Not His (Sequel to Not Mine)

3

Chapter 3

Venezia made her way downstairs into her kitchen to grab a late night snack when she stopped abruptly.

"Hi." Angelo said before Venezia could say anything. She stood there with her mouth slightly agape. She didn't get how she could feel so winded and baffled just by looking at Angelo but she convinced herself that it meant nothing.

"Hi."  Venezia brought her gaze to the ground as she walked through the kitchen and to the fridge. She avoided Angelo who was silently sitting at the island and eating cereal.

Venezia was scouring through the fridge before she sighed and headed for the cupboards to get herself some cereal aswell.

As she was pouring herself the cereal, Angelo finally broke the silence. "You know, we don't have to make this this weird."

Venezia stalled her eyes letting them linger on her cereal filled bowl before looking at Angelo. For the first time since she was back, she allowed herself to willingly look at Angelo.

She sighed, "I know. I'm sorry. I'm just getting used to being back."

"It has been awhile," Angelo said with a small grin appearing on the corner of his mouth. "I wouldn't have expected you to stay away from home for so long."

Venezia smiled lightly and brought her bowl over around the island and sat down beside Angelo. Her heart was beating faster then ever but she knew that she had to make it through the storm if she wanted to see the sun.

"I didn't either. I didn't realize how much I missed this place until I walked back in here." She smiled in thought as she glanced around and remembered all the reasons she didn't want to leave in the first place.  At that moment, it dawned upon her how weird and diverse things would be like if she never had left five years ago.

Angelo smiled, moving his cereal around with his spoon. It felt so right and gratifying to be sitting there at 1am and casually eating cereal as if they were old pals. Though, they were old pals but it didn't quite seem like that all the time.

"So... how is it down there? In Costa Rica?" Angelo asked slowly and cautiously because he didn't want to divert the conversation into something that would cause tension between him and Venezia. He looked at her with content and felicity, glad that there were talking civilly.

Venezia shrugged lightly, "It's fine, I've adapted."

"You've adapted?, that doesn't sound like much?"  Angelo quirked an eyebrow, his tone getting a bit more serious.

Venezia shrugged again, but this time it was an unsure reaction. "I don't know, I mean it isn't the same as here because this was always home but... I have to make it home, you know?" She turned and looked at Angelo, a questioning look resting on her face.

"Change isn't always easy." Angelo said with a small smile before looking away from Venezia and back to his cereal that was now soggy.

"No, it isn't." Venezia exhaled.

"Do you ever consider... going back?" Angelo asked hesitantly, hoping he wasn't pressing the wrong buttons. He looked up from his cereal and back to Venezia, "I mean back to before everything changed."

Venezia took a moment before finding a proper response. When she did, she looked up to Angelo and smiled lightly, "Change is inevitable, Angelo. Things will change and alter but the carousel doesn't stop turning."

"So you just have to adjust?" Angelo said but it came out more like a question.

Venezia slowly nodded her head, "Sometimes it's the thing that changes, sometimes its the people and sometimes... it has to be both."

"Did Costa Rica make you all the more wiser or was it already there but never noticed?" Angelo grinned as he leaned his head on the palm of his hand and looked at Venezia. He may be joking around and making conversation in attempts to ease the tension between the two and to hopefully get things to fall back into place but really, all that was on his mind was the feeling of holding her and being near her and getting the chance to actually kiss her; not just an almost-kiss but an actual kiss. All those emotions and past feelings that Venezia was trying to ignore and deny weren't going to go away if Angelo admitted that his feelings were there and they were real.

Venezia chuckled at his comment and lightly nudged his shoulder. "Shut up, I've always been the wise one."

"You were, that I can admit." He grinned, a breathy chuckle escaping his lips.

Venezia smiled as she and Angelo sat there both looking at each other and neither one of them had noticed that they got lost in the moment until Angelo broke eye contact and shot a quick glance at Venezia's lips. When that happened, Venezia was all of a sudden pulled back into the world.

She cleared her throat, "I should head to bed, it's late." She quickly stood up and drained out her hardly eaten, soggy cereal before turning back to Angelo and giving him a half-hearted smile.

"Goodnight Angelo."

-

"I can't believe its happening." Chandler grinned like a mad-women as she looked at herself in the full length mirror while she wore a gorgeous pearl white wedding gown.

"You are gorgeous." Venezia smiled genuinely as she looked at Chandler through the mirror.

Chandler, Venezia, and Bella were shopping for Chandler's wedding dress while Angelo and Galen went to the airport to pick up Galen and Venezia's cousins.

"So, when is your hubby coming back?" Chandler asked with her eyes beaming with happiness. She turned around and stepped off the stool.

"Where did he go anyways?" Bella inquired though she already knew the answer.

"New York," Venezia nodded as she walked to the racks of more dresses and started looking through. "He heads up there at least twice a month for business."

"Right," Bella nodded. "So how long is he gone for?"

Venezia's eye caught a dress that she instantly fell in-love with. It was her dream dress. For the slightest moment she frowned at the thought of her wedding which was small and consisted of ten people people at a small chapel. Ever since she was a little girl she dreamt of a massive wedding in a gorgeous bright white dress and -

She snapped out of her thoughts and turned to look at her cousin. "A couple of days, a week and a half at the most."

"Isn't it hard? Him having to leave for days every month?" Chandler asked as she shimmied out of the dress she was in.

Venezia shrugged, "Not really, I find ways to keep busy."

"Hey Ven," Chandler said softly as she threw her jumper on. "You need to come back to Philly more often. It's still home."

Venezia smiled lightly, "Sure." Too bad Venezia didn't see this as her home anymore.