Love Like Winter

Be home at midnight

Damn.

I could just think of that on my way to Hemingway.

''Wait'', Vicenzo was pissed, ''you're telling me that you're going to a club with us, but you have to be back home by midnight. Am I the only one that thinks that this has no sense at all?’’

I looked down at my feet innocently.

‘’Well, I was going to tell you. Actually, planning to tell you. Somehow’’, I mumbled under ma breath.

‘’Geez, then we’ll go tomorrow, let’s go back to the house and eat pizza or something’’, apparently, Felix was the only rational person in the whole situation. Luke was neutral, considering it was his first time in Rome.

‘’Fine by me’’, I added.

So it took us about half an hour to get to Vicenzo’s house. He kept complaining the whole way back why didn’t I tell him earlier that my curfew was midnight that night. We took a bus around nine and got around nine thirty back home. Luckily, Vicenzo had the whole house to himself since his parents were on a cruiser somewhere around Greece.

‘’Good evening chair, how have you been all this years? I’ve missed putting my pretty but on you’’, Felix was patting an old chair in the corner of the hallway. It was everything, but normal.

Vicenzo looked at him and added, ‘’okay, let’s try to get someone to hang with us who’s not a complete retard.’’

Felix made a desperate puppy face and then laughed.

‘’Okay, the kitchen is that way. To the kitchen!’’, Luke pointed at the big brown door on the left of the long hallway and we marched straight into the kitchen. He turned on the lights and we sat down on the chairs at the mini bar. The kitchen was pretty new considering the rest of the house hand that antique look. There were a lot of plants, small palms actually around the house. His mother, Nina, absolutely loved them.

‘’Who’s gonna be the naked chef?’’, Luke added, in a slight sarcastic tone.

In a microsecond Felix looked at me with a smirk.

‘’What?’’

‘’You.’’

‘’Oooh no. That movie you won’t see’’, I snapped with my fingers.

The guys laughed. ‘’Okay, here’s the bowl, and now let’s start cooking!’’

And that was a night to remember, although we didn’t go clubbing. The rest of the night we spent in the kitchen, preparing the pizza. Felix was the main chef, considering his mother owned a restaurant in the best part of Rome. Luke and Vicenzo joked with him that after his pizza we’re going to have some real health issues and that the bathroom will be occupied for the next two weeks. But it turned out to be a quite good pizza, we ate every single bit of it and nothing was left.

But then I had to go home, because it was eleven thirty.

‘’I’ll be going now guys, I have to it’s almost time’’, I said while looking at the big clock on the wall.

‘’It’s about time Felix’’, Vicenzo said trough an evil laugh.

‘’It’s about time, I know’’, Felix made a mischievous look on his face that was followed by the same evil laugh like Vicenzo’s.

‘’Funny guys’’, I rolled my eyes.

At that point Luke came back from the bathroom, ‘’where are you going? Oh it’s midnight already?’’

I nodded, ‘’yep, so I’ll be seeing you guys tomorrow’’, I smiled.

‘’Good night Allie’’

‘’Good night’’

I smiled and went out the kitchen. Just about as I was going to cross the front door, someone grabbed my hand. I turned around to see Felix.

‘’Erm, I forgot to tell you, be here tomorrow around eight in the morning, we’re going to have a decent gentleman breakfast. And gentle-girl’’, he chuckled and messed my hair.

‘’Will do.’’

‘’Night bella’’, and he closed the door.

I went home.

Rome was truly beautiful at night. All the streets shined so bright, the houses made of stone with trees and flowers and restaurants. When I looked at it that way, I was lucky to come there for free considering people paid millions and millions just to see the city for a second, and I had it all up in my hand, but didn’t want it. Back at home all my friends were dying just for me to tell them how I would spend the summer there. And then, before you knew it, lost in my thoughts, I didn’t even notice that I was standing in front of the house. The light in the kitchen was still on; grandma was probably up, or she came down for a glass of water.

‘’You’re on time’’, she said when she saw me enter the kitchen.

‘’Like a Swiss clock’’, I winked.

She crossed her arms and smiled at me, with her head a bit on left, ‘’so, what did Felix and Vicezno say?’’

‘’Nothing, same, the usual actually’’, I answered, looking uninterested with the conversation.

Then nona shook her head and took a glass of water, ‘’and how about their friend, Luke?’’

Awkward, and not to mention, very, very awkward considering she was my grandma.

‘’What do you mean? I just met him’’, I was starting to get nervous a bit.

Nona laughed, ‘’oh dear, I saw the way he was looking at you. And the way you were looking at him, you can’t fool old nona Carl’’, she winked to me and tapped me on the shoulder.

Nona was right, I liked him since day one. Actually, since today. And I kept having butterflies in my stomach, well not butterflies, but I did get nervous around him. I was nervous now, and I didn’t like it, I was blushing.

For a second, I stood there, thinking where could she see us, and then ‘’wait, where’d you see us at all?’’, but she was gone.

I sighed and sat down on the chair, drinking the water.