I gestured for the driver to bring the rest while answering with deliberate indifference. "You don't need to explain your business arrangements to me. These are from my mother. We don't know when we'll be back this way, so she stocked up."
Seeing that I hadn't taken offense, Luca's shoulders visibly relaxed.
"That's fine then. The north end isn't far. Whenever you want to come by, just let me know."
He still didn't know I was moving back permanently. I had no intention of enlightening him.
Aunt Mina started to say something, but watching how attentively Luca hovered over Celina, she thought better of it and held her tongue.
Celina's expression grew guarded, a flicker of calculation behind her doe eyes.
The four of us stood there in that awkward silence—the kind that settles over a room when too many secrets press against too few words—until Celina finally broke it with a theatrical sigh of exhaustion.
Luca immediately instructed the driver to pause unloading, explaining that they didn't have much and could take the elevator first. Seeing him laden with bags of household goods—linens, cleaning supplies, the small intimacies of shared space—I stepped aside to let them pass.
Something like surprise flickered across Luca's face before he hurried into the elevator, Celina tucked close beside him.
As the doors slid shut, I caught my own reflection in the polished steel—and superimposed over it, a ghost of who I used to be. When Aunt Mina had first moved here years ago, Luca had been just as attentive. Running errands. Carrying my things. Smiling as he welcomed me into his home, calling me his "future lady of the house."
How easily history repeats itself with a different face.
Watching the elevator numbers climb, Aunt Mina let out a soft, regretful sigh.
"Are you certain you don't want me to speak with him? You've known each other so long. If this ends over a misunderstanding, it would be such a waste."
I shook my head slowly. "There's nothing to clarify. Luca never lets things fester overnight—that's his rule. If he hasn't explained himself by now, then there's nothing left to explain."
In truth, Luca and Celina hadn't brought much to move. One trip should have sufficed. But after I finished delivering everything to Aunt Mina's apartment and said my goodbyes, there was still no sign of him downstairs.