Lorenzo Beretta (Unseen Underground 1)

“Fine.” I rolled my eyes and tore open the box to reveal another box. This one was smaller with the signature blue of the designer jewelry shop. My shaky fingers reached for it. “I’m scared to open it,” I confessed to Noemi.

The grin on her face spread wider. “Just open it already!”

Slowly, I flicked the clasp on the front of the box and pulled the top up. “Holy shit.” My breath left me in a whoosh, my eyes not quite believing what was right in front of me.

“Dayuuuuum.” Noemi pushed closer to me. “That’s one huge-ass ring.”

She wasn’t wrong. The dark-blue, shiny stone wasn’t anything I’d ever seen before, and surrounding it were more stones—what I was guessing were diamonds. I’d only ever seen rings like this in the movies or worn by obnoxiously rich people.

“There’s a not

e in here,” Noemi said, pulling a card out of the original box.

I placed the open ring box on the bed in front of us, unable to stop staring at it as I opened up the card. The front was plain, nothing to indicate what it was going to say inside. “I can’t believe he sent me a ring,” I whispered.

“Maybe he’s trying to buy your attention,” Noemi said, snickering. “He clearly doesn’t know you.”

Clearly, he didn’t. Because if he did, he would have known things like that didn’t impress me. If anything, they scared me away. We’d never spent money on things like that. Everything we had was what we needed, not wanted. We were frugal, not wasting a cent of our hard-earned money, but that was because we didn’t have access to the kind of money the Berettas did. We lived opposite lives at totally different ends of the spectrum.

“What does the card say?”

I bit down on my bottom lip as I opened it up, seeing what I assumed was Lorenzo’s scrawl on it, and read each word out loud. “Aida.” I paused, trying not to let my gaze read ahead. “I know you haven’t decided yet, but I wanted to send you something blue to wear on the day if you do say yes.”

“Well…” Noemi cleared her throat. “I’m not sure he gets the concept of something blue.”

“Yeah, me neither.” I closed the card and caught sight of something on the back of it. “He’s given me his number.” My breaths came faster as I said his number in my head. “Does that mean he wants me to call him?”

“Do it,” Noemi said, plucking my cell from next to my laptop. “Call him. Maybe it’ll make it easier to make the decision.” She handed me my cell. “It’s not like you have a lot of time left.”

She wasn’t wrong. The church had been booked by Lorenzo’s mom four days from now. And if I said yes, I’d have to go and buy a dress. Shit. I hadn’t even thought about a dress. I’d blocked it all out, but now it was becoming all the more real. It wasn’t just about me agreeing to become his wife. It was the production of the day. And then what about after? How would it all work?

I groaned and rubbed at my temples. “My brain is in overdrive.”

“Call him,” Noemi repeated as she stood.

“I—"

“Call him.” She nodded, keeping her attention on me for several seconds, then spun around and walked out of the room, leaving me with the huge ring and my cell.

I stared at it for way too long, hoping the numbers would disappear so I wouldn’t be able to call. But they didn’t. They stayed scrawled onto the back of the card, willing me to dial them. So, I did. I bit the bullet, put the numbers into a new contact, then clicked call.

My stomach rolled with nerves as it rang out, and after several clicks, a deep voice answered, “This is Lorenzo.”

“Lorenzo,” I whispered, holding the open ring box in my hand. “This is erm…” I cleared my throat. “It’s Aida.” Silence greeted me, and I wondered if maybe he hadn’t wanted me to call him. What if I’d jumped the gun? Crap. I turned the card over to see if there was a message with the numbers, but there wasn’t. “I…I got your package.”

“Do you like it?” he asked, his deep voice vibrating through the speaker.

“Well…” I bit down on my bottom lip, not sure whether I should be honest with him or tell him the truth. “It’s very big.” I heard a snicker from outside of my bedroom and narrowed my eyes on the half-closed door. Of course, Noemi was listening.

“But do you like it?” he repeated. Did I like it? I wasn’t sure. In another world, maybe I would have been ecstatic with the ring, but in the land I lived in, I couldn’t see myself ever wearing it. But that wasn’t what he’d asked. He’d asked if I liked it, and the truth was, I did. It was pretty.

“Have you tried it on?” he asked, his voice lower now.

“Not yet.”

“Try it on, Aida.”

I swallowed at the sound of him saying my name. It sounded so different coming from his mouth. “Okay.” I slowly reached for the ring, plucking it from the velvet pillow it was wedged in, then slipped it onto my left ring finger. “It fits.” It was so big it extended up to my knuckle. “I…” I closed my eyes, trying to make myself invisible as I asked, “Why me?”