“Me too,” I say, holding back the sour taste in my mouth.
“Meet Bianca, old friend of mine. She’s helping me cook dinner. Homemade Lasagna. Our house favorite.”
“Yummy, hope it’s better than the pigs in the blanket we had the other night.” I take a sip of my water.
Bianca’s face goes rigid. I put on a fake smile and say, “I’m sure dinner will be lovely.” I held out a hand and she reluctantly took it. “So very nice to meet you. Beautiful girl you are..”
She says and I instantly recognize the accent. Italian. It reminded me of the first time my parents ever took me to Italy and I fell in love with the place so much I wanted to learn how to speak the language. It’s the one place that felt like home, and freedom even though it was thousands of miles away from my home back in L.A.
“Would you like to help us?” Nora asks.
“Believe me, it’s better for me to be out of the kitchen than in it.” I say.
“You don’t like cooking?” Bianca asks, and I chuckle a little at that.
“No, it’s not that I don’t like it, I just-well never have cooked anything except maybe a grilled cheese sandwich a few times.”
Bianca wrinkles her nose at me as Nora laughs. “She was raised in California.”
I scrunch my eyebrows at her, “And that means I can’t cook?”
“No, it just means…well, nothing. How about you help set the table at least.”
“Fine,” I walk over to the cabinets and I’m met with a pair of piercing blue eyes. A little girl who reminded me of myself. Beautiful, alone, and scared.
“Nora, is my Niccolo coming to dinner tonight?”
My Niccolo? Is this his daughter or something? Why wouldn’t she call him dad?
“Yes sweetie, he’ll be here with the gang.” She looks down and ruffles her platinum blonde hair.
“Since it’s a special day today, I made him this.” She holds out a drawing with a man holding a girl, kissing her on the cheek, with an american flag in the background.
“Oh, honey, that is beautiful,” Bianca takes the piece of paper from her. “He will love it.” She bends over and gives her a gentle kiss on the cheek. The little girl smiles and turns her attention to me.
“Who are you?” She says with venom in her tone. Geeze for a little kid she’s definitely got some sass. I like her.
“I’m Melanie, but you can call me Mel. I”m one of Abigail's friends.”
“I’m Faye. Are you here for the birthday party?”
“Birthday party?” I say in confusion.
“Ya, it’s Abigail's birthday and Niccolo’s celebration,” she says enthusiastically.
Shit, it’s Veterands day which meant it was Abigail’s Birthday, how could I forget. “Yes, yes, I am if you girls will excuse me. I need to go take care of something vital.”
Nora eyes me, but I’m almost out the front door before she can say anything. “I’ll be back before dinner,” I assure, shouting before slamming the door shut and jogging to my car.
2
MELANIE
Iswiped the credit card another time as the phone continued to ring.
“Sorry, ma’am, it declined again.”
My mom finally answered on the fourth ring.
