Memories In Italy

Chapter 33

A minute later I was a free man again. All I wanted to do is hug Aline over and over. Actually I never wanted to let her go again. "I hope it's all over now!" Aline said. "Of course! I promise!" I said, kissing her nose. But instead of being happy, she started crying. "What's wrong Aline?" She lifted her shoulders. "It's probably the aftershock!" she explained. I hugged her even more and meanwhile I looked to the others. Jonas was talking to Ignazio and Carlotta. But Sofia and Piero needed some time together, like we had. A moment to comfort each other.
"How did Piero know you were here?" I asked to Aline. "I called him when I arrived here. He said he was going to call all the others and the police. Meanwhile I waited a bit, actually only one minute, but since it lasted too long before someone arrived I walked to the door and apparently, I could hear everything! I even could see a bit when I looked through a little whole in that old door." We both looked to the place where the door used to be and started laughing. "You strong girl!" I laughed while tickling her a bit. She giggled. "No tickling! Stop Gianluca, please!" she laughed. So I did it again of course, enjoying her smile too much to stop the thickling immediately. After that, Aline continued explaining what happened. "I couldn't stand the last thing Chiara did before I kicked in the door! I really couldn't!" she said, talking about the disgusting kiss between me and Chiara. "Since I knew the others called the police to tell them the address I was quite sure it wouldn't be long before they arrived. So I decided to enter the room already. For once I didn't think a lot. I even forgot she had a weapon in her hands. I just kicked in that door and BAM...hit her with all the strength I had in me!" I hugged her again after hearing that, thankful that she was there for me.

When I looked around the room, I saw Piero embracing Sofia. She cried. He did his very best to make her feel his love! He gave her a long kiss on her forehead. I felt so sorry for Sofia. Nobody deserved a sister like Chiara. Sofia was so different and she just stood right in front of her sister with a gun in her hands. No wonder she was in shock after that.

Aline's POV

I didn't want to think about yesterday, about an hour ago or about tomorrow. Definitely not about what would happen with Chiara. Or what if she escapes? No, I only wanted to think about Gianluca, here and now. I wanted to hold him forever and I was quite sure he only wanted the same thing. I lead my head on his shoulder and couldn't stop another tear streaming down my face. Gianluca laid his hand on my cheek and kissed the other one very softly. "Ti amo!" he said. It was such a good feeling, but it would be better if he could hold me too, with both his arms. I hoped that plaster would be removed very soon. "What if she killed you? What if she..." I felt Gianluca's head against mine, very softly. "Ssst! Nothing happened!" he said and I felt his breath against my skin. But that actually made me think about the worst thing that DID happen. "That's not true!" I said. "Chiara kissed..." Again he calmed me and said nothing happened. But it was so difficult to let it go. Of course it was, it only happened a few minutes earlier.

"We found something in her car!" a police officer suddenly said. I turned around and couldn't hide my happiness. Like a little child that got a present, I took the box out of his hands. I immediately opened it and to my surprise everything seemed alright in there. It was not more empty or full than before and the letters seemed to be the same too. "I didn't expect that from Chiara!" Gianluca said. "Me neither!" I said, actually very surprised about the fact we just got our letters back without a single change to it.

I didn't let the box go for the rest of the day. After explaining everything to each other about the big defeat of Chiara, we all went separate ways. Well, some of us stayed together. Only not Ignazio. I felt so sorry for him. He really deserved a nice girlfriend too. Certainly in days like these.

