A few hours later, I emerged from the office, sick of crying about my feelings, the house, and my debt. And went to apologize to Demitri. Luca was on the couch, using Demitri’s laptop to clearly do his own work.
“Are you feeling any better?”
“No. My ass feels like I was split in half and my emotions are overwhelming. Where’s Demitri?”
“He had someone pick him up to get his SUV for you. He said not to wait up, he was going to be longer than a few hours, there were other things he wanted to do too.”
“Right, understandable. He’s probably pissed, I yelled at him. I didn’t mean it—Fuck me.” I hissed, dragging my hand through my hair.
“Come here and relax. You’re thinking too much about this. He’s not pissed, or he didn’t express that he was.”
“Yes, but I yelled at him when he was just trying to help. I knew Marco was going to sell my summerhouse, but I didn’t think it would be this soon. I hoped that I would have had more of that stupid debt paid off and be able to save my home.”
Sitting on the couch beside Luca. He pulled me against his side, and it was comforting. I hated I wanted this to stay this way.
“You will figure something out Theo, I know you will.”
“I hope so. I would amass my very own debt to keep that house, Luca.”
Luca didn’t hide his frown at my comment.
“You have enough debt to worry about.” He said.
“I know, but I can let that house—--”
Demitri opened the door and stepped inside. He had another bag with him and he set my keys, his keys and the keycard down. His hands had bandages on them now, and he looked less than thrilled.
“Alessio, got you, huh?” Luca said, spotting his hands.
“Your boss is fucking relentless.” He hissed.
“He’s a doctor first, my boss second. You’re bound to know that by now.”
“He is a pest.” Demitri said, clicking his tongue.
Demitri looked at me finally.
“If you want to go now you can, but Maddox would like me to clarify that you need Luca or I to accompany you there.” He said.
“Of course I do.” I muttered, mildly annoyed with Maddox.
“Take Demitri. I can’t go with you. Alessio has slapped me with shit stack of paperwork that Caio can’t fill out because he doesn’t know how.” Luca hissed.
“Alright.” I said, looking at Demitri again.
“Do you want me to drive?”
“You better. It’s your SUV. I’ll grab a blanket so that the dogs don’t accidentally ruin your seats.” I said, before heading to get dressed. My back was still throbbing. A reminder of early this morning’s games.
A pair of sweatpants and a cropped sweater later, I headed back out into the living room.
“What are you wearing?” Demitri said, looking directly at my cropped sweater.
“You don’t like my cropped sweater?”
“I don’t have an issue with it per se, the bruises you have. That might be a bigger issue here.” Demitri said, pointing at my hips. There were less than six inches of my lower hips and torso exposed. It wasn’t like it stopped right under my ribs, not that even that wasn’t acceptable if I wanted it to be.
“Well, this is all I have, so we are all going to be alright with it.”
“Fine by me.” Demitri said, shrugging.
I switched out my normal shoes for flip-flops and grabbed my phone, wallet and keys and a spare blanket.
“If you need anything Luca, just message or call me and I’ll see what I can do.”
“I do have a request.” He said.
“Oh, do you?” I said playfully.
“Yes, If you don’t mind, could you stop and get some ice cream?” Luca asked.
“Absolutely, we can do that. Any kind of flavour you want?” Demitri said.
“No, I’m not at all picky. Any kind will work.”
“Alright, Theo and I will grab some ice cream for you.”
Demitri and I headed out of the condo and to Marco’s. The drive was pleasant, not too terrible. We listened to music along the way, not really speaking. Romeao’s car was in the driveway and so was Marco’s. Hesitation filled me as Demitri pulled into the driveway.
“Are you alright, is this something you want to do another day?” Demitri asked.
“No, this is what I need to do, and we are already here.” I hissed.
“I don’t care that we are already here. If you’re not ready to do this, we can do this another day.” Demitri said.
“I used to live here, Demitri. I know this house inside and out, but yet, I’m terrified to go inside and see what I’ll find.” I sighed.
“Terrible things happened here. I’m not surprised you don’t want to go inside.”
I looked up to see Marco opening the front door.
“Well, too late to leave now. Let’s go.”
