Chapter 4: Genuine

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"Yes, you have it in red and green."

"Mhm. Can you bring a red one in a size medium?"

"Sure." I went towards the stockroom and looked for the sweater the woman asked for. After handing it to her, I went to the rack of clothing where Ashley was.

"I'm gonna take my break now." I announced.

"Okay. Uh, Luca came, he saw you were busy and didn't want to interrupt. He brought something for you, I put in in the staff room."

"Oh, okay. Thanks." I said turning around to go see what it was.

"Riley. Are you guys together or something?"

I'm pretty sure I blushed like crazy. I had to find a way to stop that. "What? No, no. We're just friends."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Hmh. If you say so."

Ignoring her comment, I nervously walked towards the back. When I saw what was there for me, a smile crossed my lips. There was a cup of coffee with the name 'Lucas' on it- they obviously spelled it wrong- and a box of doughnuts. The sweet scent filled my nose as I opened the box.

I opened the emergency door and relaxed sitting at the back of the store. Too fascinated by the doughnuts, I even forgot to bring my cigarettes with me. I crossed off the ones that had peanuts, I was allergic to them.

Munching on a chocolate one, I took my phone out and began to type a text.

Thanks for the doughnuts, I'm loving them!

Luca's reply was almost instant, sending me a picture of himself, sitting on his car. He was giving me a thumbs up and had a silly grin on his face, his eyes completely closed. What really got me is that he was wearing brown rimmed glasses.

I'm glad! You need them, you work too much

An impulse ran through my body and before I could think of it, I also sent him a picture, putting half a doughnut before my mouth, mimicking a smile.

I'm on my break!

He was typing fast again. I was glad he wasn't one of those guys who didn't reply until five hours later. My ex was one of those.

Then enjoy! I'm waiting for Josh to go grocery shopping. I thought if I waited for him in my car he would hurry up getting out of the shower. Turns out he doesn't care a damn about me

I laughed quietly at the text. Then I remembered that I was on my own, holding a phone and I felt so silly I became serious in a second.

Next time try cutting off the water, my sister used to do that to me

When I saw he was sending a voice note, my stomach clenched. I waited impatiently for my phone to buzz on my leg. When it did, I quickly checked it.

Luca gasped. "Don't tell me you're actually one of those slow people too! Although thinking of it, it's actually a really good idea, I'll try it next time. Oh! Look who just enlightened us with his appearance! Talk to you later, Riri, Josh is here." Then he continued talking but it wasn't directed at me. "Dude, I swear to god if I have to-"

I laughed to myself and gave him a short reply.

Can't confirm or deny it!

Referring to the comment about being slow. I was, actually.

Don't be too hard on Josh, talk to you later!

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The rest of the day went by smoothly, there weren't too many people and we didn't have new arrivals.

My eyes had been wandering around the store all day, seeing if there was anything I liked to wear for tomorrow night. The problem was, I knew nothing about fashion and knew nothing about the place I was going.

Seeking help at almost closing time, I made my way towards Ashley, who was boringly tapping her nails against the pay desk.

"Ashley, I need your advice."

"What for?" She asked interested, sitting up on her elbows as she raised her face at me.

"Luca-" I cleared my throat nervously, when I remembered her previous comment about us, "Luca invited me to a dinner he has at some restaurant with important people of the soccer team he works at. And I have no idea what to wear, I don't have anything so I was thinking to pick up something from the store."

"Oooh! Are you sure you guys-"

"Yes." I deadpanned.

She laughed. "Okay. Remind me never to get on your bad side."

After a lot of searching, thank god there wasn't too much work, I could try on one of the few dresses that I liked. There weren't many since they were all too extravagant and pompous for me. I showed her what Luca was wearing, so she could have an idea.

"I really like it. Your chest looks amazing, you could share some." Commented Ashley tugging down my dress a bit, even though it wasn't that short on me since I was really short myself.

"Trust me, I would if I could." I chuckled. I checked myself out, almost not recognizing the woman that was in front of my eyes. "I like it too. And it's black. I like black."

"Yeah, you can never go wrong with it."

"Okay, I'll get it."

"Go change now and go home, you've worked too much today." She said closing the curtain.

"But-"

"Don't worry, I got it." She yelled walking away.

I sighed and got undressed. It was under my budget, not too expensive. Ashley offered to lend me some high heels and I could wear a black coat I had somewhere in my closet.

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I didn't see Luca on Friday either, but he was sure to call me Thursday night again. I didn't want to think about it much, but I liked talking with him.

He told me lots of things about his first day and I couldn't do other thing than listen in awe to everything that had happened. How he treated certain injuries, how he planned on doing it. We couldn't forget I was a freak on the subject.

"Riri, are you there?"

"Uh yeah, sorry. I'm just... fascinated."

