Chapter 9.1 - Matteo

Valentina opens her mouth to answer but Matteo's phone starts ringing. It's Isabella  Facetiming him.

"Hi."

"Are you done with your exam?" she asks in Italian. Matteo turns the camera to show  Valentina. She waves. "Valentinaaa!" Isabella excitedly screams. "Are you in Sicily? This is  perfect! Let's talk about Vinnie and Pia's birthday because for some reason she thinks I  should be helping her with it."

"Don't be mean." Matteo tells her in Italian, then switches to English. "Didn't she say she  wanted to do something in Ibiza?"

"Yes, but everything is closed because of Covid. She was crying when she called."

Matteo snorts and looks at Valentina, who is too focused on the sea to even listen to their  conversation.

"I think I have an idea." Matteo says after thinking about it for a minute. "I know some guys  on the island, I can arrange a yacht."

"Yacht party?! She'll love that. I'll tell Vinnie too."

At this, Valentina turns her head to look at the phone. 

"I'll call them now." Matteo says and Isabella ends the call.

Valentina passes the joint and watches Matteo look up someone in his contacts before  holding the phone up to his ear. He knows Marcus from the last time he was in Ibiza.

Marcus  knows his father because he's been helped by their company before (Matteo doesn't know  the details), and has sworn his loyalty to their family, telling them he'll help them anytime they're in Ibiza. With anything they could possibly need.

"Ciao Matteo!" he answers in Italian.

"Hi, I need a favor."

"Anything." 

"My friends' birthday is tomorrow, and I can't find anywhere to celebrate it. I need a yacht  with a staff and a DJ."

Valentina looks at him with a look that makes Matteo feel weird, but then he realizes they're  both high. After all, he has access to the best weed in Italy.

Marcus tells him to wait on the line while he makes a call, so Matteo looks down at his slides,  listening to the song that plays while he's on hold. His eyes travel to Valentina's ankles and  he raises his eyebrows when he spots a tattoo peeking out from her sneaker.

"Okay, it's done." Marcus says and Matteo can hear the pride in his voice. "There's a yacht  waiting for you in Port Eivissa tomorrow at eight pm. I'll be waiting with a bus at the airport, just let me know what time."

Matteo smiles and passes the joint. "Perfect. Grazie, Marcus."

The line goes dead and Matteo places the phone down.

"What? Is it done already?" Valentina asks, surprised.

"Yes. I know a guy."

Matteo texts their Italian group chat about the details. All of the Barone kids, his own  siblings, as well as Isabella and Ariana are in the group.

Isabella: Valentina is obviously invited too, right?

Vinnie: ofc

"You coming too, right?" Matteo asks when he reads the message.

Valentina shrugs. "When is it?"

"Tomorrow."

"Matteeeoooo." Aurora sings from inside.

"Out here." Matteo answers in English.

"We're going to Ibiza- oh, hello." Aurora says, stopping in her tracks when she sees  Valentina. She looks at Matteo for a second, then back at her, smiling. "You're coming too?"

Valentina looks down at her shirt. "I only have this outfit with me. I planned on going back  today."

"I have an entire closet full of clothes, you can borrow mine." She offers, waving it off. Matteo frowns at her. Since when is Aurora nice to anyone?

Valentina is looking at him questioningly, as if asking him if it's okay.

"You can stay here until you want to leave, we have enough guest rooms." 

"Great, then I want to have a shower, like, now." she says, standing up. "Show me to my  room?"

Aurora takes the joint from her and sits down in her place, crossing one leg over the other.  "I'll be here."

Matteo leads Valentina to one of the guest rooms down the hall, the only one who has an en suite bathroom and a closet.

"Thanks. Do you have towels?" Valentina asks as she looks around the room before going  over to the bathroom. "Nevermind, I see there are towels here. Thanks."

Matteo returns on his balcony, where Aurora is currently sitting with an extinguished joint  between her fingers. He sits down in his seat and takes it from her fingers, making a point of  lighting it up.

"Since when are you two friends?" Aurora asks, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Since- I don't know." It occurs to Matteo just now that he first became aware of her last  summer. "Last year? She's Isabella's best friend."

"Why is she here?"

"She helped me take an online exam. I flew her in from Moscow. How do you even know  her?"

Aurora looks like she panics for a second, but she quickly composes herself. "I've seen her  around. I like her."

"You don't like anyone."

"I just graduated from high school on a random Thursday, no ceremony, nothing. How long  is this virus even going to last?" she asks, changing the subject.

"We're going on a trip to Ibiza tomorrow, I don't think we should be whining about it."  Matteo finds himself saying, feeling not like himself but like his father.

"You sound exactly like dad." She jokes and rolls her eyes. "Have you even seen him  today?"

Matteo shakes his head. 

"Can I get some clothes?" 

The two of them look towards the door, where Valentina's standing with a towel around her  body and wet hair.

Aurora stands up and waves her hands excitedly. "Of course. I'm going to make you look  like you were born to be Italian." 

Valentina throws Matteo a confused look, but all he can do is smile and shrug, having no idea  what Aurora even meant.

