Page 3 of Matteo

“Not that I minded,” Maya counters.

“Well, get used to it, because this is what he's used to,” Jett tells her with a grin. “You'll never find this guy living below his means.”

Maya waves a palm, dismissively. “I'm getting used to it. But we made the most of it. We visited my mom and the extended family during the day and we also managed to do our own thing.”

Dex starts slicing the steaks. “That must have been interesting.”

Zach swipes a couple of fries from the platter. “It was. One minute I'm at this amazing place with ocean views and our own private beach, and the next minute I'm sitting on a plastic chair outside Maya's aunt's house, where someone's uncle grills pork, and everyone argues in Spanish.”

“You didn't mind,” Maya says playfully, “and they weren't arguing. They were just ... animated.”

“I didn't mind, and I’ve never eaten so well in my life.” A smug smile spreads over Zach’s face, and he and Maya share another gaze of adoration. I swear to God, Enzo and I are surrounded by happy couples and we might as well not be here. I doubt they’d notice. I’m happy for them all, but I’m starting to feel like a fluorescent light in a candlelit room.

“Don’t just stand there, brother.” Dex eyeballs Rio. “Help me slice these.”

“What's going on with the tech glitches?” Jett asks.

I wish he hadn’t. That’s the last thing I want to talk about. “We're still looking into them.”

“Still?” Rio exclaims, looking over his shoulder. “Dude, these problems started months ago.”

I close my eyes for a few seconds. Wish he’d stop prying, because I don't need him to remind me. “Yeah, sorry about that. It's not easy to pinpoint. Like I said, we're still looking into it.”

“Are you sure it's not affecting other parts of the building?” Enzo is suddenly interested in the conversation.

I grit down on my teeth. “Like what?”

He shrugs. “I don't know. The lights going out or something. Maybe the electricity getting affected.”

I tilt my head. “Has it happened so far?”

He seems to be thinking about it. “Not that I recall.”

“Then I guess we’re okay.” I wish we could hurry up and eat.

“Guess?” Jett picks up on everything, like the alert Doberman he is. “You guess we’re okay? We can’t be guessing about any of this. It’s serious stuff and you need to get to the bottom of this.”

Why does this guy always feel the need to state the obvious?

“Like I said, I’m on it.” I’m trying hard to keep my voice level. “Dinner ready yet?” I grumble. “I'm hungry.”

“You're always hungry.” Enzo slips his phone into his pocket and stands up.

“I’m surprised the old man hasn’t busted your balls about it yet.” Rio sets down a platter of meat on the long dining table. I let out a long exhale. The old man has for sure been twisting my balls about this.

“He is, but I’m on it. Give me a break, guys. It’s not easy to figure out. We have some weird anomalies that we’re sifting through.”

Rio’s eyes widen. “Meaning you've got no idea what's causing it.”

I swear to God, I wish these people would just let me eat and quit interrogating me. “Didn’t you hear me? I've been looking at it. I'm not sitting in the tech lab doing nothing.”

Rio puts his hands up and shrugs. “I’m just saying, the old man’s been poking his nose in and complaining. It’s your domain, dude. You need to fix it fast.”

“These things aren’t easy,” Maya pipes up. “We had some weird stuff going on with our IT when I first started at Stella. It took months to fix.”

I nod at her in acknowledgement, grateful that she spoke up.

“Food’s ready,” Dex announces.