Champion

17. Crash my car

"Damn Tony this is a hella nice car just to hire for a week!" I was stroking the dashboard in awe, with the coffee we got beforehand in my other hand.

"Well what can I say, I'm not one for under doing things." He laughed and turned the stereo up. The drive was about 15 minutes and I didn't mind it, the car was super nice and I was with one of my best friends.

"This is one of my favorites." He said turning up the volume even more. I was staring out the window looking at the clouds and I basically forgot about how bad the last few weeks were. I guess I always have around Tony. I swung around when he started belting the song and when I looked at him and saw his face I couldn't help but laugh. I guess I couldn't explain what he was doing by saying that he was singing, because it sounded more like a budgie being strangled but he looked so confident and happy and I just couldn't stop giggling.

When the song was over he looked over at me and saw that i was crying with laughter.

"Geez was my performance so good that it brought tears to your eyes? Guess I chose the wrong profession.."

"Plea- stop. My stomach hurts." I tried to get the words out in between my laughter.

"Alright alright, you just breathe now." He said patting my head.

He had a twinkel in his eye and the moment felt so surreal.

"I got something for you." He said pointing at the cabby and I raised my eyebrow suspiciously.

"Don't worry it's not a ring and technically it's not just for you."

I opened it and found a family size pack of M&M's. My eyes went wide.

"This is one huge fucking bag..." I said in shock. "If I didn't know you any better I would confess my love to you and get married right at this moment."

He laughed and held out his hand and said, "Luckily you know me better."

I poured some in his hand and he put the whole scoop in his hand and finished by saying, "Ah, that's the good stuff."

"You are such a weirdo." I scoffed and he looked at me all smiley, not a care in the world.

Then his face turned serious and he dramatically parked the car, "This is where I leave you now, you must go on without me." He looked at me and started fake crying.

"Gosh you're either a nut job or on some serious drugs." I got out of the car and raised my eyebrow with curiosity when Tony got out of the car as well.

"Okay I lied, I am going to walk you in because it is a foreign country and you don't even know where the cafe is." He closed his door and offered to carry my purse, I gave it to him.

"Do you want me to come and pick you up or will your dad drop you back at the hotel?" He asked when we were about five minutes into our mission to find this bloody cafe.

"My dad will probably drop me off, I don't know if I am coming back to the hotel, Max was a total ass, so I'm going to hear if Aston Martin maybe has a room for me."

Just then we rounded a corner and saw my dad sitting at a little table drinking an espresso.

"Okay, but if you need a ride call me and I'll be right back. And the room thing, if it doesn't work out. You can share or switch with me, however I am bunking with Josh so maybe he can switch with you. Anyway have a good brekkie and hopefully I'll see you later."

He gave me a much needed hug and kissed the top of my head, which would've been strange under normal circumstances but it just felt right in the moment. He walked away and I waved and greeted my dad.

"Hey Dove, how are you feeling?"

"I'm okay, just a bit pissed off and you papa?"

"I'm alright, I just feel like I owe my daughter a very big apology."

"No papa, you don't... after everything I thought about how you could possibly do all of this to me, and every time it came back to you trying to protect me. What was going on between you and mama was between you and mama, and I get that. But everything with Lando affected me, and that wasn't okay but it is in the past now."

"When did you become so smart?" My dad asked while holding my hand.

"I love you Dove."

"I love you too papa."

We ordered our food and really enjoyed each other's company for the first time in a long while. The whole time during breakfast I thought about Tony's offer to share a room. Eventually I decided that it wouldn't be a bad idea, it was only about a week and a half after all.

I called Tony and asked if he would come and pick me up and about 10 minutes later he was outside the cafe with two ice cream cones.

"I saw it on my way here and I couldn't resist." He handed me one and when I tasted it, it was my favorite.

"Tiramisu? How did you know?" I asked

"We went for ice cream like 3 years back after a party and you said you loved it, so I thought it would be a safe bet."

"Shit Tony that actually means a lot. Thank you..."

"It's my pleasure. I'm guessing you made a decision on the room thing?"

"Yes I did, but how the hell did you get here so quickly, from the hotel to here is almost 25 minutes?"

"I might've hung around a bit walked through the markets and hoped you would change your mind and call me, after all I also didn't want to keep you waiting." That was actually really sweet of him.

I looked at Tony, like really looked at him for the first time since I had met him. I always thought that he was handsome but now it seems different, it's like he's become even more attractive. For the first time I am seeing the dimples under his stubble when he smiles as he's telling a bad joke and the way he plays with his necklace when he talks about something that he likes or how he taps his fingers to every song even when he doesn't know it.

He opened my door for me and said, "Let's go home."