She didn't chase her she didn't call her name but somehow Ellie kept coming closer.
Eliano Marchetti, Ellie couldn't stay away she told herself she would. Every morning she sat at the family's long, cold breakfast table with silver spoons and dry toast, she told herself: Tonight, I won't go and every night her feet betrayed her. She didn't tell anyone not her grandmother, not her so called friends, no one knew that while the rest of Manhattan was sipping cocktails and pretending they weren't drowning in secrets, Eliano Marchetti was watching a mafia queen smoke outside a warehouse. Watching her like a story she wanted to read again and again.
Tonight, Ellie stood closer than usual she didn't mean to, she just needed to see more. The movements, the shadows, that unbothered way Amy turned her back to the world like it couldn't touch her.
Amy wasn't like the men Ellie had grown up around. Those men talked too loud, laughed too hard, took up too much space without ever saying anything real. Amy said nothing and yet, she owned every inch of air around her. Ellie pressed herself into the side of a brick wall as Amy stepped out. She watched her light a cigarette, inhale, flick, ash, quiet, sharp, divine. And then without turning Amy spoke, you're late tonight. Amy Finn didn't look over her shoulder she didn't need to she felt Ellie before she heard her. It was becoming routine now, this strange little ritual of theirs; Ellie watching, Amy pretending not to notice, a silent game with no rules, no scoreboard, no end in sight. Amy smoked slowly, like each drag bought her another second of control. You changed your coat she said, Ellie stepped out of the shadows
I didn't want to be obvious, Amy turned finally,
Sweetheart, you're wearing fear like perfume, you were obvious three nights ago.
Ellie flushed then why haven't you told me to stop coming? Amy stepped closer one step, then another, because I haven't decided what I want from you yet. Eliano Marchetti, her breath caught that voice, that look, It wasn't a threat not fully, not yet.
Ellie tilted her head slightly, and if I told you I wanted something from you? Amy didn't blink, then I'd ask if you knew what you were asking for? I think I do. No, Amy said softly, you don't. She moved like smoke close, but never quite touching. Ellie could feel the heat radiating off her, could see the rainwater glistening on her collar, dripping from her lashes. You shouldn't want anything from me, Ellie. Why not? Because people who want things from me don't always walk away with them. She watched the girl, she wanted to scare her, she needed to scare her.
But all she saw was curiosity, hunger, longing that hadn't figured out how to say its name yet. She could see Giulia in her but also not.
Ellie was her own kind of wild, her own kind of foolish and that made her dangerous. Come, Amy said finally, voice low. Ellie blinked, What? Inside, Inside the warehouse?
Amy gave the smallest shrug. You've been staring at it long enough come see what's inside, Ellie hesitated then stepped forward.