and looked up.
Everything had changed. The blinds were open, the lights on, the coffee machine bubbling away, and there was Bryn in the kitchen, looking far more awake than someone who had spent the last day drinking ought to. Perched with his back against the counter was Cristiano, his bare torso glistening with water droplets, nothing but a towel tied around his waist to protect his modesty.
“What’s going on?” Keira cried, startled.
Bryn looked over at her, and frowned, amused by Keira’s paranoid tone. “I’m making coffee,” she said, stating the obvious. “Where have you been?”
“I went to the laundrette,” Keira said, holding up her heavy bag of damp clothes. “I was only gone two minutes.”
Two minutes, clearly, was all it took for Bryn to take the opportunity to feast her eyes upon Cristiano’s well honed body.
“Babe,” Keira said forcefully, looking at him. “We’d better get dressed. We have to go.”
“We have time for a coffee don’t we?” he asked. “While you’re hanging your clothes up to dry?”
Keira dropped the bag on the floor, nonchalantly, and tried to sound light-hearted as she went over and steered him by his shoulders towards the bedroom.
“But I want to take you to the best coffee place in the whole of New York,” she said. “Small batch. Freshly ground. Much nicer than Bryn’s machine made coffee.”
“Oh… oh, okay…” Cristiano said, putting up no resistance. “But… your clothes?”
As she ushered him into the safety of the bedroom, Keira glanced over her shoulder at Bryn. She was watching, smirking, clearly amused by her sister’s flustered haste. Keira gave her a stern expression, a warning look to leave Cristiano alone.
“I can hang your clothes,” Bryn said with a sweet, knowing smile.
“Thank you,” Keira replied, tersely.
She went to shut the door but Bryn wasn’t done.
“Hun, if you think I’m bad,” she chuckled, “Wait until you get him out there.” She pointed to the window. “You’re going to find a whole lot worse than me. Trust me.”
Her body tense all over, Keira shut the door.
Chapter Four
Their first stop was the Upper West Side where they grabbed bagels and coffee to eat on the move. It was a far cry from the long, lazy meals they had shared in Italy, but Keira wanted Cristiano to really get a feel for what life was like in New York City.
“So this is the best coffee in New York, is it?” Cristiano asked, sipping from the paper cup with careful consideration. He didn’t look convinced.
“Oh, yeah, the best,” Keira told him, remembering the lie she’d blurted out this morning. It was good but it wasn’t the small batch, freshly ground coffee she had promised. “In my opinion, anyway.”
Cristiano just shrugged.
They strolled along the sidewalk hand in hand towards the Hudson River. Keira was acutely aware of the amounts of stares Cristiano garnered. She knew there was a discrepancy between their respective attractiveness, but she felt even more like the plain Jane back in New York, because here Cristiano was more than just a catch, he was a rare beast. Bryn had been right. There were far worse than her in the city. Having him here was going to be exhausting.
“What do you think about my sister?” she asked.
Cristiano laughed. “She’s interesting.”
“Interesting how?”
There was a pause, during which Cristiano was clearly trying to choose his words carefully. Finally he settled on; “Pazza.”
“What does that mean?” Keira asked, her mind conjuring up all kinds of options; beautiful, wonderful, alluring, mesmerizing.
“Crazy,” Cristiano said.
Keira laughed. It was a relief to hear him say as much. Unless he had a secret thing for crazy, she was probably safe. From Bryn, at least. There was still the rest of the female population of New York City to contend with.
They walked through Riverside Park, looking at the beautiful river, then headed towards Central Park. Since Cristiano had noticed it from the air as their plane had flown over, Keira deduced that he would also appreciate seeing it from ground level.
“This is so amazing,” he said, looking at the distant skyscrapers that surrounded them. “It doesn’t seem real.”
Keira smiled, remembering how she had said very similar things to him about Italy. It was cool to see him so entranced by her hometown, to see him marvel at things she had long ago forgotten to be inspired by.
They headed eastward, towards the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The culture in Italy had been astounding but Keira was competitive by nature and didn’t want Cristiano to think that his ancient European country had more going for it than New York City did! But there was so much to pack in to the day, they were only inside for an hour or so before Cristiano asked to see more of the actual city.
They took a subway to fifth avenue so Keira could show him Times Square, then headed to eleventh avenue for a stroll along the High Line so he could really take in the sights of the Manhattan skyline. They bought more coffee from one of the vendors along the bridge.
As the afternoon drew on, Keira took Cristiano to SoHo where they grabbed some lunch in one of the cafes. Cristiano seemed to especially like this part of the city, particularly all the fashionistas and interesting clothes shops. In fact, he fit right in in his Italian clothes, and found himself a new jacket that looked remarkably similar to the cut-price one they’d bought from the outlet beside the airport, the main difference being that this one cost fifty dollars instead of ten.
While they were eating lunch, Keira’s phone started ringing. Her first instinct was Bryn trying to find some way to lure them back to the apartment. But when Keira looked at her phone, she saw it was her mom calling. She answered the call.
“Darling, I’ve just been speaking to your sister,” her mom announced. “You have to bring Cristiano around tonight for dinner.”
“No, mom,” Keira said with a wince. “We want to spend the day together. We’ve planned everything out.”
“But I’ve already been to the store,” Mallory replied with a sad whine to her voice. I’ve bought everything to make lasagne.”
“Why?” Keira hissed. “You didn’t even ask me.”
She knew why. If her mom had asked her first she’d have no leverage, no way to bargain and nothing to guilt trip Keira with. This way, she had the upper hand. Keira’s refusal made her look spoiled and ungrateful.
From across the table, Cristiano looked concerned. “Is everything okay?” he asked.
Keira nodded, trying to play it cool. She spoke again into the phone. “Mom, I have to go now. We’ll do dinner another time.”
Her mom sighed loudly. “Have you even asked Cristiano if he’d like to meet me? Because
