I was starting to see why this man accommodated everyone but himself first.
“Great. And why don’t we want to do this?” I prompted.
“Like the UK, we could morph all these terminals to clean energy. We can repurpose the farms, and the whole plant can be lucrative without expanding into the coastline. This would require more workers but it would create more energy and an increase in profit after the first nine months.”
“You go over this some in the file.” I nodded.
“Yes. It’s easier to see though.” He smirked at me like he knew my attention span and that file didn’t get along.
“You’re right.” I smiled as a man passed us.
He eyed us, then changed course, coming over. “You’re Bastian Armanelli right?”
Bastian didn’t answer but his stance changed. He moved a little in front of me and looked the man up and down. “Eyes everywhere. Two guns trained on you now. Don’t try anything you shouldn’t.”
The man sucked on his teeth. “Seems you know when you see a family man, huh? My Irish blood isn’t here to bleed out. I’m just here to tell you, some of us want what you want. My family loves this city and we’ll be there to back you if the partnership comes along.”
With that, he backed away, keeping his face to us until he went out of sight behind a tank.
“What the hell?” I whipped toward Bastian. “Two guns? What are you talking about?”
“It’s security,ragazza.”
“Do I have two guns on me?” I screeched, my heart beating louder than drums in a marching band.
“You will always have a sniper watching out for you if that’s what you’re asking. I won’t risk your safety again.”
“You’re being overprotective. Actually, you’re insane. The food truck was one time.”
He turned to the car. “One time was enough.”
I hurried after him in my combat boots and white summer dress. The match we made would have been an iconic picture. I could picture the tabloids now:The suit and his hippie wife arguing. They’d come up with something catchier, of course, but the point remained. We looked out of place together.
I didn’t even argue with him on the way home. Instead I asked, “So, when I start working at my food truck tomorrow–”
He tried to cut me off but I held up my hand.
“Tomorrow because you said I would be protected after we saidI do.Will there be someone watching me then?”
“Yeah, the fucking paparazzi and everyone else. You can’t work the food truck right now.”
“I want to go back to work.”
“No.”
“Are you joking right now? Don’t you have to work?”
“Yes, and you can stay at the penthouse while I do it.”
I crossed my arms. “I’m so happy this isn’t until death do us part.”
“Are you so sure?” he threw back. “Maybe I won’t divorce your smart ass and you can deal with me for all of time.”
“What wonderful vows. I’m so proud to be your wife. I should recite every vow possible just so we’re clear.” I stomped my big boot on the car’s floor. “I vow to stand beside you only for, what, four months and something days? I vow to have only myself to hold during that time and never you.”
“Don’t forget sickness and health.”
A giggle burst out of me. The vows were always a ridiculous aspect of marriage in my opinion but ours could be so twisted.