Chapter 30 - Adam Fiore

***In denial.***

I wake up with a huge headache, I yawn, and I feel pain in my jaw. I wipe the area with my hand and quickly remove it due to the pain I feel; my nose hurts too! I get up, and my body protests. I walk to the bathroom, and when I look in the mirror, I see that I have a black eye, a bandage on my nose, and a big bruise on my chin.

"What happened with me?" I ask myself.

I go back to the room and take my cell phone from the nightstand. When I unlock it, a message from Kim arrives.

From Kim: "We need to talk… Now!"

Just below the message, there is an image of her with the knife in her hand. Jeez! What happened? She's a beast. I'm scared by the noise at the door; the person wants to knock down my bedroom door, that's all they can do! I walk a little slowly and look through the peephole. I see Kim walking from one side to the other with her hand on her waist; she even looks like our mother.

She approaches the door and knocks on it again, making me jump again. I take a deep breath, trying to look like I've just woken up, and I hope that my face of pity will make her feel sorry and not kill me. I open the door, and as soon as she sees me, her furious face disappears, giving way to concern.

"Adam, my God! Your face," she says, entering, and I move away a little. She closes the door and goes to the kitchen, taking some ice from the fridge, leaving it in the sink. I follow her like a puppy following its owner with a piece of meat.

She goes to the bathroom; I stop in the small room and see her come back with a face towel, going back to the kitchen, putting on the ice cream and approaching.

"You're an idiot!" she says, pushing me to sit on the sofa. "Did it have to be you? Did it have to be the monkey in the room?" I look at her trying to look pitying, but I get a towel in the eye.

"Ow!"

"Does it hurt now? Because it didn't hurt me at all."

"I don't know what happened; my nose was broken again, right?"

"Of course, you idiot! You made a mess at the party yesterday. Who told you to be the usual perverted scoundrel?"

"I?" I ask indignantly. I'm not capable of doing these things. "I mean the shack." But thinking about it, I'm not as scoundrel as my sister says, even less pervert. I can be a bit of a 'conqueror,' but never pervert! She takes the towel off my eye and then puts it back on.

"No, another idiot!" she says and slaps me on the head. "Of course it was! You drank too much and said you loved Lunna and..."

"What? I didn't say anything about that!" I say, interrupting her.

"Look Adam, this," she says, pointing to my face. "It's a good sign that you messed up. You shouted for the entire hotel to hear that you loved Lunna, that you were going to win her over and that the kiss you shared was etched in your memory... you even cried, shouting her name." I keep looking at her with my mouth open, not being able to believe it!

"It's a lie! I didn't do any of that."

"Romolo beat you up, that's why you're like this. I don't know how Lunna and him are, I just know that he was weird with her the rest of the night."

"Did you tell them?" I ask, already realizing that this is going to be like throwing crap at the fan.

"No. Then I want you to apologize to them at lunch. The wedding is on Sunday afternoon, so hurry up," she says, taking the towel away from my eye again and placing it under my chin. "I'll tell you at lunch, so as not to cause any fights, I'll tell you before you arrive and I hope you behave."

"Ok, I hope everything goes well and sorry, little sister, for ruining your party!" I say, hugging her. She hugs me, and her voice is muffled.

"It's okay, I just don't want to see you get beaten up when you declare yourself again!" She walks away smiling.

"Hey! I am a man of many and not of one! I don't get attached or fall in love."

"Hmmmm…" she says, getting up and going to the kitchen.

"Wait! What does this humm mean?" I ask, getting up and going after her.

"Anything!" She throws the ice away and puts the towel to dry.

"What do you mean, nothing? Here you come again, with your half-words," I say, following her to the door, but she stops everything halfway.

"You know, my brother, you are very stubborn and because of your stubbornness, you don't see a foot in front of you. In fact, during your drunkenness, you stopped lying to yourself and said what you felt, in a crooked way, but you said it!" She puts her hand on my face, caressing it, the same way she did when we were children. "Stop looking for Lunna elsewhere; she was right in front of you, and you didn't know how to take advantage of the chance."

She smiles and opens the door, leaving me standing there like a fool. What did she mean by that? That I really love Luna? I open the door quickly, seeing her call the elevator.

"Did you freak out? I think the pressure of marriage affected your neurons!" I say, and she turns to me, smiling.

"There's nothing like that, I'm just telling you what we've all known for years and this in front of your face, it's her fiance's observation," she says, and the elevator door opens. She gets in and turns to me, pressing the button. "Just think about it!" and the doors close. I look at the closed elevator doors.

"She's crazy and wants to make me crazy too! I already did, look at me! Talking to myself." I close the door and go to the bedroom, take a shower, and get ready for lunch.

 •••••••∞•••••••

Before going down for lunch, I join Kim's wedding group and get Romolo's number and call him.

"Hello."

"Romolo, it’s… I’m Adam," I say awkwardly and I don’t even know why.

"What do you want?"

"We can talk?"

"Where? No, I'll come to you."

"Okay," I say and he hangs up.

It doesn't take long; I hear a knock on the door. I walk towards it, opening it, and his face is not good at all. He walks in, bumping into me. I take a deep breath and close the door, walk to the armchair and sit down, indicating the sofa for him.

"Speak soon Fiore, we're late for lunch."

"I just wanted to apologize and say that I was very drunk yesterday. I said something stupid."

"I never asked Lunna anything about her ex-boyfriends or boyfriends; she was always honest with me, but… she hid what happened between you from me."

"That was years ago, it was just a kiss and nothing more!"

"Serious? It's not what it looks like! I've been watching you alongside her Fiore for some time, since college. She messes with you, and we all see it. It's just you and her who haven't noticed yet," I get up, running a hand through my hair.

"You are crazy! Lunna and I are just friends, and the kiss was right when she arrived at college, that's all! She's with you and me..."

"That's right, she's with me, she's mine!" he says, interrupting me and approaching. "Lunna is my fiancée!"

"As I already said, I don't want anything to do with her, and much less what I said was true. I was drunk, Romolo," I say, and he walks away, going to the door, opening it, but stops with his back turned.

"I'll just tell her that you sent me a message apologizing, and I accepted it. I don't want you near her!" he leaves through the door, closing it.