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“A bottle of dry red, if that's okay with you, Jade?”
Jade nodded, her eyes sparkling in the candlelight.
“Red wine would be fantastic.”
Mrs. Stagliano smiled and clasped her hands together before shuffling off to take care of the order.
“Have you really been coming here since you were a little boy?” asked Jade.
“Since I was a baby. My mom and dad used to come to this restaurant all the time. I grew up in this neighborhood, you know.”
“You grew up here?”
“Yeah. I wasn't always wealthy, Jade. In fact, I grew up in a very small, modest two-bedroom apartment. My dad worked as a doorman at a nearby building, and my mom used to sew and knit to make ends meet. We didn't have much growing up, but we did have a lot of love in my family.”
“And where are your parents these days? I'm sure they must be happy to have such a successful son, right?”
A look of sudden sadness flashed across Brenton's face, and he looked away quickly. It seemed as if tears had begun to rim the edges of his eyes.
“They... They're not around anymore,” he said softly.
“Oh,” responded Jade, somewhat awkwardly. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up-”
“It's okay,” he replied, speaking more confidently now. “Don't worry about it, you couldn't have known. Besides, it happened a very long time ago. It's just that... Well, they passed away when I was only fifteen. Car crash. They never got to see me become a success.”
Tears rimmed the edges of Jade's eyes now, and she felt sadness stinging at the corners of her eyes.
“I'm so sorry to hear that,” she said.
“C'est la vie,” he mumbled. “Life, Jade. Sometimes it throws all sorts of terrible things at you. What makes you a winner or a loser is how you deal with those things. For me, my parents' death only made me stronger, and more determined to succeed. It hardened me, made me a man. Made me see the realities of this life, this world. And that has enabled me to get where I am today.”
The conversation was interrupted by Mrs. Stagliano bringing the bottle of wine and two glasses to the table. Jade felt grateful for the interruption, because it seemed as if the conversation had been getting a bit too serious.
“Everything good here, Brenton and Jade?”
“Everything is great, Mrs. Stagliano. I gotta say, I'm really looking forward to that lasagna. It's gonna hit the spot, I can already tell!”
“It always does, my sweet boy!”
“When are you gonna give me the recipe for the secret sauce, Mrs. Stagliano?”
The old woman laughed.
“You know what the answer to that question is, Brenton?”
“I know, but I figured I'd ask anyway...”
“I'm going to the back to help old Mr. Stagliano fix up that lasagna for you two. He can't see that good these days, and I don't want him mixing up ingredients. You two enjoy the wine, and get ready for the best lasagna you've ever sunk your teeth into!”
She shuffled off into the dimly-lit kitchen, and left Brenton and Jade to enjoy their wine to the gentle backdrop of the '50s crooners singing out their sad, bittersweet songs of love and heartache.
Brenton and Jade talked late into the night over the wine and lasagna, getting to know about each other's pasts, personalities and future hopes and dreams. Each found that it was surprisingly easy to open up to and confide in the other, and neither of them remembered when last they had had a conversation of such depth and intimacy. After finishing the second bottle of wine, Jade, who was feeling more than a little tipsy, glanced at her phone.
“Oh, it's almost midnight!” she exclaimed. “I have to get going.”
“Yeah, you're right,” agreed Brenton. His face was glowing; he too was more than a little tipsy. “I shouldn't drive though,” he added. “I've had a bit too much of that lovely wine.”
“We can take a taxi,” ventured Jade.
She blushed suddenly, realizing what she had just suggested. But it was too late to counter it – Brenton had already jumped on the opportunity.
“Excellent,” he said quickly. “I'll park my Maserati around the back and get it in the morning. Mrs. Stagliano has a nephew who's a cabbie in this area. He knows where my penthouse is. He can take use there.”
