A Place in the Sun

by R.S. Grey

It took more than a month of us working together before I realized that Gianluca and I had eased into a friendship that suited us. He might have labeled his growing affinity toward me as a symptom of Stockholm syndrome, but I think a part of him (a part hidden deep down inside, probably near his bowels) had become genuinely accustomed to my company—which was good, because I wasn’t going anywhere.

She was an agonizing sort of beautiful, the kind that reached out and demanded everyone take notice. When she smiled, the world smiled with her, and more than once, I found myself wishing I was the man she deserved to be with, the one she had come to Italy to find.

There’s a difference between losing a loved one and losing a person you’re in love with. To be in love with someone is to live inside them. Allie’s breaths were my own and when she drew her last one, I was the one left gulping for air. I hadn’t breathed deeply in five years.

This is him thinking about his dead wife

He hadn’t lied to me all those weeks ago when he’d told me he wasn’t ready for a relationship. The man was still completely in love with his wife. A ghost.

In the end, I wasn’t even very angry with Gianluca. No. Witnessing his love for Allie was a good thing because it made me realize what I wanted: for someone to love me the way he still loved her.

To have her love and attention was like standing beneath the scorching sun on a summer day: suffocating and sustaining all at once.

I needed her to know I wasn’t using her to get over Allie. Georgie wasn’t my second love. She was my only love.

Mind you - This conclusion came out of nowhere. I was completely confused. It made no sense. The ENTIRE book he kept saying he was in love with his dead wife and he’d never be able to love another. Then BAM! He starts to remember some not so perfect qualities in his dead wife. Ummmm what????