Elena stared at her phone for a full minute before calling Sofia back.
She needed to get herself together first before she called.
It didn't even finish ringing once.
"FINALLY." Sofia's voice came through like she had been waiting with her hand on the phone. "Talk. Now. Everything."
"I told you I'm fine—"
"Elena you ended a call mid sentence and then ignored me for twenty minutes, start talking! Remember you promised me last time that you'd tell me so tell me!!!"
Elena sat cross legged on the bed and took a breath. "Okay so. You know how I told you I was seeing someone."
There was dead silence.
Then carefully, Sofia dragged her reply. "Yes."
"He wants to take me to Rome."
The silence that followed was so long Elena checked if the call had dropped.
"Sofia?"
"I'm here" Sofia said, very quietly, "I'm just having a moment. Give me a second please."
There was a long pause. "DID I JUST HEAR ROME?!"
"Please don't scream—"
"He's taking you to ROME Elena, what do you mean don't scream, who takes someone to Rome, rich men take people to Rome, is he rich, he's rich isn't he—"
"Sofia—"
"Is he Italian?"
Elena opened her mouth then Closed it. "Yes he is."
"Oh my God." Sofia's voice dropped to something almost reverent. "An Italian man is taking you to Rome. Elena. Do you understand what I'm saying to you right now. Do you understand— he's rich as fuck baby!!! You're gonna be eating boyfriend's money and no longer daddy's money any more!"
Sofia squealed.
"How many designers has he bought you? Show meeeeee!!!" At this point Elena was going to get a headache so she cut her off.
"I need you to cover for me with my dad" Elena said quickly, redirecting before Sofia could build any more momentum. "Tell him I'm with you this weekend. Tell him it's a girls trip or something—"
"Oh I will absolutely cover for you girl!" Sofia said, "but you have to tell me one thing."
"What?!"
"Is he good looking?"
Elena thought about Alessandro standing at the window of his office this evening. The set of his jaw. The way he had looked at her with his arms on either side of her body like he had all the time in the world and nowhere else he needed to be. Fuck he was gorgeous.
She said nothing because she was lost in a day dream.
"ELENA."
"I have to go now trouble maker!"
"Oh my GOD he's gorgeous isn't he? I can hear it in your silence, you go completely quiet when something is too much for you to say out loud—" Sofia gasped in excitement.
"Sofia I'll call you from Rome—"
"You better call me the SECOND you land baby—"
"Ofcourse Sofia—"
"Elena Rossi if you hang up this phone I will drive to your father's house and tell him everything I know!"
"You don't know anything girl so don't threaten me" Elena chuckled heartily.
"I know enough! Call me from Rome!"
Elena hung up smiling despite herself and sat there for a moment in the quiet of the room feeling something warm sitting in her chest, she loved talking to her best friend. Since she got into this fucking cage, she hasn't been able to spend quality time with Sofia and it was eating her up. Now she was traveling to another country! And she had to lie to her best friend which made it all worse.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
She straightened immediately. "Yes?"
The door opened and Alessandro leaned against the frame, jacket off, top button undone, looking at her with a steady gaze that she was having significantly more trouble being neutral about since the conversation she overhead that she was absolutely not thinking about right now!
"We leave at eight tomorrow morning" he said. "Pack light principessa." She almost blushed at the pet naw he always called her.
"How long are we going for?" She asked trying to sound as stern as possible.
"A few days."
She nodded, keeping her face even. "Okay."
He looked at her for a moment like he was about to say something else and but decided against it, he then pushed off the doorframe, and she thought that was the end of the conversation and he was leaving, and then he said "someone will bring something to your room tonight. For Rome."
"What kind of something?" She asked with a low voice and those gorgeous big eyes staring up at him.
"You'll see."