Valentina POV
"You're doing the thing again," Renzo said, refilling my wine glass without asking.
"What thing?"
"The thing where you check the window before you check the menu." He nodded toward the small trattoria's front glass, half-hidden behind a thick curtain of ivy, nowhere near visible from any penthouse in the city. "I picked this place specifically so there'd be nothing to check."
I felt my face warm, caught. "I wasn't—"
"You were." He said it without judgment, his smile almost fond. "It's alright. Old habits."
I looked down at the menu, unable to help the small laugh that escaped me. "You planned that."
"I plan everything." He grinned, easy, unguarded in a way that made something tight in my chest loosen despite myself. "Occupational hazard."
"What is it you actually do a
