“Hello, Angelo, meet Gemma; Gemma, meet Angelo. We work together.”
Gemma’s eyes were wide, her jaw was hanging open, and she had wholly loosened her hold on Sailor as she bent slowly toward me, taking her eyes off Angelo. “You didn’t tell me he was hot,” she rushed out.
I frowned. “What?”
“You didn’t tell me he was freaking hot; you didn’t tell me he was swimming with hotness. Are you insane not to have prepared me for that?” she whispered loudly enough for both me and Angelo to hear.
“I didn’t think it was important.”
“You evil being! I am about to make a complete fool out of myself in front of probably the hottest man I have ever seen—”
“I can—I can hear everything,” Angelo pointed out, and Gemma snapped up straight with a broad smile that almost made her ears fall off.
I watched her get off the couch, standing like she couldn’tbear to sit down when he was in the room. “Hi, yes—I knew you could hear me, and I know my face is a tomato, ketchup? Depending on the level of redness, it could be a strawberry milkshake—those pinkish-red ones with the cute little ice cubes inside and the beautiful straw that comes with the cup. And I don’t know why I am talking about strawberry milkshakes or milkshakes at all because there is no milkshake here. I tend to embarrass myself a lot…” Silence stretched until she added “Ha!” for good measure or a closing statement. I couldn’t tell.
Angelo blinked, flustered. “Hi, Gemma; a pleasure to meet you. I’m sorry about barging in—”
“Oh no, no, no, nothing like that; Elio and I are buddies. We roll with the flow of friendship, and, uh… there’s nothing—you didn’t interrupt anything at all, we were just talking about friend things, you see.”
Angelo nodded. “Friends…” His gaze shifted to me. “Oh…” And then he looked back at Gemma. “He has mentioned you.”
I have?
“He has?”
“Yeah… a long time ago.” Then his gaze fell back to me. “This is Gemma, yeah, the one you got the phone for?”
Gemma’s lips fell open. “What? You bought your phone because of me?”
“You wanted me to text you,” I stated.
“Awww.” Gemma’s face softened. “That is so cute and sweet. I will forever treasure this information.”
I allowed a stretch of seconds to go by, unsure of what to say before I settled on “Okay.”
She beamed, looking back at Angelo. “Nice to meet you, too, Angelo; Elio has said so much about you, and Mimi, God, she’s such a doll.”
I watched a smile come onto Angelo’s lips. “Isn’t she? Is that yours?” He gestured to Sailor.
“Yup, she’s mine.” Gemma quickly picked her up with agrin as Angelo approached, dropping the bag he’d brought in front of me before collecting Gemma’s cat, cooing.
“Oh, she’s heavy and soft, wow.”
“She loves to be spoiled, and my nonna made it a habit to take extra good care of her.”
Mimi perked up from beside me before she started meowing loudly.
“Attention seeker one minute and a stranger the next,” Angelo said, handing Sailor to Gemma as he bent to pick up Mimi, kissing her head.
“Good. Now that we are done with meeting the cats and the people, can you explain to me why there are so many pill bottles?”
Angelo dropped his cat down again. “There are only four. Two of them are just the dosage you need to take before bed tonight; I’ll hold on to the rest until I get back.”
“Thank you,” I said, but then I frowned. “Where are you going again?”
“Oh, I heard there were some mountains not far off. I booked a boat from the cruise with some others who wanted to check it out, just sightseeing. Are you interested?”
“No. I’m expecting someone.”
