I ignored his outstretched hand and continued my busywork. “Hello, Giorgio.”
There was a long silence until he withdrew his arm.
“Did I do something wrong?” he asked. Not mean. Not aggressively. More like curious with a side of slightly wounded.
I knew exactly what he meant. I was being frosty towards him, and he wondered why.
“No, I’m just very busy,” I said as I started stacking saucers.
He looked at me…
Then very slowly and deliberately turned around to look at the café.
There were two tourists at a table in the corner.
Otherwise, the place was empty.
“Verybusy,” he said in a somber voice.
I laughed a little. I tried to contain it, but it came out like a snort.
It was the way he said it – soearnestly.Like he 100% agreed with me, and it was a matter of life and death.
“Ah, so shecansmile!” Giorgio said with a grin.
I sighed, stopped what I was doing, and looked up at him. “What do you want?”
He frowned like he was confused. “What do you mean?”
“What do you want?” I repeated.
He dropped the frown and flashed me his movie-star grin. “Just to make conversation with a beautiful woman.”
I felt two things at the same time.
One, a flush of pleasure at being complimented by a really hot guy –
And two, a creeping dread at being complimented by amafioso.
“I have a boyfriend,” I said flatly.
It was a lie.
But a useful one.
Giorgio tried to hide it, but he looked disappointed. “That’s cool – I’m just making conversation.”
“Well, I have a boyfriend, so I don’t respond to flirting from male customers.”
He grinned again. “Is that what I was doing?”
“Yes. Badly.”
Oh shit –
I shouldn’t have said that!
A nightmarish movie played in my head of him getting furious, then calling me a bitch and stalking me everywhere I went –
