...And Beyond... | To Infinity... Book Two [ON HOLD]

Chapter 14: Who's Jealous Now?

Wednesday July 21, 2021 - Venice, Italy

Desi POV

9:30 AM

Lucky me, I get to spend my birthday in Italy! I'm. Dying. Literally, I'm dying of excitement. It's not even ten in the morning yet, and I'm already dreading the end of today. I traveled a lot when I was a party girl, but I would fly in for a party, go to said party, and just sit in the hotel room until it was time to fly out again or go to another party because at that point I was done with being around a bunch of strangers. This time, I'm surrounded by more friends and I don't have to work today; instead, I'm just having impromptu photo shoots with Lenni, Sasha, Alexa, Bayley, Nia, and Elias - yes, Elias is with me. We haven't hung out a lot recently because our schedules got crazy but we're still cool and make time to see each other; we've actually gotten pretty close already, though I make sure he doesn't get the wrong idea about us.

Currently, we're touring some of the areas around the Grand Canal, stopping and taking group pictures at certain places; well, I'm the one taking the pictures with my camera because I'm still insecure about how I look in pictures, which is why I've avoided being included and no one has ever pressed me about it...until right now...by Elias.

"C'mon now, Desi, get in here!" He calls to me as everyone else poses in front of a large and beautiful ornate fountain.
"Noooo! I don't wanna!" I whine.
"C'mon, Elias, leave her be." Sasha says in my defense but Elias isn't having it.
"No, she needs to be in here with us. It's about time you stop being our imaginary friend, Desi; everyone hears about you and the amazing work you do for us, but no one knows you, they can't put a face to the name."

He's right; the company always gives me my photo credit, the superstars I shoot even tag my website and social media links when they post a picture I took of them, but no one knows what I look like because, after the break up, I took my face off all my accounts and just put up an image of one of my photo works as my profile pictures, so I truly am anonymous to anyone now who hasn't seen me in person. I just haven't felt like myself enough to make my physical presence known again to the Internet world and, while I'm a lot more ready and confident to do it now, I'm still scared.

"You know I'm right, Des; get in here withcho beautiful self."

This guy.

...

Ah, what the Hell.

I chuckle and skip over to join in on the huddle, Elias holding my camera away from us with his long arms and pressing the shutter, that moment of joy and friendship forever captured in time and I know, once the day is over, I have more moments like that to look forward to in the days to come. That, my friends, is one Hell of a feeling.

We all cheer and admire the picture before we all decide to take gondolas to a restaurant up the canal. Splitting off into two person gondolas, Sasha electing to ride by herself, Elias and I get in a gondola together and are enjoying each other's company and the beauty that is Venice.

"You've been to Italy before, right?" He asks breaking our silence.
"Yeah, but I didn't do much touring; just the party, slept, then hopped on a plane home the next night. Nothing exciting."
"Well, we're gonna make sure you have a great time tonight. Fancy restaurants, boppin' in the club-"
"I'm gonna stop you right there; no one says 'boppin'."
"Well, I dunno that. Between the two of us, you're the youngest one here."
"I'm twenty-eight...you're only thirty-three!"
"Hey, this business ages you."
"Psh, that's what Joe says, but he's almost forty; you're just outta touch, like your boss."
"Ooouuu, shade! I like it!"
"You understand the concept of 'shade' but you use the word 'boppin'...you're a piece of work."