My Italian Nightmare

Chapter 20: The Offer

Saturday, 16th of October

"Well and then we kissed and said good night and he went home and then texted me that he arrived safely and yeah, uh, basically that's it." I slurped a bit from my drink and ran a hand through my hair. Winter, who had actively listened flicked some ash from the end of her cigarette and nodded.
"Well, sounds like a solid date, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, I really had fun and he's just, yeah, really nice." I folded my hands under my jaw and shrugged.
"But...there is something missing?", Winter asked and tilted her head.
"I don't know, I do like him, really, I just haven't felt the spark yet. Like I expected our kiss to feel more... I don't know, exciting? You know, feeling butterflies in your tummy or whatever."
"Mh mh", Winter made and nodded again. "I know what you mean. And well, if it wasn't Stephan, like if he weren't so freakishly old-fashioned, would you have...you know?"
"I meannnnn", I said and grinned slightly, blushing, "I definitely thought about it. I feel like now the spell is broken, I should enter my slut era. But it was good that he said good bye, he is too good for a One Night Stand, I think."
"Ari, honey, I hate to break it to you", Winter said and smiled at me with raised eyebrows, "you've already been a slut when you were a virgin and respectfully, I don't know anyone who can manage to do that." I laughed and punched her shoulder playfully.
"Well, keep me updated anyway, I'd love to see you in a healthy, stable relationship with a well-mannered man." I rolled my eyes. Sounds a bit boring to me.
"Where is he tonight, by the way? You did invite him, didn't you-"
"Yes, of course. He has to babysit his niece tonight. He would've loved to come. Sending his regards, thanks for the invitation and so on", I said, slightly pouting.
"Oh, come on Ari, don't pretend like that ruins your night. Plus - how nice of him to babysit his niece! I really like this guy."
"Pff", I made and emptied out my drink.
"Well come on now, let's go get another drink and then find a cute guy you can dance with for the evening." I sighed and stood up, stretching my body and looking over Berlin's skyline. We were yet again at another house party. One of Winter's art colleagues had given their apartment up for the cause, and the view from the balcony was stunning. We went inside and my ears nearly bursted when a wave of loud electronic music hit me behind the door.
"Jesus fucking Christ, who put on this music?", I growled and blinked at the disco lights dancing all over the room.
"Oh Ari come on, some people enjoy techno", Winter tried to appease me. I walked around the dancing party guests, annoyed, and made my way to the kitchen where I looked for something to drink. I found a bottle of white wine in the fridge and poured some into a glass. Absentmindedly, I began to take little sips and scrolled a bit through Instagram, when I got a new direct message. Teo! I almost dropped my glass and quickly opened the message.

