“You’re saying, ‘It’s me or them.’ That’s what you’re doing.”
Silent tears rolled down her cheeks. “You can’t ask me to marry you, Giorgio, and have children with you, when I’m afraid of the people you work for.”
“They would never hurt you!”
“The fact that you even have tosaythat – the fact that we even have tohavethis conversation – is proof of everything I’m afraid about.”
“What’sthatsupposed to mean?”
“Nobody in a normal job gets killed by their employers if they decide to quit.”
“They wouldn’t kill me!” I shouted angrily.
“You just said, ‘You don’t get to walk away from the sort of thing I do!’”
“Yeah, but they wouldn’tkillme!”
“You’re certain of that?”
“Yes!”
“You’re absolutely positive?”
“YES!”
“Then quit your job,” she begged me, “and let’s go start a new life somewhere else. We can stay with your family – ”
“I left my family for a reason,” I snapped.
“Then it’ll just be you and me. A little place out in the middle of nowhere.”
“What the hell will we do for money?” I griped.
“I don’t know – we could start our own coffee shop – open a bed and breakfast – ”
I scoffed. “You want me to help you run a bed and breakfast?”
“I don’tcarewhat we do for money!” she cried out. “Don’t you get it?! That’s the whole problem!”
“What, money?”
“No, what youdofor money!”
“I’m sorry you hate what I do so much,” I said bitterly.
“I don’thateit – I’mterrifiedof it! And if I have to share you withthemfor the rest of my life – ”
She faltered, and all the fight seemed to go out of her.
Her shoulders sagged, and she whispered, “…I can’t do it.”
“Well, I’m not leaving the people who trusted me – whobledwith me – just because you’re scared.”
“…okay,” she said quietly.
“What do you mean, ‘okay’?”
“You have to decide what’s more important to you – me or them. And it sounds like you’ve already decided.”
