The Romano Affair

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Aria, as quietly as possible, stepped into the penthouse of the Four Seasons hotel where Colin Romano was checked into. It was six in the morning. She was guessing he was asleep and didn't want to risk waking him up in case he was one of those who were grumpy when their sleep was interrupted.

Everyone, from her boss, to Colin Romano's contact in New York and the hotel management, especially when she had asked to be let in to his penthouse, had told her to be careful when dealing with him. No one wanted to receive any complaints from him about anything.

Aria, on the other hand, thought that if they didn't trust her, they might as well do the work themselves.

She managed to enter silently without any mishaps. In hand was a garment bag with a variety of clothes ranging from official to casual since she hadn't been informed of his schedule yet. She and Morgan had spent some hours picking out just a couple of clothes for him judging his size by his most recent pictures on the internet.

Her cell phone buzzed just as she placed the bag on a sofa.

"s**t!" she cursed, fumbling in her bag to answer it before it caused the man of the hour – or was it millennium - to wake. The call was from his employee.

"Hello," she whispered.

"Aria? Why are you whispering?" a female voice came through.

"Well, Emily, I happen to be in Mr. Romano's penthouse right now and I don't want to wake him up," she whispered again.

"Oh. That's very thoughtful of you but Mr. Romano's already awake."

"He is?" she quizzed, looking around her to see if he was in her line of sight or she was in his.

"I just spoke to him. Informed him that you would be coming by. I called because I realized I hadn't given you his schedule so you could know what clothes he needed for what occasion."

"Uh-huh."

At that time, someone cleared his throat. Startled by the sound, Aria turned around sharply. Her hand over her chest. Her pair of eyes landed on a man, probably in his late twenties. Colin Romano. It had to be him and damn, was he gorgeous.

His cheeks were chiseled like a finely-carved Michelangelo statue. His nose perfectly symmetrical and his lips slightly full, the kind that ends in a cute little smirk at the corners. His hair was in deep dark waves and the way he crossed his arms in front of him causing his biceps to protrude was just marvelous.

She wasn't even listening to what Romano's secretary on the other end of the line was telling her until her name was repeated several times. Emily almost shouting on the phone. That's when she realized she had been staring and in the most obvious way.

"Oh! Tell me," she went back to the conversation.

"I see you've met him," Emily said. "Anyway, I was saying that if you could come by my office, I could set his schedule in your phone so you would be informed. Is that alright with you?"

"Yeah. Okay. I'll come by." She replied before hanging up.

Colin uncrossed his arms and stretched his right hand to her.

"Colin Romano. You must be Ariel," he said. His voice was thick like good music to her ears. The way he rolled that 'r' was just perfect. She could totally get used to being called that way.

"It's Aria," she stammered when she snapped back to reality and proffered him her hand for the handshake that he was offering.

"What's that?" he pointed to the garment bag on the sofa.

"Clothes," Aria replied.

"Oh!"

Before any of them could say one more word to each other, a boy walked into the room. Seemingly, between ages seven and nine years. He had his father's brown eyes and similarly, raven-haired. No doubt they were related.

"Riaz," Colin spoke. The boy approached his father.

"I'm hungry," he said. "Who's this?" He nodded towards Aria while stepping to stand beside his father.

"Will you or should I?" Colin asked her.

She bent and proffered the boy her hand to shake.

"Hey. My name's Aria. What's yours?" she asked.

"Riaz."

The boy then turned to look up at his father.

"Dad, I want breakfast," he said.

"We could order some food to be sent up, right?" Colin addressed her.

"Of course you can," she answered politely.

"Could you do that for me please," he requested.

"Sure. Anything in particular?"

"Nothing. Surprise me,” he told her then turned to his son and said, "You can wait just a little while, can't you?" The little one nodded before the two walked away from her.

Aria let herself out of the penthouse and headed down to the kitchen to request that breakfast be brought up to Mr. Romano's penthouse. It didn't take long since he hadn't specified any kind of food. He was in the living room to receive it. When he noticed that the employees who had brought the breakfast weren’t leaving, he dismissed them. They exchanged confused glances. Aria knew what they had been waiting for, his compliments, so that if he did not like the food, they would take it back and return with a different dish.

“Aren’t you going to give your compliments?” she asked him once the servants had gone.

He was gazing down at the food as though inspecting it. Without looking up, he shook his head. “You tended to it personally. I trust you.”

Those three last words hit her hard. He trusted her! She had tended to the work personally but she hadn’t bothered to taste it. That was the chef’s job. So what if he didn’t like it?

“Could you take this to the dining table? My son’s waiting.”

With that, he walked away. Aria watched his retreating form. Why hadn’t the five-star hotel assigned him maid-servants? She asked herself before recalling that he had just sent them away.

She did as she had been asked and served the eight-year old his breakfast. They chatted over it and were laughing when Colin approached the table and sat. Aria quickly stood up and backed away from the table. This was his place, not hers. All she had to do was lay out what he had to wear. Recalling that she was yet to know what was on his schedule that day, she debated on whether to simply ask him or call Emily. The impulsive her said that she should ask him and she did.

“Mr. Romano," she started to say before he cut her off.

He shook his head. “No. You say it wrongly. It’s Romano.” He rolled his ‘r’s, definitely a born Italian.

“Romano?” Aria furrowed her brows as she repeated.

He shook his head again. “Americans,” he commented. “You don’t speak Italian, do you?” he asked her.

She shook her head.

“Call me Colin.”

“I kind of prefer Mr. Romano. It’s more official.”

He stared at her sternly. “You are not saying it right. I’m ordering you to call me Colin.”

“Okay,” she replied a little confused. “So, Colin,” she said and he nodded. “I need to know what’s on your schedule today.” He raised a brow at her. “Where you're going. Formal or casual occasion. So I can lay out what you need to wear.” She almost choked on her words when he looked at her.

“I’m at liberty today so you are excused,” he blatantly answered.

The brunette blinked severally at his sharp tone.

“Okay. That’s good but…I still need to get your measurements,” she said. “For your clothes, of course,” she added.

Why on earth was she nervous and twiddling her fingers?

“But I could come by later,” she quickly spoke.

“Come by later,” Colin replied. He seemed to pay keen attention to his breakfast.

“Okay, then but," she breathed. "I’ll need to put those clothes somewhere.” It came out as more of a question than a statement.

“Riaz, will you show her to my room?” Colin instructed.

His son was done with breakfast and was glad to show Aria the way. She picked up the garment bag from the sofa and followed the kid.

“I’ll be leaving then.”

She started to walk towards the door when Riaz called out to her.

“Aria,” He didn’t roll his ‘r’s like his father did. “See you later.” He smiled at her. He already liked her.

She smiled back and waved him goodbye.

Aria was on the elevator going down when her phone buzzed. It was Callie looking to pester her on how her morning with the world’s wealthiest was going.

“Hey, you. How’s it going?” she was asked.

“Horrible!” she told. “Either he hates me or he sure speaks out sharply.”

“What?” Callie laughed. “At least he hasn’t said he doesn’t want you around.”

“Oh, that’s what you expected? Who’d say no to a hottie like me?”

“Aria, you say no to yourself plenty of times. That’s why you’ve never had a guy stay too long in a relationship.”

“Oh, shut up,” she retorted. Her best friend knew her too well.

“So he didn’t make a pass at you?”

“I just told you I think he hates me!”

“Well, look at it this way, at least he’s good to look at.”

“He is,” she hated to admit.