I turned back around, and all the women cheered.
I was sure Bianca and Lucia had told them about Emilia.
Normally I would be happy to have six beautiful women gossiping about my love life –
Butnotwhen they were the wives of my bosses…
Who were the kinds of men who buried corpses out in the olive groves.
“What’s going on?” Sofia asked, looking around warily like she was about to be pranked.
“Giorgio got busy last night with our favorite hot barista!” Lucia said, and pantomimed air-humping an invisible person again. “SEVERAL times!”
Sofia looked over at me and raised one eyebrow.“Really.”
“Oh, dear god,” I muttered as I slumped down in a chair, put my face on the counter, and covered my head with my hands.
“Come on – tell ‘em what you told Bianca and me on the way over!” Lucia prodded.
I looked up at her in irritation. “No.”
“Come onnnn!” most of the women said.
Alessandra was the only one who remained silent, though she was laughing.
I used her as my defense.
“I can’t,” I said, gesturing towards the rosary she clutched in her hand. “Thesignorais very religious.”
“Notthatreligious,” Caterina muttered under her breath, but loud enough to be heard.
“Hey!” Alessandra protested.
“What?” Caterina asked –
And held up a long, snake-like tube of cooking dough.
Alessandra’s mouth dropped open – she blushed furiously –
And then both she and Caterina burst out laughing at some private joke between the two of them.
“What?” I asked, totally confused.
“Nothing,” Alessandra said with a warning glare at Caterina, then addressed me. “Go ahead and tell them. I don’t mind.”
“Come on, Giorgio,” Caterina said. “Even church ladies like a little slap and tickle.”
“I can attest to that,” Mei-ling added, and the entire room burst into laughter.
I just groaned and looked over at Adriano. “Don’t we have to get back to Florence?”
“Fuck you,” he said as he filled up a plate with Caterina’s cooking. “I’m here to eat.”
“You made sure your lady friend finished, right?” Mei-ling asked.
“Oh, DID he!” Lucia said. “MULTIPLE times.”
All the women (except Alessandra) went “Oooooooohhhh!”
