by Lily Zante
Ava wanted to know about the way she and Kim processed orders, from start to finish. She seemed more interested in what worked and what didn’t and how it could be improved and she made copious notes ‘for the training manual’.
For the rest of that first week, they followed the exact same procedure. Rona would arrive with Tori at around ten in the morning. Lizzi would take the child for a walk or play with her and keep her busy while the sisters worked at streamlining Ava’s business.
Over time Ava showed Rona how to update the website and how to retouch product images. Daunted at first, Rona felt out of her comfort zone, annoyed at times, often with herself. But Ava wasn’t going to let her off that easily. When she knew she had no choice but to overcome her fear of technology and the unknown, and that it was alright to make mistakes, because Ava has assured her she had a backup, she felt freer to leap in and fail. Within a few weeks she was getting along just fine. What took more getting used to was Carlos’ absence. Even though he wasn’t often home that much, the few hours he did have with Tori helped. Now she had Tori all to herself after a day at work and she felt as though she had no time at all to unwind.
She felt like a single mom these days and it was hard going. At times like this she often wondered how Kim coped.
Sometimes during their day she and Ava would stop and occasionally talk about the impending wedding and the preparations. Rona was surprised to hear that Ava, who had gone over the top with the wedding preparations when she was getting married to Connor, her previous fiancé, was now remarkably relaxed about the big day this time around.
“I have a dress,” said Ava when Rona asked. “I think even a blue whale would fit into it. But I don’t have time to worry about things like that just yet. There are bigger problems that Nico’s dealing with.”
“But this is your wedding dress!” exclaimed Rona, aghast. “You’ve been for fittings, haven’t you?”
Ava shook her head. “What’s the point? I inflate by an inch daily. I’ll get it fitted nearer the time.”
It was only by working so closely with her sister that Rona saw first-hand just how hectic Ava’s life was.
Tori had taken to Lizzi and Rona no longer had any hesitations about leaving her child in her hands.
The evenings saw the two of them either eating at the pensione or a couple of times at the hotel. Ava had asked them over a few times, but Tori would be so tired at the end of the day that Rona preferred to take her straight home, bathe her and put her to bed.
Lizzi excelled at her role and Rona wished she could take her back to Denver with her. She felt better able to concentrate on her work not having to worry about child care and knowing that Tori was happy with Lizzi.
She wanted to enjoy this time and the first few weeks flew by with barely time to catch her breath. She hadn’t yet ventured to the town center in Verona or Gioberti’s yet because she’d simply been too busy. She missed Carlos but each day when she called him their conversation seemed so basic, so mundane that she got the feeling he was still holding a grudge from the night she’d told him about Verona. Maybe he was still holding resentment towards her regarding baby number two.
Rona didn’t dwell on it too much because there wasn’t much she could do about it now. They would fix things in due course. They always did.
A few weeks after arriving in Verona she ventured into town for the first time. Taking Tori in the stroller, she walked around the familiar shops that she had once frequented.
She looked her best in her white dress and pale gold sandals. The dress wasn’t clingy but still fitted enough to show off her figure. Ava would have considered her overdressed but Rona decided that she was on a holiday of sorts and that this was no different to dressing up for an evening out.
She’d felt freer and happier than she had in a long time and she felt no guilt either because she was doing nothing wrong. Could it only have been that she needed a change of scenery? Was that it?
She had ceased to think of Ruben or even Gioberti’s anymore. She was simply enjoying the freedom of being in Italy, with Tori, and working. Or did she feel unrestrained, and, therefore, happier because there was no Carlos to argue with?
She wasn’t sure why she suddenly felt freer and happier here. It couldn’t just be because she was alone. Could it? Had she and Carlos drifted that far apart?
Her conversations with Carlos were the same conversations that they had back at home. Most of the time she handed Tori the phone because he craved his daughter’s attention above all else. But the first thing Tori ever did was to chew the phone—which was pretty much what she did to anything. New objects went straight into her mouth.
Caught up in these thoughts and trying to make sense of them, Rona soon found herself in the center of town and saw the sign for Gioberti’s come into view. She pushed the stroller towards the direction of the familiar restaurant.
The brilliant, dazzling white smile of Gioberti’s captured her attention first. It was hard to miss. He was always on the lookout for young women to entice into his restaurant, always surveying the scene, for that was how he’d caught her the very first time she had stumbled upon his establishment.
She smiled, and could clearly see he was looking her up and down in the white cotton shift dress she wore.
“Ah, Bella, the beautiful summer evening has just been made brighter,” he said, dazzling her again. He kissed her warmly on both cheeks. “Come, come,” he beckoned and cleared the way for her to follow him. “You will be dining here, yes?” he presumed.
“Yes,” she said excitedly, the warm smell of garlic and buttery herbs reeling her in.
“The same table, yes?” he asked and led her over to the table where she used to sit before, tucked away in a corner but with a view of the open area outside.
