Chapter 4
Giovanni
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Tessa hisses.
I casually gesture to our surroundings. “Go ahead.”
She lowers her voice. “In private.”
As soon as the door to my office shuts, she aggressively whispers, “How come you never told me you had a family?!”
Biting back a smile at her misplaced outrage, I relax into a lazy yawn. I’ve never seen her this flustered before.
She points to my left hand. “You’ve never worn a ring. Lying is wrong, Giovanni. It’s one of the Ten Commandments. You should know, you were probably there for the first draft.”
I exhale a long sigh. “I’m barely older than you.”
“The evidence says otherwise.” She points to the small bowl of hard candies I keep on my desk. “Exhibit A.”
“Those are Lu’s favorites.”
“And does Lu know she’s your…” Tessa’s cheeks redden as she tries to work out my relationship with Lu. “Well, what is she to you?”
I smirk. “Why are you so upset, Tessa?”
Her face goes blank, as if she’s surprised herself. Her mouth opens to speak, but Micheletto bursts into my office before she can say anything.
“Zio Gi, look at my high score!” He excitedly holds up his phone to us, showing off his winning Pokémon match.
High-fiving him, I join in his enthusiasm. “Bene, Micheletto! Go tell your Mamma!”
When my gaze swings back to Tessa, she’s squinting at me. “Zio… Is that ‘uncle?’ Is he your nephew?”
Cracking my knuckles, I can’t help but grin. “Yes. It was very enjoyable to see you jump to conclusions, though. And I’m his uncle through bonds, not blood.”
“Does she work for you?”
I lean against the wall and nod. “Lu works for me, and Micheletto is her son.”
When I found out that Lu and Micheletto were financially struggling through my Italian ex-pats group, I offered her a job as my receptionist a few evenings a week.
No one ever calls.
It’s technically after business hours.
Nevertheless, for three evenings each week, Lu sits dutifully next to the office phone, and we both pretend like it might ring. It doesn’t matter to me. Micheletto could take a hammer to the phone, and their company alone would be well-worth the sunk cost.
Tessa’s eyebrows knit together. “You have a whole employee? I’m here, like, every minute of every day. If your shop is open twenty-four hours, you better not tell Lamont. He’ll force me to come here in the middle of the night.”
I shrug, enjoying her intense interest in my personal life a little too much.
Tessa retrieves one of the many lip glosses she keeps in her purse and unscrews the cap. I crane my neck slightly to see the flavor. Coconut. Regrettably, my favorite of them all. I’m in agony as she swipes it over her lips, giving them a wet look that I actively try not to notice.
“Gi?” Lu pokes her head in my office, interrupting my exchange with Tessa. “Sorry to barge in, but there’s a rip in Michael’s school pants. Do you think you can patch them before we leave tonight?”
“What happened?”
She rubs her temples, looking exhausted. “Bullies at school. What else? Picked last for volleyball in gym class and shoved to the ground during the game. Then, to top it off, they apparently made fun of his size.”
I roll my neck, trying to temper a bigger reaction.
Micheletto is about the same size I was at his age.
A big “little” kid, for lack of a better term.
Broad and tall with fat around his hips, standard size pants for his age group bite into his waist and don’t even cover his ankles.
It’s been a labor of love tailoring a collection for him, just as Nonno did for me when I was his age.
The way his little chest puffs out with confidence after trying on a tailored outfit fills me with the type of satisfaction couture fashion will never provide.
I’m lucky I grew up when I did in Brescia, where bullying like this wasn’t as prevalent. I can’t imagine handling it gracefully.
Retrieving a candy from the bowl on my desk, I hand it to Lu. “For the stress.”
She smiles gratefully, and I count it as a win.
“Do you want me to talk to him?” I offer. He only sees his shitty dad one weekend a month, even though the reason Lu stayed in America was to strengthen their relationship.
“I’m going to leave you two to chat,” Tessa says quietly.
Caught up in my protectiveness over Micheletto, her presence slipped my mind. A rare occurrence.
She leaves the door open as she slips out, granting me an incredible view of her ass in the black cigarette pants she’s wearing.
“You might want to close your mouth to avoid drooling.” Lu’s voice cuts through my blatant appraisal, and I immediately snap my jaw shut. I didn’t even realize it was open.
“So, what? You’re into her?” Lu murmurs, wearing a knowing smile. “Or… have you already hooked up with this girl? Is that why there’s so much weird tension in this room?”
“What? No. Of course I haven’t slept with Tessa,” I hiss, switching to Italian.
“Even if we weren’t already working together, just look at her.
” I gesture to Tessa, my hand slowly tracking her long, lean body from the top of her midnight, wavy hair to the bottom of her heels.
The outfit she’s wearing looks so good on her that it’s distracted me all day.
