"Hm. Is he a friend of yours?"
"Yes."
Costa nodded, reaching his hand up to move a stray piece of hair from my face. "If you ever let another man touch you again, there will be consequences. Do you understand?"
He spoke so softly yet so ominously...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"You want to show me your room?" Costa laughed as soon as we were outside the dining room.
"Oh, shut up. At least I saved you from arguing with Julius."
"No, you saved him from arguing with me. I would have happily put that stronzo back in his place."
"Sure, whatever." I rolled my eyes, dragging him towards the stairs. He quietly followed behind me as we wondered through the hallways of my old home.
"The last time I was here..." I breathed, coming to a stop outside my bedroom door. "Everyone else was in Greece celebrating our wedding. Only Damian and Julius stayed with me while I packed up my things."
"You never celebrated the wedding with your family?" He was taken aback, his eyes remaining on me while I stared at my door.
"No. They did have parties in my honour in Athens, but I didn't attend any. Did you?" I turned to look at him, surprised by his slight frown.
"Yeah." He nodded, clearing his throat. "My father held a week of celebrations in Sicily."
"Oh." So it was just me sulking and preparing for my life to be destroyed? "Well, it's not like the parties would have meant much to me anyway."
I gave him a fleeting smile, pushing open the doors to my old room.
No matter how much my father wanted to erase me from the family picture, my room remained untouched. It was exactly how I'd left it.
Well, apart from an empty bottle of whiskey on my nightstand.
"Damian." I sighed, heading over to the bottle, choosing to put it outside the door so someone could dispose of it.
"This is your room?" He mused, taking in my light cream walls and dark grey wooden floor.
He took his time admiring my king size bed that overlooked the back garden. He passed by my empty desk where I'd work for hours into the night. Then he ran his hand over the plush couch where I'd often fall asleep reading. There were a few photo frames dotted around the room, mostly of me and my family.
I waited for him, curious to know what he thought of my old room.
"It's not what I imagined."
"Why?"
"I don't know, I just thought it would be more glamorous. It just seems so...normal."
"Am I not normal?" I smiled, leaning against the edge of my desk.
"No. You're not." He quipped, coming over to where I stood but I followed his gaze to a photo frame.
"This is cute." He laughed, picking up the photo of me at my college graduation four years ago.
