Addicted

Chapter 4

Giovanni Liotti

"Want to hear something even funnier?" She said, but in a sarcastic tone.

"Surprise me." I said, not being able to process very well what she just told me that.

"This is the first time I ride in a car in several years." She said.

"You are joking, right?" I frowned. What kind of life had she gotten?

"Nope, my parents never let me in the car, and any time I asked, they said they were busy or made excuses about money, so I have been riding the bus all my life." She explained. I wanted to ask her what kind of shitty parents she had, but with just a glance at her, I could see she didn't want to talk about the topic. "I haven't done much in my life, y'know?"

I kept driving to one of my family's restaurants, while I heard her complain about how she felt bad about me and the people who were going to be around us because they were going to see her dressed like that.

"Ok, Marina, stop it. You look perfectly fine. You look great in that clothing and if someone tells you the other way around they would be lying." I told her. I could see a tiny pink blush over her cheeks. I high fived myself mentally, and that made me smirk. When we got there, I exited the car and walked to open the door before she did. I grabbed her hand and helped her out. She looked up and her mouth opened slightly. "No," she suddenly said.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not eating in here, it looks too fucking expensive." She shook her head. This woman.

"Don't worry about the money part, Tesoro." I smirked down at her.

"But you know I cannot repay you, and I feel bad when people do this for me. And things like this are too much." She looked up at me worried. "Why don't we go to McDonald's or something like that?" She suggested.

"Come on." I chuckled. I handed the keys to the person who parked the cars and I put my hand on her small back to guide inside. I saw that her mouth opened even wider when we got inside. It was a big restaurant with tall ceilings, gold, white and black details around all the floors. We passed the checks because for obvious reasons I didn't have to wait.

"Aren't we supposed to wait or get on the list? I mean I'm poor but I know this is one of the best Italian restaurants in The United states, and I also know it's expensive, extravagant and out of my league." She continued saying while we got inside the elevator.

She was so cute.

We got to the top floor of the building and I saw many people having their dinner, while minding their own business. I guided her with my hand on her small back not being able to keep my hands to myself. I felt her long hair brush my hand. I looked down at her and saw her biting her nails or picking her fingers. I put my hand over hers, she looked up to me with those big hazel eyes, questioning my actions.

"Are you ok? You seemed nervous." I told her. She just nodded and looked around the restaurant. I didn't really know the woman next to me but that was why I brought her here. To know the quiet girl who served coffee in a neighborhood coffee shop. Something I realized was that she was paler than normal and her face was quite thin, it accentuated with her cheeks being so small and with small I meant that they are sucked to the inside. There was nothing in her cheeks.

We reached one of the tables and a waitress came to our table. She smiled at me but then she looked down to Marina in disgust.

Now I understood.

I was firing her. She had been trying to flirt with me for the past month. How do I tell her I didn't want her? I shrugged it off, and cleared my throat. "Tesoro, you have to look through the menu to see what you want to eat." I told her, when I realized she hadn't even picked it up. The waitress left for us to have more time.