But I couldn’t go out with him.
No matter how hot he was, no matter how kind, no matter how charming –
I couldn’t.
Not after everything I’d been through.
Part of me was afraid of how he would react when I told him ‘no’…
But another part of me was more afraid of what he had said:
And if I still can’t change your mind, then I will walk away, and you’ll never see me again… except maybe in passing on the street.
I swear it on the lives of my mother and father.
I believed him.
Maybe that was what scared me most:
That he would keep his word.
26
Giorgio
The big day finally arrived.
Two weeks after I’d made my promise, I walked into the café.
I didn’t do anything outwardly different. It was a visit like all my others…
But my heart was hammering in my chest.
If she was busy, I would wait until tomorrow –
But if she wasn’t, then I was going to ask her out.
Ididbring a little gold necklace with me – a tiny, delicate thing that weighed half an ounce. I’d bought it from one of the shops on thePonte Vecchio,the ‘Old Bridge’ over the Arno River where all the jewelry stores were.
As I walked in, I called out cheerfully,“Buongiorno, Biondina.”
She glanced over at me, and a huge smile bloomed on her face.“Ciao, Giorgio.Espresso?”
“Please.”
As she fixed it for me, I asked her how her day was so far.
After a bit of back-and-forth, I told her a dad joke.
Why did the cake cross the street?
Because it saw a fork in the road.
After she rolled her eyes, she had one for me – the first time she’d ever done that.
“I came up with a joke for you about retirement,” she said with a straight face. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t work.”
I looked at her –
