It was while we were winding our way through the crowd that Teo called my name. He was a few feet away, carrying a bag of groceries.
“Oh my gosh,” I said, “hi.”
“Salve,” he said, then gave me one of his shy smiles, which was so distracting, I forgot to introduce him to my mother.
“I’m Frances,” she offered. “Eileen’s mom.”
“Where’s Nina?” I asked after we’d gotten through the pleasantries.
“At home with her family. In Milan.”
“You didn’t want to go with her?”
He gave an uncomfortable laugh. “I think it’s too soon for that.”
I was relieved to hear him say so, although, of course, it shouldn’t have mattered to me.
“Besides,” he said, “my parents and my brother Arturo decided to come here.”
“Is this the brother with the little girl?”
His eyes brightened. “Yes, Violetta.”
“You’re not giving her another marionette?”
He laughed. “Her mother still hasn’t forgiven me for the last one.”
I realized we’d been ignoring my mother, so I explained that I had first met Teo in the stationer’s shop, where he’d been buying a marionette for his niece.
“We were going to get a glass of wine,” she said to him, “if you’d like to join us.”
He seemed tempted, like he very much wanted to be in two places at once. But finally, he held up the bag in his hand. “My mother’s cooking a big dinner, and she asked me to pick up the pabassinas. I’m already late delivering them.”
I could picture Teo in his parents’ apartment, eating sweet treats and playing Tombola. His mother and father would press him for details about the mysterious Milanese girlfriend, and his brother would tell them to lay off. Meanwhile, Francesca and Bernardo, who had already met Nina, would enjoy holding this over everyone’s heads.
“Give them our best,” I said, but what I wanted to ask was whether, in an alternate universe where I was not married to Paul and Teo had never started dating Nina, I’d have been invited to eat pabassinas with the Mancas.
After we’d said our goodbyes, my mother watched Teo slip back into the crowd. “He seems very nice.”
“He is,” I said.
“And like he’s completely in love with you.”
“Mom!” I said.
“What?” she said, defensively. “I’m just telling you what I saw.”
“He’s with Nina.”
“Oh, please.”
“They’re pretty serious, actually,” I said.
“Not serious enough to spend Christmas together.”
She had a point.
We continued to move in the direction of the Piazza Rossa, where I hoped we might nab two seats at Café Gargiulo if we were willing to sit outside under a heat lamp.
