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‘Sì.’ He rubbed the back of his neck. ‘I feel it. But there is nothing we can do. You are still Edward’s match. Victoria has tried everything to contact him, but there is still no news. And you are a guest here. It is forbidden.’

‘I know.’ I blew out a heavy sigh.

‘But if the circumstances were different…’

‘Yeah?’ Hope sprung in my chest. ‘What would happen if they were?’

‘I should go.’ Romeo slipped his palm out of mine and I instantly missed the sensation. ‘I will see you at the barbecue tonight,va bene?’

‘Va bene,’ I replied.

Although I wished I could say that I was okay, I was far frombene.

I was frustrated because I wanted Romeo.

He’d just admitted that he wanted me too.

But he was strictly off limits.

And there wasn’t a damn thing we could do about it.

* * *

I’d been at the barbecue for half an hour and was already thinking about heading back to my room. Being surrounded by all of these loved-up couples was difficult enough, but then seeing Romeo and knowing that I couldn’t be with him made things ten times harder.

Just as I was about to excuse myself, my phone rang.

‘Jasmine, hi!’ I said.

‘Hi, can you talk?’

‘Yeah. Perfect timing actually. Give me a sec.’ I stepped away from where everyone was huddled on the beach. ‘What’s up?’

‘I’ve been doing some digging on Edward. I know Victoria and the team have been on the case from day one. They’ve contacted him at work, called his next of kin, sent emails, texts… you name it, they’ve tried it.’

‘I’ve lost count of the messages I’ve sent. I even tried calling him at work too.’

‘He’s ignoring everyone and there’s something fishy going on. I can just feel it. And I hate that he’s left you in limbo. So, with Victoria’s permission, I tried a different route. Instead of calling from the hotel, I said I was a new plant-based restaurant looking for influencers to promote the brand on social media and asked his PA for his social media handles to see if he’d be a good fit.’

‘That’s genius! He’d lap that shit up!’

‘He did. His PA was very happy to share them and I found his Instagram.’

‘No way!’

‘I’ve just sent you a link to it now. He hasn’t posted since the first day he arrived in Italy, so there’s nothing suspicious that jumps out, but I haven’t time to do a deep dive and I won’t get a chance tonight.’

‘You’ve already done more than enough. I’ll have a look myself and see what I can find out. Thanks so much!’

‘You’re welcome. I hope you find something useful. Keep me updated.’

‘Will do.’

I hung up, then clicked the link.

No wonder I couldn’t find him online. His handle was Shredded Ed followed by a string of numbers (probably related to the exact number of calories he thought women should consume each week) which I never would’ve found or guessed.

I scrolled through his feed and, like Jasmine mentioned, nothing stood out. Then I started looking at his most recent posts. He didn’t have loads of likes, but I noticed there was one person that had liked every single one.