Chapter 3.2 - Matteo

"Sophia ended up not going to Portugal for her Erasmus semester and is coming back. She texted me this morning asking if we want to meet for coffee tomorrow."

Matteo tries to focus on both his friend's problems as well as fixing them with a bit of cocaine.

"Do you want to see her?"

Vinnie shrugs. "I mean, I don't know. The last months we saw each other it was very toxic, and it ended up draining the life out of me. But I still care about her."

"I mean...man. Look. She cheated on you and then blamed you for not being affectionate enough."

"We weren't...dating."

"You've been dating for years and you have never been with somebody else. I think you've lost your self-respect along the way." Vinnie doesn't look like he likes what he's being told. Matteo goes on anyway. "She knows if she as much as lifts a finger you're going to crawl back to her, because you've proven it to her over and over again."

Vinnie sighs, defeated. He takes a seat across the desk from Matteo and starts rolling up a bill. "Then tell me what to do."

Matteo smirks. "I think you need a distraction. A new hobby. A new girl." "A bandage wouldn't help."

"Then a new hobby. Let's start...I don't know, golfing? Just something." "I'm not going to go golfing."

"Then let's go partying."

"We are literally doing that right now."

Matteo shakes his head. "Not here. You need to leave the environment that causes you to think of her. Let's go to Austria in December. Boy's skiing trip. Then maybe Vienna."

Vinnie smiles. "Alright."

When they get back to their table, Marco and Aurora have shown up, and so have Eddie and his sister Pia.

"Are you supposed to be a devil?" Aurora asks, unimpressed.

Matteo makes a face at her. "And you're supposed to be what?"

"A sexy catwoman." She says, making a twirl.

"You're seventeen." Matteo points out and she flips him off before going over to Pia. He sees Isabella in the corner of the VIP area, talking to Valentina.

"Your outfits match." Isabella notices when Matteo approaches them. She's motioning between Valentina and him.

Valentina is wearing a white corset tutu dress with rhinestones on it that makes her look younger than she is and a pair of white heels with what looks like leaves on it. If it weren't for the small wings on her back or the bandana with a halo on it, Matteo would've never thought she was an angel. Or a fairy.

"I mean, he's only got a dusty devil headband on." Valentina notices, a teasing smile playing on her face. "It's not the type of devil my angel would match." She jokes and Isabella seems to find it extremely funny because she starts laughing.

Matteo ignores them and turns around, meeting Raisa's eyes in the process. They nod at each other.

Six hours later when Matteo gets home from the club, Raisa's with him. They kiss as soon as they get into the taxi, and they don't stop until the sun comes up and Raisa falls asleep.

***

Matteo wakes up around three in the afternoon the next day, face swollen from sleeping and the coke he had done last night. He has faints memories about doing a line with Raisa and

Marco in the staff room before ordering three rounds of shots for their table, which had filled up with people. He remembers going home before the club closed because he was feeling horny, and kissing in the taxi.

But now she's in his bed sleeping, and Matteo doesn't like kicking people out. He just likes waking up alone so he can do his morning routine by himself.

He gets out of bed trying not to wake her up as he puts his Nike slippers on and walks into the bathroom. Matteo doesn't like checking his phone first thing in the morning, so he chooses to make coffee and check the markets on his laptop instead. The kitchen in their penthouse has a view of Central Park, so drinking his coffee and smoking a cigarette by himself is even nicer with a view.

The coffee machine beeps to signal that the coffee is ready just as Raisa emerges into the kitchen, fully dressed. He doesn't ask her if she wants any coffee because he wouldn't mind her going home. Not because he doesn't like her; but because he likes his time by himself more. He doesn't get so much of that anymore.

"I'm going to leave; Valentina is picking me up. See you at Isabella's birthday tonight." She smiles, then grabs a small unopened bottle of water from the counter and leaves.

"Bye!" Matteo says and waits to hear the door close before he sits down at the desk.

Finally. He looks at the clock on his laptop. It's 3:34pm, which means he must be at the club and make sure everything is set up around nine or ten. Then the place would be filled until 11.

An hour later, he decided to get two more hours of sleep. After all, it's Friday.

***

The queue outside is longer than it was yesterday since it's a Friday night, and Matteo's surprised that people are willing to wait outside in the light rain to get in. He thanks the driver and waits for Marco to get out of the car as well before they head inside.

The two girls at the entrance who are in charge of tickets, checking IDs (not really) and handing out neon bracelets put green bracelets on both of them.

"Nice color." One of the girls smiles at Matteo. "Single."

Matteo shoots her a smile back, even though he's not interested, and then proceeds to walk further down the hallway until he reaches the double doors leading inside.

The Halloween decorations are gone now, and the club looks almost close to normal. UV lights have apparently been installed and neon buckets sit on each table in the VIP area.

