Page 15 of Love or Leave

"Yeah," Maria said, shaking her head. "Princess Fran, who won't even make pasta with Nonna because it hurts to stand in her heels too long, is dating a guy who voluntarily lives in a tent."

Antonio flinched.

"You know why she's doing this, don't you?"

"Maria…"

"Don't, Tonio,” she said, her voice rising. “You always defend her."

"And you've always hated her for no reason."

Maria narrowed her eyes at him. "I have reasons. And this is another one. She's coming to our parents'anniversaryparty with a famous date before the ink is even dry on your divorce papers."

Antonio ignored the boulder in his throat. "Technically, there isn't ink on the papers yet, and can we really call Blake Hunterfamous?"

Maria threw her hands up again before taking some calming breaths. "So you don't care that she's doing this?"

Antonio sighed. He hated the idea of seeing her with someone else—especially someone so obviously unsuitable for her. And the idea that she'd moved on made it difficult to breathe. Especially since he hadn’t.

Well, that wasn't one hundred percent true.

He'd somewhat moved on with Sara before Fran briefly came back into the picture. But Fran wasn't to blame for that. He never should have dated Sara when his wounds were still bleeding. It had been too soon.

He forced some deep breaths and looked out the window, trying not to ruminate about everything falling apart.

Again.

"Tonio," Maria said in a softer tone.

He glanced up at her clenched half-smile.

"You can't go to this party alone."

Her words sunk in and he dropped his head into his hands. "I don't know how I fucked this all up so bad."

Maria shook her head. "It's not you. You guys just aren't meant to be."

He reared back. "Not meant to be? We've known each other all our lives. If I can't make it work with her, how will I ever…" He trailed off and let the ending of the sentence hang over them like a wet rag.

How would he ever make it work with anyone?

"Maybe you can talk to her after this weekend, but I really don't think you should show up alone. She's going to be there with that guy and it's all anyone's going to talk about all night."

"I don't want to bring someone."

"Maybe a friend? Or what about that neighbour I met?"

Antonio winced. "My neighbour hates me," he said, his mind snagging on the wordfriend.

"Why?"

He squeezed his eyes shut. There was no way he was going to tell his sister what he’d done. "I'd rather not say."

Maria stared at him, then shook it off. "Ask a friend, find a girl on one of the apps, I don't know, but you can't walk in there alone."

Ask a friend.

Cara needed a friend to go to a concert. Maybe they could make a deal?

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