“Thank you,” she said and moved the stroller with Tori fast asleep in it, up against the wall.
Electric fingers tasered her forearm, and she jumped back, startled, as the sting of static grazed her.
His touch was more than a little familiar, and she recognized his voice before she’d even had time to look up at him, before she’d even had time to recover.
Ruben.
Chapter 12
“Rona?”
Goosebumps tickled her skin as she looked up to eyes that shone as much with curiosity as excitement.
“Ruben.” Her eyes widened and she felt the rush of heat to her face. Just looking at him brought up more memories than she would ever own up to. Happiness beamed out of his face and he ran his gaze over her, and then to Tori sleeping quietly in the corner.
“Is this your daughter?”
She nodded, still reeling from the fact that he was actually here—in the flesh and no longer an old memory. She couldn’t deny the way her heart fluttered right now, at this very moment.
Just seeing him made her breathless, rendered her speechless and took her back to prom night. She shook her head, trying to get a grip on herself.
What are you doing?
His fingers still lingered on her arm, and his smile still burnt into her soul, and everything she had sought to keep down and hidden in the depths of her being had now burst to the surface.
“She’s beautiful,” he said, craning his neck over to get a proper look at her. “Beautiful.” His eyes were shiny as he said it.
“Thank you,” she said, accepting the compliment and knowing that he wouldn’t say it, but the way he looked at her he didn’t need to. Just like her mother.
Theirs had been nothing but a connection on an emotional level. He’d neither sought more nor had she indicated that she was looking for anything more. Yet their conversations from before, often lasting until closing time, meant they had shared so much of their past that they knew more about one another than people who hadn’t known each other that long ought to.
And here they were again.
He stood awkwardly at the table with a small bag in his hands. A takeout bag. Disappointment drenched her new f
ound exuberance as they faced one another, suspended in silent wonder for a few moments that were filled with so many questions.
“It’s great to see you again, Rona. When?” He looked perplexed, “When did you get here?”
“ A few weeks ago.”
“A few weeks ago?” His brow creased with unasked questions.
“I didn’t know you were coming back.”
“I didn’t know I was coming back so soon.”
He waited for her to explain. “I like your hair,” he said, casting an appreciative look at her.
“Thanks.”
“It makes you look different. It brings out the green in your eyes more.” He’d noticed way more than her husband ever had. She ran her fingers through her hair self-consciously.
Even as she sat at the table, hovering between asking him how he was and whether to ask him to join her, she weighed up the options and wondered about the dangers of dancing perilously close to the flirtation that was still new. Despite what either of them had labeled it as.
She knew he sometimes passed by because his brother worked here.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” she said. “I mean…” What did she mean? It was stilted, and slow and awkward, this new conversation of theirs, as though they were strangers again. She didn’t know for sure whether she would ever see him again, but she had thought about it many times. The what if’s…
He seemed bemused by her hesitancy, and she stared at him, seeing him finally, and again, the way she always remembered him, with his deep blue eyes burning into hers with an intensity she had forgotten.
“Since you left I’ve only been here a few times. You won’t believe me, but it’s true.”
He hadn’t bothered coming here after she’d gone? She let out a smile as she remembered their meetings here at this same restaurant only a few months ago when she’d come to Verona for the first time. Getting out alone in the evenings had been her salvation back then and Elsa hadn’t minded looking after Tori.
She’d come here, in the beginning, just to enjoy a meal by herself. Gioberti’s, with its nearness to the center of town and its mouth-watering and affordable dishes—not to mention the owner’s easy banter—had been the ideal place. Gioberti had a way of making her feel special but after one evening too many his attention had begun to grate on her.
It had been sometime around her third time here that she had noticed Ruben. A couple of times he’d seen her alone and they’d acknowledged one another with a casual nod of the head. A friendly nod, there had been nothing more to it. Nothing serious. But it had been enough to make her curious to know more about him.
They got to talking, and it soon moved from casual greetings to something more; the conversations became longer, the curious desire to know more about one another took hold and just like that they’d fallen into it—their friendship. The anticipation of running into one another in the evenings soon became a reality. It had lasted a few weeks, and it was a secret that Rona had kept to herself. There hadn’t been anything to hide, after all, they hadn’t done anything but talk, and they hadn’t crossed any boundaries. They hadn’t exchanged numbers or contact details—there had been no need to. This wasn’t going to go anywhere. They didn’t have a future point to reach. He knew she was married and that she had been—not unhappy, more that she was discontent. She had mentioned that her husband had returned to the US and that she was here with her sister and her mother. He’d told her about the girlfriend he’d recently broken up with. Talking about their significant others somehow made it seem not so wrong to meet up. Soon she found herself looking forward to her evening visits and she had a feeling that he did too, though neither of them would openly admit to such a thing if asked.
It was obvious, now that here she was again and alone, that her situation remained. He didn’t ask any questions which came as a relief to her.
“Is that your dinner?” She asked and nodded at the bag in his hands.
