the tourist | l.h.

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Luke

It is now the 12th day of the trip.

Janice, the elderly lady, finally crossed 'shopping at Galleria Vittorio' off of her bucket list and her husband's wallet wasn't too happy about it. But, he'd do anything to make his wife smile anyways.

Malaya was able to gather so many photos of the Duomo di Milano, one of the places she promised her mother's camera would see, and so many other beautiful and famous spots.

Flavio also got himself a brand new blazer from Gucci at Galleria Vittorio. He's been trying to save it for his own personal trip, where he isn't guiding a bunch of people around.

The boys reminisced the last time they set foot on Milan ground. Calum went around and found a coffee place that really outshone his regular black coffee from Starbucks back home. Michael got a chance to play with some pigeons at the Piazza del Duomo.

Ashton finally took some time to think about his relationship with Meg as he walked through the majestic cathedral. He realized that he couldn't stand being in this kind of relationship; He was suffocating. He broke things off with Meg over a call. Not the best way to end things, but he didn't want to keep her waiting for him to come home. 

Lastly, Luke did not bother to listen to what Ashton said about going for Malaya. He knew that he wanted to be with her more than anything else. He'd built a better connection over the 3 days they were together in Milan. Those three days were absolute bliss for him.

"Good day, everyone! Today, we'll be having a day tour to Venice! The beautiful city of water." Flavio announced as he stood in front of everyone in the bus.

They were now on their way to the docks where they'll catch their boat ride to Venice. The bus was a little noisier than usual, everyone was up and chatting. 

Luke felt like this day would be a good one.

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"Okay! Here are your boat tickets," Flavio said, handing out the tickets to everyone. "Our boat will come at 11:30, so we should get down and wait over there."

Everybody hops off the bus. "I wanna take the gondola!" Michael squealed, waving his hands in the air as they waited for the boat. 

"I thought you said you were sick of boat rides." Ashton raised an eyebrow, remembering Michael feeling sick at Lake Como.

"What? A man can't change his mind?" he scoffed in response.

"I'm really excited for this." Malaya whispered to Luke who was standing beside her. 

"Why so?"

"My parents went to Venice for their honeymoon. They said that the city was so romantic, they always wanted to go back." she replied. Her mother used to tell her stories of the week they spent in Venice. Malaya's been waiting her whole life to finally see the beautiful city her mom wouldn't stop talking about.

Luke smiled at Malaya. He could really tell how excited she was just by looking at her. Her eyes got even wider as she saw their boat approach the dock.

"This way, everyone!" Flavio led the group onto the small speedboat that stopped in front of them.

Everyone took their seats. Malaya finally decided to surround herself with her new found friends; AKA the boys.

"I wanna buy those little glass figurines for my display shelf." Ashton blurted out, earning some weird looks from his friends. He said offended, "What?"

Calum chuckled, "Nothing. You just sounded like a forty-year-old mom."

Ashton pouted at his remark.