“I’m looking at her…” Lu cocks an eyebrow.
We both are—the pair of us no better than Italian nonnas.
“She’s too young for me.”
“You’re thirty years old, Gi. And she’s, what? Mid-twenties?” Lu feigns horror. “You know what? You’re right. Five years is extremely problematic.”
I cross my arms in an effort to physically shield myself from Lu’s line of revealing questions. “Well, she’s difficult, too. Sometimes.”
“Sure. She’s real difficult. What with her looking all beautiful, sitting next to Michael, being in the fashion industry just like you. Seems terrible. Lock her up.” A mischievous smirk appears on Lu’s face. “Maybe we should video call your parents. Your mother would like her for you.”
“My mother would like anyone for me. She’s relentless.” I love Mamma, but the number of questions about my personal life has increased exponentially over the past few years.
Lu quirks an eyebrow. “Aren’t you the one fueling the fire with half-truths about actively seeing someone?”
I shrug. “I don’t want my parents to worry. It’s bad enough we’re so far from each other. Her heart would break if she knew I was alone.”
When I first moved here, I’d assumed I’d meet someone, fall in love, live happily ever after.
I became disillusioned the first time I stepped into an upscale club and got mistaken for a bouncer.
Next was a string of failed dates with women who only wanted me for my fashion connections, before I decided to keep my romantic life casual.
There’s no point in getting to know someone on a deeper level if they can’t see themselves dating someone without a six pack.
Mirrors show measurements, not hearts, nor minds, Nonno always said. Bodies are simply a home for souls, and you have the most beautiful soul, Tesoro.
A hint of a smile touches my lips at the memory, and I refocus back on Lu. “I do have someone. Two people, actually. You and ometto.”
She pats my arm and directs her attention toward the front, where Tessa is laughing at something Micheletto said. “And ometto has Tessa in the palm of his hand, it appears.”
The mention of her name amidst all the Italian has Tessa swiveling her head around. Caught red handed, we walk their way.
Tessa casts a familiar glare at me. “Looks like your zio was spying on us, Michael. Rude of him.”
“Lu is also here.” I point to the smiling woman next to me.
“That’s different. She birthed him. She can do whatever she wants.”
“I like her,” Lu mutters before taking a step closer to Tessa. “Michael is at his dad’s this weekend, but do you want to come for dinner next Sunday evening at my place? We always cook too much pasta. You’d be doing us a favor if you came.”
Tessa and I both start talking at the same time.
“Oh, I don’t think—”
“She wouldn’t want—”
“Please? You have to come for dinner,” Micheletto chimes in, directing his puppy-dog eyes toward Tessa, who hasn’t built up a tolerance for his charm yet. “I can show you my trading cards. I’ll be so happy if you come over.”
An expert emotional manipulator.
I watch Tessa’s internal struggle in real time as she weighs disappointing Micheletto against spending additional time with me.
“Well…”
“Perfect!” Lu interrupts. “All my recipes have meat, but if you’re vegetarian you can eat around it.”
Tessa absentmindedly nods, mumbling a distant, “It was, um, nice to meet you. I’ll leave you three to eat.
Thanks for inviting me to your home.” She heads toward the front door, then pauses and turns around.
“Giovanni. I’ll come earlier tomorrow to make up for the time missed today.
” With that, she walks out of the shop, the bell clanging behind her.
I study the nail holes in the wall from all the times I’ve moved the bell.
Her damn heel heights are constantly changing, which makes placement tricky.
My shop was converted from an old ground-level apartment, and the door frame is already unusually small.
Right now, the bell is at the highest it can go while still chiming when someone walks through the door.
It almost got her though… might have to take another look tomorrow.
“Tessa’s really pretty. And she told me she loves Pokémon,” Micheletto gushes, his cheeks bright pink.
I huff. “Well, you’re too young for her.”
Lu’s mouth tilts up in a knowing grin. “I thought she was too young for you.”
“Whatever. Either way, we hugged. I got a hug and you didn’t,” Micheletto brags.
“I don’t even want a hug from her!” I run a hand through my hair, tugging on the ends.
He grins, excitedly bouncing on his toes. “She smelled like cotton candy and rainbows.”
“It’s actually pears and—you know what? You smell like betrayal,” I mutter.
“She wants to trade cards with me. And,” he adds, puffing out his chest, “I have Leafeon. That’s an evolution of Eevee, her favorite. I think I’ll give it to her as a present… She’ll love it.”
“Stop talking about giving her gifts!”
Lu cuts in with a huge smirk on her face. “Why? Are you jealous he has something to offer and all you have is a bad attitude and graying sideburns?”
“Your shift is over. Take your spawn with you and get out of my shop.”
She completely ignores my order and saunters right past me to my office, humming an Italian love song.