28. Came to see Luca.

BETH

I knocked on Luca's door for the umpteenth time that afternoon. He had called the day before to tell me to come to see him at his place so we could catch up on our old times and how life has been since then for both of us. He also sent his address and here I was, in front of the house at the address he gave me and no one seems to be home.

"I thought he said he was home? Why isn't he coming to open the door for me?" I asked myself as I took out my phone from my bag. I was about to call him when the front door of his house opened. "Dude! I've been knocking on your door since…" My voice trailed off as I looked up from my phone's screen to see that it was not Luca that came to open the door, it was Tony. "Uhm, hi Tony. Didn't know you were home." I said.

I didn't even know they lived together. Yes, they're brothers and I was aware of that, but my mind never went to the fact that they could be living under the same roof. Besides, Luca called the house his place but now that I think about it, it was going to be Tony's place. Tony is the one in the country before Luca returned, so I guess that's where he stays.

There was a look of surprise on his face when he saw me. "I… didn't know you were coming?" He said, but it sounded more like a question.

"Yeah," I cleared my throat abruptly. "I came to see Luca."

"Ohh," he said and nodded slowly. "Come in." He said and opened the door wider for me to come in.

"Thanks," I replied to him as I walked in and dropped my bag on one of the sofas in their sitting room. Then, I sat down. Tony was about to walk inside when I called out to him. "Please, tell Luca I'm here."

Tony turned to face me. "Err, about that. Luca isn't home."

"What?!" I asked, wanting to make sure I heard him right. "Luca isn't home?" I looked at the time on my wristwatch. On my way here, I had thought I was late already, and here he was telling me his brother isn't even home. Damn. "He told me to get here by 3 pm. I left work because of him, and now he's not available?" I scoffed while I was ranting as if Tony was the one at fault.

"Calm down," Tony said and chuckled lightly. "He didn't go far. He said he was going to have a visitor, so he went to get some stuff. Snacks, I think. We've exhausted the ones at home." He stated calmly.

"Ohhh," I nodded my head in satisfaction. For a moment there, I thought he forgot that we had to meet at his place.

"Yeah," Tony said, then he walked back to the sitting room. He switched on their six inches television and began to move from one channel to another as if looking for the right channel for me. Then, he suddenly stopped it on a particular channel. Looking at the name, it was Super Sport. I scoffed as he dropped the remote on the stool beside the decoder and went ahead to sit, watching the sports channel.

"You don't even know how to treat a visitor," I stated as I stared at him unbelievably.

"Me?" He asked, turning to face me from where he sat down.

"There's no other person here, so of course, it's you!" I said and shrugged, an expression of 'isn't it obvious' present on my face.

"What did I do?" He asked innocently as if he truly didn't know what he was doing.

"You have a female visitor here and you're watching Super Sport? A sports channel? Showing football? Like…" my voice trailed off as I gave him a look telling him to reason with me. "I mean, do you get it? Who does that?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know. Anthony?"

"Sorry, what?" I asked, unsure of why he mentioned his name.

"You asked who does that. I mean, yes, I do!"

I rolled my eyes at him and rested my back on the chair. Then, I brought out my phone and began to move from one social media app to another just to distract myself from him. After a while and I was tired of doing the same thing, I spoke up. "How long is Luca going to take?"

"He should be here soon. I don't know why he's this late. The supermarket he went to is just three streets away." Tony replied to me.

"Sounds like a never-ending journey to me," I muttered. Silence followed, but after a few minutes, Tony broke the silence.

"Uhm, Beth?" He called, staring at me.

"Yeah?"

"What's with you and Luca? You two weren't like a thing then right?" He asked, taking me aback.

"Uhm, excuse me? Where did that come from?" I asked, unsure of what to say to him. I didn't know why he was asking me, so I wanted to be careful with any reply I give him.

"My mouth, obviously." He said, trying to make a joke.

I rolled my eyes at him. "I mean, why did you ask?"

"You two seem close. Like, really close. And when you were talking in the bar the other day, you sounded offended when you said he left without texting or informing you and all that." Then, he paused. "Y'all had a thing going on before he left?"

I chuckled lightly. "Do people have to have something going on before they care when someone leaves?"

"No, no," he objected quickly. "I honestly just wanted to know. I am his big brother, you know. I should know about my brother's affairs."

I rolled my eyes at him one more time when he played the big brother card. "Whatever."

"So?"

"Yeah, we had a thing going. It's called friendship." I replied to him, making him giggle. He was probably expecting to hear something else from me.

"So, you're saying you and Luca weren't into each other? I mean, it's like I see a—"

I cut in. "We weren't and we aren't, Tony. Just drop it."

"No offence, really. I only wanted to know about the type of girls my brother follows around." He said, but deep down I felt that wasn't the reason he asked. But what do I know?

We were still discussing when I heard the front door getting open. I could tell already that Luca was here, so I immediately stopped talking. Tony also did the same.

"I'm home!" Luca screamed as he walked into the house from the front door. He was about to speak to us when he saw that we were staring at each other without any word, he spoke again. "Am I interrupting something?"