Florence, Italy

Laurie arrived in Florence during the last week of September. It was a small city but not exactly quiet. Tourists were everywhere. He was able to find a nice and fancy apartment for himself close to the university, so he didn't have to buy a car. That was why he loved European cities. He attended his classes in the morning and had the rest of the day free. Free to do homework, go out with his classmates, and try to find Amy.

When she ignored his last call with the crying and the apology, he figured out it was definitely over. Regardless, he missed her and when he received confirmation from the University of Florence, he debated whether he should go or not. But then he remembered Amy telling him that he should choose based on himself and not her. And who knows, deep in his mind he still held the idea of repairing what he broke. The Marches knew how to forgive, right? He attended different churches every time, went to museums, and all the places she said she loved. A few times, he stood in front of her museum but retracted himself. It would have been too obvious to visit the place where his ex-girlfriend worked.

A month into the semester, Laurie was getting more confident in his classes. At first, with everything he had in mind, he remained quiet. There were a lot of classmates from social sciences, which meant they had much more theory to argue. His business classes didn't prepare him to debate on gender, decolonization or politics. A couple of times the professor had singled him out, forcing an opinion on the matter and he felt really uncomfortable as everyone looked at him expecting a deep answer. Therefore, he set himself to prepare better. He underlined the readings and took notes on everything. He was getting better.

"All I'm saying is, aren't these objects better preserved here?" A young man argued.

"That's not the question. They don't belong here. They're the result of years of spoiling and exploitation. Like these Benin bronze pieces, they massacred the kingdom" Laurie intervened.

"Yes, European colonization caused grave damage to the indigenous populations. But, it also brought a lot of progress."

"'Progress' they didn't ask for. And let's be very careful about what we call progress." A few classmates nodded in agreement to Laurie's argument.

"Alright, class, let's leave it there. Good discussion. Laurie, good job, it's nice hearing your voice at last. I'll see you all on Thursday, please do the reading." The teacher ended the debate and everyone made their way out. Laurie followed his classmates when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, you argue well," It was Chase.

"Thanks. I still don't agree with most of what you said."

"That's what college is for, isn't it? Anyway, we have a party next saturday, why don't you come? My girlfriend is interested in these issues too, I think you'd like what she says. Plus, she's American too."

"Yeah, sound good. Thanks."

"So how're classes going?"

"Better, yeah," Laurie said because of course, he unloaded all his frustration on Jo.

"Yeah?"

"It helped a lot talking to you beforehand."

"Oh really. How many academic terms were you able to squeeze?" Jo asked playfully.

"A few, thank you very much." They both laughed.

"So, what plans do you have?" Jo asked him.

"Nothing, really. Just homework."

"That's odd coming from you," Jo pointed out. "Why don't you call Amy? I'm sure she has something."

"I don't know."

"It's weird you haven't seen her in the city."

"It's not as small as you think it is. Besides, she might also be busy."

"Mhm..." Jo hummed dubiously.

"Actually, now that I remember. This guy invited me to a party." Laurie said to change the subject.

"There you go, see."

"I don't think I'm going."

"Why not? You've always loved parties. Is something wrong with you? You don't say much about friends there."

"I'm still working on it."

"How are you going to meet anyone if you don't go out?"

"Look at you, wanting to socialize."

"I'm not talking about me, it's about you."

Fine, fine. I'll go. But it's a lame party..."

"I'll rescue you," Jo said. How many times have they rescued each other from horrible dates and events?

Saturday arrived and he really didn't want to go. But he supposed Jo was right. He hung out with a few classmates, but their friendship was still raw. How much would it hurt a party? The guy who invited him annoyed him as much as those acquaintances he had among the rich families, but he didn't have to spend all night with him. He ended up putting a blazer and walking to the guy's address.

"You made it!" Laurie was greeted by his… friend? "It's not like parties back home, but it's good," he continued speaking as they entered the house.

"Hey, this is Laurie." He presented him to a friend.

"Hey, man. American, too?"

"I'm half Italian."

"Cool," Chase said.

"Are you living on campus?"

"Amm no. I was able to rent a place for myself."

"That's awesome," Chase pointed out. They left his friend and guided him out to the patio. "Let's see, where are they?" He looked around until he found his group. "Here, Amy! I'd like to know someone."

Laurie stood frozen for a couple of seconds. Of course, the universe would make Amy this guy's girlfriend. Now he really hated him. He stared at her and he was sure he was going to remember exactly what she was wearing that day. A blue silk scarf, white shirt, blue-navy, pleated skirt that reached below her knee, nude heels. Her hair was a little shorter and she had a side fringe. She wasn't alone, she was with a group of friends who stared at him.

