Page 24 of Bittersweet

“I don’t know about this.” Dad switches his phone for the remote, turning the television off. I stand, placing my empty glass back on thecart.

“You can’t leave before dinner.” Mom’s voice is filled withalarm.

“Sorry, Mom,” I say. “Something’s come up. And besides, I think I’m going on adiet.”

Her jawdrops.

Maria swoops in from nowhere, my handbag and keys at the ready. “Goodbye, Miss Romy,” she says, and I smile and thank her foreverything.

What a disaster of a night. Still, it’s made one thing abundantly clear—each second I spend waiting for Elio to hurry up and kiss me brings me a second closer to my parents hooking me up with a man they find on the Internet. So much for a dream wedding. At this point, I’ll be lucky if they don’t sell me as a mail-orderbride.

It’s time to stop beating around the bush and waiting for Elio to make the nextmove.

This is the twenty-first century. It’s time for me to kisshim.

Elio won’t even know what hithim.

9

Romy

Okay,girl, you got this. You can do it. You’re a reasonably attractive, smart, funny, independent woman.You’re also talking to yourself in the middle of the street like a crazyperson.

I stare at the café windows. I’ve been here for at least a minute, and I must look like an idiot. With a deep breath, I reach for the doors . . . at the exact same time as another woman. We smile awkwardly at one another, and I step aside and let her go first because I need aminute.

The bell above us jingles, announcing our arrival. Elio looks up from the counter. His eyes meet mine and they light up. My responding smile is an echo, a call across empty valleys, answering his own. I glide toward theman.

“There she is,” he says. “We missed you aroundhere.”

“You’re home,” Coco shouts, and races out from around the counter. I think she’s running toward me, when the woman in front rushes forward and picks up the little girl, spinning around with her in her arms as Coco kisses her cheeks. “I missdedyou.”

I’m already confused, but when Elio strides across the room and scoops the woman and Coco up in an embrace, all I can do is stand there with my mouth gaping open and my heart hammering against my ribcage. He blows a raspberry on Coco’s neck as she fights and giggles. “Stop it,Daddy.”

Daddy?

Elio attacks her again and Coco giggles, and that’s when it hitsme.

Theresemblance.

The way theyinteract.

I always thought that she looked like him. She has his eyes, his dark hair, that gorgeous olive skin, but I thought the family resemblance only went as far as him being her uncle not . . . Oh my God. Coco is his daughter, and this woman . . . this stunning brunette with long dark hair and equally dark eyes, whose cheek he’s kissing . . . she must be hiswife.

How could I have been sostupid?

All this time I’ve been dreaming of a life where Elio and I are . . . family, where we someday may have a family. I’m so stupid, because as I’m looking at the three of them, it becomes clear he already has that covered. My eyes prick with tears, my heart shattering into a million different pieces, and I’m glued to the spot, watching my worstnightmare.

“Womy!” Coco shouts and the spell is broken. Elio’s eyes turn to mine, and I swallowhard.

“Hey, Romy. Sorry. I didn’t see you there.” Elio sets his daughter on the floor. His smile is wide and all-encompassing. How can he look at me like that with his wife standing right besidehim?

For a beat, I don’t say anything at all, but when it’s apparent all three are waiting for me to respond, I stutter. “I-I just . . . I forgotsomething.”

Elio’s brows knit, and he frowns. I turn. I can’t look at him anymore. I can’t look at any of them, and I can’t breathe. “Are youokay?”

Elio. His beautiful wife. His gorgeous child. They're perfect. All three of them are perfect. "You have a . . . family," Iwhisper.

His forehead creases in confusion. "Yeah.I—"

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