Chapter 4.3 - Matteo
1858 Words
“Why?”
Valentina’s dad didn’t seem like a bad guy at all. He was nice and even cracked some jokes during that poker game. Her uncle on the other hand had something evil in his eyes.
Franco checks his watch.
“It’s nearly five in the morning. We have a meeting at ten with some private equity investors. We should get some sleep.”
My need to know more is through the roof, but they’re already standing.
“Oh, and you should start looking for a new apartment next month.”
“Why?”
“Because Aurora will be moving in here.”
He’s dropping unexpected bombs all over the place today huh.
“And why is that?”
“She got into NYU and they’re going to start live classes soon.”
“Since when? She didn’t even have a graduation.”
Dumb question. Everything was online.
“Why can’t she move in by herself?”
“Because I want her to live with one of you, to be safe. Do you want to live with her?”
“Not really. I’d like living alone for once now that I think about it.”
“I’ll send you a link to our listing tomorrow, you can pick one out. Make sure it’s close to the office.”
I follow them to the door.
“What’s the deal with Valentina’s uncle though? Why would Luca have reason to believe they’d kill Romeo? He worked for them; he was their housekeeper in Capo. It’s been going on for longer than just a few months. They’d have no reason to kill him.”
They look at each other, and I can tell they’re having a silent conversation right now.
My dad opens the door, already taking a step outside.
“It’s getting late. We’ll talk about it another time.”
It’s almost six when I finally get into bed and check my phone. Ariana hasn’t come back yet, which means that the party is still going.
I don’t realize how tired my body is until I finally lay down and I get to feel my legs again. I have fifty missed calls from seven different people, and there are more than a hundred unread messages.
It’s too much to handle, so I choose to only respond to Vinnie for now.
Matteo: got taken by the police with valentina, long story. Talk tmrw
I also send a text to Valentina, asking her if she’s okay.
***
New York, United States - November 1st, 2020
Someone from the police station calls me around noon the next day. They want me to come back and sign an affidavit that the police did not use any excessive force.
Ariana is sleeping in my bed when I leave the apartment, and I don’t bother leaving a note to tell her where I am.
The station looks different during the day, and a lot of faces from last night are gone.
I walk over to the front desk.
“I’m here to sign an affidavit?”
He looks at me before typing something on his computer. The printer next to him starts buzzing, and he slams the piece of paper in front of me.
“Pen is on the right.”
“Matteo?”
I feel relieved to hear her voice as I turn around. She looks happy to see me; surprised even.
“You’re alive.” I half-joke and go in for a hug without even thinking about it. “How did you get out?”
“My dad. I called him and he came to get me. You?”
“His- his lawyer came.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to sign the excessive force affidavit?”
She scrunches her nose. “Me too.”
“You were kinda roughed up tho-“
She waves it off, her bracelets jingling as she does so. “It’s just not worth the effort, honestly.”
“Can I help you?” the guy asks.
“Yes, I’m here to sign an affidavit.”
He looks at her over his glasses. “Name?”
“Valentina Levin.”
“Pen is on the right.”
We walk outside after the guy mutters a ‘that’s all you’re free to go’.
I take out my comfort cigarette as soon as we step outside.
“I’m sorry I left-“
She smiles. “You don’t owe me an explanation, Matteo.”
“I know, but I want to give you one.”
“It’s fine-“
“No, it’s not. I told you I’d be there and I wasn’t. If this trust thing is going to work, I need you to know that I couldn’t control it, and I’m sorry I left you there.”
“I understand, but it’s okay because my dad came to bail me out.”
“Were the drugs yours?”
“No. Weren’t they yours?”
“No.”
“So it was just a random bag that someone dropped?”
The question whether she told them they were mine or not is pressing on my chest.
She looks at my face and her eyes soften. “I didn’t say they were yours. I told them I have no idea how it got there, and it’s the truth.”
“Did you say anything to them about the party?”
“No. Did you?”
I shake my head.
“How did you come here?” I ask her when my eyes fall on my parked car.
“Subway.”
“Do you need a ride home?”
“Sure.”
