Epilogue
SERA
Three months later.
“I said it once and I’ll say it again. Sara, that is one hell of a ring.”
I smile and raise my left hand in front of my face to stare at my engagement ring. Romeo surprised me with it four days ago, and I’m still not over looking at it yet.
Not only did he choose a diamond the size of China, but his proposal was everything that I would’ve wanted if I was able to choose it myself.
Halle smacks her gum, grinning. “Okay, come on, I want to hear the story. I can’t believe he whisked you away to Hawaii for a few days to celebrate, and you didn’t even invite your best friend along.”
I literally can’t contain my smile.
We’re all in the salon today. Me, Halle, and Mary. I take a breath, ready to wow them with Romeo’s romantic proposal—I’ll keep Hawaii to myself—when the doorbell chimes.
In comes a familiar face, one that I haven’t seen in a while. Since she left for college to be precise.
I can’t help myself. I squeal and run over to my friend Caterina De Luca. “Caterina, you’re back!”
She laughs and hugs me back. “Sara! Wow, you look amazing. How have you been?”
I pull away, beaming. “I’m good! I can’t believe you’re here. Did you graduate? Did you pass the CPA exams yet?”
The exams to be a professional accountant are notoriously difficult, and I know that it has always been a goal for Caterina.
With four older brothers, she always tried to figure out how to contribute to the family while also paving her own way.
She’s mad smart, a total math whiz, and I know if anyone can pass the exams, she can.
Caterina sighs. “I just took the last one yesterday. Graduated in May, so I thought I’d take some time out.”
I wait for the familiar sting of jealousy. For the feeling that it should’ve been me. I should have been the one who went to college, the one who just sat her CPA exams, the one taking some time out from studying.
Strangely, nothing comes. I have Romeo, and I wouldn’t change anything about my life now. For the first time ever, I know that I’m exactly where I wanted to be. I take a moment to appreciate this epiphany and then grab her hands. “Okay, so when do you find out if you passed?”
Caterina grimaces. “In a few days.”
“We should celebrate. There’s not a chance in hell that you haven’t passed, you always were the smartest person in math club.”
“Besides you, you mean.” Caterina smiles too, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
I remember her as a constant source of brightness. The one who lit up a room with her attitude and her kind heart. Every kid in math club had the hots for Caterina, and even Mr. Jackson, the grumpiest teacher in our entire high school, would soften a little whenever he addressed her.
But something has changed. She isn’t quite as brilliant, as if her shine has been rubbed away, a diamond that forgot how to sparkle. There are dark smudges underneath her eyes that weren’t there the last time I saw her. If I’m honest, she looks… sad.
“Hey,” I say, taking her hands. “Are you okay?”
She nods, forces a smile and mentally shakes herself. “Yeah, I’m great. But what about you? What’s new with you, Sara?” I recognize a distraction when I hear one, but I keep it to myself.
“Sara was just about to tell us her super-romantic engagement story,” Halle says with a good-natured grin.
Caterina gapes. “You’re engaged?”
I waggle my fingers at her, and she examines the diamond with wide eyes. “Holy smokes, Sara. That’s some ring! I know a good chiropractor. You’re going to need it, carrying this rock around on your hand the whole time.”
I shake my head and laugh. “Okay, it’s not that big.” I mean, it is, but I don’t want to come across as big-headed about it. Romeo could’ve bought me a cubic zirconia and I’d still be the happiest woman in the world.
“It’s gorgeous. Congratulations. So,” Caterina says. “Spill the beans! I want to hear all about it.”
I blush. “It’s really not that big a deal…”
“Oh, she’s being modest,” Mary cuts in because she already heard the story when I asked for some time off to go to Hawaii. “It’s romantic as hell. Tell them, Sara.”
Glancing around the room at their excited faces, I can’t help smiling.
“Okay. Well. He took me to the beach where we had our first and second date. Elio let us stay in one of the houses they have there on the Shore. It was so romantic, covered in fairy lights, and they hired a chef to cook us a gourmet meal…”
“Elio… Rossi?” Caterina asks.
I nod. “Yes. Romeo works for them.”
