❝I would burn for all eternity to feel your touch once more.❞
Former mafia member now turned barista, Lorenzo Castello, is running away from his family to grieve a sudden loss when he meets a paramedic with no impulse control that turns his world up...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
FALLING BACK TO his previous routine wasn't hard at all. Going to work in the morning became less of a chore lately since he had become bored with staying home all the time. He had even started running in the mornings too due to noticing how his muscles had loosened and he had gained a little weight – it wasn't too bad but he didn't want it to get worse.
But to be completely truthful, his routine hadn't been exactly the same as before because now, he would sometimes wake up along with Gia who would get ready for her shift at the fire station with him. He would go on his daily run and she would join him whenever she felt like it. They would take a shower together after – sometimes things got more heated than the water but he didn't mind. They would make breakfast together and then, they would just sit down on his couch and while they ate, they would talk about everything.
Then, she would drop him off at the café and he would always make sure to kiss her goodbye before she drove off to go to her job. It seemed like those kisses lit up his whole world and he would always be questioned if Gia dropped him off by his bosses because of that large smile on his face.
Working at the café was great; Joseph and Miranda were great. They would help him with whatever he wanted and they would even spend time together if they didn't have lots of customers. Gia and most of her colleagues would come over to get coffee and even though she already had her breakfast, she would order something more just to stay longer and keep him company.
Oh Dio, he was in love.
There was no point denying it, Lorenzo knew he loved her with all his heart. He would always be smiling or laughing when she is around. He felt like his world had completely changed like it had taken a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. It changed from being dark and black in a way to a good pale grey. There was still so much darkness in him but she was white and together, they made the world he was always looking for.
Whoever said life was only black and white was lying because when love (or something else that is life-changing) is involved, life turns grey.
Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, he would be working at the bar and even though she couldn't always be there, Gia visited every time she could. Ryan would be there too, along with Amalia most of the time, to keep him company while he served college students with insane amounts of alcohol – he didn't agree with their choices but they wouldn't listen to him anyway.
The rest of the weekdays where he wasn't working at night, Lorenzo spent them with Ryan or with the whole gang. He and Ryan would watch football – the European kind, of course – while they would eat greasy food that they always ordered too much and they would leave to eat the next day. If they were all hanging out, they would go watch a movie or have a walk around San Francisco. They would always, however, find their way back to Lorenzo's or to Ryan and Amalia's apartments to hang out.
Sometimes, Lukas would even join them. He and Lorenzo had grown a little closer than where they had started for two reasons: 1) Lukas reminded him of Pietro even though he was a little older than his brother and 2) he had learnt the reason he was overprotective over his family. Lukas had acted that way the day they had met because he wanted to protect Gia. He had become really overprotective of his close family because about two years ago, he had lost his girlfriend and their unborn baby at a car crash that only he survived.
