More Than Once | THE WATTPAD DRAFT

Chapter 20

*This story is on-going and changes will be made along the way.

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NB! Adult-content | Mature | Romance

**

It took about fifteen minutes to get back to Giovanni's place. He parked in the basement parking and we took the elevator up to his apartment. The doors opened and I was welcomed back to his home. It was warm inside and the cold breeze from outside quickly disappeared. The curtains in his living room were open and I watched the storm release itself to the world. I found it oddly calming to watch. The raindrops beat down against the buildings, washing away the unnecessary residue of the day. The lightning scattered across the sky, waiting for the opportune moment to light it up from behind the dark clouds. Giovanni strolled into the kitchen and brought the kettle to boil. I placed my handbag down on his kitchen counter and slipped my big jacket off. He disappeared upstairs and returned shortly after that with a new shirt on.

"I'm sorry again about your shirt," I lifted myself onto the barstool by his kitchen counter

He grabbed two cups from the cupboard above his stove and placed them next to the kettle, "Please don't worry about that. It's just a shirt,"

I could tell he was still holding onto the tension that came from the interaction with his father. That was definitely not the way I wanted to meet a member of his family but I didn't expect the relationship between the two of them to be so strained. He placed a cup of coffee in front of me and leaned against the counter, looking over at me. He looked like he wanted to say something but he remained silent.

"Giovanni, I want you to know that you can talk to me about anything," I reached out and grabbed his hand

He kept his eyes firmly on his cup of coffee and squeezed my hand. I figured that sharing his feelings wasn't something that came easy to him so I was willing to wait until he was ready.

"I care about you," I murmured softly

He sighed and his eyes met mine.

"My dad had no right to say that to you," he glowered, "He can be a real asshole,"

"It's ok-," I started to say but he interrupted me

"It's not okay Isabella," he continued, "You are not a flavour of the day. You are not like any of the others and I don't want you thinking that you are,"

I caressed his hand with my thumb, "I don't think that,"

And that was the truth. I may have felt that before but I trust what we spoke about and I knew that what was happening between us had more to it. I didn't know why I trusted him so much so quickly but I did. His effort in the last 24 hours alone just proved that he felt for me what I was feeling for him. I sipped my coffee and I waited to see if he would say anything more about the situation. The last thing I wanted to do was push him into talking about things if he didn't want to.

"Are you hungry?" he asked

I was disappointed at his choice to change the subject but I didn't want to push him

"Starving," I smiled

***

Hours later we were still sitting by the kitchen counter, this time with empty plates in front of us. Since we had already established that he seriously lacked skills when it came to making food, I ended up making us a delicious Spaghetti Bolognese. I made sure I taught him step by step how to make the meal - he was going to have to learn to cook at some point in his life. I didn't understand how he lived alone without the ability to cook but he assured me that pre-cooked meals were a very big part of keeping him well-fed and he took full advantage of that convenient way of living.