My Saving Grace

Chapter 24

The months I spent dating Antonio were the happiest ones of my life. We saw each other every weekend except for when he had conference meetings, so I pretty much kept half of my stuff at his apartment while he kept half his stuff at mine.

And yes, we had keys to each other's apartments as well.

My friends kept asking me why we didn't just move into one apartment, but that would make our individual commutes to work much longer. Besides, I loved my apartment and wasn't ready to give it up.

It was a Thursday afternoon in September, and right as I was about to head down to the cafeteria for lunch—it was Burger Day, and I was freaking pumped—I got a call on my desk phone from Sarah, the grumpy lady who worked at the sign-in desk on the main level.

"Good afternoon, Sophia. You have a visitor in the lobby," she informed in a robotic tone.

"Who is it?", I asked, giving my new manicure a quick inspection.

"A Mr. Antonio Rossi. He claims to be your boyfriend."

My eyes widened in surprise.

"He's here?", I said a bit too excitedly.

"I asked if you knew about his visit, and he said he wanted to surprise you." I could imagine her air-quoting the word "surprise" while rolling her eyes.

"Tell him I'll be right down."

Grabbing my purse, I bolted out of my cubicle and down the stairs like a cop on the chase, only pausing once to check my reflection in the glass walls of the laboratory. When I spotted Antonio up ahead standing at the front desk with his hands shoved in his pockets, I finally slowed down.

I cleared my throat, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear and at the sound, his head whipped around as a million-dollar smile lit up his gorgeous face.

"Antonio, what a surprise," I greeted brightly, returning his smile while my heart did somersaults.

"Was that the sound of your shoes just now racing down the hall?", he asked, his eyes gleaming with humor.

"No, of course not. Must've been my manager, Darren. He's always on the run," I lied, blushing furiously.

"Oh, my bad," he said, playing along.

Seriously, though, I shouldn't be this insanely happy to see Antonio, but I couldn't help it—I was a woman in love.

I turned to Sarah, a wide smile on my face as Antonio went to put his arm around me.

"Thank you, Sarah. Have a great rest of your day."

She gave us both a judging look, then said "You, too," in a clipped voice before directing her eyes back to the computer.

"Something must have crawled up her ass and died," Antonio muttered once we were out of her earshot.

I laughed, sliding my arm around his waist.

"So, what brings you here on this fine afternoon?", I asked, gazing lovingly up at his face.

"I'm here to take you out to lunch," he replied with a broad grin.