“Oh,” she says in a small voice. She knows all about the Rossi family, of course, with her family connections and all, which means that she knows exactly the type of work that Romeo does for them.
I’m not ashamed of the man I fell in love with or what he does.
Romeo works hard, harder than anyone else I know, and he’s moving up in the organization.
So, I’m kinda stung by her reaction. Caterina De Luca of all people has no right or reason to look down upon people like Romeo Andretti, so I’m hoping that I’m mistaken.
She clearly has a lot going on right now, and it isn’t entirely her fault that we didn’t stay in touch when she went to college.
“Yeah. Anyway,” I continue. “The Shore. The house. After, we go for a walk on the beach and he’s nervous as hell, his hand is shaking, and he isn’t saying much.”
I remember how Romeo looked as we walked down the boardwalk together, him in his leather jacket, black pants, and a crisp white shirt, and me in a white halter-neck dress.
“He kept pulling me toward something on the beach, and I didn’t know what it was, and then I realized that it was a picnic blanket all laid out with champagne, and roses, and chocolates that he made himself.”
“Goddammit,” Halle mutters under her breath. “This girl gets all the luck. A diamond bigger than her face and a guy who can make chocolate.”
“So…” I suppress a cheesy grin. Elio helped him make the chocolate truffles, but I’m not about to tell Caterina this given her reaction to the Rossi name.
“We get to the blanket and it’s a little way from the main boardwalk so it’s all quiet, and he fills two crystal flutes with champagne, and we clink them together.
Then I sit back against him, and we look up at the stars. ”
It’s a slightly edited version. Romeo and I made love on that blanket, trying hard to remain incognito, so we didn’t get caught. But there’s no way I’m sharing that with them either.
“And then he asked me to marry him under the stars. And I said yes of course!” I beam.
They clap and squeal and hug me tightly. Halle and Mary know Romeo—he meets me every day when I finish work and always brings them flowers or candy or magazines, something to make them smile.
But Caterina isn’t quite so exuberant. “It’s a beautiful story, Sara.” She pauses. “Do you love him?”
The question catches me off-guard. It’s the last thing I expected her to ask. I thought we knew each other well enough in high school to understand that we would never settle for anything less than what we feel we deserve. Neither of us.
“I do.”
I don’t even need to consider my answer. Romeo stole my heart, and I’d gladly give it to him over and over for the rest of my life. But my story feels a little tainted now, and I don’t like myself for thinking this, but I wish she hadn’t come into the salon when she did.
“I really do.”
“Even though he’s…. with the Rossis?”
I shoot her a glance. She’s looking at me intensely, her eyes narrowed.
“Yeah. I mean, they seem pretty decent, and they look out for us both.”
“Interesting,” she murmurs. It sounds like a cop-out for all the things she really wants to say.
I don’t know what to think. Caterina was my best friend in high school. I always felt like I could tell her anything, and I hoped that she felt the same way about me too.
But before I can ask what’s bothering her, she says a little too brightly, “Could I get my nails done for a party?”
“Okay.” I gesture to my station, trying not to let it show that I’m a little put out by her reaction to Romeo’s boss. “What kind of party is it?”
“An engagement party.” She studies her hands, the short, bitten nails, and the puffy skin surrounding them.
“Oh, that’s exciting. Tis the season, right?” I laugh, feeling a little guilty now for boasting about Romeo’s romantic proposal, when she probably feels as if everyone she knows is getting married. “Whose engagement is it?”
“Mine.”
Something in her voice makes me look up from her hands. I blink.
She kept that quiet, but maybe I was so caught up in my own story that I didn’t give her a chance to get a word in edgeways. She holds my gaze. She should be buzzing with excitement, but instead, here she is holding it together as if it’s just a regular day in the life of Caterina De Luca.
“Who’s the lucky guy?” I want to ask her why she didn’t tell me, but then I never told her about Romeo either. That’s life, I guess. She went to college, and I stayed behind. People move on.
Caterina takes one deep, stabilizing breath. She looks me in the eye and smiles. Finally.
“Elio Rossi.”
Thank you for reading Sara’s story…