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Grinder

Ten Years Ago

Val d’Orcia, Italy

“It’s two months You’ll survive,” my older sister, Lily, said the day my parents and I left London and traveled to Tuscany Easy for her to say since she didn’t have to spend her summer holiday in a country where she didn’t know a soul

I sighed and dropped s in ould be my bedroom,myself on the bed, put my hands under my head, and looked out the

The place where e of the estate and winery known as Antica Cascina dei Conti di Valentini—which translated to “Ancient Far out at the uess ere staying in the estate’s namesake

I pulled a book out ofand rested my head on the pillow that felt as old as the farh the first chapter when I heard a fe outside the

I rolled out of bed and caught a gliirlbackward in the open field adjacent to the house

A teenage boy folloho she alternately ran fro all the while I was transfixed, unable to teartheuy she ith turned, followed her line of sight, and flipped me off, did I retreat back to my bed

I picked up my book, but set it back dohen I realized I’d read several paragraphs and didn’t retain a word I closed my eyes and pictured her Who was she? I had to find out

It was several days before I saw her again I’d reached the point where I doubted I would

On this particulare, so she recruited e of scenery

As I leaned ainst the car, I felt her before I saw her I slowly turned, and there she was, standing next to a fountain A bouquet of flowers dangled in her hand, the petals brushing the cobblestones beneath her feet

“Buongiorno,” she said, raising her free hand

“Buongiorno” I raised my hand too As she walked closer, I let th dark hair to her war legs I tried to keepon the way her boobs strained the fabric of her dress, or on how the pale blue of it made her smooth skin appear the color of honey

“You like to look,” she said, standing less than a foot from me “From s, as I walk toward you…”

“It’s hard not to You’re very beautiful”

Her eyes scrunched and she cocked her head “Beautiful?”