The Wizard Prince's Secret Soulmate

Chapter 3

Aurora woke up after just a few hours of sleep. They hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other long enough to get past the living room, and Matteo was sprawled across her and the couch, his arms wrapped around her waist. She carefully wriggled free from his embrace, trying not to wake him. Her clothes were all over the floor and it took her a few moments to collect them all, but she finally made her way into the bathroom. The woman looking back at her in the mirror looked like she enjoyed last night a little too much, her hair was standing in all different directions, her lips were dark red and swollen, her eyes glistening even though they looked tired after getting too little sleep.

She quickly washed her face, combed her fingers through her hair and got dressed, not wanting to waste more time by taking a shower and risking him waking up. With one last look on Matteo, she quietly murmured her goodbyes before sneaking out the door and softly pulling it close behind her.

Aurora had to get to her friend Dario’s place first, all of her stuff was there as she had planned to stay with him, before he declared his undying love for her. She scoffed. Why did guys have to be so stupid? When she realized what was happening, she even brought out the dreaded B word. Brother. She had hoped that if she told him that he was like a brother to her, he would back off, but no. He was determined to get her, and when she stomped off and walked into the first bar she found, he followed her and tried to reason – reason! – with her, why he thought they’d make a good couple. Because of course, her heart would listen to reason.

She took the metro to the outskirts of Milan, walking swiftly in the cold morning, and soon found herself in front of her friend’s door. After taking a deep breath, she rang the doorbell, and nearly jumped out of her skin when the door was thrown open hard enough to nearly rip off its hinges, and her friend stormed out and pulled her into his arms.

“Aurora, I was so worried, where were you?”

Aurora stood still, trying not to get crushed by his tight hug.

“I’m fine, Dario, don’t smother me, please.”

He hesitantly let go of her and she walked around him into the apartment. Her bag was still where she dropped it last night, and she just needed to go to the bathroom to collect her toothbrush. Dario followed her around as she grabbed everything.

“Are you ok? What happened last night? Did you go with that guy from the bar? Did he hurt you, Aurora, I swear, if he hurt you I’ll…”

“I said, I’m fine, Dario!” she finally cut off his rambling, getting more and more annoyed with his overbearing behaviour. “I’m fine. I just came back to get my stuff and then I’m leaving, ok?”

He pouted, clearly unhappy with her answer.

“Did you think about what I said yesterday? I really like you, and…”

“Dario, please. There is nothing to think about. I told you, I don’t think about you that way, I only see you as a friend.” Aurora had just about had it with him, but she couldn’t help but feel a little sad. Five years of friendship down the drain, just because he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Well, if you change your mind…”

She rolled her eyes at his desperate tries to get her to sleep with him. It’s not like she was an innocent virgin, clearly, but it was still her decision who she wanted to go to bed with – or couch – and there had to be something going on between them. And there was just nothing going on between her and Dario. Actually, she really did think of him like a brother, they shared a lot of interests, joked around a lot, but she never saw him as a potential boyfriend. Oh well, if he didn’t learn to control his urges, she would just have to burn that bridge, which would suck, but it wasn’t her first time losing someone close to her.

Wordlessly, she threw her large bag containing her clothes over her shoulder and walked out without looking back, knowing that she had to be firm right now or he wouldn’t get the hint. She hated it when she had to be the b***h, but it was better to be open and honest than dragging people along by giving them false hope.

Aurora got back into the metro and sighed when she found an empty seat. She was done with this place, done with Dario. The only good thing that happened was last night, but unfortunately, she didn’t plan to come back here and go searching for a guy whose last name she didn’t even know. They hadn’t even exchanged numbers. But he didn’t strike her as a devoting boyfriend anyways, she was sure that the bra she saw under the couch didn’t belong to him. He would stay in her memories, where he belonged, untouchable by the menial day to day trials of life.

When she arrived at the train station, she had to look over the timetable to figure out a way to get home. She hadn’t planned to leave today, her ticket was for three days from now, but she just couldn’t stay any longer. Where would she stay anyways? Running her finger over the next departures, she found a train that went to Verona, where she would figure out her next options to bring her home to Dorf Tirol, a small town close to Meran.

Aurora bought a ticket at the machine and went to the next café to get some coffee, adrenaline had kept her going until now, but her energy levels were starting to drop. Afterwards, she sat down to wait, and pulled out her phone to listen to some music. Thankfully, she would be able to charge her phone on the train as she got a ticket for the Freccia, because she forgot to do it last night and was running low on battery.

She searched for her favourite song on her favourite playlist and closed her eyes when she could hear Nathalie singing through her headphones. Vivo sospesa / tra sogni e quotidianità / Io mi ero persa / Per strade sconosciute già cambiate prima di arrivare (I live suspended / Between dreams and everyday life / I was lost / On unknown roads that were changed before I arrived there). The lyrics flowing through her, making her feel like she wasn’t the only one feeling a little lost sometimes.

Finally, her train arrived and she got on to look for her seat, thankful that she could sleep for a few hours. Sometimes, she wished she could just ask someone who she was, because it seemed like she didn’t really know herself, not the way other people seemed to know themselves. But there was nobody, she didn’t have any roots that connected her to steady ground. She didn’t know where she came from or who her parents were, she grew up with an elderly woman she called “nonna”, grandma, but it wasn’t really her grandma. Nonna had found her on her doorstep when she was just a baby, a few months old, and she had taken care of her as if she were her own granddaughter. Like herself, nonna had no other family, and she lived alone in a cottage on the outskirts of a small village in South Tyrol.

Somehow, being both alone in this world had brought them together as close as if they really were family, and in a way, she supposed, they were. Family wasn’t only blood, it was a bond that had to be chosen by them, that had to be taken care of everyday, tended to so it didn’t fray and break. They did that, carefully, but always aware that it was only the two of them, not against the world, but against themselves, as at each turn, one of them could choose to get up and leave the other.

Nonna cared about her, deeply, maybe more than a family member would have, because of that choice she made every day, until the day she died a little over a year ago. On some days, Aurora wanted to pick up the phone and call her, until she remembered that she couldn’t do that anymore, and it felt like she died all over again. The frail roots she had through nonna were ripped out like those of a flower during a storm, and now she didn’t know where she belonged to.

After nonna’s death, she had considered for a brief moment to go and look for her family, for her parents, but where would she even start? All she had was a blanket with her name on it, nothing else. So, she tried to focus on the future, but the future seemed bleak. She had tried to pursue a degree at university, but didn’t find it interesting enough and dropped out after a while. During university, she was bartending to keep afloat, and she just kept doing that after dropping out to earn her living, and also because it was an interesting job where she met different people, who took her mind off her otherwise boring life. She would have to ask her boss to cancel her vacation, she didn’t want to stay at home, alone with her thoughts.