Chapter Three

It's been two weeks since I met vincenzo, Gabrielle, and Valentino. My mafia is hosting a ball to welcome the Italian mafia, which means I'll be seeing Vincenzo. The ball is on Saturday, It's Monday and Mia, Gabrielle and I are going dress shopping.

They are forcing me to go, I was just going to have Mama buy me a dress or buy one online. Gabrielle, Mia, Charlotte, and I have made a great bond over the past two weeks, Gabrielle's personality is similar to Mia's. Diego and Valentino are still making eayes at each other.

Last week, mama invited the Moretti's for dinner, Isabelle (their mother) is also like mama, I think they might become best friends and Antonio (their father) is very intimidating I see where Vincenzo gets it from. Unfortunately, Vincenzo didn't come, I don't know why, but I was upset the whole dinner because of it.

Anyway, I'm currently getting ready to leave for the mall. After my shower, I put on a short black dress. I was feeling to wear jewlery today, so I wore some necklaces and rings. Ten minutes later, I left the house to pick Mia, Gabrielle, and Charlotte up since they wanted to carpool.

After picking Mia and Charlotte up, I made my way to Moretti's house for Gabrielle. Five minutes later, I was in Gabrielle's driveway waiting for her. The front door opened, and Vincenzo came out, making his way to my car. He knocked on my window (that was tinted), and I rolled it down for him.

"Hey." I say shyly.

"I am coming with you all." Vincenzo informed me.

"O-okay." I stuttered out.

"I'll be taking my own car." He says, walking off.

"Oh." I whispered as I watched him walk off.

Gabrielle came into the car soon after, and I rolled back up my window back since the A.C. was on.

"Was that Vincenzo?" Mia asks.

Yes, I did tell my friends about him, don't judge me.

"Yup." I answered, driving off, heading in the direction of the mall.

"You did mention he was hot, but girl damn." Mia teased.

Gabrielle smirked at me in the mirror, almost like she knew something. Mia and Charlotte both smiled at each other and then looked at me smiling. I rolled my eyes and focused my attention on the road. I looked in my mirror to see if Vincenzo was following us. He was in a black maserati.

Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the mall, I parked my car, and Vincenzo parked adjacent to me. After we all got out of the car (locking it of course), we walked into the tall building. Surprisingly, there weren't many people inside, much like previous times I came.

After an hour of walking in and out of stores, looking for 'the perfect dress' as Mia says. I was getting hungry, and as they were about to enter another store, I said, "I'm going to the food court."

"Okay, we'll meet you there in an hour." Mia says.

Mia, Gabrielle and Charlotte went into the store and I headed to the food court. I felt someone grab my wrist. My first instint was to grab a knife I had on my upper thigh. When I turned around, I saw Vincenzo, I secured my knife back on my thigh.

"I'm sorry." I apologize.

"It's fine." Vincenzo assures me.

"I am coming with you." He says.

"To get food?" I ask, confused.

"Si, now let's go." He answers.

"Okay." I say and continue walking towards the food court.

Fifteen minutes later, Vincenzo and I were sitting at a table in the court, waiting for the girls. I got a starbucks refresher and donuts, Vincenzo didn't get anything but demanded he paid.

I sip on my drink and scoll through my phone, waiting for time to pass. I look up from my phone to see Vincenzo staring at me, "What?" I question in a soft voice.

Vincenzo just shakes his head and says, "Nothing, bella." [beautiful]

A blush covered my face at his endernment.

"Why'd you come to the mall with us." I built up the courage to ask.

"I wanted to see you." He answers after a few seconds.

"Oh." I reply, trying my best not to blush even harder.

Suddenly, the tension was cut off by my phone ringing. It was a random number, but I answered anyway.

"Hello?" I say.

"Sofia, hello." A familiar voice replies. It was Andrew (my ex-boyfriend), if I knew it was him, I wouldn't have answered.

I rolled my eyes, "What do you want, Andrew?" I ask.

"Baby, why aren't you answering my calls and texts." Andrew asks. He acts all innocent all the time, but what no one besides me knows is that he is an abusive asshole. The day we broke up, he tried to choke me, but I stabbed him. He thought I would be weak. I was far from weak, I guess that surprised him. I didn't tell anyone about it because I knew how my family would react, but I promised if I needed to tell them, I would.

"Don't call me again and stop harassing me." I hiss and hang up the call.

I needed to change my number soon, I thought as I blocked the number he called me from.

"Who was that, bella?" Vincenzo asked. His hands and jaw were clenched, and he looked angry.

"My ex-boyfriend." I tell him.

"Why was he calling you?" Vincenzo questions.

"I don't know. He has been called and texting me since we broke up." I answer.

Vincenzo just nodded his head and continued staring at me. I was confused by his sudden interest in my call, but I just brushed it off when I saw the girls walking towards us.

"Come on, let's go get you a dress." Mia says when she reached our table.

I sigh, standing up, "I got these for you all." I say, handing Mia the doughnuts.

"Thank you, chica." Mia says, dragging me in the direction of another store. [girl]

"My mama told me about this store." Mia, tell us as we walk into the store.

Mia's mama, Mariana Lopez, is a famous fashion designer. Mariana is also the woman who inspried me to design. Since the ball was planned on such short notice, Mariana couldn't design dresses for all of us, not in time at least. Mia, Gabrielle, and Charlotte grabbed a few dresses and went to the changing room to try them on.

Every dress I say was either too basic and simple or too flashy for the event. I walked around for about five minutes until I saw the perfect, most beautiful dress. It was the perfect mixture of blue and grey. The dress had a vintage look, which pushed me to try it on even more. There were bows on each shoulder, and a small gold leaf covered the thin lace.

"You should get it, bella." A deep voice said as I played with the bows.

I turn around to see Vincenzo with a light smile, "Huh?" I say, staring into his beautiful dark brown eyes. It amazed me how the mare sight of Vincenzo's eyes made me smile.

"The dress will look beautiful on you. Go try it on." Vincenzo says. I bit the inside of my cheek so I wouldn't smile at his words.

I nodded my head and walked towards the changing rooms with the dress in my hand. A few minutes later, I had the dress on and was staring at myself in the mirror, Vincenzo was right, I did look beautiful in the dress. After changing back into my clothes, I walked out of the room to see all the girls smiling with dresses.

We all decided to keep our dresses a surprise for the ball. We purchased our dresses and left the mall soon after. I dropped everyone back at their houses and then went home.

That night, I fell asleep thinking of Vincenzo's words, "The dress will look beautiful on you."

Beautiful.

Bella.