Let him breathe, Jesus.
"We have numbers too, you know," Lorenzo says suddenly, trying to cut the tension.
She doesn't even look at him. "Good for you," she says, with a smile.
My jaw drops. I'm sorry? Who does she think she is?
The disrespect is insane. Good for us? Yes, it is actually good for us. We have numbers, jobs, lives, and functioning personalities that don’t revolve around “teehee, Gio, you’re soo funny oh my God.”
I look at Gio.
He actually types something in her phone. I watch his fingers move on the screen. Watch her face light up like she won.
"Food?" Lorenzo suggests, clapping his hands once.
"Sure," I say through gritted teeth. Gio laughs. He looks like he's enjoying this. We start walking and she moves ahead a little.
A hand grabs my ass.
I spin around fast. Gio is smirking.
In your face, Allegra.
He just grabbedmyass instead of yours, and the chances that was an accident are exactly zero.
I bite back a smile and keep walking like nothing happened.
…
We sit down. She's across from me, trying to lock eyes with Gio every few seconds like she's casting some kind of cheap spell.
Gio acts like he doesn't notice.
But I know him. He does. Lorenzo makes a comment about the wine. She laughs too hard.
Gio gets up. "Bathroom," he says. The second he's gone, she takes a breath and starts performing.
"So," she turns to me, all sugar, "what does Gio like to eat?"
Men.
She's staring at the seafood menu. Gio's allergic to seafood. Once, years ago, he ate a single piece of shrimp without knowing and everything went to hell in ten seconds.
It was… bad. Genuinely traumatic to watch. I still think about it sometimes when someone orders prawns.
"Not seafood," I say.
"Why not?" she blinks. "Guys like him love seafood. It's very macho."
Macho. That’s the word she went with.
"He's allergic," I say. "Dangerously."
She twirls her hair. "Sometimes allergies go away. I saw a video about it. Maybe if he tries a little now, it'll be fine. The body changes. You know. I'll just get him a salad with crab on the side so he can try if he wants."
I stare at her. "Are you… okay?"
She glares. "I'm just trying to do something nice."
