MATTEO (book 2)

43. MATTEO

"You don't have to stalk me, brother. I'm fine."

Romeo takes the seat beside me. "I've made sure all the bars call me if you walk in." He moves the drink away from me. "Did you drink it?"

"It's full, is it not?"

"What happened? Aren't you supposed to be with Xena?"

"She didn't want me there because I kept Neves from her." I tap my fingers off the counter.

"I really don't like her." He says. "Come stay with Delilah and I."

"I'm fine-"

"You're sweating and your hands are shaking." He makes his tone more stern. "Stay with Delilah and I. Build your stupid fucking forts or whatever it is you do, just don't stay out here."

He helps me up and to his car, driving to his house.

Delilah was entertaining a group of girl scouters knocking on the door and I check the time. 9PM. I sat in a bar for 6 hours and didn't drink.

I would say that's progress.

Romeo's looks alone scare off the kids, but Delilah's smile warms me. "Matty." She hugs me.

I hug her, rubbing her back gently. She's just one of those people that can make anything better, radiating good energy everywhere she goes.

She takes me into the house and took one look at the withdrawal symptoms I'm having before distracting me by showing me the painting she's doing.

Romeo calls dad, just to inform him.

I have a headache.

All of these started when I stopped drinking, and now every other day I will have bursts of these symptoms and it drives me crazy.

"Look." She rolls her sleeve up. "Hey, you didn't tell me that Ilaria's boyfriend is Agent Hamada's son."

"They're not dating." I look at her arm, the medusa tattoo. "Did Keilani design that?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"She has the same one on her hip." I look at it properly. "I love it. Suits you."

She smiles, putting a movie on and like old times, we make a fucking fort while Romeo does boring, old man stuff.

She turns to look at me. "Want to talk about it?" She asks.

I do want to talk about it. I just don't know what to say.

"I think maybe Xena and I got ahead of ourselves." I turn into my side, looking at her. "We like sex, we can deal with the after sex, but we argue every 5 minutes, we have different views. We're both stubborn and she... She can be very obnoxious and rude without intending to be."

"Have you spoken to her about it?"

"We're not dating."

"Okay? Doesn't mean your feelings can't be hurt from her actions. What did she do?"

"I found her sister and she got mad at me for hiding it from her, even though i literally couldn't tell her, instead of thanking me." I lean against the couch.

Just a thank you.

A simple thank you.

It would have did me so much more than her telling me to leave.

"Oh." She looks down.

Typical Delilah, she makes excuses. "Maybe she's overwhelmed. Just a little bit angry that you knew and hid it from her, overwhelmed her sisters back and needs to take her anger out."

"You're too good for your own liking, Lilah." I smile. "She could've just said thank you."

"When she's ready, she'll speak to you." Delilah was sure of it.

"And if she doesn't?"

"Than she doesn't deserve you." She sits right beside me. "You always told me I could do better-"

"You're still with Romeo."

"He's change... a lot, you can admit that." She rests her head on my shoulder. "You knew I could do better. You knew he wasn't treating me well. You're a very self aware person, Matty, and you don't deserve anyone that treats you less than what you deserve. Even if it's just the sex you like with her, you can find someone else. But if it's deeper than that, and only you know that, don't allow yourself to get treated like shit. It's only going to break you."

I hug her.

"I can't lose you." She says in my neck. "I've lost too many people and losing you will... I'll go crazy." She laughs, pulling away. "And stop drinking, please. Otherwise you're going to turn out how my mom turned out." She jokes .

I smile. "Thank you."

"Fucking hell, Matteo." I hear Romeo grunt. "How do you get on the floor." He crawls. It's so unnatural seeing him crawl under the fort we made.

"You need to work on your flexibility, baby." Delilah taps his shoulders. "What?"

"Can I not cuddle with my girlfriend?" He looked offended, laying down. "Fuck."

"You hate when I build forts."

"I also hate sleeping without you so..."

He looks at me. "She's right. I don't really wanna give you my liver incase I need it but-"

"Shut up, Romeo." She slaps his chest.

I laugh, and spend the night in a fucking fort with my brother and his girlfriend.

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