"You can come one day if you want." He suggested. "I'm pretty sure my boys wouldn't mind a pretty girl watching them without a T-shirt on."

"W-What?"

"I mean," he broke out laughing, "Oh, God," he breathed after a moment of laughing hard, "they are the ones not wearing a T-shirt." He specified. "You could be wearing a Snuggie if you wanted."

"Okay." I laughed. "I misunderstood." Then I thought about what he had had said as I sobered up. "A Snuggie... you're so silly." I smiled to myself.

"Hey, you'd still be pretty."

"Mhm, so who's coming to dinner tomorrow?" I asked quickly.

"Okay, so we're pretending I didn't say that." He said quietly in an amused tone. "Well, the president, the administrative director..." He made a pause. "Do you really wanna know?"

"No." I chuckled.

"I thought so." He lowly yawned. He clearly pulled the phone out of his face. "Hmh. I'd love to keep on talking with you but I have to be up early."

"Yeah, me too."

"You'd love to keep on talking with me or you have to be up early?" He asked playfully.

I let out a little laugh and decided to tease him. "I have to be up early."

"Shame. I thought we were having a moment here." He chuckled. "Goodnight, Riri. Sleep tight."

"Goodnight, Luca." I smiled. "See you tomorrow."

As I mentioned before, I didn't see Luca on Friday at work. He told me he couldn't come, he got out of work just to go home and get ready for dinner. I didn't know if he really expected to come see me everyday.

When I was finishing to do my make up, my phone rang. I was having difficulties with it since I rarely wore make up, just a little of mascara for work.

"Hello?"

"Riley? I'm here. Are you ready?"

"Uh, yeah." I quickly gathered my things and took some lipstick to put it in my bag. "Give me five minutes."

"Okay."

I tried to be as fast as possible putting on the heels, and let me tell you it wasn't easy. I almost fell.

"Shit, I should've practiced."

There wasn't an elevator in the building so it ended up being ten minutes instead of five. When I arrived to Luca's white car, I got in quickly as I panted.

"I'm sorry, there isn't an elevator and these heels are-"

He laughed. "Don't worry. We have time." He glanced at the time on the dashboard and then looked back at me. "You look beautiful."

I smiled tucking my hair behind my ear. "Don't get used to it, I never wear anything like this." I chuckled.

"I see. You're more of a jeans girl?" He asked as he started the engine.

"I'm more of a yoga pants girl." I chuckled.

Luca broke out laughing. "I get that. I'm usually wearing gym clothes too."

I would say we drove in silence, but I learnt that with Luca, that's impossible. He was nervous, so I got that too.

"Do you think we'll be able to order whatever we want? I hope so. I'm not into this... minimalist, fancy food. I eat a lot. Like a lot. I'd compare myself to a tiger, but I think I eat even more."

"I don't know," I shrugged, "maybe there is a set menu."

"No! I don't want that!" He complained like a little kid.

"Luca." I laughed. "Calm down, we don't know it yet. Everything will be fine, you'll see."

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After we sat on the table and made the introductions, Luca groaned into my ear.

"It's a set menu, I knew it."

I couldn't help but laugh and put my index finger on my mouth for him to stay quiet.

It was a really beautiful restaurant, very modern and open. The lights were dim and everything was black and silver. There were four men, two with their respective wives and Luca and I. I was feeling nervous at the beginning, but Luca's easygoing personality and the fact that he didn't stop messing around to make me laugh, really eased my nerves.

Luca talked to everyone, I limited myself to eat. He barely ate, I thought everything was delicious though. There were a total of twelve dishes and it was more of a dinner-experience, so I watched in awe everything that happened. Different colors, textures and smoke surrounded the table. Also, there was wine. A lot of wine.

I didn't know if I saw blurry due to the smokes or the fact that I was beginning to get tipsy.

When I was about to inform Luca about that, he turned around to talk to me at the same time. Our faces were really close and I unconsciously pulled back in surprise.

"Riley. Let's get out of here."

"What?"

"Yeah." He whispered. "I'm tired of these conversations and I'm fucking hungry." He said a little bit louder.

"Shh." I laughed gazing around. "Mhm, okay. Where do you wanna go?"

"Let's go to McDonald's. Come on." He suddenly got up, letting me with my eyes wide open.

"I'm sorry." He directed his gaze to everyone on the table. "There's been a emergency and we really need to go."

"Is everything alright?" Asked one of the women putting a hand on her chest worriedly.

"I hope so." Luca said in a dramatic tone.

I restrained myself from rolling my eyes and stood up with him. Everyone wished their best and we got out of the restaurant in less than a heartbeat.

"Oh god," Luca let out a big breath, "I thought that dinner would last forever."

I suddenly began to laugh hard, my stomach clenched as I bent down to support me on my knees. "Dude! That's the craziest thing I've ever done!"

