AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, literally, it translates as ‘you should throw in the sponge.’”
“…what?!”
She laughed even harder – which made her even more beautiful.
“It’s a, what’s the term for it…” she said, searching her memory. “An idiomatic phrase. It means, ‘stop trying since you have no chance.’”
“To throw in the towel,” I suggested.
“There you go!” she cheered as she pointed at me.
“How do you know Italian? Is it part of your job?”
“Noooo,” she said, and took a drink. “My mother.”
“Your mother’s Italian?”
“Mm-hm.”
“So you’re half-Italian.”
“Yes I am.”
“Bauer’s not an Italian name.”
“I’m well aware.”
“Why not an Italian code name, then? Like… Spumoni?”
She burst out laughing again. “WHAT?!”
“Agent Spumoni,” I said into my watch like I was speaking over a radio. “Come in, Agent Spumoni.”
“That’s STUPID,” Rachel said as she laughed her ass off. “Next you’re going to suggest ‘Agent Spaghetti’ or – ”
“That’s already taken,” I said seriously.
“Oh, really.”
“Yes. Just like James Bond was 007, all the half-Italian MI6 agents have food names. Agent Spaghetti is somebody else.”
“I am so glad I have you here to tell me these things.”
“You should be. You can’t be Agent Spaghetti, but you can be… Agent Zamboni.”
She burst out laughing again. “That’s not a FOOD name! That’s the machine that goes over the ice in an ice skating rink!”
“It’s reserved for the most beautiful agents.”
“ZAMBONI,” she said in playful disbelief. “The word for the giant machine that looks like a mechanical hippopotamus… is reserved for the most beautiful agents.”
I shrugged. “I don’t make the rules.”
“Uh-huh.” She looked at me from the corner of her eyes. “Ti stai dando la zappa sui piedi.”
“What?”
In her inebriated state, she struggled to think of the translation. “Uh… you’re throwing the hoe on your own feet…”
