Chapter Four * Not a Honeymoon

"We're not on a honeymoon," she told the driver with a smile, not giving him a chance to say anything as she stepped out of  the car.

The first thing she noticed as she stepped out of the car was the heat, it was bad and it worsened because she just came out of an air conditioned car, she didn't even notice the heat when they were at the airport, but again it was June in Florence.

Looking around the familiar surroundings they were parked in front her father's hotel Hotel BW Famiglia, their branch in Italy. 

She had been here several times for family vacations but couldn't seem to get over the beauty of the city, she couldn't wait to explore and revisit all the sites again.

"Shall we." she was brought out of her thoughts by her new husband, it felt odd calling him her husband even in her thoughts. He held out his hand for her and she eyed it suspiciously and even before she could decline it he put in hers and started moving inside the hotel.

His hand felt warm in most be reassuring in a way it felt good.

"We're on a honeymoon Aurora whether you like it or not and we are a very happy couple that what the world believes and that's what we need to be so you can't go telling everyone that we're not on a honeymoon," Nate said a bit angrily.

He was talking to her like a little child again and she didn't like it, He unnerved her so much she felt like hitting his head with a bat. 

But she couldn't do that, she would never admit it to his face but he was right they needed to act like they were a couple in love and hitting your new husband with a bat wasn't normal behavior for a blushing bride.

As they got to the reception she put up her sweetest saccharine smile and looked up at him with with that adoring wife look and was rubbing her hand on his arm, she hoped to hell that she looked convincing enough because she didn't feel convincing.

"Welcome, Mr Walters, Ms Bentley," the receptionist said, Aurora noted that she was new, a tall slim busty blonde and she obviously had the hots for Nate, given by the way she was gazing lovingly at him and only sparing Aurora a glance to glare at her hand on his arm.

"Mrs Walters please," Aurora said, her voice cold giving off a warning.

Her shocked expression made it clear that she got the message, "Yes bitch this hot hunk is my husband," Rory said to her self.

After the confession she frowned at herself, he was not her husband well he was but only on paper, then why was she acting all defensive against the receptionist, it was all acting she tried to convince herself.

"The keys to the honeymoon suite please?" Nate said to the receptionist.

"Yes sir, right away," the receptionist replied still a little flushed with embarrassment.

"I wonder why he chose the honeymoon suite the penthouse would have been so better, it's probably about keeping up with appearances,"  Aurora thought to herself.

Walking hand in hand Aurora and Nate made their way to the elevator, they were a few other people in it, a couple probably on their honeymoon who couldn't keep their hands of each other, they weren't making out or anything, but they were giving each other loving and adoring looks and touching each others hands and smiling at each other, it was unnerving to look at, and another guy in a business suit looking suave and all, but not as good looking as Nate, Aurora thought to herself. After a few floors they were alone in the elevator.

Aurora looked up at Nate, he hadn't said anything to her throughout the ride, his jaw was tight and he seemed angry and Aurora didn't know why.

~~~~~~

Aurora was looking sexy in the flimsy sundress she was wearing and he was doing best to avoid her and it sure as hell wasn't working, then she goes bitching  to the receptionist and he couldn't help but feel a little proud at that.

Then again she goes and ruins it by eye fucking that idiot in the elevator that just plain pissed him off and then he was confused, he didn't know why he was jealous, he doesn't even like her, she was not his type, but yet he jacks off to her at night, he loved hearing her squeaky to hell voice, it's very confusing, he felt like she lit a fuse in him and he is about to combust.

~~~~~~

They were now in the honeymoon suite, it has an ivory and gold design like every other place in the hotel with a beautiful chandelier hanging in the middle of the very spacious room.

A very comfortable looking king sized bed with an intricate gold design on the bed post and the room had an homey feeling about it, she wasn't sure what it was she couldn't place her finger on it but that is what her father and Nate's father build hotels for it was all about the family Hotel BW Famiglia, and that is the major reason she is now stuck in a loveless marriage to keep the chains of hotels in the family, making it a family run business.

Walking in, she dropped her purse on the bed and sat on it.

"There is only one bed," she said out loud.

"Yes, it's the honeymoon suite the couple isn't meant to need more than one," Nate said.

"Oh, okay." The thought of getting into a bed with Nate no matter how big, was not what Aurora wanted, she just felt like if she slept in the bed with him there will be no sleeping at all.

But looking at the way Nate's face scrunched up with displeasure  as he faced the couch, she knew that sleeping on the couch will be very uncomfortable for him.

"We can share the bed, it's big enough," she said, the words pouring out of her mouth before she can take them back.

"Sure, we can put pillows and stuff," he suggested.

"Alright, didn't you say you had a meeting or something?" She asked him, skillfully changing the topic.

The look on his face changed to annoyance "Oh shit, am going to be late," he said.

"I'll see you later," he continued.

And with that he was gone, With nothing to do Aurora decided to go sight seeing she might not like her husband but she definietrly loved Florence, although she had been threre about five times she couldn't get enough of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few minutes after she got to the room, room service came and their bags were brought into the room, Aurora took a shower because it was so hot, changed into yet another sundress put on a pair of her strappy sandals that she was sure her mother packed, put on some sunglasses and wore a hat.