"Laurie Laurence, from beyond the grave!" Said Amy. "We come from the same town, neighbors."

"No way." Said Chase. "The world is indeed small."

"It gets smaller every day," Laurie said, trying to appear calm.

"Give me a moment," Amy said to her group. "I'll get you a drink." She said walking into the building. He followed her closely.

"Here," she said, handing him a drink she knew he liked. "I didn't know you were going to be here."

"You knew I was applying here."

"I mean the party."

"It's a small city."

"Chase says you take classes together?" She asked, confused. Chase was an international lawyer, not really into culture.

"International Heritage Law," he specified. "He has a lot of interesting opinions," they both laughed.

"I've missed you," she said with a smile on her face.

"Me too," Laurie smiled back. "I got a little worried about you."

"Sure," she said with a bit of resentment.

"You didn't answer one single message."

"Felt a little abandoned there, Laurie."

"Me too. You disappeared, that date wasn't even something important."

"I had to concentrate on my exam anyway."

"I figured you'd said that."

"Maybe you're telepathic."

"You know, there was a time when I could read your thoughts."

"In bed, you mean?"

"Yes, and afterward." They looked at each other. "I don't know, maybe it's normal."

"It's not." He didn't know how to continue the conversation after that.

"You look great."

"I know, it's these clothes. Now that I have the scholarship I can spoil myself to look pretty."

"No, I mean, yes, you look pretty wearing this. But you've always looked beautiful. You are beautiful."

"Oh, well, Haven't heard that in a while."

"Doesn't Chase tell you you're beautiful? Oh no, he's probably busy in his drama club or something."

"Debating, don't be mean. He loves it."

"Yeah, I noticed. Does he really have to use the word "episteme" every time he speaks?"

"It's not that bad." she laughed.

"I thought I did bad with Randall, your boyfriend denies colonization."

"He enjoys being the devil's advocate," Amy argued. "I'm not dating him to exchange political arguments. I guess we both failed in finding morally perfect partners."

"You could say that."

"Are you dating anyone problematic at the moment?"

"No."

"Trouble fitting?"

"Well, I'm not entirely Italian, nor entirely American. So… it's like trying to fit in in Concord all over again."

"I have to say, I somehow feel like I fit in more easily here. It's easier when no one knows my family to make comparisons."

"Yeah," Laurie said, taking a sip. "Are you telling him about us?"

"He's going to know eventually. Maybe I should tell him before someone else does."

"Where's Carina?"

"Milan, her sister is doing the First Communion."

Amy woke up in Chase's apartment. She climbed out of bed and made coffee. She knew this would happen eventually. Florence was a rather small city, not seeing Laurie ever would be nearly impossible. And then, he turns out to be that interesting friend Chase talked her about. She felt a little lost at the moment.

"Hey," she felt Chase walking towards her and kissed her lightly. He went to grab a cup of coffee and looked at her as her sight seemed lost. "Morning," he waved his hands to catch her attention. She smiled at him.

"Listen, I have to tell you something," he turned to look at her worried. "Laurie… he and I kind of dated early on in the year."

"Oh,"

"Since Thanksgiving, really. We broke up in April."

"You kind of dated."

"It's complicated, we didn't even tell our families." She watched Chase react. He wasn't exactly happy, but he didn't look angry either. "I just didn't want to point that out yesterday with everybody there."

"Sure. So, are you friends now?"

"Like I said, it's complicated. We are neighbors back at Concord, my sister is his best friend and our families are very close. So, it's hard not to know about him and be around him during holidays and vacations. I just wanted you to know, because Carina knew about it and other people. They might mention something and I didn't want you to learn about it from someone else."

"Ok," Chase nodded. He looked thoughtful. Amy knew he wasn't the most confident person ever, but to his credit, this was an awkward situation.

"But, it's just when my family is around. I doubt we'll see much of each other here." She didn't know how wrong she was until a couple of weeks later.

Amy went back to her apartment. She was exhausted; she didn't need to sleep but her mind wouldn't stop thinking. Last night was weird. She didn't expect to see Laurie at that party, and then he mentioned stuff and ahh. She took a shower and prepared to see friends. Carina arrived in the afternoon and Anette was coming to spend time together.

"Thanks for letting me stay the night, my mother is worse every day!" Anette said, dropping her phone on the table where Amy and Carina were sitting.

"Sure it can be that bad," Carina mentioned.

"Try dealing with her, she's never around and when she's there it's horrible."

"Does she work?" Amy asked.

"She's a therapist, attends people with terminal diseases."

"Wow!"

"Sounds stressful," Carina said.

"Money's good, though. What about you Amy?"

"My father is a minister. He volunteered to go to Iraq as a chaplain. My mother is a housewife but she does a lot of charity work in the community."