Gianluca and I went to the hospital again. They took care of my scratches and bruises the moment we arrived. It was not really my intent to go to the hospital for myself. I just wanted to bring Gianluca back so he would have a normal healing process. Apparently they decided to let Gianluca go home. There was only one condition: he needed to rest enough! And I was the perfect person to make sure he did. "You heard it! Rest enough and you'll be a new man!" I said to him. "I don't want to be a new man!" he said a bit upset. "Oh..."
"I want to be the old me!" Of course, I totally forgot. The things that happened last hours, made me forget about the huge problem we had. The one with the memories. But I had a bit more hope he would remember more again after reading the letters. That was the only thing left we could do to help him. "I want to remember everything I used to remember and I want to forget everything that happened with Chiara. She's not even worth it that we say her name so often!" he said. "Of course..." I said, not knowing what I could do more to cheer him up. It was just such a tragedy that it was almost impossible to really make him feel better in some way. "Come on! Let's go home!" I smiled. He looked at me and then his eyes sparkled like never before. It seemed there actually was a way to make him feel better. "Finally!" he said and his smile was never as bright as that one. We quickly embraced each other again and then walked to the car to drive home, together this time!

One day later

I stood in the bathroom, looking in the mirror to my scratches. Chiara's nails were really one of the sharpest things I ever felt on my skin.

When I was ready there, I wanted to walk downstairs but I heard something from another room. "Gianluca? What are you doing?" I asked when I saw him sitting on the floor, some of the letters around him and a copier on the little table in front of him. "Something with a copier and papers!" he said quickly and then he smiled to me. He was clearly copying the letters so if we would lose them twice in case some of them get lost again.

He continued reading the letter he held in his hands. I was curious which one it was so I walked towards him and sat on my knees next to him so I could read it too.

"My sweet, loving, gorgeous Gianluca! Yesterday we celebrated our first month together here in Italy. A month is long, for us! We never been so long together before. To be honest I can't believe this is all happening. You are the best thing that could ever happen to me and we are even going to marry! Crazy, right? So I just wanted to let you know, you make me the happiest girl on earth and far beyond! I can't wait to be your wife but I have to admit it's good now too. I could live this life too even without being officially married. But to be honest, it's one of the most beautiful things that can happen to someone. Knowing you want to be with me for the rest of my life is wonderful. And in case you didn't know yet: sono sempre tua! Now...enjoy breakfast and have a nice day! With meeee! :D (I love days off!) 

Xx Alinieee"

Seems like I was very happy that day. "With meeeee...Alinieeee" I quoted my own words from the letter. Gianluca laughed. "Wonderful how one little paper can have so much meaning. I really love these letters! And it's thanks to you we write them!" It was true that I had written him a letter first, to declare my love for him but technically it was Jonas' idea.

But then I realized what the doctor said. "The doctor said you need to rest a lot!" I said worried. "I'm not going to die from reading and making copies!" he defended himself. "Yeah," I smiled, "that's true actually! Let's read another one!" Luckily we had written the date on every letter otherwise we couldn't have kept them on order. The one we took was from the end of July 2018. After we read that letter, I wondered if he remembered something more than before. "Do you...remember it?" I asked carefully because I was afraid he might give the wrong answer. "Eeeh, here and there I forgot something. I mean...actually..."
"Actually what?" I asked impatiently. "I remember the day I read this! But..."
"But what?" I never was that impatient before. It suddenly became a bad characteristic of mine. "I don't really remember what I described in that letter?" I thought about what he had written in that letter. "So you don't remember my last birthday?" I asked shocked. To me it was one of the most beautiful days together. It was filled with little surprises from Gianluca. And in the evening there was a big party in our garden. All our friends and families were there. It was the best party ever. More like a new year's eve actually. About that...it was almost new year. We weren't ready for it at all! That was a fact.
"I'm so sorry!" Gianluca said about forgetting what we did on my birthday. "Hopefully it will come back soon! I already remember some things more as well!" I wasn't mad at him of course but it was so sad he didn't remember that day. "You know...never mind. Soon we will collect some wonderful, magical new memories!" I said. He smiled and said we were lucky the accident didn't happen after our wedding. Then there had been the possibility he would have forgotten all of it. "Let's just read another one, okay?" I said, a bit sad though. "Take this one!" I said while grabbing the very first letter in the box, which seemed to be still on order in there. I wondered what he remembered from that very special letter and very special day...