“No,” I replied.
“So she has a boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Then what the fuck’s her problem?!” Lucia shouted angrily.
“Let’s just say she doesn’t like guys in my line of work.”
“Wha– …ohhhhh,” Lucia said, like she finally understood. Then she shrugged. “Well, fuck her. You’re a great guy, and you’re handsome. I’ll bet you’ve got a shitload of options.”
“To be honest, I kind of liked her because shewasn’tinto me just for my looks.”
“Yeah…” Lucia gave a tragic sigh. “That’s the curse of being hot.”
Bianca looked at her in amusement. “Are you implying you’re cursed?”
“Oh, don’t pretend like you didn’t have a lot of guys who wanted to bang you just because of your looks,” Lucia shot back.
“I didn’t.”
“STOP! I don’t wanna hear fake protests of, ‘Oh, I neverknewI was pretty!’ Cut it out with the fake modesty.”
Bianca looked shocked. “I wasn’t going to – ”
“WHATEVER,” Lucia said, and turned back to me. “Sorry, dude, that sucks. But you know what you should do? Go out and get laid. Best way to get over one chick is to get inside another one.”
“LUCIA!” Bianca shouted.
“What?!”
I was worried Bianca was going to start explaining ‘the thunderbolt’ –
But instead she just told me, “You can have the rest of the day off, Giorgio.”
“I already told Vincenzo he could go home.”
“I’ll call Adriano and get him to send somebody else.”
“OHno. If your husband finds out I skipped out on work because a woman turned me down, I’d never hear the endof it.”
“I’llhandle Adriano. You don’t worry about – ”
“Signora,”I said patiently, “I really appreciate what you’re trying to do, but the worst thing for me right now would be to go home and stare at the wall. The nicestthing you could do for me would be to put me to work so I don’t have time to think.”
Bianca looked around at all the unpacked boxes. “Well, if you insist, there’s plenty to do around here.”
“It would be a kindness.”
“Alright. But would it help if I could get you reassigned the next couple of days so you’re not around here?” she said, gesturing with her head towards the café.
“NowthatI’ll take you up on,” I said gratefully.
29
Emilia
The next day was absolutely miserable.
