15. Keith #4
“Haha, you mean in your ninety years,” Olivia said, her cheeks flushing. “Numbers can be confusing across languages,” she finished quickly to me.
“Don’t I know it,” I agreed, but at least Italian counting made so much more sense than it did in French. Although it had been many, many years since I was in high school, quatre-vingt-dix-neuf would forever haunt me.
“Come, I sit now.”
“Oh, Madre, this is supposed to be a private sor—” Mrs. Rizoli started.
“What, am I? Umano FBI? I no make it not private. I sit.”
She plopped down in Rolando’s seat. I felt bad, but that bad feeling didn’t stop me from needing to choke down a laugh when he returned to see his place at the table had been usurped.
“Nonna—”
And there went the doorbell again. It was starting to become comical.
Without another word, he turned and headed back out into the hall.
It was chaotic, yes. Did I see why it would get annoying from time to time?
Of course. But on the whole, I was digging the vibe.
Everyone seemed to care about each other, even if they did step on each other’s feet a lot, and no one had been expressly rude to me.
Awkward, yes. Sometimes a little too strong for their own good, also yes. But never rude.
Thankfully, once Nonna was settled and had a plate in front of her, things calmed down a little. Rolando returned and pulled up another chair, but the doorbell rang two more times before he fully got to settle.
There was a lot of Italian flying around, but eventually, when Nonna asked what I did in her broken English, I was able to reply in my broken Italian:
“Sono un falegname.”
Technically, I preferred the term woodworker over carpenter, but I didn’t know how to say that, so falegname it was.
“Good with your hands. Nice. Useful men are always…” Nonna squinted a little until she found the word. “Superior?”
“Nice to have around,” Olivia offered and the older woman nodded.
“Si. That.”
I tried not to look too pleased with myself, but I was having a hard time not feeling like I was absolutely killing it.
Finally, all the questions I’d practiced came up (except the library one) and I was able to answer in bad Italian.
Although I was a novice, everyone seemed to appreciate that I was trying.
But I should have known not to get ahead of myself, because when I was finishing up the last of my ravioli, Mr. Rizoli set down his fork and gave me a steely look.
“You seem like a charming man, Keith, and it takes someone special to catch the gaze of mi principessa, so tell me this.” I listened raptly, feeling a bit like I was a kid getting scolded by the teacher in class, except it was my future father-in-law in his own home.
“Why did you propose to my baby daughter without asking permission for her hand?
“I know American life is different, that people don’t understand what pa— famiglia really means, but to me, it seems like you have put effort into respecting my daughter’s culture so… I am confused.”
“Papa! It’s not the Middle Ages!” Olivia exclaimed at the same time as Rolando objected.
“Aw, come on, don’t take it there, Papa. It’s twenty-twenty-six!”
“I don’t mind answering,” I said slowly. I had no desire to get into a verbal debate with my (hopefully) future father-in-law, but I felt like I understood the root of what he was asking. “If you don’t mind, Olivia.”
Olivia looked gobsmacked and horrified, but she managed to nod.
“I greatly respect you, Mr. Rizoli, as the leader of your family who’s made a beautiful life for yourself and all of them, but Olivia is her own person with her own desires and dreams. My main priority in my proposal was making sure that she wanted to marry me. Not anybody else.”
I saw him inhale and figured out he was about to come up with his own rejoinder, but I wasn’t finished so I continued.
“The reason I’m meeting with you today is not because I need your permission, or because you have to approve of our union. It’s because Olivia asked me to, and I will always do whatever she asks. It’s whether she considers me worthy that matters, and I’m never going to lose sight of that.”
Nothing was said for what felt like the duration of an entire Lord of the Rings movie (extended edition, of course), but just when I felt like I needed to say something else, Enzo laughed.
It was a pleasant sound, not bitter, and he clapped his hands twice before nodding approvingly.
“This…. This is a good answer. Maybe you are worthy of mi principessa. But only barely.”
“Barely,” I agreed. “But trying to be more and more every day.”
He chuckled once more and lifted his fork, gesturing dramatically with his other hand as he speared veggies onto it. “I tell you a secret, my friend, you will never catch up because she will become better and better forever. Just like her mother.”
“Aww, Cucciolo!”
Olivia’s parents kissed, and she gave me a grateful look, her cheeks an adorable shade of pink. I blew her a kiss, and Rolando pretended to gag beside her.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad way to spend a meal.
***
“You were amazing in there, you know.”
I grinned as Olivia and I walked under the setting sun, our casual lunch having gone on a lot longer than I anticipated.
Then again, that was really par for the course for the two of us.
The rest of her family was also good at making fun conversation—even if a lot of it was peppered with a language I didn’t fully understand.
“You know, I think I agree,” I said, pausing as we reached my car.
Although there had been perhaps a dozen or so interruptions from the family members in the dining room clearly wanting to eavesdrop, on the whole, it had been an intimate meal with the five Rizolis.
Nonna was a riot all on her own. Sharp as a tack and clearly opinionated.
More than once, I’d had to swallow my laugh because she was being completely serious but I found her hilarious.
“Ooh, is that some ego I hear there?”
“Maybe. If it keeps going like this, I might actually think I’m a social butterfly.”
“Jeez, am I gonna need to start sabotaging you so you don’t decide to pursue a career as an influencer?”
I shuddered at the thought of having to earn my living by being in front of the camera the whole time.
No, thank you. I’d briefly entertained trying to do educational livestreams with my woodworking to help those who couldn’t afford or travel to my course, but I didn’t like having all that attention focused on me. I’d stick to my occasional classroom.
“I don’t think that’s necessary.”
“I’m sure you don’t,” she said, letting out a soft, lilting laugh before standing on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around my shoulders. For the first time since we arrived, she kissed me, and it was like all my frayed edges healed instantly.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come home with me?” I asked, waggling my eyebrows at her in the same way she did whenever she was being particularly saucy. I was sure I didn’t pull it off as well as her, but that didn’t matter. “We can work out any frustrations.”
She giggled and pressed a finger to my lips even though I was sure we were far enough out from the house that no one had a chance to overhear us.
“Shh! As fun as that sounds, I better stay here and make sure to head off any questions the masses have. Because I know they’re gonna have a whole lot to say about, well, everything.”
“I know, I know. Just wanted to let you know the offer is out there.”
“Thank you, baby. I wanna say yes, but this one time, I’m going to let you head back.” She kissed me again, and I wanted to pick her up and swing her around like we were in our own rendition of The Notebook. “See you this weekend?”
“See you this weekend,” I confirmed before getting into my car. Although I was loath to watch Olivia get smaller in my rearview mirror as I drove down the road, it made me feel some kind of (good) way that she stayed in her spot, waving until I turned off the road.
Ah, to be loved. What an experience.
Normally, I would turn on some tunes for any drive longer than twenty minutes, but after all the talking and hubbub, it was nice to sit in silence and be in my own thoughts while I navigated my way back home.
Olivia was right; her family was a whole lot, but not impossibly so. If anything, my time with them had shown me that even if having a large, opinionated family would complicate my life, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Besides, even if it was a negative, Olivia was worth it.
And no one could change my mind on that.