The next morning, at 7 AM, Eden walked out of the hotel and headed towards the lane where Leo had his shop set up. Eden’s route to the Baptistry was in the opposite direction, but for some reason, Eden walked in the direction of Leo’s shop. She wanted to see if he really was there. She was wearing a white floral sundress, with blue and purple flowers all over. It flowed from below her bust down to just above her knee. She wore brown ankle-length booths and carried a small sling bag that carried her phone, cards, and cash. She did not need much make-up, just enough to cover the bruise that was already disappearing.From a distance, she saw a familiar lean figure. It was Leo setting up his shop on the side of the road. He was wearing different clothes but the same black leather jacket. His long hair kept getting on his face every time he bent down to arrange the flowers. He stood up to push his hair back out of frustration and saw Eden walking toward him. As Eden got closer, a big smil
Eden gasped as she looked at the field of flowers. She looked longer to see that it was not only flowers but many crops too. She got off the Vespa and walked towards the garden of lilies, and noticed they were the exact ones that Leo gave her. The view was breathtaking and the smell was even better. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, taking in all the nature. The wind was light and cool, making the whole experience ten times better for Eden.Eden turned to Leo, who was leaning on his Vespa, smiling at her. “Like it?” he asked.“I love it, this is beautiful. Is this all yours?” Eden asked, still not recovered from the beauty of the scenery.“Not mine, my parents. But yes I do look after all this, so in a sense, I guess it is mine,” Leo replied. He got up and walked over to Eden, smiling ear to ear. “You can keep the pepper spray away, you know, I would never harm a beautiful flower-like you. Flowers are my favorite things, especially lilies now.”Eden smiled at him embarrassin
Grace’s Point of View:It was finally Saturday, the day Grace had been anticipating. It was the day she took revenge on Theo. It was 7 in the evening and she was supposed to meet Theo at the club at 8.Grace did her skincare routine and took a warm exfoliating bath. She decided to wear her sexiest dress for the night, she needed to lure Theo as much as she could. She made a mental note to not drink even once, and to work on making Theo drunk.Grace pulled out a tight and short black dress that enhanced her curves. She paired it with black high-heeled gladiator sandals. She left her blonde wavy hair open and put on some light makeup, and headed outside where Theo was once again waiting in the car for her. She almost forgot her purse where she had kept the handcuffs, and ran back inside to get them, cursing herself for forgetting.Grace opened the door and sat inside. Theo looked at her and smiled. Grace smiled flirtatiously at him and batted her eyelashes. He was confused at this new g
Grace’s Point of View:Theo eagerly followed Grace to the bedroom, feeling lucky to be with someone as beautiful as her. He has had many flings and one-night stands but he felt like something was special about Grace and wanted her badly.Grace locked the door behind her and stared at Theo. For an instance she felt like what she was doing might have dire consequences for her, but the flame of revenge burnt brighter in her than any other emotion. Grace walked over to Theo and placed her hand on his chest, and whispered, “I’ve been waiting for this for so so long.” She kissed him passionately and Theo returned the favor. Some part of her was not just doing this for revenge, in the back of her head she liked it and didn’t want to stop, but her plan was set to happen.“You’re the most beautiful girl I have ever seen,” whispered Theo in between kisses. This sent a tinge of electricity in Grace’s skin, but she didn’t stop. She pulled away and pushed Theo onto the bed. She climbed on top of
Eden’s point of view:Eden waited outside the Baptistry of San Giovanni until 8:15 AM for it to open. Leo was right when he said there was a whole hour left for the baptistry to open. There wasn’t much crowd outside it, since it was still early, but a few people lingered waiting for it to open. Eden had found out about the place from one of Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon series of books, called Inferno. It was amongst the set of books that her mother had left in the home library. Alfred was about to throw them all out when Eden was 14, but she stopped him and took some of them with her. She read about the baptistery in the book and became obsessed with it since then, especially because of the way the author had described it in the book. She had looked up on the internet what it looked like but always wanted a first-hand experience. Finally, the doors opened. The doors were beautifully made too. Eden was the first to step inside the empty baptistery. At first, there were steps up to the e
“Wha- How.. what are you even- WHAT?” yelled Eden.Leo was standing right in front of Eden, just as confused as Eden.“You tell me!” Leo exclaimed. Eden felt very unsafe all of a sudden. “Leo, have you been following me?” It made sense to her, given his obsession with her. She felt truly scared that Leo, in fact, had been following her. But she didn’t know for sure.“Signora, you must be joking, right?” Leo asked, confused. “After you left me I felt horrible for making you so uncomfortable, so I came to stay here with a friend for a week, so you and I don’t cross paths again.”Eden looked at him astonished. She couldn’t tell if he was lying or not. She started to walk backward, thinking about leaving for Milan immediately, to be with Bennett. “Signora, you are being stupid,” said Leo as he turned to face elsewhere and gave a hand signal to someone. A girl came walking towards him, smiling. She came closer to Leo and kissed him on his lips. “See, Lily, I came here to meet my lover, I
Eden opened up her Google translate and typed ‘It is so nice to meet you all,’ and read it out loud for Leo’s friends. “è così bello conoscervi tutti,” said Eden. They looked at each other and burst out laughing. Eden looked at Leo confusedly to see he was laughing too.“Why are you guys laughing?” Eden asked Leo. Alex, Leo’s friend, looked at her and smiled, “We are just laughing at how adorable you sound with that terrible accent.” Eden was disappointed and gave up on trying to communicate through Google translate. Eden was surprised to see Alex speak English so fluently. He didn’t have an Italian accent like Leo. He spoke with a perfect American accent. Alex noticed the look of surprise on Eden and chuckled, “I’m just a transfer student at the University of Pisa, I am actually from New York.”Eden felt some sort of relief to find someone who spoke the same language as her, but she thought that their acquaintanceship would be very short since she had to go.“Well, Alex, can you te
Eden looked at Alex with shock. Did he just ask me to pay him to keep a secret?Alex noticed that Eden had taken him seriously, and started laughing loudly. Eden realized that he was joking and started laughing along with him. In a minute they were hysterically laughing about it. Leo turned around to look at them, and his gaze lingered on Eden as he watched her emotionlessly. He turned back around and removed his hand from Georgia’s shoulder, who was too busy talking to Marina to notice.Eden looked at Alex and noticed that he seemed very American in his ways. Eden asked him, “So when did you come to Italy to study?”“My session started just a month ago. I got to know these people through college only. They seem to have a liking for Americans,” Alex laughed. “What about Leo? Doesn’t he live in Florence?” Eden asked.“Oh he was in our college but he’s going to be a foreign exchange student in some college in America, I don’t really remember the name,” Alex replied. “What about you? Y