Page 11 of Alessia
“Good. I’ll ask Vinnie and Alex to take it back to your place.”
“Oh… Thank you?”
“So, now that that’s settled, red or white?”
“Red, I guess.”
“Good! I’ll have the same, it’ll pair great with dinner.” Alessia grabs a bottle of expensive-looking wine from one of the shelves and pours us both a glass. She hands me one and takes her own glass and the bottle over to the couch.
“Carmen will be right up with dinner so maybe we can pick a movie?”
I’m still stunned and at a loss for words. Alessia looks at me with the question written all over her face.
“Hello! Earth to Harper! Anybody home in there?” She waves a hand in front of my face that makes me snap out of it.
“Yes, sorry, it’s just all a bit overwhelming.”
Alessia laughs, her whole face lights up the room.
“I forget this place is not what people are used to, sorry. Come have a seat, take a sip of wine and we’ll start over.”
I take aseat on the immensely soft couch and sink into it. Man, I could definitely do an amazing nap on this couch. I bet I’ll sleep better than in my own bed.
“Hi, I’m Alessia, nice to meet you.” Alessia’s hand is hanging in the air between us.
I start laughing, a full-blown belly laugh. “I know your name already, you dodo!” I say between laughing.
Alessia looks at me like I just slapped her in the face. Then a smile erupts on her face which turns into laughter. We’re doubling over clutching our stomachs as we try to catch our breaths. The elevator pings and an older woman with grey hair and an apron walks in with two plates of delicious smelling food.
Alessia squeals and reaches for the plates. “Thank you so much, Carmen. This I just what we needed!”
“Carmen makes the best mushroom risotto in the world. It’s an old Italian recipe and they only make it like this in Italy. I’ve never tasted anything close to this here in the States.”
“You’re not from the States?” I ask with surprise in my voice.
“No, I lived in Italy for most of my life. My father was here a lot and I stayed behind with my stepmother and little brother and sister. I moved here when I was twenty.”
“So now you basically told your life story in like two sentences.” I say with a wink.
“Oh, girl you only know like one percent of it now.” Alessia’s eyes turn even darker than I thought was possible. “But it’s the start of my life story.” She continues.
“Are your siblings a lot younger than you?”
“I was eight when my brother Lorenzo was born, he’s twenty-six now, and four years later my sister Bella was born. She’s twenty-two now.”
I do some quick calculating in my head. “That makes you thirty-four, right? And that means I’m the same age as your brother.” My cheeks flush again. Why do they keep doing that? There is nothing wrong with a little age difference. And who knows if she likes me like that? Hell, do I even like her like that?
I take a bite of the risotto, and I swear I’ve died and gone to heaven. My eyes go wide in surprise when I look at Alessia. “This is like heaven!” I say with my mouth full of this deliciousness.
Alessia laughs. “I know! Now… What kind of movies do you like? Action, romcom, horror?”
“Let’s do a romcom or something else easy, I don’t want to think.”
“Perfect!” Alessia scrolls through the streaming app and stops at the old Mean Girls movie. She looks at me with a raised brow in question. I nod and continue to eat the heaven on my plate and sip my wine.
Halfway through the movie Alessia pauses the movie. “Hey, I was totally into this plot. Why did you pause it?”
She stands and walks over to the kitchen to open the freezer. “I’ve had Elio pick up some delicious ice cream and I need you to taste it.”
