"I don't want to go on helicopter rides," I replied. "I just want to spend time with you. Just you."
He unbuckled my seatbelt and pulled me into his lap so that my legs were straddling his lap. Our noses were almost touching.
"I can't promise you a lot of things. I'm not in control of everything that will happen to us. But I can promise you this: I will try my best to keep us together."
In that moment, I knew that it was the best offer that I'd get. So I lowered my mouth onto his, breathing in his scent and the coffee that was on his tongue.
He kissed me like I was ice water on a steamy Cairns day. He drank me in like I was drinking him in, as if he could never get enough of me. Here in the car, we weren't getting wild. We were necking like teenagers.
When a car honked on the street, I broke the kiss, although his hands were still on my back.
"I am not sure about this," I said. "But you are hard to resist."
"So are you." He kissed the tip of my nose. "We should get inside before we give some paparazzo sells pictures of us in a car for too much money and my PR team has to do damage control."
He pulled back out onto Martyn Street. We were heading back to his apartment when his phone rang.
Mother’s Phone Call
He apologized. "I'm sorry, it's my mother." He cleared his throat before accepting the call. "Hello."
"What do you think you're doing?" I heard a female voice scream. "There are photos all over the Twitter of you kissing some girl in a car! We didn't send you to Australia to dally with some random whore."
My heart thumped painfully.
"Mamma," he said. "Please calm down."
"Calm! You tell me to be calm! You are getting on your jet and flying home to Italy at once. You're a disgrace to our name," she hissed. "And we'll discuss this further when you're here."
He looked at me. "I won't be getting on a plane today, Mamma."
"Don't you even think about staying in Australia with that hussy," she said, her voice very quiet now, like a snake waiting in the grass.
"I have deals in motion." Massimo squeezed my hand.
"You will leave them. You will come home and explain your behavior to your father."
"Dad's reputation is far worse than mine," Massimo said. "Before he was married, he dated..."
"I know that I am not the first woman he dated. But I made sure that I was the last. Be careful before you end up shackling yourself to some commoner."
"She has a name, you know."
"I don't care, because you're going to forget it soon. I don't even want to know it. Pay her off so that she never breathes a word about this to anyone and come home."
"I'm not leaving Cairns, Mamma."
"I will call your father," she threatened.
"Please call him," Massimo said. "The country comes before any concerns that you have."
"The nerve!" she screeched. She started cursing in fluent Italian. He pulled the phone away from his ear and pushed the mute button. He leaned over and said, "I'm sorry" right next to my ear. I squeezed his knee. My parents weren't a nightmare, but she reminded me of my craziest aunt.
"Mamma, I'm busy at the moment," he said when she stopped to take a breath. "I'll call you back later. Goodbye."
She screamed as he hit the red button and ended the call. He turned off his phone immediately. He put his hands on the steering wheel but didn't pull out onto the road.
"I'm sorry about her. Sorry about everything."