After wrapping up the lesson we walked out to my car. “Thank you, Amelia,” Luca said.

“Sure, no problem,” I said. “I’m sorry about what happened at your school in Montebelluna.”

“Montebelluna,” he stressed, correcting my pronunciation. “Someday I will teach you Italian.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of the Texas accent."

“Don’t. It sounds nice."

We arrived at my car. “You’re a lot different than you seemed at first,” I said.

“You are, too,” Luca said. “I saw you around school a little today. You and Julia.”

“Oh.”

“America is weird,” he continued. “Some of the kids act really mean. It is different in Italy.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I think everything in America is kind of a popularity contest. Maybe it’s different in other parts of the country, I don’t know. But that’s how it is here, take it or leave it.”

“Yes, that is what it seems. Everything here is about status.”

“Yeah. Back when my mom was still alive we were kind of poor and we lived in a really small town. It was totally different. No one cared about how much money you made, or how cool you were, or what kind of vehicle you drove, or whatever. It was totally different back then.”

“You have a boyfriend?” he asked offhandedly. I shifted with embarrassment.

“No,” I said, pulling my hair out of my face and starting the car. I was glad it was dark, because I could feel my face getting hot.

“No?” Luca sounded genuinely surprised. “Why not? You are really beautiful, if you don’t mind me saying it.”

I could feel myself getting really red now.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Boys don’t ask me out.”

“Well, I am sure you will have boyfriends soon, in university.”

“That’s what everyone tells me,”

“You can’t just be serious all the time, Amelia,” Luca said, with a serious edge to his voice, “You need to have some fun, too.”

“Easy for you to say. You have all the girls you want.  I heard your mom and my dad talking about you. You sound like you’ve been around.”

“I don’t have all the girls I want. The girl I want is in England somewhere. I am never going to see her again.”

****

“How is your tutoring of Luca going?” Robert asked me one morning as we sat in the Starbucks drive-thru, just the two of us.

“It’s going well,” I replied. “He’s smart, so he’s easy to teach.”

“I know I probably don’t have to tell you this, but be careful with him. He’s got a reputation.”

“I know all about his reputation.  I don't think anything of it.  He's a nice boy and I don’t want to hear his 'bad reputation' mentioned again,” I said testily.

“Okay, that's fine. I just want to protect you, that’s all. You and Luca are spending a lot of time together.”

“I know, because he wants to learn better English. That’s the only reason.”

“Just be careful. I know you don’t--”

I was irritated now. “Do you really think I would fuck my stepbrother?” I bristled.

“Amelia!” Robert looked at me with surprise. “Language.”

“What? I’m not twelve anymore. He’s serious about learning, and I want to teach. I’m not doing anything wrong, and you’re lecturing me.”

“I just care about you, sweetheart. You’re all I have of your mother.”

“All I do is study anyway, so it doesn’t matter if I spend a bunch of time tutoring some Italian kid.”

“Okay, okay, okay. I just want you to be careful.”

“Boys don’t ask me out anyway. So you have nothing to worry about.”

Chapter 3

It was one week before the end of the semester. Luca and I had just finished up a studying session and were walking back to my car in the dark.

“Can you drop me off at the Walgreens on the way home,” Luca asked. “I have to buy something. I can walk home from there.”

“Sure,” I said. I enjoyed the time I spent with him, but the rush I’d felt when I first met him was gone. And he seemed totally hung up over the English girl, anyway. “Your English is getting a lot better.”

“Thanks,” he said. “So we leave for Aspen next week--are you excited?”

“Yeah."

“You don’t sound very excited.”  The truth was, I wasn’t. I just wished there was something more going on in my life. Like a boyfriend, maybe.  Luca, sadly, turned out to be a goody-two-shoes like me.

“Oh!” Luca said excitedly. “I forgot to tell you: I can’t study together tomorrow. I’m going out with a girl.”

“Great. Who is it?” I asked, trying not to show the obvious distress inside me.

“Carrie St. Simone.”

Carrie St. Simone. One of the most popular girls in school. Go figure. She’d been dating the starting quarterback on the football team until last week, when she unceremoniously dumped him in a move that had left everyone tittering about it in the hallways since it occurred. Her father owned a company that made pipefitting tools used in the oil industry, and was even richer than Robert.

I gritted my teeth and tried to fight the emotion welling inside of me. Just like I had feared, he was being adopted by the popular kids. I realized at that moment that I had been holding on to a fantasy about getting with Luca, and now it was evaporating in front of my eyes.

“Well,” I said, “I hope it all goes well for you tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Amelia. And thanks for taking the time to tutor me. I really appreciate it. Not many people would do that.”

Chapter 4

Aspen, Colorado. Home of billionaires, trust-fund ski bums and scary cougars with fake boobs. We came every year, and every year the place was just as gloriously obnoxious as it was the previous year.

Our charter plane touched down on the runway of the tiny airport, in the middle of a dramatic snowscape, with 14,000 foot mountains rising into the sky in every direction.

“Bellissima,” Luca whispered to himself as he looked out the window.

 

I turned sourly back to my phone. I was texting Julia, telling her how much I hated Luca for going out with Carrie. She was commiserating, as usual. The one upshot of having miserable friends was having someone to complain with.

At least I wasn’t stuck in Pittsburgh like Julia was. The moment I stepped out of our chartered jet and into the snowy paradise that awaited us I was guaranteed to forget my disappointments; at least for a little while.

“Amelia, you are coming here for every winter?”

“Yeah,” I said, looking up for only a second. Luca kept trying to talk to me but I was having none of it. I got up impatiently as soon as the plane taxied to a halt and grabbed my bags.

“I was thinking you would have the black people to carry your bags, because you are so rich,” Luca said, poking fun at the history of the American south which was the last subject he studied in his history class.

I giggled, despite the fact that I was trying to stay angry. I remained silent.

“Okay,” Luca said. “Whatever. And you know, the black man has a long...” he made a motion near his crotch indicating the penis. I rolled my eyes.

“I think a little of the cazzo could make you happier, no? You have been acting angry towards me lately.” I decided to ignore him and walked off the plane carrying my stuff. If Luca had been more of a gentleman, and less of a player, he would have helped me with my things.

****

We hit the slopes at nine the next morning. Actually, Luca and I hit the slopes while Victoria and Robert slept in. Victoria had a typical European attitude towards alcohol, which is to say she found American attitudes towards drinking overly-restrictive, and we had stayed up late polishing off a few bottles of Italian wine which Luca had brought with him in his luggage, duty free. It still hadn’t been enough to loosen me up, however, and I had gone to bed early, claiming I felt sick.