Page 46 of Twice
“Alfie,” Gianna said. “Do you mean all of this?”
“Yeah.”
“Because you say a lot of weird things.”
“No. Yes. I mean it!”
Then, as if she needed physical proof, I opened the bag and took out a small white box.
“Look. I got this for you.”
I pulled off the top and removed a kid’s necklace. Dangling from the bottom was a little silver elephant.
“For your birthday. Happy birthday, Gianna.”
She blinked several times. It looked like she might cry. She put her hand to the glass and I pushed the elephant forward. She moved her fingertips as if touching it.
“Oh, God, Alfie,” she said, smiling.
“What?”
“It took you long enough.”
I exhaled so hard, I fogged up the glass. But when that moisture evaporated, she was staring at me with the most loving expression. And whatever man she was seeing that day was the man I wanted to be forever.
She curled her index finger. I moved my face closer.
“Nothing,” she said.
“Nothing?”
“Nothing could be better than this.”
She pushed her beautiful lips in my direction and I felt my nose brush the glass. That was our first kiss. Through a revolving door that a thousand dirty hands had pushed against that morning.
It was perfect.
Nassau
“Well, hallelujah,” LaPorta said, sneering. “You finally hooked the big fish.”
He leaned in.
“How long before you got her in the sack?”
Alfie shook his head.
“That’s all you’re getting from this?”
LaPorta pushed back in his chair. “Am I supposed to be getting something else?”
Alfie cocked his head.
“Have you ever been in love, Detective?”
“Sure. Lots of times.”
“I don’t mean the lots-of-times kind. I mean the tumbling, can’t-stop-thinking-about-her, can’t-wait-to-see-her kind.”