Aurora comes back eventually, long after Matteo has finished the joint.

"You're still here?" she asks, dropping down on the chair.

Matteo doesn't even know how much time has passed since he's been sitting in the chair he  always sits in, looking out to the sea. He can't even remember the last time he just sat here,  simply staring out where the water meets the sky. He's been trying so hard to figure out what  makes Valentina so certain she would never be sad with this view, that he hadn't even realized he  didn't get bored by just sitting.

"What else am I supposed to do?"

"We should go out tonight. It's nearly six."

"We're on a nation wide lockdown, Aurora." Matteo reminds her.

"Yes, but I'm going to lose my mind if I have to stay in this house for one more day! Dad  comes and goes whenever he wants, why wouldn't we?"

Because dad owns the police on this island, Matteo thinks, but doesn't say.

"Pia also wants to. Come on, let's convince Vinnie and Isabella and let's all go out! We can  show Valentina around, we can't just keep her inside until tomorrow."

"What about me?" Valentina asks, stepping outside. She's wearing a short white satin dress  Matteo has seen Aurora wear around the house before.

"I was just telling my brother that we have to go out tonight, we can't just keep you inside  instead of showing you beautiful Palermo."

"I wouldn't mind." Valentina says and sits down on the bench by the stone railing, facing the  two of them. "But isn't Italy on lockdown because you have the highest death rate in the  world or something?"

"Exactly, so the streets are going to be empty, even better!"

"What about the police?" 

Matteo looks at Valentina and nods, agreeing with her question. Aurora waves it off. "Eh, no  worries. We'll deal with them if it gets to it. I'll text the groupchat."

Aurora leaves after that, and Matteo lights up a cigarette.

"Do you know each other?" he asks Valentina, who's typing away on her phone. She looks  younger than usual, in the white dress with semi-wet hair.

"Who? Me and your sister? Not really. I just know she's your sister."

"Hm."

"Why?"

"No reason."

Valentina doesn't ask any further questions, so Matteo also focuses on his phone.

Aurora: let's go out in Palermo tonight

Aurora: everyone bring a bottle of wine

Aurora: let's walk around Palermo

Pia: why would we do that

Aurora: because I'm going to DIE if I spend another day locked inside

Matteo thinks about his father for a moment. If he'd hear them complain about being locked  in a giant mansion by the water with a pool and everything you could possibly want, he'd  laugh at them and tell them to come back to reality.

Valentina's right, when you have everything, nothing is exciting anymore. Living in lockdown during a pandemic in a giant  mansion can become depressing, especially if you know, deep down, that you should be more  grateful about where you are and what you have. Matteo never realized he was bored and  burnt out until Valentina came to Italy. Every day has been the same, but he's gotten used to it.

"Don't your parents mind you being in Italy during Covid?"

Valentina looks up from her phone. "I just texted them. They're not excited about it, but they'll deal. My dad travels for work anyway."

"He's a businessman, right?"

"Right." Valentina answers, with a hint of hesitation in her voice.

Matteo doesn't mention it,  but he remembers her telling Isabella about how her parents are trying to keep someone dying  a secret. He also remembers his first instinct being 'mafia', but then she explained that her  father is a businessman and that they were just being secretive about it. 

Sometimes Matteo forgets that his reality does exist, but there are very few people in the  world who are in it as deep as he is. Born into it, stumbling upon the truth when young, doing  jobs that got more dangerous each time, using drugs to make money to buy other drugs, and so  on.

Also, he tried googling her name to find her dad, but all he got was a link to her I*******m and F******k. She doesn't post as much as the other girls Matteo follows, and she definitely looks better in real life than in photos.

"What are you thinking about?"

Her question makes him snap back to reality. He's never been asked that before in his life. He  also can't really answer the question truthfully.

"How things aren't always what they seem."

She lights up a cigarette and turns around to watch the sea, smiling up at the sun. Matteo  looks back at his phone screen.

Pia: meet in front of your house in 20?

Matteo sends a thumbs up emoji before deciding to go change out of his tank and shorts into  something more appropriate for going out. He finds a pressed white linen shirt and clean jean  shorts in his closet. Good enough.

"Let's go get the wine first." Aurora tells the two of them when they meet in the foyer. 

They go down to their wine cellar, stocked to the brim with wines produced by their own  company, some of the bottles being ever older than Matteo.

"Il Giudice 2010?" Valentina reads off a bottle she picks out. Matteo walks over and takes  the bottle to read it.

"Yes, it's the batch from 2010. It's good wine, I think. I prefer spirits."

"Yes, but Giudice? Wait, are all of these Giudice?"

"It's our family winery."

Matteo doesn't tell her that you can find this type of wine in every store selling alcohol in Sicily, if not all of Italy.

"Do you sell it?" she asks anyway.

"Some of it." Matteo answers and picks out a random bottle. "Let's go."

---

Writing this chapter is such a pleasure for me, I can't even describe it. I just hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing :)

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Have a good day!

xoxo,

Ronnie