- "Hi Ari! How are you? Time to talk?"
I smiled and replied: - "Hi Teo. I'm okay. At a party right now, but music is shit. I'm drinking wine by myself in the kitchen. A bit pathetic maybe."
Teo sent a laughing emoji.
- "What a shame. Bet your party outfit is lit though. I am chilling with Valentina and Edoardo. We also have wine!"
For a brief moment, I wanted to ask him where Angelo was. Why he wasn't with them. But I knew that was silly, because they didn't have to stick together all the time. Still...I was wondering. Still couldn't get him out of my head. I sent a mirror selfie I took earlier to show Teo my outfit. I was wearing a red leather skirt and fishnet tights, a black tank top with the word Slut in glittery rhinestones on my chest. I grinned, I truly loved that shirt.
– "Say hi to Val and Edoardo for me!", I wrote.
Teo sent an emoji with an open mouth and said, – "You look awesome Ari, cool top haha. And yes I did, they say Hi back."
He sent a photo and I opened it, seeing the three of them smiling into the camera, Valentina was poking her tongue out. I grinned.
– "Thanks!", I texted back and sent a selfie, raising my glass and smiling.
– "Love your make-up!", Teo said and I sent him a violet heart emoji. Suddenly someone spoke to me in a loud voice and I flinched, once again almost spilling wine over myself.
"Ari! Aren't you listening?" I looked up and saw Freyja, whose cheeks were very flushed waving with her hands in front of me.
"What?", I asked and put my wine glass on the counter to keep it safe.
"Listen! They're playing good music again!" I listened for a couple seconds and Freyja was right, it was some good old 80s disco charts that blasted through the boxes.
"Well, are you coming?", Freyja asked and pulled me slightly.
"Yes, in a second", I replied and emptied my wine glass. I answered Teo: –"They're playing good music. I'm being dragged to the dance floor. TTYL!" Then I locked my phone and followed Freyja to the dance floor. We were welcomed by Nick right away, who pulled me into a hug. "Hi Ari!", he grinned and put his arm around Freyja's waist.
"Heard you and Stephan hit it off last night?"
"We had a civil conversation and slept in two different beds so I don't really know what you heard", I said, winking.
"Ah, what a gentleman he is", Nick smiled and shrugged. I smiled slightly and began to tap my foot on the floor to the beat of the music.
"Hey, Ari, isn't it?", a voice behind me interrupted. I turned around and saw a guy standing in front of me, smiling shyly. He looked familiar; I think I might have seen him in one of my classes.
"Yeah, hi...", I said and smiled. "Sorry, I'm bad with names..." I looked at him apologetically. It was actually quite embarrassing that I could never seem to remember anybody.
"No problem, I'm Tom. We haven't talked so it's okay that you don't...anyways, I'm in class with you, Clark's?"
"Yeahhh", I said, nodding, although I really still couldn't remember seeing Tom in this class. He was pretty cute but quite ordinarily looking, especially for a fashion student. He had fluffy dark blond hair, greenish eyes, wore jeans and a black T-shirt. No jewellery, no make-up, no paraphernalia.
"I've been meaning to say hi", he continued and brushed nervously through his hair. I didn't say anything and just raised my eyebrows slightly, still smiling politely.
"I follow your Instagram and uh, I just...your style is really cool", he said quickly and blushed a bit.
"Aw, thank you!", I said and my smile widened. Tom smiled back at me. "Anyways so uhh...I saw you also applied for the trip?"
"You mean the trip to LA? For Gucci?" Tom nodded.
"Yes. I mean, come on, everyone wants to go. I would sell my left kidney to go."
"Well, maybe you won't have to", Tom grinned and shrugged.
"We will find out on Monday", I said and sighed. "Oh, by the way, sorry", I turned around and started introducing Tom. "This is Tom, he's in one of my classes. Tom, this is Freyja, my best friend and roommate, and this is Nick, he's a film student." They all said 'Hi' to each other.
"Do you want to get us something to drink?", I asked Tom and brushed his bicep with my fingers. He looked at me, blushing slightly and nodded. "Sure, what do you want?"
"Gin Tonic, if possible", I said and Tom hurried through the crowd.
"How is every guy in love with you?", Freyja exclaimed and I rolled my eyes. "He doesn't even know me."
"He wants to, though.", she winked. I shot Freyja a look but didn't say anything else, as Tom was already back by my side with two glasses.
"Wow, that was fast!", I said and smiled appreciatively. "Thank you", I took one of the glasses and took a sip. Not bad. We kept chatting and dancing and getting more drunk, and I actually began to quite like Tom. It seems he just needed some time to get out of his shell. Admittedly, I rarely hung out with introverts, which was not because of some prejudice, but just because my friends and I were all very shrill and probably scared introverts away. Tom was actually quite funny though, and really easy going. In my drunken state, I almost considered making out with him a bit, but before I could make up my mind about that, I left my company on the dance floor to take a toilet break. I sat on the toilet and checked my messages, when I saw that I had new Instagram direct messages.
Teo had texted: –"All good, enjoy the music, don't wanna keep you from dancing!" I liked his message and then checked the other message which was from... I squinted my eyes at the screen because I couldn't believe them...it was from Edoardo.
– "Ehy Arian...I liked the picture you sent Teo earlier. You look really good. Hope you have fun."
What the actual...I stared at the message. I don't...understand...what's going on.
Was this a trick? Was Edoardo messing with me? Was he making fun of me? Okay, let's play along then, I thought and texted him back: –"Hi Edoardo. Thank you for the compliment. I do have fun. What about you? That bottle of wine empty already? ;)"
I grinned. Now we will see. I got off the toilet and washed my hands, then looked for a quite space in the hallway and sat down. Edoardo's response came immediately.
–"Yes, we are already on the second. You have fun? Good, but why are you on Instagram then?"
–"I went out for a smoke break and checked my messages."
A bit more elegant than 'I was on the toilet', I thought.
–"I see. Are you with anyone tonight?" Interesting. Was he spying? I chuckled at the thought.
–"I'm with my best friend and her "boyfriend"."
–"Why the " ? "
–"Because it's not official yet I think."
–"And you didn't bring your boyfriend?"
–"I don't have a boyfriend. I brushed through my hair, a bit annoyed."
–"I see..."
–"Do you? We are literally texting." I grinned a bit at how stupid this whole thing felt.
–"I see you before my inner eye. I have good imagination." Jeez, were all Italians such smooth talkers?
–"Are you imagining me often?" My drunk brain made me take more risks than I'd usually take with someone like...fucking Edoardo Bianchi. Suddenly a wave of paranoia flooded my mind. What if it wasn't Edoardo but some creepy imposter? That would be so goddamn embarrassing.
–"Since Teo talked to you on the phone, with video, I had you on my mind."
My eyes widened and my face became hot. But...okay...so that meant that it had to be Edoardo, because how else could somebody know that?
–"Can you send me a selfie, like right now?", I asked him.
–"Why?", he replied.
–"Because I want to know if I am really talking to Edoardo Bianchi."
He sent me a photo and I opened it. It was Edoardo, without doubt, he was not smiling, there was a cigarette between his lips and his long hair fell into his face a bit. I stared at it until the 15 seconds were up.
–" Convinced?", he asked.
–"For now, I replied."
–"Well, will I get a picture in return?"
–"You think I'm an imposter?"
–"Unlikely. But I want to see your face again."
–"I thought you had a good imagination"
–"Touché. I do, but you got a really nice face."
I smiled inwardly and sent him a selfie. The lightning wasn't very flattering but it had to do. He would notice if I took too long to take it. Edoardo liked the picture.
–"If you want to see my face, why aren't we video calling?", I asked.
Pretty daring again, but it was a valid question. I found texting quite tiring.
–"For one, I feel more comfortable with English if I text. I can think about what I want to say better. And if I'm not mistaken, you don't really speak good Italian, no? And for two, Val and Teo are still here, and I don't know if Teo would like if he knows that we talk."

