Epilogue Sunday Dinner #2
He laughed softly. They walked down the stairs together. At the bottom, he stopped near the building door instead of opening it and stepping out first. Sophia noticed.
“What?” she asked.
He nodded toward the sidewalk outside. “Do you want me to walk you to Bella Luna, walk beside you until the corner, or let you go on your own and meet you there?”
Sophia smiled. It wasn’t a dramatic question. It wasn’t big enough for anyone else to notice. The smallness of the question was what made it count.
“Walk beside me,” she said. “All the way.”
Vinny’s face softened. “All right.”
He opened the door, and they stepped out together.
Bella Luna was glowing when they reached it.
Not crowded at the windows like the week after the review.
Not full of people trying to peek at a story they had read online.
Just busy and warm, with dinner plates moving through the room.
Antonia stood at the bar with Brett beside her.
Gia carried menus and talked with both hands.
Victoria stood at the host stand, beautiful and annoyed at something on her phone.
Normal. Almost. Sophia liked almost. Inside, Antonia looked up when they entered.
Her eyes went to their joined hands, then to Vinny.
“You aren’t working tonight,” she said.
“I know, chef.”
“You are also not touching my kitchen.”
“I know.”
Gia leaned over the host stand. “He looks like he wants to touch the kitchen.”
Vinny looked offended. “I don’t.”
Sophia looked at him.
He sighed. “A little.”
Antonia pointed to a table near the front. “Sit. Eat. Behave.”
Vinny nodded. “Yes, chef.”
Brett smiled into his glass. Sophia and Vinny sat at the low two-top near the window.
It wasn’t table seven. Sophia didn’t need it to be.
Table seven held a young family tonight.
The little boy from the water spill was back, slowly drinking from a cup with both hands while his mother watched him like he was handling explosives. Sophia smiled.
Vinny followed her gaze. “He doing all right?”
“Yes.”
“Steady.”
Victoria came over with two menus. “You survived Constance?”
Vinny accepted a menu. “Barely.”
Sophia said, “She asked about health insurance.”
Victoria nodded. “Fair.”
“She asked about budgeting.”
“Also fair.”
“She asked if I understood Sophia wasn’t a project.”
Victoria looked at Sophia. “I like her.”
“You already liked her.”
“I like her more.”
Gia appeared with water. “Did she ask if he has intentions?”
Sophia’s face warmed. “No.”
Vinny choked on nothing.
Gia grinned. “Interesting.”
Antonia called from the bar, “Gia.”
Gia set down the water. “Leaving.”
She didn’t leave. Victoria’s phone buzzed in her hand. She looked at it, and her face changed.
Sophia saw it. “Francois?”
Victoria’s mouth flattened. “He replied.”
Vinny stiffened before catching himself. Sophia noticed his hand flex against the table, then relax.
He looked at Victoria. “Do you want help, or do you want us to mind our business?”
Victoria stared at him. Then at Sophia. Sophia smiled a little.
Victoria looked back at the phone. “I want to be angry for ten seconds before I decide.”
Gia leaned closer. “I support this process.”
Antonia came over as soon as she heard Francois’s name. “What did he say?”
Victoria read the message.
“Accuracy, Miss Moretti, isn’t the same as agreement.”
Gia’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, I hate that he knows your last name.”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed at the phone. “He probably Googled me.”
Brett said mildly from the bar, “Given your public post, that is likely.”
Victoria looked at him. “Not helpful.”
“No.”
Sophia watched Victoria’s thumb hover over the screen.
“Are you answering?” Sophia asked.
Victoria looked up. The restaurant noise moved around them: forks, plates, laughter, Gia telling someone the bread wasn’t decorative. Vinny sat beside Sophia, tense but low. Antonia waited with her arms folded. Victoria typed. Then she read it aloud before sending.
“If you want accuracy, start with not turning servers into targets to save your column.”
Gia whispered, “Beautiful.”
Antonia said, “Don’t send while angry.”
Victoria looked at Sophia. “Was that too far?”
Sophia thought about it.
“No.”
Victoria’s face softened for half a second. Then she sent it. Antonia sighed, but she didn’t look truly upset.
Brett looked amused. “Well.”
Victoria set the phone facedown. “That is going to be a problem.”
Gia smiled. “Yes. But at least it will be interesting.”
“It will be irritating,” Victoria said.
“Also that.”
Then Victoria picked up her host stand tablet and went back to work like she hadn’t just accepted a fight with a disgraced French critic. Sophia looked at Vinny. He looked back.
“What?” he asked.
“You stayed calm.”
“I was terrified of everyone.”
“That counts.”
“I thought so.”
She laughed and opened her menu. Antonia ended up sending them cavatelli, salad, and olive oil cake. Vinny didn’t complain that he could have plated the cake better because he valued his life. Sophia ate slowly and watched Bella Luna move around them. The restaurant was still imperfect.
A server dropped a spoon. Gia almost backed into Brett and accused him of standing “too softly for a rich man.” Victoria ignored her phone for almost eleven whole minutes. Antonia caught Vinny glancing toward the kitchen twice and lifted one eyebrow until he looked back at his plate.
For the first time in days, Bella Luna sounded like itself.
Messy. Loud. A little dangerous around the bread baskets.
After dessert, Sophia pulled her planner from her bag to check Monday’s class time.
Vinny saw the assignment list and didn’t groan, even though she had added a study block after lunch.
“You working tomorrow?” he asked.
“Class, then library, then dinner shift.”
“Want me to save you a seat after shift or no?”
“At Bella Luna?”
“Wherever you want. Or nowhere. I can go home.”
Sophia looked at him over the planner. He was trying very hard to make options sound normal and not like panic.
“I have to study after shift,” she said.
He nodded. “All right.”
“You can sit with me for twenty minutes before I start.”
His smile came fast. “Yeah?”
“Yes. Twenty minutes. Then school.”
“I can do twenty minutes.”
“Can you?”
“I can learn.”
Sophia smiled and wrote it in her planner. Vinny — 20 min. Study after.
He leaned over. “I made the planner?”
“You have a time limit in the planner.”
“I am honored and restricted.”
“Exactly.”
He laughed, and Sophia closed the planner. When they left Bella Luna, he stopped at the door again.
Sophia looked up at him. “You can walk me home.”
“I was going to ask.”
“I know.”
“Still asking.”
“Yes. I want you to.”
They stepped outside into the cool night.
He walked beside her, not ahead, not behind.
Their hands brushed once before he took hers, slow enough that she could pull away if she wanted.
She didn’t. At the corner, Sophia looked through the restaurant window one more time.
Victoria stood at the host stand with her phone facedown.
Gia was talking to Nico near the bar, one hand on her hip, his smile smaller than usual but real.
Antonia leaned into Brett’s side for half a second before straightening when a server came by.
Bella Luna kept moving. Sophia turned back to the sidewalk.
Vinny squeezed her hand. “Home?”
She looked at him. The question was simple. That was what made it feel real.
“Yes,” she said. “Home.”
They walked that way together.