A Flame From The Past

20: Adult Things

"I have never seen someone this excited to get upstairs", I whispered to Luca as he pulled Ray and I into the elevator quickly, very quickly. He was excited about our little deal we had made this morning. And might I add, the little deal he had won fair and square on the field today.

We had gone to get ice cream and dinner with Mariam and Len before and Luca's phone had been blowing up with text messages and invitations to a very coveted after party. I told him he should go, and I was going to take Ray home, but he insisted on coming with us. I knew now why he was so eager.

His hands were wrapped around my waist, and held me closely, as Ray was already asleep in my arms. Luca pulled me closer to him, as more people got into the elevator and out of it.

"You are all such a cute family", an older woman said, complimenting us as I leaned back into Luca, seeing his widened smile. He really enjoyed people calling us a family, I could see it in his eyes, as he held onto me closer. We thanked the lady,as she left the elevator and finally our floor dinged.

As this was only our third week dating, I couldn't have been more comfortable with him, and this seemed okay to me. Calling him my family, and surprisingly I was okay with it. Maybe it had seemed because I had known him for so long, and now here we were, he's met all of my family and friends. Considering I have a small amount.

"I like the sound of our little family, bella", he said, kissing my head. He had called me beautiful, in one of the most romantic languages that had existed.

"You know Italian?" I asked him, and he picked up on it that I knew some too.

"My grandparents are from Italy, do you know italian?" He asked, and I saw it now.

"My last name is Sorrento, my father used to teach it to me, the little caring words, like cara, and bella especially, he used to call my mom that all the time", I stood there, memorized by a happy memory of them. A happy memory of them, wasn't something I got often, or even at all.

But as I saw Luca's changing face, I knew that this was the first time I had talked about my parents, other than my father's accident. It looked like it came to a shock to him, but he carried on business as usual, probably knowing the last thing I wanted to do was talk about them.

"My grandma taught italian to me, when I was going one year, she had said I was a natural learner", he said, recounting the whole thing in his mind, as I couldn't help but laugh knowing he was a natural learner pretty much at everything.

We unlocked the door quickly as Ray moved in my hands a bit. And he slowly woke up, as Luca groaned. He knew if Ray was asleep now, I wouldn't worry about him not sleeping, but now he was wide awake.

"Where are we?" He wiped his little eyes, looking around at the lights as Luca purposely switched on the light that was furthest away from us, wanting him to fall back asleep quicker.

"We're at the hotel, do you want help brushing your teeth?" I said, babying him completely. He was my weakness, what was I supposed to do? He was too cute. And I see my other whiny baby, looking over at me like I had forgotten our little deal, but believe me it was very hard to forget.

"Yes please", Ray said, as he held onto my neck.

I took Ray to his bathroom, and helped him brush his teeth, as he smiled brightly at me, he was still sleepy. His eyes drooped and he was having a hard time standing up straight.

"I'll grab your pajamas", I said, as he washed his face and mouth, which had earlier been foamed with toothpaste. I had never seen someone brush their teeth that messily, his toothpaste went down his shirt and on his hands and down his neck.