Interesting. Interesting, interesting!

I did not comment on the first explanation, that made sense. I wish I would be more consistent with learning Italian. The second thing though...
–"Why would Teo not like us talking?"
I stared at the screen as Edoardo was typing and it felt like minutes before I saw his message emerge in our chat.
– "Teo has really big principles and friendship means everything to him. And treating people good. And he was a bit angry when Angelo said those things about you. I found that a bit weird, he doesn't even know you well. He just feels you are nice. He felt like you deserved to be treated better. And now when he knows I show interest in you, he will think I will act like Angelo. But I'm not like him. I will be honest with you."

I read the message three times and banged my head softly against the wall, staring at the
ceiling. What did Edoardo want from me? What on earth was he saying?

– "You say you will be honest with me, but not with Teo?"
I knew I had trust issues. But I had a goddamn good reason too, and at the end of the day Edoardo was still a man. He could still promise me the moon and then disappoint me like it had happened a dozen times before.
–"Angelo didn't say how tough you were. You seemed pretty shy when I met you." I shook my head in disbelief. Edoardo had not exchanged more than two words with me the two times I saw him. And Angelo – well I had to admit that I had been to intimidated to be my authentic self around him.
–"Well, what did Angelo say about me?"
–"Not much. And even if, I wouldn't tell you. He should tell you himself."
I started grinding my teeth – this was so fucking frustrating.
–"Edoardo. What do you want from me? Why did you message me? Just be clear. This is all too confusing. I'm tired of this."
I waited in anticipation and bit my lip to stop the teeth grinding.
–"If we play in your city again, I want to spend the night with you. Angelo can pick up groupies easily, a new one in every city if he likes. I need more trust. And I already know you can be trusted, or we would have heard about it. Before you, we just had some problems with a girl. Our management paid her money so that she stops posting about it."

My mouth fell open. Edoardo wanted...he...was he serious? Another message followed.

–"Actually we were not supposed to do that anymore, at all. But of course Angelo can't listen and well...then you stumbled into our backstage...he didn't even had to pick you up. He couldn't resist. And I understand...because you seem hard to resist."

I closed my mouth, opened it again and then closed it again. What the actual fuck was happening right now. I tried to process all this new information but my brain was all fogged, it was like a coherent thought couldn't even get through. Edoardo wanted to...so basically Edoardo wanted to recycle me as a groupie? I didn't even know if I should feel incredibly offended right now or just stunned.

–"So...you don't think it will bother Angelo - or Teo - if you sleep with me? Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Did Edoardo seriously want to put himself in this position? It couldn't be that hard to pick up groupies for him, I mean come on.

–"Why would it bother Angelo? He dropped you, didn't he? His fault. I don't think you meant much to him, it was just coincidence you ended up in bed twice. Teo...well, if you will do it voluntarily, what could he have against it?"

Ouch. Ouch! I shook my head in disbelief. Did I say Italians were smooth talkers earlier? Edoardo was on the best way to get himself blocked. But on the other end... he was honest. Maybe I should appreciate it. Maybe I should just say yes and stop thinking about –

"Ari? What the hell are you doing out here?"

Someone turned on the light in the hallway and I squinted my eyes at the brightness. I had completely forgotten that I was at a party right now.