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"We could always take the lawn, but Alessandro's mom wouldn't like that. I got pulled by my ears all the way back across one time."
"Alessandro's mom?"
"Yeah. His mama. She's there," he nodded to the table we were approaching, and I could make out a woman there. "You can say hi as we pass."
"Huh. I'd rather 'take the lawn',” I snorted. I was determined not to acknowledge anyone at the table to spite Alessandro, but the closer I got, the more difficult it was since I just couldn't keep my gaze from the woman Ricardo had pointed out to be Alessandro's mother. Once she looked up, my heart could've stopped. Right there and then, throwing cares to the wind, I screamed.
"Mrs. Ricci!" All in one moment, she looked at me a little confused, recognized me, then beamed herself.
"Sienna?" she asked, probably thinking her eyes were deceiving her. When I nodded, she turned the question into an exclamation, completely abandoning her breakfast and running to meet me as I did to her. When I held her in my embrace, I didn't want to let her go. The warmth and comfort in her touches. She was still as golden as ever.
"My God! Sienna. I still want to think this is an apparition," she laughed, and I shared in her laughter.
"In the flesh, Mrs. Ricci. Wow, you look so amazing!" I commented on her lovely gown, and she did a full spin for me and swayed her hips in playful seduction making us both laugh again. Every other person in the room was stunned speechless.
"Make way for her on the table, you mannerless men!" she ordered and held my hands, tugging me to the breakfast table. Once we were done exchanging goofy pleasantries, she paused as if she missed something and turned back to me. Not to me this time, but to the toddler idling casually beside me.
"No." She gasped in disbelief.
"Yes." I blushed. "She's mine."
"Artemis?" she called. I guess Alessandro really does relate well with his mama. The toddler whipped her head up at the stranger who beamed back at her. Artemis held her gaze for a while before stretching out a hand requesting for a handshake herself. If there was an MRI machine here, I'd have seen Mrs. Ricci's heart melt as she took her granddaughter's tiny hands.
"Can I pick her up?" she asked giddily.
"Of course, you can, Mrs. Ricci. She's literally yours now," I joked, and we made our way to the table after I gave Ricardo a courtesy wave.
Who would've thought that Mrs. Ricci, my favorite high school teacher of all time would turn out to be the grandmother of my child? The odds were just too shocking.
Everyone at the table was invisible for the next twenty minutes and for the rest of the breakfast. She only talked to her son once asking him to pass the salt. We talked about everything. Catching up with her was the most social I have been with anyone in such a long time. Suddenly, I was nineteen again, in twelfth grade, receiving advice and hearing stories from my favorite person in high school. She did express mild disappointment at my not having gone to college because she really wanted me back in the day. Maybe if I still maintainedcontact with her, I would have gotten the drive I needed to try again.
We talked about so much, I almost literally narrated my life from the moment I stepped out of the school building for the last time till the moment I saw her beautiful face again. All the while, there was this voice at the back of my head that kept screaming, "Shit! Shit! Shit!"
Now, it was going to be completely impossible to keep Alessandro out of my life.
Chapter 17
"I remember how the last three years had been," I talked to Mrs. Ricci who was already in tears from everything I had told her. She already threatened earlier to strangle her son till he apologized to me and had I not insisted she didn't, she was very willing to make good her promise.
"Those years, I've never felt so alone," I hugged myself. "It was only when Artemis became an integral part in my life, did the feeling start to wear off. When I could talk, she'd talk back. It felt surreal to have that so often."
"You never really had friends, even in school," she chuckled amidst her tears and sniffles.
"Yeah...old habits die hard, I guess," I smiled wishfully.
"Living without a lifeline has helped me though. I don't gamble anymore."
"You used to gamble?" The look of shock was unhidden in her face. I only giggled at her oblivion. "Some wild kid you are!" she rebuked me, though not with full seriousness.
"I stopped because, especially after giving birth to Artemis, I realized that there was no one I had in this world to turn to if I ever got completely broke. The thought of being fully responsible for myself was a terror I just barely got over. Imagine my dismay when another mouth was added to my shopping list." I laughed. "That was kind of like the shock treatment I needed."
I recalled the memory of my liveliest nights in Fauxwood. Most of them were at the casino where I felt really alive and like I was using my brain to the maximum capacity.
Screw college graduates!I had thought. They probably knew more about any scholarly topic than I did but on that table, I was God.
Come to think of it, if gambling was a full-time job, it'd probably be one of the most unproductive on earth. If I totaled what I won against what I lost, the margin wasn't wide. This is over a space of five years. Imagine living on twenty-five thousand dollars for five years! And that was me - the gambling professional. I was indeed lucky I didn't do it as often as most other people I met there and grateful altogether for having dropped the sport. Did I stop going to Fauxwood? Of course not. Not when there was lotsof my favorite bourbon whiskey and upbeat nightlife to keep me going.
And let's not even get started on the men.
