled over by sorrowful sophistication, yet your eyes speak words of mercy and an innocent recklessness so brazen…”
All right? What’s happening here?
“Somebody turned up the heat in here or what?” Nora touched her face awkwardly. “Does he read you poetry every day, Gabi, right before you go to bed?”
I cleared my throat. “No. That’s the first time. And we don’t even live together.”
“Maybe we should,” he said.
The fuck? “I…thought we agreed we weren’t going to do that until we got married. You said it’d be more romantic that way, remember?”
“No, I don’t. I think it’d be much more romantic if we didn’t wait…for anything.”
The sliver of anxiety turned into a lump filling my stomach.
“You never told us how long you’ve been together,” Rina said.
“Eight days,” he answered.
“Months. Eight months.” I darted a subtle glare at him. “I told you to have one drink. How many did you have,amore?”
He waved four fingers. “Sorry, I was really nervous. This party is super big. I feel like it’s our wedding. I mean I wish it was. I want it to be our wedding. It’s crazy, right?”
“Yes,” I hissed.
“Anyway, she’s right. Eight months, but it literally feels like just eight days.”
“Aww. That’s so sweet. When is the wedding?” Nora cooed.
