For the love of Aphrodite (a Percy Jackson story)

The Hamptons part 3

Percy's POV

We jumped into a Mercedes and headed downtown. I've never been to the Hamptons before but it was just like the movies so it had a familiar feel to it. A small village filled with small white shops. We stopped at a bakery, Mr. Bianchi got some muffins.

I asked for some croissants. One for each one of us. I couldn't just take a single one for her, what if her family wanted, right?

Afterwards we went to a small deli to get some crunchy bacon. Next stop was a bubble tea shop, Chiara had told me how she and her mom were obsessed with them. Her father bought some fruit teas with fruit popping boba.

Last stop was at the flower shop. While he got some flowers for his wife I browsed around and stopped when I read peonies. Her favorites. I could see how, they were undeniably beautiful and elegant but in a fun, wild way. Wait! Was this the price? I grabbed my wallet and checked if I had the money. Nope, I was about thirty dollars short. I grabbed my card and went to the cashier.

"Can I have those?" I asked the lady once she was done making the arrangement for Mr. Bianchi.

He looked at me with a approving smirk. "She'll love those!"

"She did tell me they were her favorites..." I said excitedly. I've never gotten flowers to anyone before.

"Sir... I just, I promise I..."

"It's fine kiddo... Just don't hurt her..." he said and gave me a small tap on the back.

We got back to the car and drove back. We went back to the back porch and Mrs. Bianchi was at the alfresco patio watching her kids and having a lemonade. The table was set and it had cakes, fruits, tarts, buns and scones. Some loud Italian pop/rap music blasted (J-AX and Fedez she'd later tell me, the whole family loved their music). The older boys and the dogs ran around while Chiara danced around in the sun with Artie. Her hair danced on air and her white dress with black polka dots swirled around, everyone sang, including Benito that started singing along from the moment we arrived.

He made his way to his wife and handed her the flowers. She gave him a peck and they went to the kitchen where I saw them store the tea on the fridge, put the bacon on a plate, get the scrambled eggs from a pan on top of the oven into another plate and get to other plates that in a second now had sausages, one type on one and another on the second. They pecked once again. She placed the flowers into a vase with water, smiling. He placed the plates on the table while singing.

I couldn't help but to dream about having a life like this one day. I still held the flowers and the croissants. I made my way back inside and to the kitchen.

"Mrs. Bianchi, what should I do with these croissants?" I asked. She turned around still smiling.

"Oh, you didn't have to, Percy. That was very lovely of you! They are Kiki's favorite, but of course you knew that... Cute flowers by the way." She winked at me like mothers do. She got the croissants and placed them in a bowl.

"You should give them to her now, breakfast is served..." she said to me "Bimbi, la colazioni, amori miei!" She shouted to the kids who came running to the table. Chiara on the other hand came inside to wash her hands and saw me.

"Hey! Breakfast is serv-" she started saying but stopped upon seeing the flowers.

"Uhm. These are for you... You said they were your favorites..." I said shyly and handed them to her.

"They... wow. Uhm, they are so gorgeous. You really shouldn't have, Percy. They are quite expensive here, specially in the summer... I can't believe you did this."

"I just couldn't not do it. They reminded me of you, and they seemed very sad standing there at the store..." I said.

"Thank you, Percy!" She said and gave me a peck on the cheek. "I love... them." She said shyly and proceeded to put them on a vase, smiling.

Maybe I could have it sooner than I ever thought. The perfect life. It seemed very close right now.

We went to the table where everyone sat eating happily. The songs still played.

"We've met them once! Fedez and J-AX." Mr. Bianchi said. "Perks of being the minister for foreign affairs..."

"And Chiara!!" Chiara said making me confused. Everyone saw how confused I was and laughed.

"Ferragni." She said "she's Italy's most famous fashion blogger and the most influential one in the world and she and Fedez are a couple. We went to the Arena Di Verona concert and went backstage before the concert and met them all! Do you believe he proposed to her there later? At the middle of the concert..." she had a dreamy face on while recounting it.

"Verona, isn't that Romeo and Juliet's city?"

"Yes. It's so pretty there. Kiki used to beg us to move there every time we visited... But of course we never really got to chose where to live because of my job..." her father said and I could see he felt a bit guilty about it.

"It doesn't matter dad. What matters is that we were always together, all of us. That's casa, la famiglia insieme!" She said and her dad muttered a thank you.

"You're right, carina! Well, I say we go back a month earlier than planned so we can take Percy to visit Italy! You could bring your mom along!" Mrs. Bianchi said.

Chiara's POV

I'd be lying if I said my heart didn't skip a beat with the idea of Showing Percy around Italy. Verona, Milano, Roma, Venezia... but must of all Firenze. The carrousel at night, the cobblestone roads wet from the rain, having pizza fiorentina outside, the view from the top of Ponte Vecchio watching over the Arno river.

But my mind went back to Annabeth. I had felt how much she loved him. Which mad me think of Aphrodite using me to keep them apart. Suddenly I lost my appetite. I excused myself and left the table.

I went to my room and cried myself to sleep. As I woke up I found a note next to me.

Please don't cry. And please, please don't cry because of me. I can't take the idea of being the reason you're crying.
If you don't want me to go to Italy I won't. If you want me to stay away I will. I don't see how us being away from each other would help rather than bring us pain, but if that's what you want I'll respect it. I'll respect you. You know very well why.

Percy

I ran into his room and hugged him. I didn't want him to be away. But I didn't want him to live a unreal life, unreal love. I wanted him to be happy, the happiest. As Aphrodite may have charmed him to think he loved me, but she didn't charm me, and I loved him, so much. Too much, really, and I couldn't bare thinking that If I didn't let him go, I'd be taking his happiness away. I much rather I suffer than him.

We stood like that for a while. Hugging on his bed. Not saying a word. Not letting each other go or pull away. Because we knew once we did it was the end.

When we finally did he asked me a question. "Can I keep this?" He asked opening his wallet and showing me a card-size picture of myself as a little girl. "Your dad showed me earlier today at the car, I thought it was cute and he said I could have it..." I smiled at him and nodded.

"It's yours." I said. One of my friends collects 3x4 pictures of people she meets, everyone that will have one she will asked them and keep them all in a box. I always thought it was weird. But somehow the idea of Percy keeping a picture of little me seemed cute in a historical romance kind of way when the ladies would give a picture, a handkerchief or a letter as 'a token of their appreciation'.