His surprised expression at the sight of me laughing, changed into an amused one, a half smile appearing on his face. "Seriously?"

"Yeah." I murmured as I sobered up, walking beside him towards his car. "That was so much fun."

We both entered and I put my hands before the exit of the air conditioning. I didn't know it was this cold in the city in November.

"What happens if they find out?" I asked concerned after he started the engine.

"They won't."

"How are you so sure?"

Luca licked his lips, then stared at me with a smirk. "I'm not."

When he stopped the car and I saw the big yellow M, I turned to look at him. "I thought you were joking."

"Of course not! I'm starving! Come on." He got out of the car and walked quickly to the passenger door to open it for me. Stepping out with the help of his hand, we walked into the establishment.

Everyone stared at us, we weren't exactly wearing the clothes one would normally wear to McDonald's.

"Mhm, I want a Big Mac, a quarter pounder with cheese and large fries. Oh, and a large coke." He then stared at me as he put a hand in the low of my back. "What do you want, Riri?"

"I'm okay, thanks." I said nervously.

"Come on, you can't seriously be full with that joke of a dinner. What do you want?"

"Okay." I sighed. "Uhm..." I glanced up at the different pictures. "I'll have a McChicken and large fries too."

"Anything to drink?" Asked the girl behind the counter.

I shook my head and we both waited in silence for her to bring our food. Luca glanced at me every once in a while, an amused expression on his face.

"What?" I frowned.

"Nothing."

After he payed for our things, we sat on a table at the back of the restaurant to have more intimacy, as he duly remarked. "You should've let me pay for my food." I mumbled as I opened the box of my burger.

"If memory doesn't fail me, on Wednesday you were invited to dinner." He said with a cocky smile. "This is still dinner."

"Okay." I sighed as I took a big bite of my burger. Turned out I was actually really hungry. "But next time," I continued after swallowing, trying not to talk with my mouth full, "I pay for our food." Then I thought about it and corrected myself. "Okay, maybe not pay for it, since I'm trying to save some money, but I'll cook for the both of us."

"Sounds great to me. Mhm..." he twisted his mouth, "do you know how to?" He teased with a smirk.

"Of course I do. I'm great actually. You can ask my friend Margaret."

"Who's Margaret?" He asked with a frown.

"My neighbor. She has a cat called Theodore. She's sixty eight."

"I'm a little concerned about the average age of your friends, Riri." Luca chuckled. "The fact that she has a cat doesn't help either."

"Why?" I said taking a fry.

"Hmh, hello? Cats are creepy. They stare at you as if they're actually your superior. It's scary as hell."

I broke out laughing. "Dude, What is wrong with you? They're adorable!"

He made a face of disgust. "Yeah, no. I don't think so. I don't have a great experience with cats."

"Well, I plan on having lots of them, so." I shrugged.

The brown eyed guy in front of me dared to pop his lips and nod before opening his eyes a little wider. "Yes, that explains a lot of things."

He then took a bite of one of his burgers and I was mentally trying to choke him.

Not really, he seemed to always achieve to make me laugh.

"You're an idiot."

We ate in silence for a while, although his amused smile and his glances at me, didn't let me eat in peace.

"What." I stretched the words and lowered my voice to show annoyance.

"Nothing."

"Come on, you said the same earlier."

"I just enjoy watching you eat, that's all." Then he added taking one of my fries, seeing that his were already gone, "You look cute."

Like every time he said something like that to me, I blushed.

I tried to hide it and rolled my eyes as I concentrated on eating my burger. "You know, I'm thinking of-"

"Why do you always do that?" He asked all of a sudden, a frown in his face.

"What?"

"Change the subject every time I give you a compliment. It's not very polite, you know." He said now with half a smile.

"I-I'm sorry." I licked my lips. "I'm not used to it, I don't take them well."

The last recent memory I had about compliments was from my boyfriend. Specially at the beginning, he used to call me beautiful, how he loved my body, my chest... then he stopped. He just focused on other people, not letting anyone see it. He practically hid me inside a cage, under baggy and dark clothes. I got so used to hide myself behind my hair that it was difficult for me to look at someone in the eyes now.

"I can see that." He nodded, a sad expression on his face. "Well, get used to it. I'm planning on giving them until you believe them." He shrugged nonchalantly.

I stared at him for a while as he ate. I saw how he licked the tip of his fingers when they touched the ketchup, I watched as he licked the corner of his mouth and then opened his mouth wide to take a bite. He moved his head at the rhythm of the music that at that moment was playing, and I hadn't even noticed it.

A little smile crossed my lips. "You're someone special, Luca."

Luca stopped eating and stared at me, cocking his head a little surprised. Then his face lit up in his most genuine and adorable smile.

"I know."

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Here it is! Hope you liked it!

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