Fabio dug our little spoons in the cute pink and blue cups, while I took a self-conscious note on how the ice cream man and the younger than I was woman helping another customer at the far side of the shop looked at me and Fabio.
He held both cups in one hand and reached to hold mine with the other while he nodded at Highbridge Park. “Let’s eat there.”
I withdrew my hand. “Sure, but um…let’s just…not… Folks will think you’re kidnapping me or something.”
“Cosa? I’m your fiancé. I’m supposed to hold your hand.”
“We don’t look like…that.” We looked like an old hag and a boy having an affair. Or a middle-aged bimbo and a gigolo.
“What bullshit are you giving me now and why? What, I’m not good enough to hold your hand now?”
“Don’t be silly.”
“Then what changed in the two minutes I got our gelati?”
I sighed. “People are looking, okay? I don’t like that.”
He looked around, and then he shrugged. “Your fiancé is the hottest guy in Manhattan. I’m used to the attention. You gotta get used to it, too, babe.”
“Please don’t joke about this. You know what I’m talking about. Can we get going please?”
He grabbed my hand and intertwined our fingers, his face challenging me. “Now we can.”
“Fabio, I’m serious. Cougar slut isn’t a good look for me. I hate to be seen that way.”
“Cougar slut? Please. You’re nowhere near a slut,” he said it as a disappointment. “And nobody cares about your age but you, Gabriella.”
“Everybody cares.”
He rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “Okay, you wanna know why the woman in the shop was looking at you funny? Because the gelato guy is her boyfriend, and he’s been checking your ass out. If I wasn’t worried about gossip that ran on toxic wheels in your community that would say your fiancé needed an anger management course, I’d have punched him in the face.”
“What? You just made that story up.”
His eyes darted behind me, and his face darkened. “What about that fucker on the phone totally checking you out while I’m standing right here? I made him up, too?”
I glanced over my shoulder to see a man in a suit, talking on his phone, and when our eyes met, he smirked at me.
Okay, that was creepy. With a scowl, I shifted my glance back to Fabio. “Nobody ever checks me out. Why would two guys suddenly do it? Is it the bra?”
“And the pencil skirt. You can’t wear these in public anymore. Your office is fine. There are no boys there, but on the street, it’s a hard no.”
Chuckling, I started to walk. “You’re taking your role too seriously.”
“My role?” He gave me the same murderous stare he was giving to the guy on the phone. “Well, what can I say? I’m thorough.” His arm jerked in my direction. “Take your gelato before it melts. It’s the ricotta with fig and biscotti.”
“Thanks…I guess.” I sampled the first scoop. The sweetness of the fig and the smoothness of ricotta left an odd fuzziness in my mouth, but it was good. Then I tasted the biscotti, and I was about to have another foodgasm.
“Don’t even think about making a sound.”
My tongue and jaw froze in place. I wanted to moan so much. This thing in mouth was a heavenly delight. How hadn’t I tried that before?
“Swallow,” he reminded me.
I shook my head.
“You can’t stay like this forever, and you have a whole cup.”
I savored every drop of the now molten surprise in my mouth. “I can only have like three spoons. If I had the whole cup, the ass everybody has developed a new crush on would be the size of a loading truck.” We entered the park. “Anyway, speaking of thorough, you have to start telling me things. The death trap party is in a few days. We have to prep.”
