Harlow laid there quietly. She didn't know whether to cry or get angry with Antonio. She rolled onto her back and looked at him. "I swear, if your mother is like this the entire time she's here, I'm staying at my mother's."

"There'll be no need for that, I'm sure she must have been tired."

He caressed her face and leaned down to kiss her. "I'm sorry, I didn't put anything away. I was too upset and needed to lay down," she said quietly.

"It's all good, Ethan and I cleaned up."

"Thank you."

He stood and undressed, then climbed over her to get to his side of the bed. As he laid and reached for her, she laid her head on his chest and stared at the wall, thinking, thinking about what his mom said about the decorations and wondered if maybe she was right. "Are the decorations really that bad? I thought everything looked nice and the paint on the walls... I wanted to brighten up the rooms, not darken them."

"They're fine, it's our home... not hers."

"My mother wanted to have them over for dinner. After tonight, I'm not so sure I want her over there, she probably would knit pick their home just like she did here."

He held her tighter, kissed the top of her head and took a deep breath while closing his eyes. "I'm sure everything will be alright once she gets the rest she needs." He hoped.

The next morning, Antonio knew he didn't have any court cases and decided to work from home. Harlow showered, got ready for her interview, then got ready as fast as she could, wanting to leave before she ran into his mother. She had a feeling where Antonio would be and walked down into the den. Seeing he was there and at his desk, she walked in and around his desk to sit on his lap, wrapping an arm around him. "I'm leaving for my interview, then I'll be going to my mother's afterward to figure out the wedding details, guest lists, etcetera."

"As much as I hate that you're wanting to work, especially when you don't need to, I'm still going to wish you good luck with your interview," he said, grabbing her chin and pressing his lips to hers.

"Thanks, that means a lot to me. But I need to work, at least part time to get out of the house and to interact with people." She rested her forehead against his and kissed the tip of his nose as she looked him in the eyes.

"I understand, as long as you realize it's not needed. But I don't want to be that guy who tells you, you can't do this or that. So, I'm going to support your decision anyway."

"Thanks," she smiled. "I better go before I'm late." She headed out, leaving the door open and headed out.

Antonio was still sitting at his desk, looking towards the door Harlow left open, debating on what to say to his mother, when he saw her walk by. Curious as to what she was up to now, he stood quickly and walked out the room and over to her. "What are you doing?" he asked as he watched her walk into his music room.

She turned around and grinned. "Just checking the house out is all." she said like it was no big deal. "I like the layout of the home, it's nice that way. But I'm still not thrilled with the decorating."

He rubbed his mouth hard and breathed in through his nose, exhaling slowly, feeling as if he were about to snap. He wanted to have a talk with her about how she treated Harlow and explain she needs to respect her, that this was her house also. "About last night... I'd like to ask that you lay off Harlow. I'm not sure what your deal was, but she's the best thing that's ever happened to me and I'm looking forward to having a future with her. So please, don't ruin this for me."

"How am I ruining anything? I was just being honest," she said nonchalantly, walking away and out of the room, trying to avoid talking to him about Harlow. She stopped at his den, looked inside and assumed it was Antonio's office, that she left it alone and headed for the stairway.

Antonio rested his hands on his hips and looked down at his feet. He had a strange feeling she was going to try and make Harlow's life miserable while she's there visiting and knew he better go after her. He took off after her and stopped her as she was walking up the stairs. "I'm serious, give her a chance, you'll see why I fell in love with her."

She ignored him and continued walking up the stairs, walking into the master bedroom. "Now this is nice. I like the fireplace..." she said with a smile. She then noticed a picture of the two and picked it up. Antonio saw her nose bunch up some when she realized it was a picture of him proposing to Harlow while they were in Cancun. She didn't want to look at any more and laid it face down. "Where is she anyway?" she asked, as she headed out of the room.

Antonio shook his head and picked the picture back up, placing it back the way it was and walked into the hallway. "She has a job interview, then she was going over to her mother's."

She stopped when she heard him say interview and turned around, giving him a strange look. "Interview?" she asked high pitched.

"Yes, interview. She wants to work."

"But why?" she asked with a shit eating grin. "With the money you make, you would think she wouldn't want to work and stay home to spend your money."

"She wants to work. Like I said last night, she could care less about my money. You're just being foolish. It's almost like you're jealous of her," he snapped. He couldn't believe he just spoke to his mother that way and took a step back when he heard her gasp loudly.

She turned around and looked at him with widened eyes, shocked he talked to her that way. "Are you calling me a fool? And how dare you say I'm jealous of her. I'm far from jealous of her," she hissed.

"Well, are you?"

"No." she replied snarkily.

"Could have fooled me."

