Page 37 of Say It Isn't So

Watching Rina walkaway was confusing for me. There was this woman who I’d once known so well, but now barely knew at all.

She was definitely not the same girl I knew once upon a time.

It wasn’t just her name or her hair that had changed, either. It was everything.

Beside me, Bianca looked up expectantly. “Well?”

“I don’t know that woman,” I declared decidedly.

Snaking her arm through mine, she pointed her handbag ahead. “So do we stay for drinks or dinner?” she asked.

I shook my head. “Nah. I think I’m ready to turn in.”

“Then I’ll walk with you,” she responded and fell in step with me as we walked out of the restaurant.

It was funny—on the one hand there was Rina, a woman who’d changed drastically, who I didn’t even feel like I knew. She was my past, and yet I was drawn to her in the present. It was like I was a child and she was a hot stove, I just had to get close to see what it was all about. I blamed our shared history.

On the other hand, there was Bianca. Bianca was. . . she was forbidden fruit of the worst kind, that was what she was. So while she could be everything, she was also nothing.

Bianca’s purse vibrated. “Um, you’re vibrating,” I said, looking at it pointedly.

Laughing, she dropped my arm and pulled her phone out. “I swear, there’s a joke in there somewhere.” Then she answered it. “Hi, Daddy,” she said, and I felt my gut clench again.

My chest was rising and falling at a rapid pace and my heart was beating so fast I thought it could outrun the hare in a race with the tortoise.

Does Angelo know?I shook my head.How would that even be possible?I didn’t watch horror movies, but if I did, I was pretty sure this was a plot idea for one of them.“I’m always watching you. I have eyes and ears everywhere. Even when you think you’re alone, you never really are.”

“No, you caught me at just the right time. I just left the dinner I had arranged with Rina Levana. By the way, do you know who that is?” Bianca asked, and I let the rest of the conversation fade into background noise as we walked.

All I could see was Angelo’s face playing on loop in my mind’s eye as he forbade me from seeing Bianca again, from having contact of any kind with her. Angelo making me feel like an idiot, a user.

If none of that ever happened, where we would be right now?

Then I heard my name. “Yes, I’m with Knox.”Oh, God, don’t say my name. In fact, forget it when it comes to your father.“You remember him, don’t you? Could you imagine what a small world it is?” she asked her father over the phone and I knew then I’d just struck out.

It was officially game over.

“Yeah, I heard about that,” she said, and I expected he’d said something about us not being allowed to see each other. Then, as if confirming my suspicions, she responded to him, “You can’t forbid me from anything, Daddy. I’m a big girl.” She angled her head to look at me. Meanwhile, it looked like she had a dozen questions on the tip of her tongue, but voiced none of them. I had a question, too: why did having a relationship (of any kind) with Bianca mean I had to have one with her father?Because Bianca is a daddy’s girl and her father means everything to her, dumbass.

I closed my eyes, shaking my head. “Don’t fight with him,” I whispered, wanting to remind her of what she’d said earlier about forgiving and forgetting.

Outside my door now, I knew it would be so much easier if we parted ways here, but Bianca followed me in and made herself at home on my bed, still talking to Angelo. I thought about having Bianca on my bed a lot (hey, don’t judge, we were friends, but I wasn’t a blind monk), but never did I think this would be how it’d be—with her talking on the phone to her father. Yeah, just shoot me.

“No, I’m sorry. I’ll check back in for work soon, but my personal life is not your concern. Frankly, I’m a little annoyed that you got involved in it two years ago.” She was adamant. Respectful. But adamant as she said her piece.

I could only imagine what Angelo was saying on the other end of the line. Likely all the same stuff I’d heard in his office that day.

Keeping her composure, Bianca spoke with grace as she explained, “The fact that you think so little of me upsets me. I’m not the naïve girl you think I am. It’s insulting, actually.”

Another pause.

She stood. “I don’t know. I didn’t know where you were coming from, Knox left that part out, but now that I do know, I think I need some time. This is a lot to process, and I’d rather not say anything I’ll regret later, so I’m going to hang up. I’ll email you anything you need to know from the rest of my time in Europe, but unless it’s work-related I don’t want to speak to you right now. Goodbye.”

Putting her phone down on my bed, she turned to me and licked her lips. Man, how I wondered what they tasted like.

Wrong time, buddy!

“Why didn’t you tell me? He thought I’d be so foolish to not see if someone was taking advantage of me. Thatyouwould take advantage of me.” She was pacing now, and I knew I had to tread lightly.

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