Mia’s pov
As we drew closer to a very tall duplex, Lorenzo shook my grip off his bicep, and before I could wonder why he did that, his arm was slipping around my waist, tugging me firmly against his side.
And next, the doors got thrown open before I could even attempt to get myself together.
Lorenzo had said this was important.
He had said it was important that I play my part well tonight.
Color flood my cheeks at the realization that everyone who take a look at me would see how disheveled I look, thinking I had done something really improper with Lorenzo in the car, not knowing that he had made me look like this on purpose.
I didn’t want to ruin tonight. I want to do a good job, not because I’m currently enjoying doing this, but because I didn’t want to get on Lorenzo’s bad side should I ruin tonight’s plan.
He had informed me that he was going to be touching and being all over me in the presence of the people we’d be having dinner with, so I really shouldn’t have felt my heart leap into my throat when he wrapped his arm around my waist.
At the other side of the door, stood a man and a woman, who I’d assume were the people we had come to see tonight, telling from how well dressed they currently are.
The man was on the shorter side compared to Lorenzo, but he’d still tower over me a little should I be barefooted, and even though there wasn’t any graying hair in sight, it was obvious that the man was already aged up. His wife was dressed in a white, flowery dress and huge gold jewelries decorated her neck and ears. The woman didn’t look impressed as she raked her eyes over my body, and I made sure to appear nonchalant as I prevented my gaze from wavering.
“Thanks for honoring our invitation, Mr. Domenico.” The man breathed out politely with a curt nod, while Lorenzo let out a low hum.
“Of course, Mr. Armani.”
I remained silent, refusing to be the one to look away from from the woman’s sharp, judgement filled look.
She looked away first, because she had to make her way into the building along with her husband while letting us in.
As soon as we stepped into the house, my eyes landed on a young lady who looked a few years older than me and I instantly figured that it must be the girl whom Mr. Armani wanted to marry off to Lorenzo.
A sneer covered the girl’s face as she noticed my presence and her gaze which were as sharp as her mother’s, zeroed in on Lorenzo’s hold around my waist. I held my head high, refusing to appear affected by her obvious displeasure in the slightest way.
“I thought you were arriving alone.” The girl finally spoke, voice sickeningly high in a way that made me cringe internally.
Lorenzo remained quiet before finally tilting his head towards me.
“I now have someone in my life. It’s only right that she accompany me tonight.” Lorenzo murmured and I watched as the girl’s face fall in disappointment, along with a quiet ‘oh’ falling past her lips.
Before I could even began to feel a little bit bad for her, she was shooting me a very deadly glare and then she smiled brightly at Lorenzo as she continued to speak.
“Anyways, tonight is for you! For the both of us. This dinner was thrown for you to come discuss about me with my father, but I guess–”
Mr. Armani suddenly cleared his throat from the space behind us, making his daughter suddenly trail off.
“Let’s head over to the dining place first, Lily.”
I sent a silent note of thanks to the man as we all made our way to where I’d assume was the dining room.
On arriving there, I sat in the chair beside Lorenzo, before Lily could get there and she glared at me, not bothering to hide her displeasure as she chose to sit at the seat on the other side of Lorenzo’s spot so they both faced each other.
Before the dinner could even begin, I could already tell that it was going to be a long night.
~~~
As dinner commenced, Lorenzo kept fussing over me, to my utmost bewilderment, and to Lily’s resentment.
He helped me with the cutting of my steak, helped pour my drink, helped with dabbling the stained sides of my lips, and the more he kept doing that, the more he kept attracting more attention towards us.
Mrs. Armani, who was sitting beside her daughter, wasn’t fond of me and like her daughter, she didn’t bother to conceal it.
Lorenzo refilled my drink for me and eyed me as I drank the drink, rendering me extremely flustered.
I knew all of these were just a font. I knew that there was no way the actual Lorenzo would do all of this to me– a person whom he definitely still plans on killing, but that didn’t stop my stomach from going into knots each time his arm brushed mine, nor did it stop heat from flooding my cheeks each time he pinned me with a look while speaking with Mr. Armani.
Lily kept trying to get Lorenzo’s attention countless times, but each time she succeeded, Lorenzo’s attention would stray back to me in a few moments, without me having to even try.
“I… we didn’t know you were already together with someone.” Mrs. Armani began to speak, eyes pinned on Lorenzo.
“I didn’t believe that the rumors were true. I thought it was a bluff.” Lily mumbled, eyes glaring daggers at me and I didn’t bother to conceal my eyeroll this time.
“Mr. Domenico, are you now married… or are you like, dating?” Mr. Armani asked this time, face stoik but it was obvious that he badly wanted the union.
Lorenzo settled his wine glass on the table and breathed out a long sigh, and then he began to speak.
“I don’t think this is a suitable topic for the table at the moment, don’t you agree?”
Everyone fell silent after that and I made sure to lean into Lorenzo’s touch when it came next, while my eyes were locked with Lily’s blazing ones.
Minutes later, I excused myself from the table after asking for directions for the bathroom.
I wasn’t surprised when Lily appeared at the entrance of the bathroom, a minute later.