wander

42|the awaited dinner

Chiara's pov:

Romeo sits on the corner of my bed as I dry my hair with the blow dryer. My arms begin to ache so I put the dryer down and stretch my arms. I would never blow dry my hair a lot because it's so thick and take ages but I wanted fresh hair so it was the only options. I roll my shoulders backwards and forwards until Romeo lays his hands over them. He rubs the back of my neck and my shoulders. I relax at his touch.

He takes hold of the dryer and gently runs a comb through my hair. He's being too delicate so I snatch my hairbrush and brush out the tangles in my hair. His eyes grow wide as I silently prove him that he doesn't have to be so gentle. He sits back on the corner of my bed and watches me through the mirror. I open my makeup draw and sigh a little. I have no motivation to do my makeup but I have to leave in 40 minutes and I know if i put it off any longer I will make us late.

I glide the lip gloss against my bottom lip and rub them together. I turn to face Romeo and he looks up from his phone screen.
"You look stunning." He drops his phone on mattress and comes over to kiss my cheek. I pull away a little so he won't smudge my makeup.
"Thank you." I reply and he kisses my neck instead.

I play with my hair a little and comb through the ends with my fingers. I take out my phone camera to check my makeup at different angles. I added a little eyeliner which I don't do very often and made sure it was perfect.
"You look amazing, stop stressing baby." He cuddles me from behind.
"I know, I'm just I don't even know. I wish time would speed up." I sigh.
"Why so you can leave me?" He laughs
"So I can come back quicker." I correct.

Romeo pulls me closer and I rest my head against his chest, trying my best not smudge my makeup as I had done the last time we had gone to dinner, except this time Romeo wasn't going to be there. Now that I think of it, I hadn't spent much time alone with my Dad. He was always busy or I was with Romeo or Rose. I hope I hadn't come across as selfish. 

A knock at the door breaks our hug and I walk over to open the door. It's Rose. I move to the side so she can come in.
"Chiara you look amazing. That black dress is everything." She smiles and pulls me in for a hug.
"Thank you Rose." I say close to her ear.

She sits on my bed, the other corner further away from me. I sit on my vanity stool and wait for a conversation. It's silent for a few minutes until Romeo turns to Rose.
"Chiara said you saw Marco today." He mentions the name and Rose snaps her neck to look at him.
"Yeah we did. We left before he tried to make plans." Rose looks over to me.
"I'm so confused who is he?" I question.

"Rose's ex."
"No one." They say at the same time.
"Oh my god Rose! Tell me I want to hear." I squeal, I was going to ask her tomorrow but Romeo brought it up.

She sighs and rubs her forehead.
"Ugh fine. We dated then we broke up." She simply says.
"And..." Romeo her on, teasing her.
"And then we got back together. Broke up again. The cycle goes on blah blah blah whatever." She groans. I take it their not together at the minute.
"Oh right. Anyways, what's the time?" I change the subject.
"6:42. You have twenty minutes or so." Romeo answers.
"No she has to be there for 7 meaning she has tom leave any minute now to be on time." Rose corrects him.

My Dad knocks on the door and slightly opens it peeking in and then fully opens the door.
"You ready? We have to leave soon." He asks.
"See." Rose proves her point.
"Yes I'm ready." I smile.

My Dad leaves along with Rose. She closes the door behind her and Romeo pulls me towards him by grasping my hands. He kisses my forehead and holds my waist.
"See you soon, enjoy yourself." He whispers to my ear.
"I will, see you when I get home." I whisper back.
I drop my hands from him and take my bag, hanging from the door handle. Before I close my bedroom door, I wave and he does the same. I take each step carefully in my heels and hold tightly to the railing. My Dad is stood by the front door waiting.

"You look beautiful." My Father compliments.
I blush and reply with a thank you. He allows me to walk out of the door first and a driver helps me into the car. My Dad takes a seat next to me and the driver closes the door. I nod as in saying thank you and I retrieve a nod back.

The radio plays quietly in the car and my Dad makes small conversation.
"How do you like Italy?"
"I love it. So much. It's felt like home more than anything." I honestly love it here.
"I'm glad, I always wished you grew up here."
"Me too."

We arrive at the restaurant and the candles on each table make it feel comfortable. The waiter seats us at a booth and I slide in. My Dad slides in the other side so we are forced to make eye contact. The waiter asks if we want any drinks and I ask for water. My Dad requests red wine and dismisses the brown haired waiter. I tab my nails against the table and take a look at my overgrown nails. I would like to get them done if I'm honest.

"I'm sorry I have to ask. What made you move here? I know you told me some over the phone but I need to hear everything. Was it Jessica, your mother." He asks so many questions. I flinch at the harshness of his voice when he mentions my mother.
"Um yeah. And the school situation. I wasn't happy and I knew that Louisiana wasn't good for me. I left home after an argument and found your number in my phone case and well I guess I called and now I'm here." I laugh at how I went from a horrible life to something I imagined only in dreams.

"W... what was the argument about?" He takes his wine the waiter had just given to us.
"You." My voice comes out small.
"Me?" He's taken aback from the information.
"Yes. She uh called me names and mentioned how you left us and I told her not to bring you into it and it got more heated. Then I left." I take a sip from my water.
"Oh." I don't think he knows what to think.

We sit in silence as the waiter asks for our orders. I realise I haven't even had the chance to look through it. I glance at a pasta dish I recognise and point to it. My Dad had already called his order. The waiter left after and I dropped my head to look at my phone. Romeo texted.

'Have a good time Chi, don't stress x'

That relaxed me immediately and I looked back up to my Dad.
"I'm sorry for bringing that up. I didn't mean to make it uncomfortable." He apologises.
"It's okay, I'm very happy now." I try to ease the mood.
"Let's talk about something happier... how's Romeo treating you?"
I blush at the mention of his name. "Amazing. He is literally everything you could ever ask for. He makes me laugh. He makes me happy. It's perfect, I couldn't even ask for a better guy." I ramble.

"I knew he liked you as soon as I had found you on your schools instagram. You won some academic award and they congratulated you. Ever since I showed him that he urged me to reach out but I never did. I was to scared and I was shocked when you had called me." He laughed while reminiscing over the memory.

The rest of the dinner was followed by laughs from the both of us. It wasn't hard to make conversation with him unlike I thought it would have. It was awkward at first when I had mentioned my Mother but as we spoke our way through the evening, everything became easy.