Wife.He just said that.
The waitress glances at me, her smile slipping. “What can I get you?”
“Coffee is fine,” I say. “Thanks.”
“Yeah,” she mutters before walking off.
“She’s going to be an ass to us the whole time, isn’t she?” I ask, looking at Mateo.
“Probably, but she’ll get over it. You can’t ignore my wife and get away with it.”
“You’ve called me your wife twice in less than a minute,” I tease. “Interesting.”
“How is it interesting? You are my wife.”
“I know. I just didn’t think you’d be okay with all of it.”
“Okay with what?”
“Being married to me. Being basically told you had to.”
“I don’t see a problem with it,” he says. “I get why you’re still upset about me not telling you. And not to make myself sound worse, but I was told not to.”
“I know,” I say softly. “Like I said, I’m not mad anymore, but I’m not letting you off easy.” I wink.
He smiles. “Can this breakfast be the first step in my apology campaign?”
“Campaign?” I tease. “Are you a politician now?”
“No, but maybe one day.”
“Oh, lovely. I married a guy who wants to be the next mayor?”
“God, no. I don’t want that shit,” he says with a laugh.
A different waitress drops off our coffees and takes our order, which tells me everything I need to know about the first one.
“Then what do you want?” I ask, leaning in.
“I want the white-picket-fence life,” he says quietly.
“What does that even mean?”
“I want the life I was never supposed to have. The suburbs, kids, something normal.”
“Why can’t you have those things?”
“Not literally,” he says. “But growing up, I was always told I had to be by Gino’s side. Anything I wanted, like a family, got pushed aside. At least until recently.” He looks straight at me, like he’s seeing too much.
“So you wanted a life and didn’t think you’d ever get it,” I say. “Until what?”
“Until you.”
“Me?”
“Vanessa, just because this didn’t start out great doesn’t mean it isn’t what I want.”
Well, shit.