We get into my car, and I turn to look at her. “Where do you stay?”
“Tribeca. I finally have my own apartment.”
I start driving in that direction, even though it’s way further from the police station than my apartment.
“Yeah, you mentioned that yesterday. How come?”
“I’m doing the mandatory internship for credits.”
“We have a mandatory internship?”
“Yes? Every degree has a mandatory work experience or whatever.”
“And where did you find an internship when everything is closed?”
“My dad’s investment company.”
She doesn’t look too proud to admit that.
“Doing what?”
“Financial advisor trainee.”
“Oh, wow.”
It’s not at all what I expected.
“What?”
“It’s…unexpected.”
“Why?”
I shrug. “I guess most of the girls I know who are studying business choose something in marketing.”
“That’s fun too, but this was available.”
“What do you have to do?”
“I actually don’t know; I’m starting my first day tomorrow.”
“Are you nervous?”
“No.”
I smirk. Of course she isn’t.
She crosses her arms. “Why are you smiling like that?”
“I don’t know. You’re amusing.”
She takes my phone from the cup holder.
“What’s the code? I want to type in the address.”
“0707.”
She types her address in, then places the phone on the support taped to the windshield. It’s still thirty minutes away from where we are, even though we’ve spent the past twenty minutes in traffic.
“Forty-five minutes for ten kilometers? I feel like I’m back in Russia.”
I think about her moving to New York instead of living in a dorm.
“What will you do if courses go back to being on campus?”
“I’ll figure it out when it happens, I guess. I don’t even know how long that’s going to take, but I enjoy living by myself already.”
I look at her again after I brake at a red light.
“I’ve never lived alone.”
“Really?”
“Not alone alone. My siblings have always been around.”
“I think people get to know themselves better when they are on their own.” She pauses to look at the windshield and I take it as an opportunity to loo “The light’s green.”
I turn my head back to the road, but the frustrated jerks behind me are already honking.
“New Yorkers are so frustrated.” She observes.
“Americans in general are.”
She turns to look at me. “Riiight?! I thought people in Moscow traffic were insane, but New York is just a whole other type of jungle.”
I laugh, nodding. “Yeah, exactly.”
We spend the next ten minutes in comfortable silence, listening to the radio.
The music abruptly stops and my ringtone rings through the speakers of the car.
Ariana Milanesi calling
We both look at the screen, and I think about dismissing the call for a second.
“Hello?”
“I woke up and you weren’t here. Where are you?”
I spare a look in Valentina’s direction.
“I was at the police station, I had to sign something…long story.”
“What happened? You and Valentina disappeared out of nowhere, and she wasn’t at your place when I got there.”
Valentina looks at me. I know she doesn’t understand what we’re saying, but she caught her name being spoken.
“We were talking outside, and the police caught us. It’s not that important; breaking government-imposed curfew or some s**t. I’m driving her home now. I’ll be back in…I don’t know. Depends on traffic.”
“Hm, okay.”
“Bye.”
The music comes back.
“You have a girlfriend now?”
I can tell she’s smirking just by her tone, without even having to look at her face.
“I-I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“We haven’t talked about it, and she hasn’t brought it up.”
Why is it so weird to talk to her about Ariana?
“Aren’t you going to ask what she said about you?”
She shrugs. “I figured she asked where we disappeared last night.”
Once again, I forgot how well her brain works.
I stop when the GPS says we’ve reached the address. It’s a four-story townhouse on a quiet street.
“The building looks nice.” I observe as she unbuckles her seatbelt.
“I love it. I get to see the trees and hear birds chirping. It’s better than living with Adrik, that’s for sure.”
“You lived with your brother?”
“For a few weeks while I found this apartment. It was enough for me.”
I snicker. “I get that.”
She opens the door to get out. My eyes unwillingly go to her ass. She turns around again and we make eye contact. She’s smiling because she caught me looking.
“Thanks for taking a forty-minute detour to take me home, I know you live close to the station.”
“No problem.”
She waves and closes the door, turning around to walk over to the house.
Yeah, there’s no way she won’t find out about her family eventually.
She’s way too smart not to.
- Writer
