@heartbrxakers [continued from x]:
Her question caught him off guard and, for a moment, he just looked at her. So far she had showed very little — if any — interest in his own life. Actually, she didn’t even sound very interested now, but it was still one of the few questions she’d asked him about himself, which was why it surprised him as much as it did. “Business Administration with a minor in Classical Studies,” he answered, finally turning his gaze away from her. He could have gone on, he could have given her more information as to why he was getting those degrees, but he knew she wouldn’t care. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Giovanni kept telling himself that it was only a matter of time before she decided she’d had enough of his “tough love”, so to speak, and really he was just counting down the days until that happened. He opened his mouth to protest her comment — and insist that he had no idea who this Sam guy was — but then she continued and he promptly shut it. The mention of a foster family caught his attention but Giovanni was smarter than to ask her to elaborate. “I hope you thanked him for this opportunity,” he commented, arching an eyebrow in an almost challenging way. The revelation that someone had paid for her to go to school only made Giovanni more determined to help her succeed. He was honestly shocked that she was practically throwing money down the drain, a thought that made him frown just a little bit. They clearly had very different upbringings and while he wanted to know more about hers, he very much doubted if she would tell him. “That’s because I have more respect for you than to just look, although you don’t really make it easy for me,” he muttered, dropping his gaze again. “Besides, your potential has nothing to do with your body. Someday, I’m going to make you see that.”
Peyton could tell he was surprised by the sudden, albeit masked, interest she showed, and she tried to keep a straight face as she waited for his answer. One she found herself genuinely curious about. ”Uh, looks like we might actually have classes in common,” she commented with a cocked eyebrow, surprised; she’d picked Business because it was the only major she had seen any appeal in, and the marketing branch seemed like a promising one with her skill set. “Let me guess, you’ve got a family business back home that’s in dire need of a capable leader?” she half joked, but there was no malice behind it, oddly enough. Anything related to family was so foreign to her she mostly saw it as a punchline, not a real possibility within her own reach, nor something she truly understood. After she Peyton was almost regretting saying too much, but when Giovanni didn’t press her on it, she felt silently grateful; and it made it even harder for her to ignore him, or dislike him. “Well, I didn’t ask him for this opportunity,” she retorted with a pointed look, as if that justified the poor job she’d been doing of actually caring about schoolwork. Sam was pouring good money into this - sure, she knew it wouldn’t even make a dent in what he’d earned with the heist, but it was still a lot of money -, and Sam wasn’t the type to throw it back in her face... which somehow made it even worse when she thought about it. Well, when Giovanni made her think about it. So instead, she focused on his next words. “There’s nothing wrong with looking if I want you to,” she responded instinctively, without actually putting too much thought into it. Mostly because hearing that he respected her seemed too surreal to focus on anything else, really. And then he was talking about her potential again, and this time, oddly, there was no witty comeback ready on the tip of her tongue. “Yeah, well, my body is what got me this far, so I guess that’s what the world cares about.”