Looking at herself in the floor length mirror, she can admit to herself that she actually looks good, she is totally getting better at this dressing up stuff, which she absolutely loathed before, but once she gets back to New York, she will go shopping for more comfortable clothes.

She took her bag and her sketch book to draw anything that captures her eye, when she was younger she did anything and everything from learning how to play the piano to ballet which she was terrible at to painting, nothing ever held her attention for more than a few weeks before she wanted to do a whole new thing.

Another thing she tried was sketching, a few months ago her mother gave her an old leather bound book told her all about her obsession with drawing when she was about seven, her mother said she used to carry it everywhere she went trying to draw everything and everybody, and after a while like all my hobbies she abandoned it for something else.

When she opened it she saw sketches of her house, the one she has lived in all her life, of Andrea, of Nate and Ryan and of her Mom and Dad but mostly they were sketches of nature, of the trees that surrounded her parent's property, of the little lake that Nate pushed her in, of the flowers around her house, of the night sky.

It reminded her of how much she loved the outdoors when she was younger, of how much she still loves it.

She put her sketchbook and pencils into her bag and made her way out of the hotel.

"Ma'am, Ma'am." Aurora turned back and saw the driver that drove her and Nate from the airport trying to get her attention.

He was young probably in his late twenties or early thirties and actually handsome something she didn't notice before so it felt weird that he was referring to her as Ma'am.

"Rory, please," she told him.

"I can't call you that it isn't  professional," he answered politely, his expression not giving away anything to her.

"I insist and you're supposed to tell me your name," she answered.

"My name is Simon, Mrs Walters," he said, before she could even respond he continued, "Mr Walters said I should drive you wherever you want to go."

She didn't know what to say about that, she wasn't going to take a car, she just wanted to take a walk in the park, feel the air around her  the grass beneath her toes, to feel free.

"Hmm, I don't need a drive I am just going to the park," she told him.

"Which park Ma'am?" He asked, ignoring her request to call her Rory.

"The Parco Delle Casane and it's Rory, Simon," she said.

"Sorry Rory, I'll drive you there," he said.

"I can walk, it's not that far," she said actually getting a bit irritated this guy was way too eager to do his job.

"Rory, I'll walk you there Mr Walters said to make sure you were safe."

"I thought you were a driver not a bodyguard," she said to him a bit annoyed at his persistence.

"I am anything Mr Walters pays me to be," he replied.

They were going round in circles and frankly it was annoying the hell out of her,  she wanted her privacy but she would have to deal with him and perhaps it would be nice to have a friend here other than bipolar as hell Nate.

"Okay let's go," she said to him, he looked kind of skeptical though like he didn't believe she would give in so easily.

On the way to the park, Aurora badgered Simon until he revealed all his life secrets to her, at least the basic ones.

It turned out he was from America New York even, and he eloped with his wife of ten years when they were eighteen to Italy, because her parents didn't approve of him and they have been in Italy since, he has two daughters who he loves to bits, she could tell by how his eyes lit up as he talked about them Emma who was nine and already a voracious reader and Paige who was just five and wouldn't touch a book without frowning but loved taking in stray animals.

And especially Bernice his wife who he loves to bits and after all this while he couldn't understand why she chose him, but he wouldn't complain, he said she worked as a cook in one of the restaurants here. And that he started working at the hotel about a year ago which explained why she hadn't met him before since she hadn't been to Italy in years.

The park was as beautiful as she remembered a bit crowded with young couples around, or little families having picnics or taking walks.

Simon looked a lot more relaxed than he did at the beginning of the walk, who knew that a man that seemed so cold before could be free, to an outsider she knew we looked like a couple,  A tall man wearing a sky blue polo shirt and jeans with sneakers looking casual and relaxed and a short lady in a sundress walking side by side in a park.

"So what do you want to do," Simon asked as they got to the park

"Well," she began bringing out her sketchbook, "I would like to draw."

They found a spot on one of the picnic tables and she began to draw nature recreating the moment as best as she could on paper while Simon told her more about his family.

~~~~~~~~~~

She looked at what she drew, it wasn't professional or anything but it looked good enough and seemed to have captured the nature well enough with young lovers in the background, it seemed like she didn't study art for nothing.

Simon and Aurora had been in the park for hours, she had long taken off her sandals feeling the grass under her feet, loving the serene atmosphere and the smell of beautiful flowers around her, she felt more relaxed than she had in ages and Simon was like the brother she never had, not that she wanted one because boys were troublesome but Simon didn't seem like someone who tugged on little girls pig tails or pushed them into ponds, even as a child and the love he had for his wife and child made me a bit jealous because she would probably never have her  husband's eyes shine with love as Simon's did for Bernice.

She looked at where Simon was taking a call he had been talking for a while and he seemed tense and he was making signs with his hands, after what seemed like forever the phone call was over and Simon was making his way back to her.

"Mrs Walters  we have to get going now, Mr Walters has sent a car and it would be here any moment from now," he said curtly retreating back to his formal self.

She rolled her eyes at his tone and some how she knew that her husband would be behind his change in attitude.