Chapter 144
AFTER THAT, I DIDN’T SEE Teo for several weeks.
But I did wind up meeting his mother one morning, at the butcher’s.
She was there with Francesca, and I recognized her right away.
She had Teo’s eyes and the same pronounced cheekbones, and it was all I could do not to blurt out, I’m in love with your son!
Francesca introduced us, but what could she say other than that I took private lessons with her? As you might imagine, this did not elicit the kind of wild-eyed interest I might have gotten if Francesca had told Simona Manca that I was Teo’s lover.
“Piacere,” said Simona, but it was clear she was focused on making sure she ordered enough salami to feed her three sons and their families.
I tried to force her to pay attention to me. “I’m also good friends with Teo.”
“Oh?” said Simona, then told the butcher that she also needed some mortadella, sliced extra thin.
Francesca eyed me suspiciously. “Have you seen him much this summer?”
As much as I wanted to tell her the truth, I shook my head. “Things have been busy.”
“I bet,” said Francesca, then she pulled her datebook out of her purse. “I’ve got to cancel next week’s lesson. And the following one.”
“Oh, no.”
“With everyone in town, it’s going to be too much. Arturo’s family is staying with me, and also Teo.”
“Right,” I said. “Well, we pack out on the twenty-fifth, and then we’re at the Excelsior for a few days. I’d love to get at least one more lesson in before then.”
“I’ve got you down for the seventeenth,” she said. “That can be our goodbye.”
I nodded, too overwhelmed to speak. We were really coming up on our final lesson? It didn’t seem possible.
I stood behind Francesca and Simona in line, watching as they ordered a few more cuts of meat, then waited for everything to be sliced and weighed and wrapped in brown paper. When they’d paid, Simona turned to me and told me, again, how nice it was to meet me.
“You, too,” I said, feeling positively heartbroken that Teo had wanted me at the center of this big family gathering and that I had said no because I was too frightened to tell Paul what I already knew, in my heart, was true.