Harbinger Of Glory

Chapter 333: Birthday [2] (GT - !)

The candle by the dinner table was lit when the door to the bedroom opened.

Leo, the culprit of said lit candle, looked up at that, but for a moment, that was all he did as he stared at the figure ahead of him.

She had changed into something simple, a dress that fell just above the knee.

She had her hair down, and she was looking around the apartment as she walked toward him, taking in what he’d done with the space, the table set properly, the dishes covered, and the multiple candles doing what candles do in dimly lit rooms.

Then her eyes came to him.

He was in a white loose-fitting t-shirt with a silver chain sitting against his collarbone.

She also stared, finding something intensely appealing in that look of his.

She reached the table and looked at him with a small smile.

"Who else have you done this for?" she said with a teasing smile as Leo shook his head once.

"None, my lady."

"I believe you," Vittoria said as Leo pulled a chair out for her to sit.

Then he lifted the covers from the dishes one by one, and her eyes went wide at the food selections in front of her.

"Leo."

"I had to learn them properly," he said, settling into his own chair.

"Didn’t take that long, but it did take a lot of wasted groceries," Leo continued as she looked at the table and then at him and then back at the table again.

"Eat," he said.

And with that, the young couple began to work their way through the food.

The conversation over dinner was easy.

It drifted from football to Italy, from Mia’s latest disaster to Leo talking about Jake’s unhealthy attachment to his car, with the duo never staying on one thing for too long.

Vittoria spent most of it eating and occasionally threatening to steal food from Leo’s plate whenever he stopped paying attention long enough.

When the plates were mostly clear, Leo threw his napkin onto the table and stood up without explanation before disappearing towards the kitchen, followed by the gaze of Vittoria, who was wondering what was next now.

When he came back, he did so with a smile and a cake in hand.

She looked at it and then looked at him.

"How did you know?" she said.

"Know what?"

She pointed at the cake.

"That’s my favourite flavour and colour!"

Leo set it down in front of her. "Gianna."

Vittoria shook her head slowly with the smile of someone filing a complaint they didn’t actually mean.

"Your taste is genuinely strange," Leo said as he stood behind her, "but anything for my lady."

At that, Vittoria burst out laughing, but just as she began to stop, he held up one finger.

"Bear with me."

And then he sang the" Happy Birthday " song, only he did it in Italian.

His pronunciation wasn’t flawless, and he missed a note somewhere in the middle, but he committed to it anyway.

By the time he finished, Vittoria was already applauding with a smile she couldn’t quite get rid of.

When he finished, she blew the candle out.

"Happy birthday," Leo said and then leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

When he pulled back, Vittoria stared at him for a second.

Then she pointed at him with a fork.

"Warn me next time because I might pounce on you!"

"Yes, Milady," Leo said with a little bow, which was funny, but Vittoria was enjoying it.

By the time the evening settled down, they had ended up on the couch.

The apartment had gone quiet, and Vittoria was half tucked into his side when she tilted her head slightly.

"Leo."

"Mhm."

"Do you want to know what I wished for?"

He thought about it as his chin rested on top of her head and then tilted it slightly.

"I would," he said. "But doesn’t that break the rules?"

She looked at the ceiling and continued anyway.

"I wished," she said, "that it could be like this. At least once a year."

She went quiet after that, and so did he as they both sat with what she had just said.

They weren’t strangers to relationships, though most of their experience came from observation.

They knew it wasn’t always going to go swimmingly, but they were going to do their best.

After seemingly coming to terms with herself, Vittoria turned, shifting in his arms until she was facing him, and they looked at each other in the low light of the apartment.

"Thank you," she said. "I really needed a presence today. On a day that’s supposed to be mine."

She held his gaze.

"I’m glad it was you."

Leo looked at her for a moment, and then he raised his hand.

Between two fingers was a small box that drew Vittoria’s attention as he brought it to her face.

"This is why I was late," he said as Vittoria raised a brow while Leo pushed the box towards her, indicating that she should take it.

She opened the box carefully and nestled inside, against dark velvet, was a pair of earrings, finished in silver and sapphire white.

Vittoria stared at them for a moment before looking up.

"Leo..."

"That wasn’t actually the one I went looking for," he admitted.

Her gaze flicked back to the earrings.

"What do you mean?"

Leo leaned back into the couch.

"I was planning to commission something for you so I could give it to you later!"

"Of course you were."

"I went into the shop to talk to them about it, and then I saw those."

Vittoria lowered her eyes to the box again.

"And?"

"And I spent about an hour pretending I wasn’t going to buy them."

A smile tugged at her lips.

"An hour?"

"Maybe 2?"

"That’s more believable," she said as Leo pointed at the earrings.

"I liked the way they were made. The detailing, the finish, all of it. They felt..." he paused, "I don’t know. Like something you’d wear."

Vittoria looked at him for a second before looking back down.

"So I bought them," Leo continued. "And then I commissioned the other one anyway."

"This looks beautiful, and I can’t wait to see the other one you commissioned," Vittoria said, not bothering to put up a reluctant front because that would be an insult to Leo.

She looked at them for a second longer but then turned back to look at Leo.

"You just keep getting more and more charming," she said quietly.

"Don’t tell anyone," Leo said, leaning into her ear.

She laughed and handed them to him before turning slightly.

He leaned forward and helped her put them in, his fingers careful at her ear, and she stayed still while he worked.

"There," he said as she picked up her phone, turned it to selfie mode and checked.

Then, when she saw Leo’s attention move away from her a bit, she paused, adjusted the angle and took a picture but her shutter sound, which she hadn’t turned off, made Leo realise what she had done.

"What are you doing?" he said as Vittoria kept on with the picture.

In the frame was the earring, and the side of her face, and behind her shoulder, just visible, the white of his t-shirt and the line of his shoulder.

She looked back at him over her shoulder with a smile that had made up her mind.

"Finally letting people know I’m taken," she said.

Leo looked at her, and if he was being honest with himself, something about the way she said it made him feel much happier than he already was.

She saw it and shook her head a bit before she turned back to her phone and posted the picture before he could say anything else.

Then she set the phone down and turned back and settled herself against him again, as he pulled her in, and they found the position they had been in before.

And then that was it, for the day!

A day that was for one, but had been for the both of them