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“You’re moving to Philly?” This wasn’t real. “What about your family and the bakery?”
Nico held Luke’s shaking hands. “You’re going to be my family. You, and however many kids we have.”
“Are you . . .”
“Sure?”
Luke nodded.
“I’ll be running Esposito’s—and it’ll be at least fifteen years before Papà is ready to retire. We have plenty of time to figure out if you want to transfer to New York, or we stay in Philly.”
We! Nico kept throwing out that word. “Nico . . . this is amazing. But you can’t give up your family.”
“I’m not. Not only is Elisa in Philly, I’ll need to be in New York a lot—but most of that can be on weekends. As you know, Amato Railways gets you pretty close to my house.”
“Just don’t drink the radiator fluid.”
“Exactly. Second, my father wants me in Philly to run the new shop. He has big plans to expand. So we have gobs of time to sort that out.”
Luke was numb. He’d never mentioned how anxious he was about what would happen after graduation, but somehow Nico knew. “You did this didn’t you?”
“Omertà.” He put his fingers to his lips. “If that doesn’t work, I’m invoking the Fifth.”
“C’mon, Nico, we need to talk about this.”
“Honestly, I want this. I want you. Always. It won’t be enough seeing each other on weekends. I want to come home and make dinner for you and ask about your day when you come home. I want to share silly customer stories with you and gripe about the price of flour.
“We can worry about where we live in ten years, nine years from now. For now, I have a job in Philly, you have a job in Philly, and we have a place in Philly.”
“What about the second-rate farmers’ markets?”
“Love is more important?”
“And your made-up Brooklyn language? Are you prepared to give that up?”
“I view this as an opportunity to spread diversity and teach Philly a few things.”
Luke snorted. “You’re okay living in a cozy one-bedroom with an inadequately stocked kitchen?”
“Nope. But we’re not living in the apartment. CJ is.”
“CJ’s going to live in our apartment with us?”
“Interesting choice of words, our apartment.” Nico found the picture of Mrs. R’s house and flipped it over.
“It’s for sale?”
“No. It’s been sold already.”
Luke stared at the page for a moment. A thought bubbled up. “Wait. You bought it?”
Nico chuckled. “I wish. My parents bought it. We’ll be renting from them. They said we could buy it from them once we get settled.”
Luke drew Nico against him. “I can’t make you give up everything for me. I’m sure I’ll find a job in New York.”
“I’m not giving up anything for you. This is for us. Plus, how many twenty-two-year-olds are going to be running a multi-million-dollar business right out of college? If we went to New York, I’d be in Papà’s shadow until he retires. This gives me time to shine.”
Luke bumped their foreheads together.
“A lot can happen in ten years,” Nico said. “You might hate working for a firm, you may find a new job, we may love Philly and not want to move, we might hate Philly and both want to move. The only constant in that is we’ll do it together.”
Luke caressed Nico’s face. This was happening. They were happening. “Together?”
Nico kissed him. “Together.”
~ The End ~
