Somewhere in Northern Italy

Chapter 3

I woke up that morning with the sun shining through my eyelids. I rolled over away from the window, and with squinted eyes, examined the state of my room. I had laid out my outfit the night before on a small, three legged stool in the corner of the room. Jean shorts, an off white cropped tank and a yellow, long sleeved polo to wear over it unbuttoned.

Once I had finished getting ready I found Palmer in the living room lounging on the sofa reading a book.

"No TV this morning?" I asked mockingly.

"Nope," he said carelessly.

"Alright let's head out"

I grabbed my side strap bag and a couple tote bags from under the sink to use at the grocery store. I turned and handed Palmer the bags and walked through the door before he had time to complain. We turned down the hallway and made our way down the old staircase.

"Ciao," said the bookstore owner as we made our way through the rows of shelves stacked high with endless volumes .

"Ciao signore," I replied.

As I walked through the storefront door I was met with a warm breeze of sweet summer air. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in. When I opened my eyes again I located our bikes and took off with Palmer trailing behind me.

Palmer and I found the coffee shop more easily because when we arrived we found many people standing at the front entrance.

"So are we having breakfast this morning or not?" asked Palmer.

"I have no idea just hold on a sec," I returned, eyes fixed on the crowd of people holding camera equipment and papers discussing what seemed like something very important.

We parked our bikes in the ally next to the store and walked back to the front to see what was going on. Thankfully I overheard that they were taking the coffees to go.

As I pushed my way through the crowd and into the coffee shop I found myself running into a tall, dark haired boy with greenish brownish eyes. Before I could say something completely stupid, the boy quickly apologized as he was turning to look at the person who had bumped into him. When his eyes finally met mine we stood there in the middle of the chaos staring into one another's eyes. His eyes piercing into my soft blue eyes and mine gazing into his dark green.

When I finally snapped out of it he seemed to be waiting, or hoping, for a response.

"Oh- oh my gosh- I am so sorry- it's so busy in here- I bumped into you- are you okay?" I stuttered.

Laughing, he replied with, "Yes, yes but are you okay?

"Of course," I returned with a smile trying to hide my red face.

When I looked back up I found him starting back into my eyes and I couldn't help but stare back into his.

"Ehem," said the barista at the register, "Hello miss what would you like to get this morning? If you're not getting anything I'm gonna need you to move out of the way we have a lot of customers this morning."

"Oh, sorry about that," I said once I had snapped out of it. But once I turned back around the boy was gone.

I didn't even know his name. I don't know where he came from or how we ended up in the same coffee shop gazing into one another. One thing I did know however, was that I had to see him again; somehow I just had to see him again.

"What about this one?" asked Palmer holding up an apricot.

I hardly remembered our short breakfast or the bike ride to the market (they didn't have a very good grocery store in Crema but they had a lovely outdoor market), I was too busy thinking about the boy from the coffee shop. He seemed oddly familiar like I had seen him from somewhere, but no matter how hard I thought I just couldn't put my finger on it.

"What? Oh no not that one, it has a bruise right here you see?" I finally replied pointing at a soft brown spot under the apricot he was holding.

"Hey are you okay? You've been super quiet since this morning. You didn't even tease me when I spilt coffee in my lap."

"Yeah I'm fine but the strangest thing happened at the coffee shop today."

"Oh yeah? What happened?" asked Palmer.

"Well I accidentally ran into this boy..." I started.

"Ooooooo a boy, do tell," said Palmer in a girly voice.

"Shut up," I said turning red. "So I ran into this boy and said sorry but the thing is, is that we stared at each other for a while until the barista cut us off, but when I turned back to look at him... he was gone."

"Huh that's weird," said Palmer dismissively. "So while you were making googly eyes with mysterious boys I was becoming acquainted with famous actors."

"What?!" I asked in shock.

"Yep and I got a picture with them and everything."

"Oh my gosh let me see! Who was it?"

"Someone named Timothee Chalamet and another guy named Armie Hammer. I recognize the Timothee guy from Interstellar but I don't think I know much about Armie Hammer." said Palmer as he showed me the photo.

"Oh... my... GOD!" I said looking at the photo. Looking at the photo I realized I was looking right at the same boy I bumped into in the coffee shop.

"What? Is that the same guy or somethin'?" asked Palmer completely unfazed.

"YES!" I said with mixed feelings of excitement, terror, and nervousness bubbling towards the surface.

"He's a bit old for you don't you think," said Palmer pointing towards Armie.

"Not him dumbass the other one, Timothee," I said pointing towards the smiling image of the boy from the coffee shop.

"Hmmm, Timothee," I thought repeating the name over and over in my head, and in a way romanticizing the name until I realized what I was doing and stopped.

"Ew stop doing that he probably forgot about you already, get over yourself, you're not what he's looking for," I thought to myself fighting the tears welling up in my eyes.

Palmer and I finally completed the shopping and rode back to the apartment to unload the food. We were both tired so we ended up just going to our rooms. I may have been tired but I was restless. I sat up in my bed and buried my face in my book and occasionally glanced at my phone to scroll through Instagram. Anything to keep me from thinking of him.

The silence began to become too much for me, so I put on my navy blue swimsuit with the yellow, open button up I had worn to breakfast. I slipped on my flip flops, pulled my hair up in a bun, grabbed a small bag and sunglasses before sneaking past Palmer's room and slipping out the door.