“Someone is cranky,” she said playfully as she placed the breakfast tray on the nightstand. “Would you like to eat on the beach instead?”
The one time I ate at the beach didn’t end up so pleasantly. “No, and I’m not hungry.”
“You have to eat to take your meds.”
“I said I’m not hungry.”
“Don’t you want to get better, Lina?”
What I wanted was to turn back the time. “And then what? Will I go home?”
“That’s up to Don Bellomo.”
“I know Tino well enough to figure he won’t take me home until it’s over with the Lanzas. And I’m so scared ofhowit’ll be over with them that I don’t want it to happen.”
“I’m sure Leo and Don Bellomo will take care of things like they always do. Why don’t you let them do what they do best and try to enjoy your time here away from the world and its problems? Consider it a vacation.”
“Alone. Away from my sister and the husband I haven’t had the chance to marry. Even Tino left.”
She smiled. “I see.”
I heard something in her tone I didn’t like. “See what exactly?”
Her shit-eating grin grew. “It’s okay to miss him. He has that effect on people. But he’ll be back before you know it.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
She shook her head, her infuriating grin intact, and reached for the toast and butter. “Nothing. I’ll make you a sandwich.”
I knocked the whole tray off the nightstand. The contents bellowed, spilled and smashed into pieces everywhere.
Arancia got to her feet, the fucking grin finally wiped off her face. She inched a brow at me. “When Don Bellomo said you were a brat, I thought he was exaggerating.”
He told his bitch what?
“I don’t think he’ll be pleased when he knows.” She puckered her lips at me as if she was sorry for me. That bitch. “I’ll go clean this up.”
When she exited, I went to the bathroom and cleaned my dress as best as I could, blood pounding in my skull. That woman got on my nerves more than she should have. She was gonna tell on me and make things worse between Tino and me when I was trying to apologize. And what was that shit she said that got me angry in the first place?It’s okay to miss him. He has that effect on people.
I didn’t miss him. Why would I miss him? I was only agitated that he left me here for days with nothing to do or a means to call and only his mistress for company.
I used more force than I needed to open the bathroom door. She was hunching on the floor, cleaning up my mess when the sound of a plane approaching had my heart leaping.
A feeling I couldn’t find a name for washed over me. Despite how angry I was and how worried about his reaction when Arancia told on me, that feeling soothed me.
Arancia finished cleaning the floor and then she changed the sheets. I heard the plane land and his footsteps in the house, but he went directly upstairs. I’d been waiting for his return for days, and when he did come back, he wouldn’t even acknowledge me with a simple greeting?
I decided not to go outside to greet him either. I stayed in my room for hours, listening to the waves and the quiet chatter in Italian and the occasional laughter between Tino and the mistress.She he talks to and laughs with. Me…
It wasn’t until lunchtime that he was standing in the doorway, watching me as I pretended to be sleeping. He turned his back, about to leave, but I cleared my throat. I was so mad at him for ignoring me, but I didn’t want him to go.
When he didn’t turn back, I called out his name.
Finally, he entered the room, dressed in all black, his hands in his pockets. “Go back to sleep.”
“I wasn’t sleeping.”
“Lunch is ready. You must be hungry.”
