Page 100 of The One
“I know.”
“So? Who is she to you?”
“She used to be my neighbor. And maybe, I had a little crush on her back then.”
I chuckle, amused. I can’t imagine Romeo having a crush.
“Don’t laugh, asshole. It was just teenage hormones. We practically grew up together. And that last year before I left… you know.”
“No, I don’t.”
He sighs, exasperated, adding to my amusement.
“She became all womanly, and I started to see her…” He waves his hands in the air as if he could pluck the right words from the ether. “… in a different light.”
He sighs again, but this time it seems filled with regrets. “But then I left and that was that.”
“So you were an item?”
“No, she resisted my charms.”
“Wow,” I say with mock seriousness.
“What?” he asks annoyed.
“There was, is, a woman out there who’s told you no? That’s something. What is she doing in Rome?” I ask. “It’s a long way away from the hinterland of Milan.”
He groans. “Her husband got a job in the city.” He spits out the word husband, and I’d bet my Ferrari that he has already looked him up.
As if to prove me right, he continues, “He’s some low-life who can’t even provide for his wife and has her work in a club where anybody can ogle her. I mean, really? She is stunning. She could have her pick of men and she settled for him?”
I bite my lip to suppress my laughter. “There’s such a thing as love. She might not care about his status or money.”
“Please! All women do,” he huffs.
Not Mari.
She doesn’t seem materialistic at all. She refused when I wanted to buy her designer clothes and seems happiest when she can play the guitar or design a new dress. And she wanted to try pizza when I could have taken her to a Michelin star restaurant.
“No, I disagree. Not all do.”
He huffs again but doesn’t reply.
“What are you going to do?”
Again, he doesn’t answer.
“Are you going to stay away from her?”
He remains silent, staring out of the window while rubbing his chin.
“Rom?”
He clenches his jaw and then moves it from side to side.
“Not until I know for sure she’s being looked after.”
I sense there is much more to this story than he lets on, but as we arrive at the port, I let it go for now.
