𝑳𝑰𝑩𝑬𝑹𝑻À

𝟏𝟐. 𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞

CHIARA:

When I open my eyes I find myself lying on my bed with Leandro asleep beside me. I don't remember getting out of the car, but the damp feeling on my clothes tells me that I did in fact have to leave the warmth of the SUV in order to enter the house. Leandro must have carried me- and the realisation sends a wave of embarrassment through me, I'm not exactly all slime and petite.

"Good morning Chiara," Leandro sarcastically says since it is far from daylight outside.

"Did you seriously carry me from the car all the way up the stairs and into this bedroom?" It was the only thing playing on my mind and I just had to ask.

"Did I carry you? Oh no sweetie, I needed Lorenzo, Mattia and I even had to ask Alejandro to help me carry yo-

"Oh shut up" I giggle out whilst picking up my pillow and lobbing it at his head. How dare he make me worry when I was already feeling self conscious about my weight. He's annoying- but god is he cute too.

"I'm joking," He replies with a beaming smile, it's one of those ones that allows you to catch sight of the most adorable dimple poke his right cheek. "You're not heavy Chiara, I don't know why you're so worried."

I lean back down, resting the top of my head on the headboard and letting out a sigh. Leandro brings himself up to a sitting position too, I can feel his mossy green eyes burning a hole into my temple as I avoid eye contact by looking out of the window.

"What's wrong amore?" after turning his whole body towards mine.

"Nothing." I reply as convincingly as possible.

"You don't need to hide how you feel with me Chiara, after all we're marrying each other in a month. We need to learn to be open." He says whilst stroking my face gently

"Exactly Leandro, that's the point." I say before taking his hand off my face and placing it down gently, "We're getting married next month and I barely know you."

"Tell me what you want to know Chiara. I'll answer you." He says. The way my name rolls off his tongue almost sends me into a trance, sometimes I forget we both originate from the same country because his Italian accent is so much stronger than mine.

We spend the next half an hour talking over basic things, I find out that his favourite colour is grey, he's born on September 22 and he does indeed love animals, but he's severely allergic to rats.

"Rats? seriously?" I say trying to contain my laughter

"Yes."

"How did you even find out that you were allergic to them?" I find the whole thing so bizarre.

"When I was a child I used to love playing with action figures and toy cars whilst lying on the floor- The hallway to be exact. Then one day I came out with a rash, it started on my hands and slowly grew up my arms all the way to my shoulder. My parents were horrified especially when the doctors couldn't diagnose it, then a couple days later the maid lets out an ear piericing scream because a rat had just ran across the hall."

"Turns out it had been coming out a lot at night and although she cleaned well, I still managed to pick up its germs. I was lucky that there was only one though, the doctor said if there were more then the rash would have spread faster. As soon as it hits your throat you're a goner."

"Bloody hell, crazy." Is all I can say, that was a wild story and I can't help but feel grateful there was only one rat.

"It was." He says with a small smile, "So what else do you want to know?"