"You don't say it very enthusiastically."

"I'm sorry, it's just that it's a lot sometimes. My father used to have money, my sister Meg still remembers how it was. Now the only thing we have from that is the old house. He trusted too much. Sometimes I think he cares more about morals than having food for us. "

"High expectations?"

"The highest. My parents are always trying to be morally perfect, it drives me crazy." Amy said. She loved and admired her parents, but there had been times when they frustrated her.

"What about you? Is your family normal?" Anette asked.

"Yes, we're pretty boring. Sorry girls." Carina said happily.

"Sounds great," Amy replied.

"Where's Chase, by the way?" Carina asked.

"Umm… I don't know, some group meeting or something."

"Yes, but isn't it better when he's not around?" Anette confessed.

"Hey," Carina tried to stop her.

"What! We both know he's not worthy."

"But then, who is it?" Carina replied.

Amy continued with her life as usual. She attended her classes and did the homework, then she went to work and on dates with Chase. She filled up every single time she had free time with friends.

"Do you think one day we could be in art history books?" Carina asked one day, as she applied the last details to her copy of Bouguereau's Head of a Young Girl . "One day, art students will copy our work."

"I don't know. I try not to think about that."

"Wouldn't you want to be a genius?"

"I nearly left my dream of becoming a painter thinking like that. Before coming here I had decided to drop it and become an art historian or something related, but not painting."

"Really?" Carina asked, surprised. She couldn't imagine Amy being anything but a painter. "How did you come back?"

"This school. I got frustrated because I thought the traditional painting was dead, this school proved it wrong. Laurie showed it to me."

"Oh," Carina was intrigued. In all this time Amy hadn't mentioned him at all. She told her about the party but nothing further.

"Anyway, who wants to be a genius?" Amy asked, trying to change the course of the conversation.

"I would like the title."

"You'd never had a normal life!"

"Yeah, but who wants normal?"

"I do. I want the husband for life, the kids, and the house. I mean, I also want to work and be successful, but I don't want to give up the first."

"You realize that would be much easier if you were a guy?"

"I do. It sucks!" Amy cursed. "But at least, we could work at home."

"That's true."

"Alright class, we have a new model for the week." The professor presented a woman in her early thirties. He let the students work with her, passing through the easels, doing corrections and commentaries. This semester Amy felt professors putting more attention on her works. It was normal, they wanted to make sure she was worthy of the scholarship, which added pressure to everything. She didn't want to disappoint them and herself. The class ended a couple of hours later. Once the model had gone, in the middle of all the noise of bags and chairs moving, they heard an annoying classmate.

"Poor dear, I expected a better model. Shouldn't they try to find beautiful people. I don't want to paint ugly people." Samantha was one of those annoying, pretentious students who believed the world turned around her. She usually demanded to be in the first line, right in front of the model. Most of the class hated her. She certainly knew how to find people's weak points; in Amy's case, she had commented on her nose. To Amy, it was like Jenny Snow all over again.

"Well, I think there is more than one way to be beautiful… and ugly for that matter," Amy commented as they passed next to her. Anette laughed quietly, throwing a look at Samantha.

"You killed her!" Anette exclaimed after telling everyone what happened in class.

"I did not," Amy tried to brush it off, although internally she enjoyed it.

"You should have seen her face," Anette continued laughing. Amy smiled and collected the plates to leave them on the counter.

"Hey, are you ok?" Carina came in with more dishes.

"Yes. It was kind of amazing."

"Sure it was."

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Carina asked one more time. At some point, someone proposed to go to a bar. Amy drank very little and she wasn't in the mood to go and have fun.

"I'm fine," Amy reassured her friend.

"I can stay with you," Chase offered.

"No, I'm fine really. I'm tired. I think I'm going to bed as soon as I finish cleaning." He gave in, gave her a quick peck, and left with everyone else.

As she said, she finished cleaning. Quickly she prepared to go to bed, but after thirty minutes, she still was awake. It has been two weeks and she had been able to avoid Laurie successfully. At least physically, because she thought about him every now and then. She missed him. He was excited about his Masters, and now he was here and she hadn't even asked him how he was. She looked at her phone for a while, before searching for his contact.

Laurie was still up, finishing an article for the next day when his phone rang. He looked at it quickly but turned to it again when he read "Amy".

Notes:

Hi! I just want to say that the beautiful comeback that Amy gave to the annoying classmate comes from The Other Alcott.

I don't know you, but Amy's dilemma of wanting to work and also have the family is something that e and my friends have discussed it a few times.

I'm stopping making promises of longer chapters and sooner updates haha. I know usually I write about 3000-4000 words per chapter, but I didn't have more to put in this one and I wanted it to end like this.

I look forward to reading your thoughts.