I set down the towel, my hands trembling slightly. “Siena, I love you. But Vincenzo is a guest in my home, and you can’t talk to him like that. Not in my restaurant.”
Vin’s expression doesn’t change, but pride or maybe surprise flits across his face.
Siena’s mouth opens, closes. “Sophie, I’m trying to—”
“I know what you’re trying to do.” I move around the counter, standing between them, creating space. “And I appreciate it. But I’m okay.”
“You’re not okay,” Siena says, but her voice has lost its edge. Now she just sounds sad. “Look at you. Look at how you’re looking at him.”
Her face is etched with worry and tears gather at the corners of her eyes.
Vin shifts behind me. I can feel his solid presence, but he doesn’t say anything. He just stands there, sullen and silent, refusing to engage.
“Can we talk?” Siena asks quietly. “Alone?”
I nod.
We move to the corner table, the one by the window where Mr. Cavallari usually sits. Vin stays by the kitchen door tracking our movement, his expression carefully blank.
Siena grabs both my hands the moment we sit. “I see you,” she whispers. “I know you, Sophie, better than anyone. And I can see it written all over your face.” She squeezes my fingers. “You’re in love with him.”
The words are hard to hear out loud. I open my mouth to deny it, but nothing comes out. Because she’s right.
Somewhere between the gnocchi and the cannoli cream, between the degradation and the tenderness, betweenscopami, padroneandla mia regina,I fell in love with Vincenzo Demonio.
“Please.” Siena’s voice breaks. “Please protect your heart. He’s going to hurt you. There’s no scenario where this ends well. There’s no version of this story where he becomes the loving husband and father you want. He’s not built for that, Sophie. He’s notcapableof it.”
A heaviness settles over me. “I know,” I whisper.
And I do. I’ve known it from the beginning, from the moment he told me he’d never have a girlfriend, that he’d only marry for an alliance and fuck women on the side. From every rough word and degrading act. From the way he holds himself apart even when he’s buried inside me.
Vin Demonio is not a forever man. He’s a right-now man, a man who will leave me with memories and an empty bed and a heart that will take years to put back together.
I know all of this, and I love him anyway.
“I know,” I say again, and this time my voice breaks.
Siena pulls me into her arms, and I let her. I let her hold me while a cold sinking feeling settles in, heavy with the weight of loving someone who will never love you back.
Over her shoulder, I see Vin still standing by the kitchen door, silent and watching.
Our eyes meet. And for just a moment, I see something in his expression that looks like regret. Then it’s gone, locked behind that stony blank face.
He turns and walks out without a word. The click of the back door closing sounds like an ending.
“It’s going to be okay,” Siena whispers into my hair.
We both know she’s lying.
38
Sophie
I’m curled on the couch when the weight of it all finally crashes down on me.
It’s been building for days and grows heavier every time Vin leaves, every time I catch myself imagining a future that will never exist.
The light slanting through the window is golden, highlighting dust motes dancing in the air. I should be at the restaurant prepping for dinner service. Really, I should be doing anything other than lying on the couch wrapped in a blanket that smells like him, staring at nothing.
