Listen to Your Heart

Chapter Four

September, 2018

"So you just let him leave?" Natali shook her head in disbelief. "Stefi, you know I love you but sometimes you need a smack." Reaching across the table, she swatted her sister's arm lightly, eliciting a surprised yelp.

"What'd you go and do that for?" Stefani hissed quietly, eyes narrowing.

"You needed someone to beat some sense into you," the other woman shrugged. "Mom would do the same thing if she were here."

"I'm so glad I stopped here before Toronto," she quipped sarcastically. "Pass the bread."

A Star is Born's premiere at TIFF was a mere four days away and Stefani had instantly made plans to have her private plane flown out of New York so that she could spend some time with her family before they all attended the festivities. Focusing on travel plans helped to distract her and keep from playing the last conversation she'd had with Bradley on loop in her frazzled brain.

New York itself was comforting. She'd grown up there, she knew every street, every neighborhood like it was second nature. The culture, the people, the anonymity of the city always appealed to her, especially since she wanted nothing more than to try and put as much physical distance between herself and Bradley as humanly possible, at least until Toronto forced them to be in the same room constantly.

She and Natali had tucked themselves into a little back booth in Joanne's, their father's restaurant, far away from the curious stares of on-lookers and thankfully choosing a time of day where Joe hadn't stopped in yet. Despite Natali's tendency toward being bossy, she basked in her baby sister's presence. Facetime and phone calls and texts were nice, but nothing compared to sitting with her, sharing food and wine and laughing. It felt like old times.

Almost immediately after they'd been seated, Natali could tell she wasn't herself. She was too quiet, the younger woman insisted, and she'd barely touched her white wine or the breadbasket when it came, a clear signal, Natali said, something was up.

Haltingly, after reassuring her sister it wasn't her health, she confessed what had happened in Venice.

"It's complicated." She picked at her salad, sighing. "You know it is."

"Well, yeah, it is. But it doesn't have to be." Natali leaned across the table, conspiratorially. "Anyone with eyes can see the way he looks at you. And before you give me that same bullshit you give everyone about you guys being just friends, lemme just tell you, none of my friends have ever looked at me like at."

"That isn't important, though, not in the grand scheme of things, Nat. Am I just supposed to throw everything away? Is he? He has a family."

Natali pulled a face, making Stefani feel distinctly like they were back in school at Convent of the Sacred Heart. "How are things with Irina? I'm sure you know," she added.

"Not good, actually," she admitted. "Things have been kind of—strained, I guess you could say, for a while now. She feels the time he spent on the film took him away from her. I think she thought having Lea would bring them back together."

"He told you all this?"

"Yeah. We tell each other everything."

"Uh-huh." Natali raised her eyebrows. "In a totally platonic manner, I'm sure, right?"

"Shut up," Stefani sipped her wine, shooting her sister a death glare. "Why do you always bring out my inner 12-year-old?"

"Anyway," her sister pointedly ignored her, "things weren't good, even before he made that dramatic ass confession."