“Yes,” replied Ava. She held her cell in one hand, a damp cloth in the other, and her eyes were glued to her laptop screen, now littered with images of Nico Cazale.

Multi-tasking, she was in the middle of wiping down her mom’s kitchen and looking through her online store stats and emails.

But in between these two tasks, she’d ended up doing what she had been doing every time she powered up her laptop, ever since her arrival back home: she Googled ‘Nico Cazale’ and devoured every piece of information on him.

Kim, her virtual assistant, was on the line.

“Yes, you want me to go ahead and deal with all the queries or yes, you’ll look into them?” Kim’s voice was laced with irritation.

“Yes, I mean, no. I mean you deal with them, for now.” Ava paused to examine a photo of Nico with yet another beautiful young thing. “I’m still busy uploading the … images …  for the new products.” It was an old picture, judging by Nico’s boyish grin.

She threw down her damp cloth and sniffled into a Kleenex. The first few days of discovering all about Nico’s love life had her in tears. Now the floodgates were under control, sort of.

“Have you got a cold?” Kim asked.

“No. I’m fine.”

“It’s just that you sound unwell.”

“I’m fine.”

“Okay, well, let me know if you need a hand with anything for the new products.”

She knew what Kim was thinking but was too polite to say. What the hell have you been doing for the past week?

“I will. Thanks, Kim. Bye.” Glad to have ended the call, Ava knew she could never afford to lose Kim. This woman was a super VA. She was indispensable. She’d been running Ava’s online store just fine while Ava had been in Italy and now that she was back she really did need to get on with things. She’d sunk a ton of money into buying products from Italy and now she needed to make sure she sold them.

Or else there would be trouble.

Wiping her nose again, she clicked on the pictures on her screen. This man was so annoyingly handsome, and women were always draped around him. She knew these pictures well. Had stared at them for days.

She hated looking at them and yet she couldn’t tear herself away from them either.

It had been seven days since she’d left Nico high and dry. Seven days she had spent moping around her apartment, except for the few times she had gone out to stock up on groceries.

Seven days where she had wondered whether she had been hasty in jumping to mile high conclusions and rushing back home.

Only the imminent arrival of her mom and sister tomorrow had propelled her into getting out today. She had hoped that cleaning up her mom’s apartment, having a change of scenery, might motivate her into getting some actual work done, instead of endlessly and obsessively reading about the man who was out of her league.

The man who was also the father of the child she now carried. Something he had no knowledge of.

She touched her belly again, something she been doing a lot ever since she’d found out. She still had a few months to think things through; she was only around six weeks pregnant and the baby wasn’t due until mid-November. Time was on her side.

Time to figure out what she was going to do.

In the cold light of day in Denver, away from the headiness of Verona, Venice, and Nico, she was aware of her haste in rushing back. Staring at the countless gossip column inches and photos of Nico and various beauties from his past, she had to wonder: what had he ever seen in her?

Finding him with that woman in his office had tipped her over the edge. She’d left Verona and flown back to Denver, leaving her mother and sister wondering what on earth had happened.

Now she was left wondering if she’d done the right thing.

Shouldn’t she at least have given Nico the chance to explain himself? Could a man really be different things to different women?

The shock of her pregnancy and the sudden panic of being with a man she couldn’t trust, who might hurt her again, had panicked her into fleeing. Nico had never even told her he loved her.

Maybe he didn’t love her.

Maybe a man like Nico was incapable of loving anyone. And the only way he operated was by having many women at his beck and call.

Something about the air in Verona had made her throw caution to the wind, and the beauty of Venice had made her drunk on life and love. Her guard had come down, and she’d let Nico in. Somewhere, somehow, she had started to think that this jaw-droppingly handsome man would want her. She had made the mistake of allowing herself to believe it.

But even though she had tried to overlook his past and his reputation, believing he had changed, her doubts about herself never really disappeared. It wasn’t just the woman in his office, or the women everywhere that he seemed to have dated at one time or another.

It was her.

Why would a man like Nico Cazale ever be interested in her?

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