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I managed to get her to a table by the window, and we watched the snow cover the Manhattan streets. The hustle of the city was slower because of the weather, and I let her pour out her heart. She talked about Max and the awful things he’d done, her son who was turning defiant, and the shame of her divorce in her parents’ eyes.
I sat and listened until she asked, “Dom, why are you not enjoying this? You warned me and…”
She was right. I had warned her about Max. Selfishly, because I wasn’t ready to commit to anyone, but I didn’t want anyone else to have her either. I should be eating the demise of her marriage up with a spoon, but she was hurt, and I’d always had a soft spot for Val.
“I’ll always want the world for you, whether it involves me or not.” I sipped my coffee, feeling like an idiot for saying something romantic, but it was the truth. Her swollen, red-rimmed eyes pulled at my heart.
She sat up straight and wiped her tears with the backs of her fingers. “Weren’t you heading back to work?”
“Nah, it’ll be there tomorrow.”
For the first time in the entire conversation, she smiled. So wide. So big. So genuine. It filled me up in a way not much else can.
We closed down the coffee shop, but at the end of the night, I didn’t ask for her new number. A part of me knew she could turn my life upside down and change everything for me, and I wasn’t ready for it. There was money to make and ladders to climb. Valentina Cavallo had the power to make me change my life choices. And no one likes change.
