“When was the last time you saw him?”
“Three years ago, at Simon’s youngest daughter’s christening. He arrived with his model girlfriend.”
“Will she be coming with him now?” I knew that Rio and Owen had a thing years ago, but although she had once told me that he was her first, she had always dismissed it as nothing.
“I have no idea. I don’t even know if they’re still together. Oscar told me he hated her when they met while they were visiting, so …” She shrugged.
“Doesn’t he know if his grandson is still with her?”
“They don’t talk much, with the time difference and all. Oscar did frown over a tabloid article that listed Owen as one of Europe’s football league’s most eligible bachelors recently, so …” Rio shrugged again, but I had a feeling she wasn’t that indifferent.
“So, you read the British tabloids now?” I grinned.
Rio gave me a don’t-start look, and I mimicked locking my mouth with a key.
I loved Rio. When I had hired her for the Riviera shop ten years ago, Rio had been twenty-five and had opened the interview with, “I have a stutter, as you can hear. I want to acknowledge it so you won’t feel uncomfortable during our interview. You can ask me anything about it, including if I think that I can serve customers and answer the phone. But I have one request. If I get stuck, please let me finish my own sentences without trying to complete them for me.”
I knew then and there that I’d hire her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“My shower’s broken. Can I spend the night at yours?” I asked Tammy over the phone while getting into my car. I knew she’d be fine with me sleeping on her sofa. And after the ice cream and Angelo, using her shower gel and toothpaste wouldn’t kill me. Spending the night abstaining Angelo would.
“Going to my sister’s. See you tomorrow,” I texted Angelo.
Another thumbs-up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning, I told Adam to hold the fort until I got there. I waited until I was sure Angelo would be downstairs then walked up to my apartment through the front. On the stairwell, I could hear the muffled sounds coming from his workshop, where he was testing some sound.
The studio looked perfect. The sofa bed was folded, the throw pillows in place, and even Helen, Morty, Frank, and Estelle were watered. Though, sadly, Frank and Estelle were still withering.
I changed my clothes, standing inside my closet, briefly sneaking a hand to smooth over Angelo’s stack of folded T-shirts and scolding myself for needing to touch it in the first place.
Two innocent guitar picks on the coffee table gripped my heart like a fist.
I hadn’t seen him in twenty-four hours, and I missed him.
A fact I couldn’t deny or quell or stop being scared of.
On the sidewalk out front, my hope to dodge Rio, Dharma, and Angelo failed. Dharma stepped out just when I was about to get into my car that was parked up Ocean, a few good yards away from the entrance to my shop.
“June!” She looked baffled. “Were you inside? I must have missed you.”
“No, I’m on my way to Wayford.” I held the car’s door open, one leg already inside.
“Oh.” She approached me. “I’m on my way to Breading Dreams. Got my period and … need a cupcake.” She rolled her eyes. “You know, a dose of real sugar, not what we have in there.” She chuckled, probably deeming that we shared the same habit.
“Okay, enjoy.” I smiled and was about to climb into the driver’s seat.
“Um, June. The guy who’s renting the space at the back, Angelo. Is he …? Do you know if he’s single and what’s his story? Like, is he staying here in Riviera, or … ? Rio said she didn’t know.”
Angelo was careful to remove his ring when in danger of being seen by others, so Dharma couldn’t have known.
“Um, I gotta go. He’s staying in Riviera, yes.”
Thanks to Angelo staying in his workshop until after the shop’s closing hours, she didn’t know where he went when he was done working.
