Two Weeks Later
“And he said all of this to you two weeks ago now?”Clarissa asked.
“Yep, and I haven’t seen him since.He’s been MIA all this time.”Mia looked at the large bottle of scotch on the table.This was Giovanni’s good scotch—the kind he saved for special occasions.She spun around to look at her friend.“Do you want a drink?”
Clarissa frowned.“I don’t drink, not anymore.”
Mia sighed and then laughed.“Can you believe that MIA, is Mia.Oh, my, that is so funny.”
“Have you already been drinking?”
“Nope.I haven’t even touched a drop, but you know, I think I’m going to do what our men do and just have a little taste to see if it is worth the time.”Mia opened the stopper, lifted the large decanter to her nostrils, and inhaled.It didn’t smell good at all.
Still, Giovanni liked this, and seeing as he had pretty much bared his soul and abandoned her, she was feeling rather shitty.She had even donated all the new clothes she had purchase to charity and decided to wear her old ones.Like now, she wore her dungarees and a black shirt, with her hair pinned back.She happened to like this outfit, and if Clarissa had arrived for a visit, she would have gone out into the yard to clean something, or just to get dirty.
Mia wasn’t the biggest fan of garden work, but she had also concluded she didn’t like sitting at home doing nothing.She didn’t like ordering people around, which is what her mother always did.She was nothing like her mother, or her father, or her brothers.Not that it made her special.
She put the decanter down and lifted the glass.“So, how are things with your love life?”
“Me and Lorenzo are ...I don’t actually know how we are at the moment.”Clarissa shrugged.“I know that I’m ...boring.”
“You’re not boring.”
“I heard what he said, and a lot of what I do is very singular.I get it.”She sighed.“I just, after my sister died, I had a lot of nightmares.I mean, my dad got so upset, and my mom wasn’t sleeping because I was waking the whole house with my nightmares.My sister died in my arms, and she was the oldest and the prettiest, and she should be the one married to Lorenzo.I think there was even a slight arrangement when my sister was alive.Nothing committed.”
Mia poured out a second glass of scotch.Clarissa rarely talked about her trauma of the past, because the truth was, her best friend never wanted to relive it.
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be a pain about this,” Clarissa said.
“You’re no pain, honey.Trust me, however, you can drink this or not.”Mia handed her a glass and sat beside her on the sofa, curling her feet beneath her.
She had every intention of drinking her scotch, but just holding it made her feel a little guilty, because she hadn’t even asked Giovanni if she could have a glass.
“My parents were at their wits end.I couldn’t go to therapy, and then, I don’t know what happened exactly, but my grandparents on my dad’s side came to stay with us for the summer.I was not in a good way.I was terrified.I don’t know if you know this, but my grandmother was an avid seamstress, knitter, and crafter.”
“I didn’t know.”
“She had heard it can help a lot of people who are struggling with stuff, so I would sit for the longest time and watch her knit.It’s stupid, but I would watch her with those knitting needles clinking together, and she was always so fast.”Mia saw the smile on Clarissa’s face.“That first night, I fell asleep and slept the whole way through.”
“Wow,” Mia said, and there was no hint of sarcasm.
“So, that summer, and in fact, for the rest of that year, my grandma taught me everything to be able to cope.If I felt stressed or anxious, she taught me to knit.If I didn’t feel like I could cope, they set up a sewing space in my room for me to just wake up and go to it.It became my crutch.I was able to cope, and then my family was able to sleep, and I was able to just be me, and that was incredible.”
Mia reached out and put a hand on Clarissa’s arm.She was aware that Clarissa’s wedding dress didn’t come from a designer boutique, or a fashion label.Clarissa’s parents and Lorenzo’s had allowed her to design it herself.
Clarissa’s family had been supportive every step of the way, whereas her own hadn’t been.They had only wanted to change her.She was never good enough for them.
“To know that ...Lorenzo finds my ...hobbies boring, it’s tough,” Clarissa said.“I don’t know if I should go to my sewing room, and I haven’t picked up my knitting.”
It was then that Mia noticed the dark circles beneath Clarissa’s eyes.“You’re not sleeping.”
“The nightmares keep coming back.”
“Then you’re going to have to do what you’ve always done.It’s part of who you are, and who cares if Lorenzo likes it or not?”
“You know, I was in the process of making him a three-piece suit.A pair of fitted pants, a waistcoat, and jacket,” Clarissa said.“I was making it for Christmas, but I never gave it to him.”
“Clarissa?”