"Did you buy new buckets just for this occasion?" Matteo asks Isabella, who's excitedly talking to Raisa about something. "Happy birthday." He adds, planting a kiss on her cheek.

Isabella smiles at him. "Thank you, and yes we did. I'm curious to see how both nights turned out, money wise."

Matteo raises his eyebrows. "I'll call you in when I do the accounting on Sunday then." Then he looks at Raisa. "Hi."

Isabella purses her lips, then turns her back to him to get back to the discussion she was having with Raisa. But the other girl doesn't seem to be focused on that anymore; instead, she's watching Matteo making himself a Vodka Redbull and talking to Vinnie in the meantime.

"How was last night?" Vinnie asks, a knowing smirk playing on his face. "You were here, weren't you?"

Matteo tries avoiding the obvious question.

"After, I mean. Did you hook up with Raisa again?" he asks, lowering his voice.

Matteo shrugs. "Yeah."

"She's looking at you."

"I know. Cheers." He says and raises his glass, but Vinnie is looking at someone outside the VIP area. Valentina is trying to explain to Billy, one of the security guys, that she knows the birthday girl.

Matteo and Vinnie walk over. "It's fine, she's with us." Vinnie says and takes the rope off one of the ends.

"Get her a bracelet." Matteo adds, and Valentina gratefully smiles at both of them. She looks better than she did yesterday and went from completely white to a black bandage dress and her hair up in a ponytail.

"Next time, just tell the girls at the entrance that you're at table 1." Matteo tells her as she sets her bag down on the couch, still holding a gift bag in hand.

"I told them, but they asked about me and they told me they can't do anything."

"That's weird." Vinnie ponders. "I'll talk to them."

"It's no big deal, I'm here now, but thank you."

She grabs an energy drink from the bucket before she excuses herself and goes off towards Isabella.

They both look at her walking away, not saying anything.

"Have you seen her around before now?" he asks, looking at the red neon bracelet around her wrist.

"Her family have a vacation house in Capo d'Orlando. We're neighbors. Sort of."

"No, I mean around... here. School. Clubs. I don't know. She seems to know everyone?"

Vinnie shrugs. "I don't know. Yeah? She went to our school and attended some parties we threw with Isabella and Raisa. Maybe you just never paid attention to her. Or didn't notice her."

"Did she have a glow up or something?"

Vinnie laughs. "Uh, I don't think so? Maybe she looks more...not infantile, I guess? Like, she has cheekbones and...longer hair. I guess."

"Infantile? Cheekbones?" Matteo asks, smirking.

"Let's get something to drink."

"Shots." Vinnie decides.

"Shots."

They spend the next two hours dancing and drinking next to each other, going to the occasional "meeting" in the staff room with Marco, or Isabella, or Eddie.

"Maybe we should ask Aleksi to come by in an hour? Is he here?" Vinnie suggests, talking a bit too loud, as they enter the staff hallway through the back door in the VIP area.

"I don't know."

They stop in front of the staff door and Matteo takes the key out.

"Text him and ask." Vinnie says, annoying Matteo for a second because his energy is too much and he's trying to focus on unlocking the door.

"Just be patient for a second, eh?"

The door to the ladies' bathroom down the hall opens and out comes Valentina, stopping as soon as he sees the two of them hunched over trying to open the door.

"Everything all right boys?" she asks, smiling, like she knows exactly what they're about to do.

"You want to come with?" Vinnie asks just as Matteo gets the door open. Valentina looks at Matteo for a second. "Sure."

She slings her small bag over her shoulder and makes her way towards them, not breaking eye contact. The boys don't move until she steps into the room, looking around.

"We're having a meeting." Vinnie jokes.

"I had one as well." Valentina admits, running her thumb over her nose absentmindedly. Vinnie and Matteo exchange a look as Matteo opens the drawer.

Valentina steps closer and places her hands on the desk, watching Matteo at work.

"So where's your boyfriend?" Vinnie asks, motioning to Valentina's red bracelet. Valentina looks surprised and then proceeds to laugh. "Oh, I'm not with anyone."

"You know red means taken, right?" Matteo asks and starts to separate the powder into three lines with his credit card.

"Yes? But I also know that I look better in red than I do in green." Valentina retorts and then shoots him an innocent smile.

Matteo has learned from being friends with Isabella for so long that smart and beautiful is a very...annoying combination in women. Annoying in the sense that they can just talk their way into your mind, because they're not only good to look at, but also interesting to listen to and pay attention to. What's annoying about it is that sometimes you don't realize that they've outwitted you in every way possible until you're in too deep.

His first instinct when he saw Valentina was that he's seen her around before and she's the type of girl who is always in the background. Then as soon as she opened her mouth, his instinct told him that she's exactly that annoying combination. And the fact that she knows it makes her even more annoying.

----

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