Chapter 21 #2
When she got up that morning to prepare to attend her son’s graduation ceremony, she hadn’t anticipated meeting up with Frank.
But then, she shouldn’t have been that surprised, because even when she and Frank had stopped seeing each other, it was different with Kenny, who continued to go to East Harlem to work in his cousin’s restaurant.
He’d also joined Frank’s extended family for dinners on the first Sunday of the month.
Kenny was equally proficient speaking Spanish and Italian.
He claimed he conversed in Italian with Frankie and in Spanish with Ray.
Kenny had stopped calling Frank “Mr. Dee” and now chose “Uncle Dee,” because it was something Frank had insisted on.
Justine crossed her ankles and stared at her feet in a pair of navy-blue espadrilles, wondering how Kenny would react once she informed him that she was going out of the country for a week with Frank.
It would be a first for her, going away with a man and leaving him completely on his own.
However, she found Frank’s disclosure that he’d had cancer to be more shocking than his revelation that he loved her.
She didn’t understand why Kenny hadn’t told her that Frank was ill, despite his promise to Frank that he would keep his secret.
Didn’t he know she cared enough to be with him when he had to go for his chemotherapy?
She didn’t want to believe that Frank had been so vain that he hadn’t wanted her to see him bald and emaciated.
Frank came out of the bedroom in a pair of black linen slacks, matching jacket, white linen short-sleeved shirt, and black loafers. He wore a watch with a black alligator band on his left wrist. “Ready whenever you are,” he said, smiling and extending his hand to help her off the sofa.
She returned his smile, her eyes meeting his.
There was something about the older, slimmer Francis D’Allesandro she found more attractive than the one she’d first met five years before.
In the past, he’d projected a restless energy that made it impossible for her to completely relax around him.
That was then, and now there was an air of supreme confidence that indicated he was in total control of himself and the world in which he navigated.
Going on tiptoe, Justine brushed her mouth over his, knowing she’d shocked him. Frank sucked in his breath. “Ready,” she whispered.
“Damn, doll,” he groaned. “You wait until I can’t get it up to start something I can’t finish.”
“Not all relationships are based on sex, Frank.”
He squeezed her hand. “I’ve never been the relationship type of guy, but I know it’s going to be different with you.”
Justine wanted to tell him that even if he’d been able to achieve an erection, she still wasn’t ready to have sex with him, because despite their knowing each other for five years, they still were strangers.
Strangers who would have to learn to trust each other.
And if he had trusted her, then he would’ve confided in her when he had been diagnosed with cancer two years ago.
Smiling, she said, “It’s going to be different for both of us.”
“Have you ever been to Brooklyn?” Frank asked Justine, as he closed and locked the door to his apartment, then led her down the flight of stairs.
“Yes. Once when I took Kenny to Coney Island to ride the roller coaster. He loved it, but I was scared to death when it picked up speed and came down so fast that I nearly lost the contents of my stomach.”
“I get the same feeling whenever a plane picks up speed before takeoff.”
Justine gave him a sidelong glance as they walked hand-in-hand to where he’d parked his car. “Have you done a lot of traveling?”
“Not as much as I would’ve liked to. But hopefully that will change if I can convince my favorite girl to accompany me,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows when she looked up at him.
“Have you forgotten that I have a job?”
“No. But whenever you have vacation or decide to take a couple of days off, we can go away together and just relax.”
Frank was making plans for their future, when she was someone who lived one day at a time.
Yes, she had a wish list, but those were things she wanted to accomplish over ten-year increments of time.
Then she realized he couldn’t plan that far ahead, because he never knew when his cancer would return.
His life had become a virtual ticking time bomb, and he wanted to go and see as many places as he could before it exploded.
“I’ll let you know once I get my school calendar,” Justine told him. “I’ll have a break between the fall and spring semesters, and I’ll put in for vacation at that time.”
Curving an arm around her waist of a loose-fitting white-and-blue-striped tent dress, Frank pulled her closer to his side. “That’s when we can fly down to Florida and take a cruise to the Caribbean.”
“I can’t believe I have my own personal genie.”
Lowering his head, Frank dropped a kiss on her hair. “I’m different from other genies, because you don’t have to rub me to make me appear or grant your wishes.”
“Lucky me,” Justine drawled.
“No, doll. Lucky me.”