Mystery Lover

Beautiful That Way

Gianluca walked into the Sony Studios, disappointed and devastated of what his own father said to him, specially this day. All he wanted to do now is to forget what had happened for sure, erase those painful words from his mind. The words had been hammered in his heart like a dagger.

His legs gave up and he leaned against one of the brick poles from the hallway of the studio. He covered up his mouth and began to cry in silence. Gianluca had been hurt badly and worse, by his own father.

In that exact time, Sofia stayed hidden in the dark, watching how Gianluca cried in the darkness of the building. She had to cover her mouth up too, to contain her own sobs from being heard. Small tears rolled down her eyes at just seeing him being miserable on his birthday.

'I need to do something. But I don't want for him to be bothered by my presence. The last thing her wants to see or hear off is with me.' Sofia thought and hid even more in the shadows of the building.

*1 hour later*

Gianluca sat in one of the keyboards of Michele's recording booth. He didn't do much, only stared out in the distance and unconsciously drank a bottle of water. Sofia stood behind the other side of the recording office, just watching on how he slowly coped by himself. It truly broke her heart seeing him like that but she had no idea on how she could help him out and make him forget about it.

"I shouldn't act like if I know." She said to herself as she pulled out the 'Present' she was going to give him. The picture of Ercole with his signature from back when she did her first live performance was in her hand. Suddenly, a shuffle was heard in the booth and she peaked inside.

Gianluca had stood up and walked to the big piano, then sitting down and began to write something down on a piece of paper. "Should I just give this to him, I mean it is his birthday, yet I know he's emotionally hurt."

Sofia looked at what he was doing and saw how he began to get lost in his music. She stayed there for at least an hour and got the courage to go talk to him. She walked into the recording booth and stood there, looking at him.

"Jos Valenti." Gianluca suddenly said and she jumped back, not really expecting for him to notice her standing on the side.

"Uh, hi." She simply said.

Gianluca turned and faced her. "What are you doing here?"

"I uh..."

"Since when have you been here?" He asked, interrupting her. "Did you lost something? No, did you see something?"

She looked down and played with her feet. "Not too long. And I have a present for you."

"Huh?" Gianluca frowned.

Sofia still looked down and said, "My aunt opened up a box that was for you. I took it to fix it up and accidentally saw what it was." She looked up and flinched as she saw him. "Sorry!"

Gianluca took a deep breath and looked around. "So that's why you're here. To just tell me sorry?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Do you have it with you?" He asked.

"Not at the moment. But I want to say... happy birthday Gian." She gave him a little smile got serious in an instant.

Gianluca only looked at her. He didn't expect for her to be the first person to actually know it was his birthday. Piero and Ignazio only knew another date, the date he made himself independent was his 'real' birthday.

"And if I made you feel bad today, I'm sorry for that too." Sofia said and made a puppy face.

Gianluca rolled his eyes and said, "I didn't really expect for you to wish me a happy birthday. And... I guess I'll accept your apology, even though it wasn't your actual fault."