"So, were you going to come here anyway?" He purred from beside her.

"You set me up." She murmured. "I cannot believe I am about to walk around in La Scala wearing a summer dress and sneakers. Sneakers!"

He grinned at her, all innocent and boyish, his dimples flashing. Tanya stared at him a little too long. He keeps smiling at me like that, she thought. So very different than his boss persona. So very different than the CEO, that they could two different people.

She liked it. Liked it very much.

They walked in, Tanya staring open mouthed at the high ceiling and the surroundings. But instead of taking the main entrance, they took a side door which led them inside a white room.

Tanya frowned at Ilario. "Why are we here?"

"To attend an art show." He supplied, his gaze searching through the small crowd of people milling around.

To be honest, she was a little disheartened, she had totally expected to be walking in the legendary stage. This white room was not what she was expecting. Way to disappoint a girl.

"Oh." Was all she could remark. Really, Rio, really? An art show in freaking La Scala.

"Why am I wearing sneakers?" She asked a little snarkily.

"Coz you have to walk quite a bit."

"You mean, here?"

"Actually, yes." He answered abstractedly, "Oh, there you are." He called out to someone. The crowd parted and she arrived.

Apollonia Visconti.

Resplendent in a shimmering gold gown with a classic red lipstick, she was the epitome of the classic Italian beauty. A welcoming smile on her face, she approached them.

In response, Tanya's smile evaporated like water from a rain fed river during summer. She told herself that she hadn't done anything to feel guilty of, but it didn't work.

"Bella mia." Ilario left her side to embrace his fiancée. He gestured around him, "This looks fantastic."

That was the first time Tanya realised that there were huge canvases hanging on the walls all around her. Before she could take them in though, Apollonia advanced to embrace her. Her floral perfume hit Tanya's nostrils as she did the customary air kiss.

"Ciao, Apollonia." She offered a somewhat stilted greeting. "I didn't know it was your art show."

The older woman smiled a benevolent smile, "Art show? Is that what Rio told you?"

"This isn't?" Tanya asked, trying to see what the canvases held.

"Well, in a way, you can call it that. Art show indeed. Andiamo."

As Tanya followed Apollonia, all she could wonder about was why on earth would Ilario bring her here. Weirdly, along with it came a strange sort of relief. That if Ilario was comfortable to bring her to his fiancée's art show, she wasn't doing anything wrong.

Apollonia led them to the very end of the room. Huge canvases adorned the walls, a lot of people milling around them. She went to stand in front of the first one.

"There." She gestured towards the red and gold creation in front of them, "What do you think of it, Tanya?"

Tanya looked at the canvas a little bemusedly. She had been to art shows before, but this didn't look anything like the ones she had attended. These were...

"These are fabrics! But these are..." She examined them, "quite old. Dresses. Is this a vintage dress exhibition?" She asked turning towards Apollonia.

"Try looking at the foot of the canvas." She suggested.

And there it was. In tiny letters, the details of the canvas was printed out. The date of creation, the name of the artist, the house of fashion and whom the clothing had belonged to. It dated back to 1890. Quickly moving to the next one, Tanya checked the details card. The fabric was a regal gown, dating back to the turn of the century.

"Oh! This is fantastic." Tanya exclaimed which earned her a proud smile from Apollonia. "I'm glad you think so. The dresses featured here are from a few of the earliest fashion shows in the world. Enjoy."

With that, she left Tanya alone with Ilario.

"Still disappointed?" Ilario asked her with a straight face. Tanya's face broke into an involuntary smile.

"Well, yes. But this is amazing too. I have never been to anything like this before."

Ilario drew her to him to link their arms. Together, they went from canvas to canvas, Ilario explaining the words written in Italian which were too difficult for her to understand, Tanya excitedly chattering about anything she found fascinating, which was basically, almost everything.

After about two hours and a lot of walking, they said goodbye to Apollonia and made their way outside. Tanya was quite hungry after all that excitement, so Ilario found a pizza place and they both waded in the crowded restaurant to find a place in the corner.

"Apollonia is really talented." She commented with mouthful of pizza.

Ilario took a bite of the garlic bread he had ordered. "How do you figure?"

"Are you kidding? She put all of that beautiful, vintage stuff together. Also, her boutique was really beautiful." Tanya gushed, "Although everything was well above my affordability."

"Don't say it like that." He rebuked her, a twinkle in his eyes. "People would assume I don't pay you enough."

She mock pinched him in the arm. "No, but seriously. Those clothes... I have only seen the likes of them in fashion channels and reels and stuff." Tanya mused. "For some reason, I've never really understood that world, you know. I tried to, I tried really hard. I have a friend, Ava, she is really beautiful, and whatever she wears, even if it's just plain, she'd look so pretty in that. I never learnt how to do that, that effortless style. Or whatever you call it."

"What does it matter?"

"Maybe nothing." She shrugged, "But lately, ever since I have landed in Milan, I've been feeling this."

"Feeling what?"

"You know, that I should be making more of an effort. Dressing wise, the way I look, the way I present myself."

"You look just fine." Ilario waved an imperious hand. "Don't get dazzled by the people around you. You have your own strengths. Weren't you telling me the other day that you took part in lot of rallies and protest marches and lent your services to orphanages?"

Tanya wanted to feel good that Ilario remembered all her babblings, but the way he was phrasing her work till date irked her.

"Okay, Rio, here is the thing. I don't need condescending words from you. I get enough of that from my parents. They are always giving me the talk people give to their less achieving child. You are not my guardian and I don't need it from you."

She was panting by the time she finished her rant. At that moment she didn't care that he was her boss. All she heard in his words were criticisms. Like telling her that she couldn't be anything better, so she has to accept however she is now.

Tanya was surprised to find that she was really angry. Like, really, really angry, boiling with rage. It wasn't often that she spent any of her waking hours seriously pondering about all the inadequacies of her life, in fact, she made conscious efforts to NOT think about those. But coming from Ilario, they hurt.

It was her own fault, when she thought about it. I have given him the chance to criticize me by being too open with him.

So engrossed was she in her righteous rage, that Tanya was startled when a warm hand squeezed her palm in itself. She lifted her head to focus on Ilario. He had an arrested expression on his face.

"Mi dispiace. I don't know what I said, but please forgive me."

Tanya scoffed.

"Okay, but you have to tell me what I said wrong, so I don't repeat it."

Tanya was too angry to acknowledge the truth of his words, but too angry to say it out loud.

He squeezed her hand, "Please, Tanya, look at me."

It was the slight pleading in his voice which made her look at him. Those mesmerising eyes looked sincere to her. It didn't abate her anger completely though.

She softened her voice, "Apology accepted. But I am still angry, and you are not forgiven if you talk like that again."

The sides of Ilario's eyes crinkled, as they did when he was amused but didn't show. "It's fair. And duly noted."

He gave her hand back to her and they both concentrated on their meals. Tanya's mind was still on the unjust way the world perceived her actions, even treating her like she was a floozy sometimes. If she thought about it, Apollonia was the same. Whereas Tanya had spent her time wasting after every new protest fad, Ilario's fiancée was wasting it on fashion and hunting what dead people wore hundreds of years ago, but just because she was rich, no one was calling her out. In fact, people were going gaga over Apollonia. She saw it in the gallery earlier today.

The world was unfair, Tanya decided as she viciously stabbed a fork on a piece of garlic bread on Ilario's plate. She too, wanted to do something beautiful and sophisticated like Apollonia's boutique. She too wanted to have stylish employees, classy food.

After that little outburst, both of them finished their food in silence. Ilario brought her home and said good night without much fanfare.