I had gone skiing every winter since my mother married Robert, and by now I was pretty good; good enough for the set of pro level skis in front of me

“And we have other surprise,” Victoria chimed in. “Lucas is coming to live with us!” She was positively beaming.

“That’s wonderful,” I said, trying my best to sound enthusiastic. My blood suddenly turned cold, then hot with embarrassment. I wanted to run to my room and hide, but I had to stand there and smile even though I felt like throwing up.

“He just got expelled from boarding school,” Victoria said, her voice lilting a little with disappointment. “So now he come live with us. But in a way, it is wonderful! We are all together now, as one family!”

All together as one family. I wanted to cry. What if I actually died from embarrassment when I met him? And what would he think of me after I sent him those naughty pictures? Especially the naked one?

Whatever he thought, it wasn’t going to be anything like who I really was: a shy, retiring, good girl in every single way except for what I’d done that afternoon, playing around with my stupid phone. Now my carelessness was about to catch up with me, in a big way.

“Honey, are you okay?” Robert asked. I’m sure I looked totally red. It was times like these I wished I wasn’t so pale and didn’t turn bright red so easily.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I managed to say. Strangely I also kind of felt excited. I’d never done anything this crazy before, and I wondered how it all would turn out.

And what was Luca really like, anyway? I’d probably be too mortified to talk to him, and I would never have the chance to find out.

“Let’s all go outside,” Victoria said, ushering us towards the big glass doors that overlooked our massive backyard. There was a bottle of champagne outside, and three fancy glasses.

Victoria excitedly poured us champagne and giddily clinked her glass against ours. The alcohol went down easily.

****

“I told you it was a bad idea sending all those pictures,” Julia said, her little mouth hanging open in a little 'O.' “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” I said. Just thinking about it made me blush.

“I wonder what he’s like,” I said finally. “He seemed really...kind of nice before I screwed up and he stopped talking to me.”

“Amelia-” Julia said in a voice that presupposed I had gone crazy, “What are you going to say when you meet him? It’s going to be really awkward.”

****

I shifted nervously at the airport terminal with Robert and Victoria. Luca’s plane had been delayed, and I was tired. I didn’t know if I could take any more standing and waiting. It was 5pm.

Finally it arrived.  My heart began to pound.

People started walking out of the jet way and into the terminal as I nervously scuffed the carpet with one of my sneakers. I had tried to beg off coming here, saying I was sick. But Victoria’s face had looked so disappointed that I immediately changed my tune, saying I didn’t feel quite so bad; she was a simple thing, and really believed we were one big happy family.

I felt my heart beat even faster as I watched a dark, curly-haired kid who looked my age emerge from the jet way. He was wearing a pair of old Levi’s and a nicely-fitted brown shirt.

He caught my eye and smiled, and started walking toward us.

“Ciao, Amelia.”

Was it really him? Luca looked tired, especially under the unearthly glow of the fluorescent airport terminal lights. It was 7pm by now, and one could see the daylight fading in the sky above the airport.

He was nevertheless smiling warmly, looking happy to see me. I wondered how I looked to him…

I reached out to grab his hand, and without warning he swept me in for a hug. I pressed against his warm body for an exhilarating second as two big arms squeezed me. I pulled away smiling, despite the embarrassment that was tingling through every nerve in my body.

“Hey,” he said, beaming at me as one hand clapped my shoulder. “It’s great to finally meet you.”

“You too,” I managed to say, right before Victoria enveloped him in a massive embrace.

“Ciao, Luca!” They warmly exchanged greetings in rapid-fire Italian. Luca’s tired face suddenly looked completely alive and animated. She put Luca at length, one of her hands on his shoulder, and looked at him proudly.

I shifted uncomfortably, wanting to pull out my phone and poke at it to hide from the awkward moment. Maybe I would have felt better if he wasn’t so good-looking. He was better looking in real life than he appeared in his pictures. Luca simply looked rugged, in a way I’d never seen any of the other boys in my school look. He was a mountain of a man already, even though he was only eighteen. His face was chiseled, and I could see muscles rippling under the skin of his forearms as he waved them when he talked. Even the way he stood made him seem older: relaxed and self-assured, with none of the macho posing and weird energy other teenage boys had.

I tore my eyes away as heat started to pulse from my body. I felt cold resentment start to creep through me skin. I’d been so stupid, flirting with him over the internet. With his looks and self-assurance he’d be one of the popular kids within a week, and I’d never see him again.

“Come on,” Victoria said, “let’s go. We are all going out for dinner.” Her arm was around Luca, and he was beaming.

“I’ve just secured reservations at the Spur in thirty minutes. Let's hurry,” Robert said.

We walked outside into the warm air and piled into Robert's Land Rover. I settled uncomfortably into the back seat with Luca.

“Doing okay?” Luca asked, squeezing my knee, “you look tire.”

“Tired,” I corrected.

“Tired, yes, sorry,” Luca apologized, “thank you.”

“I’m okay. How was your flight?” If this got any more awkward I was going to open the door and jump into the middle of the traffic.

“It was okay,” Luca said. I loved the sound of his voice. I loved his sexy Italian accent.  If only I hadn’t messed everything up. ”but the man sitting next to me, he was so fat--” he put his arms in front of him as if he was hefting a big belly, “he was like, part of the way on top of me, you know?”  He pushed his elbow over my thighs.

I giggled, despite myself.  “Was it like that the entire flight? All the way from Italy?”

“Ah, yes yes. All the way from Bergamo. It was like nine hours of that shit. And he was like, too fat to put down the--what you call thing between the chairs? Never mind, it just really terrible.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, touching his arm.

“I was like, pressed against the window.”

“Good thing you’re thin,” I chuckled.

“I am thinking maybe I am a little more thin now, after being compacted.”

I laughed out loud. Compacted. I imagined Luca smashed against the window of the plane. He was cracking me up with his accent and broken English.

“You probably see the man when he walk out of the airplane. He wear purple shirt, and cowboy hat." I finally collapsed in fits of laughter, the way he described it was too much, it was absolutely hilarious. The man he was describing must have weighed 300 pounds.

“Are you happy to go to Colorado?” he asked, changing the subject. “I ski a little bit already in Italy. I always want to go to Colorado, maybe to ski in Silverton. I hear many good things.”

“Yeah,” I said, “But it's several weeks away, so I'm not too excited. There's still some time and lots of school to go through before we go to Colorado."

“That picture I sent to you is from Montebelluna.”

“Oh?” I squeaked. I felt myself blushing. I wanted to forget all about what happened with the photos.

“Yeah. I think you try to sent me another photo, but I was driving my auto through long tunnel in the Alps. I didn’t get it.”

“Oh,” I said. I felt the tension drain out of me. He had never got that last one after all. I wanted to jump for joy.