“I haven’t eaten and I was passing by. This is today’s specials, apparently.” She nodded, and looked at the menu she’d been toying with.
“I haven’t ordered yet,” she confessed.
“I could have this with you if you don’t mind?” He appeared hesitant and she wondered, in that same moment, if life was nudging her in a direction that seemed exciting and unsure and therefore promised a step into the unknown.
“I don’t mind.”
He turned to one of the waiters who disappeared with his bag of takeout, presumably to plate it.
She ordered her small helping of antipasti, assuming that the slices of meat, anchovies, and artichokes might help with her diet. The five-two diet had become the seven-zero diet ever since her arrival in Italy. She wisely left out the wine, figuring that control was needed in this situation: she’d reconnected with the man with whom she had poured out her heart.
Of course nothing could come of this. She wasn’t that type of woman. She wasn’t. She loved Carlos. Forever. But sometimes in those empty moments when the disconnect between her and Carlos had become too severe she sometimes reminisced and wondered what Ruben might be up to. And what might have been, had her circumstances been different.
Ruben’s food arrived soon after hers and they caught up as they ate; talking about safe things and discovering what they’d both been up to these past few months. She told him about the work she did for Ava, and he told her interesting anecdotes about the customers he met in his job as an Account Executive selling software solutions to corporations.
This time they both avoided talking about their significant others.
“Did you enjoy your meal?” Gioberti asked as he stopped by their table after the waiter had cleared their plates away. He usually did this, making his customers feel at home and finding out whether they had enjoyed their meal or not. He was a very hospitable host, albeit that he also had a roving eye.
“It was lovely, as always. Thank you,” Rona replied.
“The dessert menu has been changed for the summer. I suggest you at least take a look at it.” And with that, Gioberti left them alone.
She watched him hurry away and when she brought her attention back to Ruben she found he’d been watching her. She felt the color rush to her skin and hoped it wasn’t too obvious. Warmed by the food and emboldened by the fact that Tori was still fast asleep, she stared back at him.
He leaned in across the table. “Why is it that here you are and all alone again?”
Her muscles stiffened because she found herself suddenly in unfamiliar territory. She felt suddenly vulnerable.
“I’m helping my sister,” she replied, at the same time wondering if she’d somehow attracted this—an evening out with him into her life. Had she dreamed of this moment during some of her lowest points with Carlos? Had she taken the memories of their shared evenings and grabbed them as if they were a life buoy in her darkest times? She suddenly felt guilty that she was here at all, just him and her –even though she had not orchestrated any of this.
She’d worn her white dress and sandals just in case, but she hadn’t really thought she might see him. Not really.
“Helping your sister?”
She nodded. “She’s getting married in a few months and she needed my help,” replied Rona keeping it vague.
“This means you will be here for a long time? More than a few weeks, hopefully?”
Hopefully?
“A month or more.”
He raised an eyebrow, dipped his chin, and considered her words. “I hope we run into one another again.” He was intense. Especially the way he was looking at her, with his deep blue eyes pushing into her green ones.
She did a double take and wondered if she should risk running into this man again. She’d already revealed far too much of herself before and already her heart was fluttering in a way it hadn’t for a long time.
This might not be such a good idea at a time when she and Carlos were drifting apart.
“You look happier
,” Ruben commented when she didn’t say anything.
“Verona seems to bring out the best in me,” she said. “The open fields, the lush countryside. I feel freer.”
“Freer?”
She wasn’t ready to start having that conversation, of opening up to him again. Yet the undivided attention he’d given her at a time she’d felt down: when Ava’s romance with Nico was blossoming, and she and Carlos were fading away. Ruben had made her feel special.
“If you ever decide to come here again and you need company, maybe you could give me a call? I don’t come here that often.”
“It’s not as easy for me to get out in the evenings.”
“Not like before?”
She shook her head.
“Bring the little one. It doesn’t matter,” he said, smiling.
She felt color burning her cheeks. The color scarlet, for a scarlet woman. Now would be the moment to stop this but even as she thought about what to say, how to let him down gently, how to tell him she wasn’t that kind of girl, he scribbled something down on a scrap of paper and handed it to her.
“Here’s my number,” he said. “In case you ever want to meet up again. His words scared her as much as they excited her. He really wasn’t leaving anything to chance again.
“Just friends,” he said, appearing to notice her reticence as she stared at the paper blankly.
“Just friends,” she repeated as if the need to say it would make it so.
Chapter 13
“How are you?” she asked Carlos.
“The same as always,” he replied, a little testily.
“And what’s that?” she asked, wondering why every conversation with Carlos was so difficult. Was he still mad at her for coming to Verona?
“Are you still working all crazy hours?”
“Why would I stop?” He sounded sullen. “It’s empty at home. I’ve been working most days.”
“That’s not legal,” she countered, not wanting him to work every single day. He wasn’t invincible, even though he thought he was. The man needed to take a break every now and then. Couldn’t his family see how hard he worked?