She huffed, and turned around to finish looking at the rooms upstairs. When she felt she saw enough, she brushed past Antonio without saying a word and walked down the stairs and over to the couch. Giovanni happened to be sitting on the chair next to the couch, and shook his head when he watched Giorgia sat down. He heard everything she was saying to Antonio and was disappointed in her.

"You're unbelievable." His tone was harsh and stood, wanting to get away from her. He walked over to Antonio and apologized for her behavior.

Antonio threw his arms in the air and walked away. "I have work to do, there's plenty of food if you're hungry. Just go ahead and help yourself." He walked into his den, and shut the door. As he walked over to his desk, he groaned as he thought about his hotel and how close he was to having her stay there, just to avoid any more situations with her.

Harlow felt her interview went well and headed over to her mom's so they could go over the wedding details. Once she walked into her parents' home and sat down at the table resting her face in her arms, she felt relieved.

"You look drained." Charlotte said as she walked over to her and rubbed her back.

"I am, it was a long night."

"How come?" she asked as she sat beside her and set her notes down in between the two of them.

Harlow shook her head, still amazed at how Antonio's mother treated her. "I don't know... Antonio's parents came into town a couple days earlier than they were supposed to and it was a nightmare the moment his mother walked in the house. Did Ethan not say anything to you when he got home?"

"No, he came home and went straight to bed... why, what happened?"

Harlow explained how standoffish she was, the comments she made about the hose and the evil glares she received the entire time from Giorgia. She rested her elbows on the table and placed her face in her hands. "She was awful," she sighed. "Antonio seems to think it was because of the flight and overtired from the time difference."

Harlow turned her head to the side and saw the notepad her mother placed in between them and looked to see what she had written. "I worked on the guest list last night, you can go through it and see if you want to cross off, or add anyone. I just got our side done, now I'll need Antonio's side."

Harlow sighed, "I'll have to ask him. He has no family here and that would mean, he would have to fly his family here. I know he's been debating on what he would like to do. To be honest, I really don't want that big of a wedding."

"It's your wedding and you have everything already reserved. I just need to get the wedding invites out, and real soon. Your wedding is coming up faster than you think."

"I know..." she groaned, leaning back in her chair. She looked at the ceiling, still unsure of how many people she wanted attending the wedding. Even though since she was a little girl, she dreamed of having a big wedding. "After last night, I don't want anyone staying with us for the wedding, that would mean we would have to place them all in the hotel Antonio bought months back."

She picked her phone up and sent Antonio a message, asking if he could email her a guest list from his side of the family, then set her phone down and crossed her arms as she stared at her phone. "I'll see what he says, I'm guessing he's busy entertaining his parents at the moment and will have to drop his list off later."

Antonio got her message, made a list, then emailed it to her. To give her a smile and to give her some relief, he included in the email he would be placing his family in the hotel, including his parents.

She smiled when she got his message and felt the weight being lifted off her shoulders to see where he was placing his family. Weddings were stressful enough and he last thing she wanted, was his mom to be there interfering with the wedding and stressing her out. After finishing the estimating numbers, they went out shopping.

It was getting late and Antonio started to worry. He figured Harlow would have been home by now and tried calling her, but got no answer.

"So, where's your lovely bride to be?" Giorgia asked mockingly after noticing the worried look on his face.

"Don't start with the attitude please, I'm sure she'll be home soon. She went over to her mother's to work on the wedding."

"You know it's dinner time, doesn't she ever make sure your fed on time? Not to mention, I'm hungry myself."

Antonio closed his eyes to keep himself from snapping. "Excuse me, I'll be back in a moment." He walked away and into his den to make some phone calls. After Harlow still didn't answer her phone, he called Ethan.

"Hey Ethan, I'm calling because I'm getting a little worried about Harlow. I've been trying to call her and she isn't answering her phone, she wouldn't happen to be there, would she be?"

No, she isn't here. She left a while ago.

"Thanks." Antonio said hanging up, then sat in his chair, scratching his head. While sitting there trying to figure out where she was and what to do for dinner, he heard the front door open and close. He felt his heart beat a different pattern and stood quickly to go see if it was her. As he walked out of the den, he saw Harlow carrying bags of what looked like take out Chinese and walked over to her, taking them from her hands. "I was worried about you," he said quietly as he kissed her on the lips.

"Sorry. After leaving my mother's, I noticed the time and figured it was too late to start dinner, so, I ordered Chinese. Hopefully your parents will eat this." She could feel eyes glaring at her and slowly rolled her eyes towards Giorgia. Seeing the way she was looking at her, her stomach instantly twisted into knots and looked back at Antonio. "I hope this is okay."

"Yes, this is fine, they'll eat it."

