When Stars Align

Front page news.

Amanda sat on the terrace outside her room, sipping her coffee and soaking up the sun. More than a month had passed since the unfortunate night in Paris– all of which she’dspent bedridden and drugged up on pain medications. Luca had moved her from the hospital in Paris and flew her down to his villa in Florence after she’d almost gotten attacked again by one of Lorenzo’s men. A nurse had come in at the right moment and foiled his attempts or he’d have been successful.

Luca has been taking care of her since, catering to her every need and providing the best healthcare services. He was probably just trying to make up for his past actions but one month of care didn’t make up for six years of pain. Sometimes she thought about their past and wondered what would’ve actually happened had he stayed with her and continued their relationship. Will they have had their happily ever after or would their differences have torn them apart.

Cool breeze blew in from the fields, flipping the pages of the newspaper she’d placed on the stool in front of her. It was from a month ago, the day after her dance show to be precise. She’d made front page news after all and had gotten her review but it wasn’t about how much of a great dancer she was or how sensational her performance had been like she wanted.

Every newspaper she requested for had had the same headline: Famous Ballet Dancer, Amanda Edewor meets with a tragic accident. They’d all talked about how she had been shot by gangsters in an alley. Some had speculated that it was a d*******l gone wrong but they’d all called it the end of her career. In one night all her dreams, her aspirations, everything she’d worked so hard for had disappeared into thin air.

Devon, the owner of the dance company she worked for had been kind enough not to fire her. She’d given her time to heal and come back but she couldn’t kid herself, she knew even if she could get back on her feet again dancing wouldn’t be the same. She wouldn’t be as good as she used to and all thanks to Gabriel for ruining her life.

Oddly enough, the newspaper hadn’t made any mention of the person who had called the police, not even the police officers who’d questioned her knew who it was, whether male or female, they had just said it was an anonymous caller. She wished she knew who it was, that person had saved her life and she was eternally in the person’s debt. If the person hadn’t called at the right time, they’d probably be scraping off her brains from the walls of that when the paramedics arrived instead of carrying her to the hospital with a knee injury. She still had nightmares of that night where she was back in that alley staring down the barrel of Lorenzo’s gun. She’d wake up drenched in sweat and shaking, no amount of medication could stop the nightmares.

She felt a presence behind her and turned to see Luca leaning on the wall behind her. Her heart picked up speed at the sight of his clean shaven face. She could smell his aftershave from where she sat, he’d just taken a bath and looked hot in a white shirt flapping in the breeze and white pants. He was barefoot and his hair was still wet from his shower, the tendrils curling around his shoulders.

“You know you shouldn’t be reading that again cara mia,” he walked up to her, grabbed the newspaper from the stool and folded it in his hands.

“I can’t help it,” she shrugged.

Reading that headline had become a thing of a ritual for her, every morning she would sit on the terrace, sip coffee and read that same article about her, wondering how different things would’ve turned out if she hadn’t gotten shot. Luca sighed and dropped the newspaper back on the stool, he took the coffee cup from her clutches and placed it on the stool.

“Come on, Celesté made breakfast,” he picked her up bridal style from the chair and carried her out of the room.

She tried to ignore the tingles his touch on her skin sent through her body. She was dressed in a yellow sundress with spaghetti straps leaving her arms bare and plenty of skin contact to be made as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“You know I can walk right?” she pointed out and he flashed her a grin that made her heart flutter.

“I know tesoro but I want to carry you.”

He carried her down the stairs and into the dining room and placed her in a seat beside his chair. The maids, Isabella and Graciela served breakfast; a meal of toast, omelettes and of course some green olives. Olives and grapes were Luca’s favourite, they were never scarce in his house.

On cue, her stomach grumbled eliciting laughter from Luca, Amanda blushed and quickly tucked into the food to hide her embarrassment.