Marco didn’t hide his frown when he saw Demitri, but didn’t comment on it. Instead, he looked me up and down and then welcomed us inside, though he really didn’t seem like he wanted to. Inside the front hall of the house, everything looked the same, right down to the side table that held the container of doggie bags.
“Romeao’s in the kitchen, if you want to say hi.” Marco said. Before heading into the living room, Demitri and I were right behind him.
“I’ll say hi once I have everything tucked into Demitri’s SUV.”
“Good deal.”
In the living-room, Marco showed me boxes of things. There were all kinds of things, from clothing to pots and pans.
“Where are the dogs?” I asked.
“Take a guess?”
“Romeao?”
“Yes.”
“Sounds correct. They did and clearly still do like attention from him.”
“Hunt, Hero. Theo is here.” Marco said, just loud enough that you would hear him in the kitchen. The sound of paws racing on hardwood. After a few minutes, told me that Romeao had the kitchen dog gate closed.
They nearly knocked me down when they jumped on me. They were thrilled to see me. Marco looked slightly sad, but quickly covered it up.
“I gave you all your kitchen stuff, your clothing, your books, and a bunch more things. If I come across anything else, I’ll pack it up and let you know.” Marco said.
“Alright, sounds good.” I nodded.
“Demitri, if you want to go pop the trunk, we can start loading this stuff up. Marco, do you want to get the dogs ready for me, please?” I said, politely.
Demitri went outside to pop the trunk and Marco spoke, while getting the collars on the dogs.
“Are you guys serious?”
“What?” I said, looking at him, almost shocked.
“I just see the way he looks at you, Theo. It’s almost protective, and I guess I wanted to know if you found someone better.” Marco said, keeping his voice low.
“Marco, I don’t feel comfortable having this conversation with you.”
“Understandable.” He said, almost bitterly.
“Sorry, Marco, with everything that happened between us and the fact that we haven’t even been divorced a year yet. I’m taking time to reevaluate my life and what I need. We both need to find our own peace.”
“Yeah.” He said. Looking back towards the kitchen. Looking at where he was, Romeao was standing there, his arms crossed.
“This is his doing, isn’t it? All because he knows the truth of everything that came out?” I asked, as Demitri returned.
“Sorry Theo, You’re not privy to that information anymore.” Marco said, as he called the dogs to follow him so he could get all their things completely packed up.
Demitri and I packed up all the boxes in the time it took Marco to get the dogs and their stuff ready to go. I was sure he needed a few minutes to part with them.
“I just grabbed all the easy to carry things, the rest I’ll bring to Maddox’s and you can get it from there or I’m sure someone can bring it to you.” Marco said, handing the dog leashes to Demitri, and the stuff to me.
“Alright. Marco, I’m not a bloody fan of yours, but if you want to see them once in a while, just say something.” I said, not one hundred per cent happy with the words, but I wasn’t going to cut him off from the dogs. We had owned them together since after we got married.
Demitri loaded them up in the back seat while I piled their junk into the back trunk section. I was shocked that so much shit fit into the back of Demitri’s SUV. I waved to Marco and Romeao to be polite as we left. The dogs whined, and I felt bad about taking them even though he told me too, but I was glad to have them back.
“That was fairly painless.” Demitri said.
“For you. For me, that was hell. But Romeao definitely threatened Marco with something. He’s never been so tight-lipped about shit, either.”
“He was holding his ribs, too. He would let go when you looked at him, but he definitely is hiding wounds.”
“If Romeao kicked the shit out of him, he would hide that. Marco is prideful. But If that is the case, it’s still not right. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“With the shit that happened yesterday at the complex, plus his Don finding out the shit he did to you, it wouldn’t surprise me if he did give him a couple of kicks to the ribs. I knew Ryer, and I didn’t do that shit to him.” Demitri said.
Demitri stopped at a random grocery store on the way back to the condo and got more than ice cream. He brought a whole giant bag out.
“Thought we only were getting ice cream.” I teased when he got back into the SUV.
“Luca also asked for allergy pills, so he did have a reaction to the dogs. He didn’t say anything to you because he didn’t want you to feel bad.”
“Well, I fucking do. I had no clue he was allergic to dogs.”
“Animals, actually. He told me.” Demitri said, smugly.
He didn’t even mention it to me. I was annoyed, but also happy that they spoke to each other when I wasn’t around or in the room.
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