As they sat at the table eating, Giorgia remained quiet as she listened to Harlow talk to Antonio on how she decided to make her own centerpieces. That didn't sit well with her and opened her mouth. "Why would you make your own? You know you can purchase beautiful centerpieces and they'll be much nicer than homemade ones."

Harlow turned her head towards Giorgia. To refrain herself from making a remark that she would later regret, she bit her tongue and smiled a fake smile. "I'd rather make my own. It'll mean more to me than store bought ones. They'll look beautiful... you'll see."

******

The next few weeks, Harlow was going nuts with Antonio's parents in town, more so with Giorgia. Harlow was growing more frustrated with Giorgia, no matter what she did nothing was ever right, or was done to her satisfaction. Antonio decided to give Harlow a break and took his parents out for the day, bringing them around town and showing them some of the properties he owned, as well as the hotel.

While showing his parents around the hotel, he showed them where they'll be staying for the wedding, before and after, explaining how they needed their privacy. That didn't sit well with Giorgia and made a scene, yelling and arguing in front of everyone.

Antonio heard enough, felt embarrassed and walked away. "I'll be right back; I need some fresh air."

Harlow was feeling extremely relieved Antonio got his parents out of the house. She liked Giovanni and no issues with him, it was Giorgia she couldn't handle anymore and felt like getting drunk. She knew just the person to get drunk with and called Ethan, letting him know what was on her mind and insisted he get her drunk to the point where she'll be passed out by the time Antonio came back home with the witch.

Ethan, loving side of Harlow and what was on her mind, drove over as fast as he could, with both instantly hitting Antonio's bottle of bourbon. Harlow sat at the bar talking to Ethan about Giorgia and how close she is to strangling her. "I can't take her anymore and I know this is wrong of me to say, but I hate her, I absolutely hate her... You know me, usually I won't let someone bother me like this and will let things go, but not her. This woman is vicious! She hates me and I don't understand why."

"Cheer up, the way I see it, I think she's jealous of you."

"Jealous, about what?"

Ethan held his glass to his lips and tilted his head to the side. "Well... look how well he's doing at the young age he is. And now that her only child is getting married, she probably doesn't like the fact another woman will be taking care of him. Even though, he's been on his own for a while, it might still bother her that he is on his own and may think you're taking him away from her.... I don't know, that's the only thing I can come up with."

"She's stupid if that's her reasoning. She needs to back off and let us be."

Ethan slammed his shot and laughed. "You could always accidently shove her into the pool and see if she knows how to swim."

"Ethan no... behave yourself. I may not enjoy her, but I'm definitely not doing that."

"I was kidding, but it would be funny to see her being shoved into the pool. She has something coming to her, maybe that will be enough to wake her up and realize she needs to knock her shit off."

"Yeah, but if she doesn't know how to swim, then I'd feel like shit. So no, I will not be doing that."

Ethan chuckled and poured her another shot. Instead of her doing the shot, she grabbed the bottle from his hand and began chugging on the bottle. "Hey there woman, you have no idea what that shit will do to you, you're going to get yourself sick," he said, taking the bottle away from her and shaking his head. "Plus, I don't need Antonio pissed at me."

She walked over to the dart board and began throwing darts, laughing when she missed the dart board and hit the wall. She finally got to the point where she wanted to be and that was, wasted. She couldn't stand or focus anymore and with Ethan knowing Antonio would be home soon, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, carrying her up the stairs. "Put me down," she laughed.

"You're going to bed," Ethan insisted as he chuckled while carrying her. He finally got her into her room and dropped her on the bed. "You stay right there and sleep it off," he demanded before leaving the room. Just as he was walking down the steps, Antonio walked into the house.

Antonio gave him a funny look, wondering what he was doing upstairs and formed his brows together. "Ethan, what are you up to?"

Ethan placed his hand on Antonio's back, then looked at Antonio's parents. "Excuse us for a moment."

He walked Antonio into his office, shut the door and scratched the top of his head as he looked at a confused Antonio. "Harlow's a mess. I finally just got her to bed and insisted she stay there the rest of the night."

"A mess, why?"

Ethan laughed.

Antonio could smell the booze coming off his breath and raised an eyebrow.

"Harlow called me, wanting me to come over and to get her drunk. She's more than just drunk, she's wasted," he laughed, then noticed Antonio's facial expression changing and didn't like the look on his face. He put his hands up in the air, palms facing Antonio and stuck up for himself. "Before you get upset with me, I didn't do this to her. She did it all on her own after she took the bottle from my hand and began chugging on it."

Hope the chapter was OK, and you enjoyed it.👍👍👌👌🤞🤞

Let me know what you think!😊😊😊😊

Next chapter, Ethan gets Giorgia pretty good a few times and has a little fun with her..  🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