“No, smartass, how about the weekend in London? Two nights, three days, we go there and back in his private jet.”
She squeals. “Oh my god that is amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Do I have to call him daddy now? I’m okay with that.”
“Such a comedienne you are. Come on, let’s get you to your graduation. It’s time to get the diploma you earned.”
The ceremony takes forever, and I’m grateful for Cesare telling Daniel to stop for lunch as we left Chicago so I could eat on the way. Thankfully Bethany is all packed. As she always does, she’s already sold or given away her bigger items, so she only had three suitcases and four boxes, all of which easily fit in her car. Daniel jumps out of the limo to help us load the boxes. Only an hour after the ceremony is over, we’re headed back to Chicago. I’m in the limo following Bethany’s car.
We stop at my apartment to drop off her suitcases and the car, putting it into the overpriced garage I paid for every month just so we could store the car for three months of the year. She’ll only take one suitcase with her when she goes to Mexico, the rest will be put into storage. She hadn’t taken the time to pack her one suitcase, though, she would do it tonight. I had no idea Cesare has a storage room in the building he owns as big as a two-car garage.
Bethany is a little kid playing with all the buttons and looking at all the liquor in the small cabinet. “Wow, a billionaire. It’s just kind of hitting home now. A billionaire with a fancy jet we’re taking to London for the weekend. So are his brothers single?”
I laugh. “Yes, both of them are. They are also too old for you.”
“No fair. Cesare is nine years older than you.”
“There’s years and there’s experience.”
“Well in that case he’s like ancient and you’re a baby.”
“A baby who gives you your allowance every month, so watch it.”
She sticks out her tongue at me. “Whatever. When are you guys getting married?”
Groaning, my head goes back against the headrest. Trust Bethany to cut right down to the heart of it all. “I have no fucking idea. He’s driving me crazy. He talks as if we’re forever, but he doesn’t actually say the word. He has also never even said he loves me, not even in Italian. I know it in Italian because I looked it up because I’m pathetic.”
“He speaks Italian?”
I close my eyes.
“Okay, yeah, sorry, wrong question. Maybe you should say it first.”
“Are you fucking crazy?”
“No yelling. Don’t yell at me. What really is the worst that could happen? What are you afraid of? You’re saying he talks as if you’re going to be together forever. What, do you think you saying it is going to send him running screaming from the room? I mean, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Here’s a guy who has never even had a woman in his home, and he moves you in. Kind of sounds like he loves you to me.” Bethany shrugs as she sniffs a decanter.
“What? He’s never had a woman in the condo? How the hell do you know that?”
“Claudine called me to get my schedule and likes and dislikes for food or if I had any allergies. She thought I was going to stay with you guys over the summer. We got to talking. I like her, she’s nice.”
I can’t believe I didn’t know that. I’ve never asked, too afraid to know about the women in Cesare’s past, hating every single one of them for ever touching him. Daniel parks illegally as we get a doorman to help with Bethany’s boxes. These guys are amazing, they pull out a flatbed dolly that holds all the boxes. Only one of them comes up with us to unload it. I show him to my room to unload them in the walk-in closet.
Bethany whistles. “Holy crap on a cracker this place is insane. I can’t believe you live here. You picked all this stuff out?”
Laughing, I follow her around. “Yes. I did have help. There were a few times I flinched at the cost of some things. But the decorators wouldn’t let me pass on something that fit because of the cost. Cesare agreed—the man really doesn’t care about the price of things.”
“Only you would think that’s a bad thing.”
Shrugging, I sigh. “I don’t want him thinking he gets hi
s way with money.”
“But does he try to? You called the guy a workaholic, yet he’s spent almost every Saturday since you moved in here with you. Am I missing something? You talk about going to places like the Art Institute, which is your favorite place in the city, and the Shedd, which is your second favorite, and having dinner at home with his brothers, not shopping or fancy-schmancy places. Are you going to awesome places and not telling me, or is he buying you jewelry and you haven’t told me?”
“No, no fancy places. He did suggest shopping, but I nipped that in the bud.” I blush as I remember the diamond-encrusted watch he tried to give me. He wasn’t happy when I refused it. I wasn’t happy he gave it to me after a small squabble about him working on a Saturday. There was no way he was going to use money to smooth things over in our relationship. I remembered all too clearly Dante’s speech and Jeanine saying he stole it from Cesare. Cesare promised he wouldn’t, and admitted he was afraid of even buying me something sparkly for my birthday in a few weeks as he asked me what I wanted. I told him I needed time to think about it, but I already knew, I was just trying to work it out with Dante.
Bethany checks her phone. “It’s almost five, I’m starving. Is there something I can snack on? When are we going to dinner?”
“Yeah, of course, let’s find you something. Cesare says the reservation is for seven. Is that okay?”