Page 46 of His Beautiful Revenge
Zulika rolled her eyes. “Behave yourself.”
Fred threw her a grin. “Go clean yourself up, you shameless hussy. I’ll let the screaming hoards in. Wait …” She stopped Zulika and peered at her, frowning. “How’d you get that?” She poked at Zulika’s neck and Zulika winced.
“What is it?” She went out to the back room and looked in the mirror.
“You’ve got a hickey.” Fred stood watching her, arms folded across her chest.
“Whatever.” Zulika letherhair drop, shrugged, and headed upstairs. Her eyes stung and she sighed when she saw her red eyes and puffy cheeks. She had a terrible pain in her chest, but she knew it wasn’t anything physical. Torturing herself, she checked her phone for messages. None.
Oh god.What had she been thinking? Had she ruined her friendship with Orlando because of a one night stand? The thought of never seeing him again was breaking her heart, but seeing him would be even harder.
Help me, I don’t know what to do.
She flicked to the keypad on her phone and called the one person she knew she could talk to.
Norah.
Norah took one look at Zulika’s face and sent her home. “I’ll finish out the day with Fred, then come to you. I’ll tell Giacomo I won’t be home tonight.”
Zulika dragged herself home and fell into bed to sleep until Norah came over. As she was falling asleep, the tears came, and she sobbed again, trying to tell herself that it shouldn’t make such a big difference. So she had a one night stand with her friend, her recently-bereaved friend, and he’d freaked out. He hadn’t said she disgusted him, or that he didn’t want her. He just felt guilty.
Which was bad enough, because so did Zulika. Not just because of Carmel. Not just because of her friend, but because, for Zulika, last night had been more than sex—more than just a one night stand.
It had been her first time. And for a second, it seemed like it had been the perfect way to say goodbye to her long-held virginity. And it had. Ithadbeen perfect. Until itwasn’t.
She rolled over onto her front and buried her tears in her pillow.
Giacomo knew that Norah was with Zulika, so he decided to go see his god-daughter and Orlando. Ferma was excited; Norah had already asked her to be her flower-girl and as soon as Giacomo arrived, she was showing him the sketches she had made of her dream dress.
“I would show you the ones I did of Auntie Norah,” she told him seriously, “But you’re not supposed to see her dress and if she picks one of them, then that’s bad luck.”
“I understand,” he said in a grave voice, then winked at Lando. His friend looked tired. “Youokay, man?”
Lando mouthed, “Later,” at him and Giacomo nodded. After take-out pizza, Ferma went to bed, the two men sat outside with cold beers, and Lando told him about his night with Zulika.
Giacomo listened, then patted his friend’s back. “Lando, I have to say, it’s not the biggest surprise.”
“It isn’t?”
Giacomo shrugged. “Anyone can see you two are crazy about each other.”
Orlando groaned, dropping his head into his hands. “That’s just it. Carmel hasn’t even been gone a year. How could I fall for someone else so quickly?”
“Give yourself a break, Lando. Did you mean to fall in love again? No. Are you disrespecting Carmel’s memory?Hell, no. She’s up there, cheering you on. You know how much Carmel and Zulika liked each other. Ferma adores her. No one expects you to be a monk.”
Orlando rubbed his eyes and sighed. “I promised I wouldn’t get involved with anyone until I got closure for myself. For Ferma. Until we know who killed Carmel and why …”
“Lando, listen to me.” Giacomo’s voice was serious. “Here’s the brutal truth; we mayneverknow. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh. Whether it was someone targeting Carmel or just a random psychopath …we might never know. You cannot put your life on hold for that.”
Orlando said nothing, staring out unseeingly at the backyard. Giacomo swigged his beer.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course,mio fratello.”
Orlando looked him and Giacomo winced at the pain in his eyes. “What if something happened to Norah, then less than a year later you realized …I’m in love with this whole new person? How would you feel?”
Giacomo hesitated and then nodded. “I understand.”
