He Canceled Our Wedding Ninety-Nine Times, So I Joined His Enemy novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Ballroom

Renata's POV

Gabriele drove me into the city on Sunday afternoon and would not say where.

He parked in front of the hotel on Harbor Street, and I knew the awning before I knew the name.

It was the one I had watched a man hang a banner on, the day Massimo canceled for the ninety-ninth time.

"No," I said.

"Yes."

"Gabriele, I don't want to be here."

"I know." He came around and opened my door. "Give me ten minutes. If you hate it, we'll leave, and I'll never say the word hotel again."

I got out.

A woman in a gray suit met us at the lobby and nodded to him as if she had been waiting.

She was the planner.

I knew her voice from ninety-nine phone calls, and had never met her.

"Miss Sartori," she said, and I heard that she had practiced it. "I'm so glad you came. May I?"

She opened a pair of tall double doors.

I stood on the threshold.

The ballroom was empty and enormous, with a pale wood floor and a ceiling of cream plaster.

The windows ran the full length of the west wall and let in the harbor light.

Someone had set one table, round and small, in the middle of the floor, with a white cloth and two chairs.

Two years I had lived with the word ballroom.

I had written it into Massimo's calendar thirty times.

I had never seen it.

"It's lovely," I said, and my voice came out smaller than I meant.

"The planner told me something," Gabriele said, behind me. "When I called to ask for the date. She said this room had been booked for you and canceled ninety-nine times."

← Chapter 20 · All chapters · Chapter 22 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend