"It's a joke."
"I'm sure it is."
He leaves me with the ridiculous water gun and I can't stop grinning like an idiot. This is insane. Santino Marcellois sending me joke gifts and I'm sitting here laughing like a teenager.
The next delivery arrives while I'm in a meeting with suppliers. When I get back to my office, there's a box on my desk waiting for me. Inside is the most beautiful pair of driving gloves I've ever seen in my life.
Soft leather, perfectly crafted, expensive enough that I can tell just by touching them. The kind of thing you'd wear while driving a luxury sports car.
The card:"So you can drive yourself. At whatever speed you want. Want to drive my car? -S"
I sink into my chair, staring at the gloves.
His car.
The night I jumped out because he wouldn't stop, wouldn't let me have control.
He's offering to let me drive now.
His prize Maserati. The one he loves more than most people. He's offering to let me drive it.
"Okay," I say out loud to my empty office. "What are you doing, Santino?"
My phone buzzes immediately. Gia.
Gia: Any gifts today?
Me: Driving gloves.
Gia: ???
Me: He's offering to let me drive his car.
Gia: THE Maserati? The one he never lets anyone touch?
Me: Yes.
Gia: Liana. He's in love with you.
I stare at the message, my heart pounding. Is he? Or is this just guilt? Just trying to make amends for failing to protect me?
Me: It's not love. It's guilt.
Gia: You don't send someone four days of increasingly personal gifts out of guilt. You do it because you care.
Gia: The question is: do YOU care?
I look at the driving gloves in my hands. At the water gun on my shelf. At the funny framed lettuce photo I haven't been able to throw away.
Do I care? God help me, yes. I care deeply.
I've been angry and hurt and convinced he only destroyed the Benedettis to save face, to protect his reputation. But these gifts, they're not about saving face or reputation.
They're about me.
The one who ate his steak and rambled about reality TV and grabbed his gun and jumped out of his car.
He's showing me he saw all of it. Remembered all of it. Maybe even loved all of it.
